On the Mystery box debate:
I think that's sort of missing the point. All those long posts, or general thread ideas based solely on the Mystery box fenomenom. This is Warhammer, and the boxes aren't total Mystery, they are labeled.
The thread was more than willing to go after a rare trait that might never come again, when it had clear implications within the setting. The same is true with the books. They have clear implications, and those implications have risks to them. Risks that don't seem worth the rewards this time, compared to other options.
This thread likes to gamble(the catnip mentioned) but they like to weight and stack the odds first. Both the rewards and the failures.
If your reward is ultra rare book, and the failure is Soul Stealing Attempt, or Summon Setra! for there are Thieves here!, then that gets weighed.
The thing here is that taking books on Dark Magic from a Dark Magic Vampire is up there in stupid and gratuitous ways to lose your soul or doom your home in character. Famously so. Traps are likely, and while Mat has the gear to play bomb squad, with the other things on offer...well. Why would she?
It's not just the differences between safe choice or gamble, its what the gamble is. What can you win, and what can you lose?
See, previous update. Gambled with Mat's life and soul, won a dead Vampire Lord and his College of Necromancy. And that gamble was made knowing what Vamp line the enemy was from, with some idea what he could do, with extra scouting beforehand. Knowing what gear and spells Mat had.
Yes, this thread likes to gamble. But it also likes to stack the odds. Give them a risky gamble with high gain, but likely loss with losing either the thing, or even more, and a clear, certain, lesser win, and they'll pick the sensible option.
