LUCK

From: crip@Micor.OCUnix.on.ca (Garth Werner)

Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 21:49:19 +0000

First off, I haven't really written much lately due do a
change in mailers here, and my lack of a good off-line mailer/text
editor has limited my responses in the r.g.pbm forum.  I still keep
my ears and eyes open to everything on a close to daily basis, and
I just thought it was about time to add my $.02 * .7995 exchange
rate worth of thoughts.

With regards to the latest discussion on 'luck factor'.  There
was at one point in time a newsletter, coulda been Hoser Report,
coulda been Deke's long forgotten project, who knows, but a non-RSI
employee wrote that he was fortunate enough to witness his
character being entered into the database of DM.  A number popped
up somewhere on the screen (I will arbitrarily call this number
10).  Well, our mysterious inquisitor pursued the source of this
sign from the gods and asked a nearby programmer, (who I will take
a shot in the dark at with my waterballoon, and arbitrarily name
Chuck) for the meaning of this arcane cryptic figure appearing on
the ultra-modern computer screen.  Well, rather than admitting to
the Power of Greywand, he concocted some brief rebuttal to the
effect that this number was a luck factor. Period.

Now based on the word out of the mouth of some guy arbitrarily
named Chuck, rumours spread, golden calfs were worshipped, Ghost of
Eldrid proffessed the science of Numerology, and 98.76% of DM
managers became obssessed with the statistical numbercrunching to
determine the meaning of luck factor and what impact it would have
on the World Series in the year 2012.  Follow me now as I squash
the rumours.

The guy arbitrarily named Chuck never once said that the
arbitrary number 10 was an all knowing number.  He did not say it
had a greater purpose in Duelmasters, he noted that it tended to
vary from 0 to 15 though, in increments of 5, so perhaps this
number 10 which I arbitrarily numbered wasn't so arbitrary at all.
He did not say that this was the only number generated in the
creation of a Duelmasters character, and this is where I have to
interject with my own opinion.

I think that their is no singular luck factor that results in
differences between characters.  What I beleive happens is there is
a certain set of numbers which make up the essence of a character,
and the scope of these numbers is in fact beyond 7 stats, and 6
areas of skills.  I do not claim to know all of the other number
based definitions of a DM character, but I believe each one is
determined based on a combination of starting stats, the style
selected, and a randomly generated number.  The weight of influence
of each predetermined or randomly generated number in determining
a rating varies from case to case, and it is the wide ranging
impact of several unknown random numbers which causes the great
mystery of character generation.

I don't know about you, but it is not the solving of the
secrets of character generation which keeps me glued to this game,
but rather the joy of watching your characters develop and improve
through their lifetime.  One day, they max out on skills, raise
each stat 6 or more times, and you become disenchanted with them as
they apparently cease their development.  This is remarkably in
parrallel with parenthood where young parents are consumed by the
progress of their offspring, yet years down the road, become
grossly disenchanted with their teen-agers.  What remains to be
discovered with DM is what will RSI use to deal with the adulthood
phase of DM characters.

Crip
     "I have a theory, but I'm no expert"

Well, in that case, exit Crip