[HoE] The Junkman Cometh Errata(Hopler)(Ryan)

["Lane Pearson" <regault@u.washington.edu>]

Well, I wrote this Saturday but it apparently didn't send properly.
I just got The Junkman Cometh friday, and after reading it I can say that
although it is by far the best Hell On Earth supplement (Junkers are now
playable.), I was left with some questions and comments. Mostly by things
unstated.
	First off, the most confusing thing in for me was the non-chip rules for
browser spirits. When deciding which powers get the bonus, do we use the
associated spirits listing for the power, or the associated powers table
for the spirit? If the latter, why have associated spirits? The only use is
to tell which spirits are gun spirits, and that would've been served better
by a small grey box next to the table of construction times. This is
important because the second'd make Building, Computer, and Tool much more
powerful, encouraging people to pick them instead of Gun. All told, I'd
much rather have Building helping to reduce the Drain on a shield than on a
shelter. And with appliance, I'd be using Sensor a lot more often than
Temperature.
The following powers were mislisted under the browsers.
Car: flight (VTOL?)
Appliance: Rotor
Tool: Finish is a tool trick; Flow isn't in the book.(Reactor maybe?)

Another thing that was confusing was frame sizes. I got the feeling that
frames were originally numbered from 1 to 19, than it was decided to use
them to determine TN, and all the frame numbers were reduced by one.
Unfortunately, several examples weren't adjusted afterward. 
More importantly, the frame sizes need to be a little more clear on exactly
how big they are, the examples being unclear and generally unhelpful if the
device isn't a gun or a car. How small of a refrigerator? Is it a mini
fridge or just a short normal fridge? What kind of large backpack? The kind
my dad took on hikes was quite a bit larger than a dog or a rifle. Saying
that something is as large as a cello case is only helpful if that person
is in an orchestra.
Also, are Familiars supposed to be Frame size 4? It seems like an awkward
size for something chiefly used as a scout or companion, and all of the
Familiars pictured in the book are at most size 3.(A size 4 owl would break
your arm if it tried to perch on it.) Do Familiars need the agility power
in order to manipulate things?

 Device Traits: Vigor makes reference to the reinforce power, which isn't
listed anywhere else in the book.

Ammo: When you roll your instability check, are you checking for the whole
batch, all the bullets in the gun, or for just that particular bullet?
Having to roll for instability every shot would get pretty annoying. Also,
for reasons listed under general comments, I think each die level should be
1.5 times the cost of the previous level rather than twice the cost.

Brains:If you make your own dataslugs do you have to check instability for
them if they're used? What happens to data stored on them if they go
unstable?

Commo: Does a signal type selection have to be made if the device is for
displaying device output only and does not recieve outside radio
signals?(I.E. A readout for a computer made with the brains power.)

Locomotion/VTOL: I thought that I'd point out that VTOL is much more
powerful than locomotion and requires a lower number of slots even if the
car's acceleration is only 5 mph.

Reactor: Anyone else notice that even the smallest reactor is about 12,500
times more efficient processing energy from IGR than an Atomic Collector,
and outputs energy 11 times more quickly? Sure there's more chance of
irradiation, but I think it'd be worth the risk.

Sensor: First, what'd be the difference between a passive and active spirit
sight sensor? Would a passive only detect ghosts and manitous? Could you
use an active in conjunction with some seismic sensor to detect ghost rock?
Second, what'd be the game mechanism behind using a natural sense ECM? For
example, would a cloaking field add the dice roll to my character's sneak
roll, or would it be used instead of sneak? I also noticed that it's a lot
cheaper to hide a device from natural sight than it is to hide it from
radar.

General Comments:
Ghost rock: I've always had a problem with the Gr output of collectors
being a bit too low. Now that there are so many devices with huge drains
despite being relatively innocuous (7 drain/hour for the joystick for a
remote droid?) available, I've decided that in my campaign, at least, ghost
rock will release 5 Gr and ounce, or 80 Gr a pound. This'll make the math
earlier, let people burn ghost rock scraps, and just make life easier for
everybody.

Armor: This is a problem I've had ever since the new armor rules came out.
Under the current rules, there is no advantage to having high die types for
your attacks. With the current junker rules, 4d4 costs just as much as 2d6,
does more damage, and resists armor better. The die type used to represent
shot penetration, so I'm suggesting that after the dice reach d4s, each
armor level subtracts two dice rather than one, or reduces damage by half.
This'd make it a lot more representative of penetrative power, and prevent
all those enterprising players with 20d4 bullets for the same price as 5d8.

Yeah, finally no adventure! I'm sorry to say this, but the included
adventures in HOE sourcebooks haven't been nearly as good as the ones in
Deadlands sourcebooks. Probably because Goff didn't write any of them. The
only HOE sourcebook adventure thats seemed useable so far was the one in
Road Warriors. All the others were "Go somewhere, find something out, kill
a tough undead version of whatever the sourcebook's about."

I really could have gone without the Deadlands Dispatch. It just seemed
kind of useless and filled with stuff I already knew. Those four pages
would have been better filled with more example devices.