Posted by The_Meehan on May 19, 2002 at 20:53:13:
In Reply to: Re: Reckoning: an accounting, as for things received or done posted by daShrink on May 16, 2002 at 15:19:25:
: As I should acknowledge mine. "Reckoning Day" is an actual name for an event in agricultural communities,
Huh. Insights pop up in the strangest places. I'll have to save that one for a future late-night gab/philosophy session.
: Now this is precisely the problem I have with the mechanics of the game itself. The Zeal creeds are, by default, always in the right, and this is *my* definition of powergaming.
And that bias has been there since day 1, which led to one of my LONG ago points. Good, bad, or indifferent, the bias is there. Also, I should point out that one of the reasons for the Zeal slant is that HtR's endgame is presented as being in the near future, which implies that the long-term strategies will not be the best of fits, just due to the time constraints. Actually, I'm tempted to say that it's the primary reason for the slant, but since I haven't figured out what the other possible reasons are, I can't.
I'm also not sure that the "always right" characteristic is a direct map to powergaming. My experience has been that powergaming more directly maps to the maturity of the player, which is why powergamers are also frequently called Munchkins.
: And the word "inherit" is certainly not in and of itself a commandment to incur violence, unless, of course, you find yourself involved in something that would appear on Court TV.
Right. Which is why I made my statement about the apparent imperative, rather than predictive, nature of the use in HtR. It's a highly unusual combination. Nor did I mean to imply that the imperative sense necessarily imlied violence as well, merely direct action. Though I can certainly see how that got lost. Also, your little comment about CourtTV is probably more appropriate for Hunter than you intended; in a very real sense the Imbued and the Supernatural are engaged in a dispute about how to resolve the monster's accounts.
: But they don't say anything about armchairs, either, hehe.
True. OTOH, the point I was making is that the cover material doesn't emphasize direct action, not that the Redeemer and Innocent creeds are easier or require less strength. The Hunt, no matter *which* creed the Imbued follows requires a great deal of mental and psychological strength, and I honestly think all suffer similar levels of stress (if applied differently).
As for the passivity, I stand by it. While Redeemers are certainly capable of actively seeking monsters to save, just as Avengers are capable of waiting for serendipity to select their next target, the greater proportion of them will not. Again, this is not a statement about the relative strengths (or weaknesses) of the various creeds, merely a statement about their preferred style of executing the Mission.