02-19-2015, 02:08 PM | #21 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: TL5 Revolver malfunction
Quote:
For instance, p79, Firearm Quality / Fine (Reliable), "This increases the malfunction number (p. B407) by a step", or p 80, Abuse, "Failure on the required HT roll may lower Malf (p. B407)", are clearly references to Malf numbers and not the table for type of failure. These are places where I'd expect different text if there were a change to a universal default to override Basic. E.g., "This increases the malfunction number (normally 17) by a step". Quote:
(This is the kind of problem that causes tech writers and database people to only store information in one place, and make no copies. But especially with a physical book, ease of reference means duplicating information, which sometimes means duplicating it incorrectly. Also one of the reasons for inventing hypertext. A better way to phrase the footnote, were this actually the case, would be something like "Unreliable; decrease Malf by one step", which works for any TL, and mirrors that text on p79.) Assuming the footnote is correct, and then seeking an explanation for that, is reasonable. But it's circular reasoning when the question is whether or not the footnote is correct. But I suppose exegesis of the holy text has yielded all it can, and if no one remembers back to, what, 2007? to answer the "what were they thinking" question, it will remain a mystery. Thanks to everyone for taking time to rehash the subject for me. |
||
02-19-2015, 04:35 PM | #22 | |
☣
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
|
Re: TL5 Revolver malfunction
Quote:
The tag represents a game mechanic, not an in-setting comparison. An 1860s gunsmith wouldn't look at a Colt Navy and say it was an unreliable revolver, since he can't see the game stats. He would say it was pretty typical of a revolver, but wasn't as good as those newfangled cartridge revolvers, which are very reliable (i.e. about as reliable as typical revolvers would be a century later*). * And that's the rub. A S&W No. 1 really has about the same reliability as a S&W Model 36, introduced nearly a century later.
__________________
RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
|
02-20-2015, 04:32 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
|
Re: TL5 Revolver malfunction
It helps that Kromm and PK are in this forum a lot, so it wouldn't be too hard to PM one of them for an answer, if they haven't noticed the thread, yet.
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
02-20-2015, 01:03 PM | #24 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
|
Re: TL5 Revolver malfunction
Quote:
Shawn Fisher, Micheal Hurst, or Hans-Christian Vortisch? |
|
02-20-2015, 05:56 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: TL5 Revolver malfunction
Quote:
Speaking of hold overs, at least some of this confusion might be the result of some hold over from a previous book or edition and not anybody's executive decision.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
Tags |
guns, gurps, malfunction, revolver |
|
|