[flyingmice]

A few factual points which I should address. The fact that these are in the book and you didn't notice them, or didn't apply them correctly, is not a testament to my presentation skills... These may need further/better explanation in the game.

You said that no provision is made for non-military characters. That point is addressed, I believe, under Maverick Characters. This character type is intended to cover characters who come into the military from different fields, but is also suitable for characters who do not ever enter the military as well.

Also, there is a penalty for low attributes, given as an optional rule. I have never seen any need for it after running games with this system since 2000, but some GMs would be more comfortable with this rule, which is why I made it optional. There are in fact several useful optional rules, some of which I typically use, some of which I don't.

It is also possible to create intelligent nobles, but it is impossible to create intelligent, lucky nobles. The point pool is divided between IQ, Class, and Luck, with an assumption of average rolls. Allocating 94 points to Class, 1 to Luck, and 70 to IQ gives a character from the lower nobility, with no Luck and an IQ of 119. Since you can increase your INT in the path chargen - and thus in play - you can easily achieve this goal. It's really a matter common to all point allocation schemes, where it is impossible to be good at everything. If you wanted to, you could replace point allocation with random rolls - 2d6 for each attribute, and percentile for Class and Luck - and maybe IQ - on the appropriate tables. I know some people would prefer that, and it perhaps should be in the optional rules.

As for the random damage, you are interpreting it backwards. Yes, you can do a Boxing punch for 130 points, and a sabre hit for 27, but that Boxing punch for 130 points would be a devastating blow, and the sabre hit wouldn't be a gut wound, but a minor scratch. Interpret the blow by the results, and it makes sense. How can one person survive numerous gunshot wounds and live, yet another person can die from a single hit? That one wound was a crushing hit in a vital area, and the numerous hits on the other fellow were in non-vital areas. Thus a hit with damage of 100+ would be a vital hit, and that of less than 30 would be a scratch. By trading points from chance or initiative, a skilled opponent can massively increase damage at a cost, exactly as one would with a called shot in other systems. These abstract tactics are entirely under the player's control.

-clash