Wound level steps on PTGS

[Blackberry]

I thought this had been asked before, but I couldn't find it in the forums or the errata.

My group burned characters on Saturday. We had one character who had a Forte of B3, which gave him a Superficial of B2 and a Mortal of B9. His "wound level step" is 1 (1/2 Forte exponent round down), which means there's no way to fit all of the wound levels in there without having at least two gaps.

Which way should it lean? I just had him stack them all up at 4-5-6-7.

Also, my players didn't comprehend why you wouldn't just stack up your wound levels at the high end of your range. I tried to explain to them that you could simulate a slightly less resilient character by moving some down into the lower ranges, but they all agreed that "gaming the system" was the way to go here and min-maxing anything they could was essential.

I tend to agree because combat is bad enough, but does anyone have a more convincing argument?

[eruditus]

Well, your both right (you and your players). :D

It is advantageous to stack your wound levels as far up the scale as you can. However, that's why the rule about spacing between levels exists. There is flexability in order to emulate the glassjawed-but-just-won't-die type. I have put my wound levels all over the place but usually I just stretch it out as far as the spacing allows.

With a seperation of only one level you may find yourself with space between traumatic and Mortal. That is not a step that's really calculated. The mechanical perspective is that you establish your Superficial and the other levels from superficial. Mortal Wounds are tacks onto the end (obviously limiting your traumatics to some degree.)

[Thor]

I thought this had been asked before, but I couldn't find it in the forums or the errata.

My group burned characters on Saturday. We had one character who had a Forte of B3, which gave him a Superficial of B2 and a Mortal of B9. His "wound level step" is 1 (1/2 Forte exponent round down), which means there's no way to fit all of the wound levels in there without having at least two gaps.

Which way should it lean? I just had him stack them all up at 4-5-6-7.

Luke or Kublai can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the intent is that the spacing only applies to the next lower-intensity wound on the grayscale. In other words, it is perfectly fine to have two or three spaces between the Traumatic and Mortal Wound points.

In the case of a character with a B9 Mortal Wound and a B3 Forte, I believe the only possible choice is to have the following:
Sup: B2 Li: B3 Mi: B4 Sev: B5 Tr: B6 Mo: B9

Again, I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain this is how it was intended to work. Your player may want to reconsider his character's stats if he is looking at this character as a combatant (it's fine if he's planning to stay out of physical conflicts). As it stands, a guy with Power B4 is going to inflict a Midi wound on him with an Incidental sword strike. That's no joke. If he wants to keep the stats, he should probably invest in some good armor, just in case.