[DL] Plot Idea

["Jim Ryan" <doc@daco.net>]

I got an interesting idea for a DL session recently, but as I'm not running
anything at the moment (my game sadly fell apart), I thought I'd share it
with some of you other Marshal-type folks.

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I got this idea for a variation on the use of a Replicant (RVC II, p. 85).
Now, this may bend the rules a tiny bit for how those abominations work, but
I think it could be really cool if done well.  A quick caveat, though -- it
is really only useful if you want to turn one of the characters Harrowed
"for free" (as in "The Dark Canyon" adventure in Book o' the Dead).
As the posse is traveling around, they discover that someone is following
them; that someone turns out to look almost exactly like a member of the
posse.  Clearly this is some kind of doppelganger.
But, unknown to the players, here's what's really happened: a replicant has
been stalking a member of the posse and has already replaced him/her.  It
has successfully transferred all of the information from the posse member,
killed them and left the body in the pod to dissolve.  BUT... the character
has come back Harrowed, escaped the pod and been tracking the posse to catch
up with them.  The player has actually been playing the replicant for the
majority of the adventure and you've been running the Harrowed as though it
were an NPC.  You return the now Harrowed character to the player's control
when everybody finally realizes what's going on (and then presumably turn on
the replicant).
Granted, this would probably require a bit of finesse to pull off, but I
think that the potential payoff would be worth it.  You could also play with
the whole "which one is real?" thing (particularly if they notice that the
one following them is dead-looking BEFORE they notice their fellow posse
member only seems to bleed whitish liquid).
Comments?  Remarks?  Insults?  ;)

-- Jim