The Last Homely House

Middle-Earth => Archives of Minas Tirith => Topic started by: Celebrimbor on May 19, 2008, 07:27:49 PM

Title: Hard One
Post by: Celebrimbor on May 19, 2008, 07:27:49 PM
Definition of kill: to accumulate wounds until vitality is depleted, right?
Function of armor: can only take up to 1 wound during each skirmish, right?

Using the above logic, can Armor borne by any companion prevent that companion being killed from the text of Ulaire cantea, Black assassin?
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: Elessar's Socks on May 19, 2008, 08:35:12 PM
Definition of kill: to accumulate wounds until vitality is depleted, right?
Function of armor: can only take up to 1 wound during each skirmish, right?

Using the above logic, can Armor borne by any companion prevent that companion being killed from the text of Ulaire cantea, Black assassin?
Reducing a character's vitality to 0 is one way to kill that character, but "killed" doesn't mean to reduce a character's vitality to 0. It just means to place the character in the dead pile, with the the understanding that the character was killed. ;)

So Armor won't prevent a companion skirmishing Cantea from being killed.
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: MR. Lurtzy on May 19, 2008, 09:19:32 PM
His ability says kill regardless of how much vitality the character has. Armor cannot help with that.
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: TheJord on May 20, 2008, 03:30:10 AM
Its like when someone gets overwhelmed. No wounds are placed, they are simply killed.

With Black Assassin, you have at least one action to stop it before it happens
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: Kralik on May 20, 2008, 03:46:19 PM
I would liken it to being corrupted: Adding a burden drops resistance by 1. When the ringbearer's resistance drops to 0, he/she is corrupted. However, the ring-bearer can be instantly corrupted regardless of the number of burdens (for example: Shapes Slowly Advancing). Likewise, someone can be killed regardless of wounds (different sort of example: Saved from the Fire. Yes, it does trigger threat wounds).
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: Celebrimbor on May 28, 2008, 01:36:19 PM
OK thanks guys.  At first I thought it all depended on the "definition" of "kill".

Anyways, now I don't have to ponder over it any more. :up:
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: CarpeGuitarrem on June 05, 2008, 10:54:53 AM
Definition of kill: to accumulate wounds until vitality is depleted, right?
Function of armor: can only take up to 1 wound during each skirmish, right?

Using the above logic, can Armor borne by any companion prevent that companion being killed from the text of Ulaire cantea, Black assassin?
False syllogism.

You're saying...

If A, then B (If a character has wounds equal to vitality, then he/she is killed)
A is not true (Character cannot take wounds equal to vitality, because character takes only one wound)
Therefore, B is not true (Character cannot be killed)

A syllogism actually works like this...
If A, then B
A is true
Therefore, B is true

Going by the logic you stated, you could say the following...
If I eat a whole pizza, then I will be perfectly full
I did not eat a whole pizza
I am perfectly full

But we know that being perfectly full can come from sources other than pizza.

(And yeah, I basically just repeated what everyone said. But in the terms of formal logic)


<Edited for a missing "not">~FM
No, that's the way I intended it. To demonstrate that it reaches a false conclusion.
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: SomeRandomDude on June 05, 2008, 02:31:15 PM
A ) B
~A
.:. ~B
INVALID

To put CG's argument it into even more logical terms. However, that's not the argument, this is.

A = B
~A
.:. ~B
VALID

Or

If and only if a person accumulates wounds until his vitality reaches 0, then he is killed.
He did not accumulate enough wounds for his vitality to reach 0.
Thus, he is not killed.
VALID (not necessarily true, a valid syllogism means the conclusion follows logically from the two premises).

Would be correct, as = means if an only if. But then, I would disagree with your original assertion that wounding to death is the only way to kill. So this really doesn't involve any logical syllogisms at all, CG, but an assertion on gameplay mechanics. Sorry to burst your bubble. ;)

Someone just came out of logic class ready to apply what they learned. :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: CarpeGuitarrem on June 05, 2008, 09:15:36 PM
It could really be interpreted either way. Either he's got the false first premise (and valid argument) or he constructed his argument invalidly.
Title: Re: Hard One
Post by: SomeRandomDude on June 07, 2008, 06:58:10 AM
But since he didn't use a conditional syllogism, but a biconditional syllogism, his argument was valid. He was stating that death and wounding to death are equivalent, thus, death can only occur by wounding to death and wounding to death always causes death.

Which would make an "If and only if wounding to death, then death" statement which is a biconditional and thus the syllogism is logically valid.

Which means that this isn't a case of faulty logic at all, but simply a false premise.