Duelmasters: Death Waiting to Happen (was Re: Aimed Blow article)

From: ccs012@judy.ucdavis.edu (Riff-Raff)

Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 04:06:25 +0000

I've seen some points being bandied about in response to the AB article
posted by Demon, and I thought I'd post my share of comments.

First of all, the article's body, replies, and re-replies were getting
pretty confusing, so I've decided to just refer to them, rather than
actually post them again.

A low WL character is a wimp, and will give up sooner than a higher
WL character.  This is both good and bad, because if the character is
about to die, you want him to give up.  However, if he's doing well,
you don't want him to give in when he stubbs his toe during a lunge.

The most interesting character I've ever seen was a friend of mine's
Parry-Strike who had a 9 CN and a 21 WL.  He would not give up, and
was constantly being taken to the infirmary when he lost.  You know
how most characters give up when the line "FIGHTER X has sustained
serious injuries" appears?  Not this guy, he was fighting until they
had to physically drag him off the field.

Other low WL characters I've had simply give up the other guy looks at
them wrong.  A scratch, and they decide that it's time to hit the
training room.

What I'm saying is, I fundamentally disagree with Demon on this point.
Of course, if his experience has been different, he's got a point, but
it's been my experience that the opposite is true.

As for the low CN AB's, I'd say that they die as much as any other
low CN character does, which is not as often as you'd think.  Ladyhawke
has a 3 CN Aimed Blow who is currently 14-13.  I've got a 5 CN lunger
who's 8-2-1.  Biff Frothingslosh had a 3 CN Basher or something that
actually lost about 10 times.

The point is, CN doesn't _do_ anything for your characters.  Not like
a point of DF, or WL, or WT, or even ST, that physically improves your
character's performance.  If you've got an AB, why are you planning on
him getting hit?  AB's get hit _less often_ than PL's...less often.
Thus, if you're willing to make a 3 CN Plunger, why not a 3 CN blowhard?

I just want to know what your basic underlying assumptions are.  I
see a lot of "common sense" assumptions that maybe aren't true.  If you
can convince me otherwise, then you'll be doing me a great service.  I
may even begin to see CN in a different light, but right now I don't
add points to it ever, not even for TP's.

Dazzle me, Demon. :)

Trump

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References

Aimed Blow article
900667C@ACE.ACADIAU.CA (Demon)
Thu, 19 Mar 1992 16:29:06 +0000