by sully800 on Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:10 am
I think actually that a bonus of -1 is the most clear way to phrase it.
As you said in your first post, you could rewrite it as "a penalty of 1 or -1". Well which is it? The fact that you list both shows that this would be confusing to players. I think "a penalty of 1" would be correct, but there would undoubtedly be people who argue that it should be -1.
A bonus of -1 is clear. Just as some industries like to talk about "benefits and disbenefits" instead of "benefits and costs".