GiGs said: A certain miscreant made this suggestion over on the piazza forum: Sir Alain Fisk wrote: ↑ Sun Mar 29, 2020 7:39 pm Y'know, GiGs, and I'm being honest and, hopefully, helpfully creative, here... what about reversing the counts in the status boxes, themselves? So, say someone has a Spirit of 7, the box would be KO, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 instead of what is there, now, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, KO, so hitting the minus sign would reduce the number of available Shock, the Derived Values box would show 7 / 7 instead of 0 / 7, as it does, now. I know Shock is easier to deal with than Wounds, though, so it may not help to change wounds from 0, 1, 2, 3 to Defeat, 1, 2, 3. Just something to think about. I thought it would be worth posting my response here, too, since I havent fully explained my reasoning for doing it this way. My response: ↑ The problem is, thats not how it works. Notice this KO, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 represents 7 points to knockout, but this 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, KO represents 8 points to knockout. If you have 7 shock, you are still conscious when you have taken 7 damage. You pass out when you take 1 more than your shock. The official rules text: When a character suffers Shock beyond his maximum (usually equal to his Spirit), he’s Knocked Out This is why you count up, because if you count down, players assume you pass out on zero, but thats not true. It just feels weird to have people still conscious and have a score of 0. Wounds work the same way. You go 0, 1, 2, 3, Defeat, not 3, 2, 1, Defeat. Again its 1 wound more than your Wounds total that causes a Defeat check. I did it this way because it helps people follow the rules, and keeps pcs conscious longer! Generally speaking, I'd prefer to count down too, but for TorgE, that leads you into miscounting how much damage you can take. Counting up also makes implementing certain rules easier (like wound modifiers), which is another contributing factor, but the above is the main reason. Agree with everything you said. The game mechanic is shock goes up till you reach your limit, wounds go up till you reach your limit, possibilities go down till you reach zero. That's the way the game is built and that is the way the rules work in all the published material. IF GM's want to change the way they track it at their table, then by all means do so. But for the rest of us, the official sheet should support the game rules and mechanics as written in the rule book. We should not be forced to play the game in a manner inconsistent with the official rules on the official character sheet because of personal preference. Thank you for sticking to the rules Gig's. I appreciate it.
