Re: New Life for Millennium's End

[Mark Baker <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric Benson <ebenson@uiuc.edu> writes
>The second part of the combat experience problem can be solved by the Combat
>Experience stat, which has been presented by Anders Strom and Rikard Sars.
>
That homebrew rule working its way into the official ME mechanics would
certainly resolve the problem.

>> Worldbooks definitely appeal to me; though I suspect that the demand
>> wouldn't be so goo from a marketing perspective, as they'd only sell to
>> the 'must have everything published' crowd (which includes myself) and
>> those wanting to run games in that setting.
>
>See, I tend to take the opposite approach.  When it comes to world data,
>I'll use Fielding's Danger Guides, Fodor's, Lonely Planet and online sources
>for the background.  I tend to buy more basic rules and equipment guides and
>then write the rest.\
>
My point exactly. Any decent GM is going to do his own research, though
some will pick up a copy of the x world sourcebook just to see what good
ideas it contains. A Lonely Planet does the job better in many cases,
even without providing the address of CIA safe houses or similar.
Worldbooks might seem cool, but they wouldn't be good sellers.

>Investigations are difficult to write, but that's a different thread.
>Probably the best one I ever wrote was based around a court case that I knew
>(mother was on the grand jury).  There were enough twists and turns to make
>Angela Lansbury and Perry Mason go crazy.  The story needs to be very well
>connected and internally consistent.  One of the problems with an
>investigation is "what do I do if the players don't notice the clues?"
>
Exactly why I'd like to see a book giving advice on how to handle this
type of adventure. I much prefer investigative scenarios (cf. "The Sons
of Erin" from the ISG website, and "IMA-2000" that I ran last GenCon),
but they are hard to write (even harder to run) well.

-- 
Mark Baker
http://www.lange.demon.co.uk/Millenniums_End/ME_Index.html
and visit http://www.the-isg.co.uk/ for the ME London Sourcebook