I just now learned that I was fubarring a basic rule for the last year and whatever that I have been playing, and the game was still damn fun and worked great. I want to congratulate jake for making a game so good that I can completely flub several rules and still enjoy the game- its a tetstament to how well a frame work design without so many interconnected/interdependent rules can be so flexible. Especially since I actually like playing these aspects wrong more than playing them right!
(if you are wondering I don't cap the SA's at 5 and I treat pain and shock cumulatively- this makes wounding that much more sucky and a much more lethal occurrance).

As if the game needed to be *more* deadly :-)

Hmm.. Cumulative pain and shock... I'm trying to picture how many dice you would lose when hit by one of the nastier Hef or maybe a Gargoyle... Nasty! ;-)

Brian.

the funny thing is that I have been playing like that under three different senschals who also applied shock and pain the way I do, and then I have been running games like that for more than a dozen players- including Jake! and I never was called on it by anyone.

The big benefit is that players can then take on some seriously bad ass villains and stand a chance of winning by nickle and dimming him to death. And as an added bonus they tend to be very afraid of getting hit at all which is very much like what I imagine it should be....

Oh well, just some interesting observations.