[HoE] Re: Killing a PC on Purpose

[John Goff <johngoff@erols.com>]

Surely no one expected me to be quiet on this topic...

Seriously, I had a very similar problem in my own posse a couple of years ago. The
setting was Deadlands and the character was a shaman, but the end result was the
same.

His motivation for constantly running off alone was "to make things happen."
Well...not wanting to disappoint, "things" did happen. He headed off to the--and I
quote--"Haunted Mesa" to spend the night by himself.

The most sobering moment for a loner is when it comes time to _sleep_. If the player
doesn't realize this, it takes only a single failed surprise check to hammer the
point home. In the case of the wayward shaman, he was surprised on the first round,
and stunned before he even had a chance to act. The next morning, the posse found a
bloody patch stretching from his campsite up the side of the cliff.

The player _never_ took his characters off on their own for any length of time after
that. Three things about the DL/HOE system make solo adventurers 'easy' pickin's:
Surprise, Stun and Terror (guts) Checks. Blow anyone of those and the character's
hurtin'. Better yet, blow Surprise, get hit and Stunned _and_ fail the Hard (9) guts
check!

Death isn't a necessity to put a good scare into a character--just a realization of
how vulnerable he really is.

Another suggestion is to let him run afoul of an abomination he has absolutely no
way to affect, but someone else in the party (presumably miles away) does.

Just my two cents,

John