I’ve been reading BWG and I’ve run into a couple of minor issues that don’t bug me, per se, but definitely seem off.
I don’t know if it’s editing - I’ve checked for Errata and searched the forums for answers, but couldn’t find any.
In the Trait Descriptions, Gifted is listed as Men Only (As opposed to ‘Mannish Trait’). Yet there’s nothing stopping female characters from entering LPs that provide Gifted.
Similarly, the Ganymede LP isn’t limited to males, but the Catamite Trait - required for that LP - also says ‘Men Only’.
On both of these, given the limitation placed on the trait, I would expect to see a limitation placed on LPs that can provide that trait - or, if the LP was intended to be open to both sexes, to not have that limit on the trait.
This one’s more a matter of curiosity - would ‘Apprentice Artisan’ count as ‘Apprentice’ for those LPs that require that? (That may be a GM call, but I figure I can get a consensus here. )
For 1 and 2, I think the intention is for the traits to be from the stock of Man, not restricted to the gender of male. In the case of Catamite, despite its historical meaning, I take it to mean an “out” homosexual of any gender.
My initial take with regard to Gifted was that it was an oversight - I checked my BWR, and it didn’t have ‘men only’ there, so I figured someone was writing ‘men only’ for ‘mannish trait’ - but there’s enough confusion there, especially with ‘women only’ traits/lifepaths, that I thought it best to see what others thought.
Catamite, on the other hand, I tend to view the other way. Historically, both Catamite and Ganymede referred solely to males, as I recall. I could see making the Trait Men only, and only questioned why the LP wasn’t.
Anyway, thanks for the advice - and any other comments are welcome, as well. I’ll probably keep showing up with more questions. I know there are a fair number of character traits that have no definitions, but which aren’t obvious in their usage.
In fact, one question just came back up. In the Outcast setting the Ratcatcher has no leads to any other setting presented in the book. The only lead listed it ‘Rats’. Was that intentional, indicating that once you’re a ratcatcher, you’re stuck?
In BWR those traits were explicitly in the “Lifepaths of Man” chapter - in BWG they are in the general list but have a note restricting them to men aka humans.
And the Ratcatcher lead to Rats is a joke. There’s several spread throughout the lifepaths.
I’d figure it was a joke if it was included with other Leads - it’s not. It’s the only lead for that LP. Meaning that, as a joke, it falls flat - for me, anyway.
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