Re: [HoE] Skyers and the Black hats

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

Scott Henry wrote:
> 
> Could a syker with a low morale code join up with the Black Hats? I've been
> thinking of a villian; possibly a Wendigo Aposatate who joined up with the
> Black Hats because his life pretty much IS the military and he knew
> Throckmorton would definitley love to have a syker on his side.

There's no rules that say the Sykers are the good guys and the Black
Hats are the bad guys. I realize that the genre and source material
we're dealing with tends to put everything in black or white, but if you
want deeper characters with more realistic motivations, you don't have
to go that route. An important thing to remember is that even the bad
guys generally really believe they are doing the right thing.
Throckmorton and his goons probably really believe that they are
bringing order to what would otherwise be chaos, preserving what's left
of civilization. Sure, they've got a rather loose definition of "human
rights", but in a world thats been deep-fried by nukes and the Reckoners
are strolling around, can we really afford to pay attention to human
rights when 95% of the remaining population can barely survive?

> Which also
> brings up the question, how do most of the bad guys view each other? I mean
> what does Silas think of Throckmorton and vice vera and what do the
> anti-templars think of Silas and Throckmorton and Vice Versa. 

If you look at the source material put out so far, the major groups seem
to be only dimly aware of each other. None of them have really run into
any major scuffles except within their own group. The books keep talking
about "when Throckmorton decides to move through the Rockies", when the
Black Hats will make a big push and the likely route, etc. If they try
to go north, they'll run into the Templars. If they go south, Silas and
the Doomsayers. 

So far, Silas has been busy just trying to get the trogs and other
mutants together, and has focused a lot of his efforts on the Heretics.
With Simon and the Templars, the Anti-Templars seem to be the biggest
threat. 

The Black Hats seem to have been content with softer targets, but the
books repeatedly mention that they'll be moving westward at some point
in the near future. They've probably seen Templars and Doomsayers, but
have serious doubts that either could field a sizeable enough
opposition. I think PEG has already scripted out that the Black Hats
will try to move west through Nevada, they'll run into a much more
organized Silas than they expect and get seriously trounced by EMP. Just
one Doomsayer can take out a whole squad with a good EMP roll.

Teaming up, though? Hmm. If the Syker has no problem with the Black Hats
putting an explosive chip in his brain, I guess they'd welcome the help.
I think they'd be more wary of recruiting Doomsayers... they look and
act wacko, and they love mutants. Besides, they've already sworn to
serve Silas. Sykers don't have that problem, anything they could have
sworn alliegance to got blown sky high. No more SA or NA, and they only
barely get along with one another.

Now, Anti-Templars... those are the perfect team-ups. Anyone, including
Black Hats, can become Anti-Templars, and all they care about is killing
Simon's Templars. They're a perfect team-up with Black Hats, Silas'
Doomsayers, or any other bad guys.