RE: RPG IV Certification

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Jon Paris
>
>  >> I think I may have seen either Jon and/or Scott recently
>  >> recommending SPECIAL files as a possible technique for
>  >> a specific situation.
>
> Well certainly there are a number of uses for the SPECIAL file Joe and I
> have indeed recommended it in some cases.  But that has nothing to do with
> the cycle.

Respectfully, Jon, if you subscribe to Trevor's theory that the cycle - a
basic, fundamental feature of RPG - is too arcane to recommend under any
circumstances, then certainly the SPECIAL file - a feature that even the RPG
developers considered unusual enough to call it "SPECIAL" - is even more
arcane and thus even more to be avoided.

I can state with absolute certainty that more RPG programmers know the cycle
than how to use a SPECIAL file.

My point was not to cast aspersions on the SPECIAL file or those who
recommend it, but rather to use reductio ad absurdum to contradict Trevor's
position by arguing that if the cycle is intrinsically bad because they are
legacy RPG artifacts, then SPECIAL files are even worse.

Joe