[HoE] Re: Heart o' Darkness

["Ronnie Gustaveson" <gus_bus@hotmail.com>]

>In the  last part, it makes a point to state the ONLY person who can >hurt 
>Stone is the NPC!!   Now since you have an all-powerful villain >(Stone, 
>who can't be killed and has all the harrowed powers at level >five and an 
>adventure  writer who seems to have little idea of >exactly HOW nasty that 
>is, think a moment, have stone start using the >harrowed powers in tandem, 
>he's got the wind.  You have a  god-like >opponnent,  who  will have ten 
>actions every round, and who has no >weaknesses?),  AND the stereotypical 
>all-powerful NPC (Jackie Wells), >the posse' seems to pretty much be there 
>to spectate.


><<2)   Give them a way to hurt Stone and a way to  somehow get the  >drop 
>on him, otherwise the climax is senselees slaughter.  Perhaps >the Gem has 
>anti-harrowed powers?  Perhaps the Half-breeds can rig >something with 
>their force fields to trap him. I rather like  >killing off Jackie and 
>giving the Posse her Gun.  I never like combat >NPC's much anyway.>>




MAJOR SPOILER




I couldn't let this one rest because I had a pretty good time running it.  
So I thought I'd tell you how I handled Stone and Jackie.  First off, let me 
state that I liked Jackie, but I came to the same conclusion as most other 
Marshal's, she couldn't be allowed to have so much control over the last 
climatix battle, (especial because, my posse was pretty kick ass by this 
point.)  So just as she was about to step into the portal, guess who steps 
out and shoots her in the face. Here I took a gamble, because I wasn't sure 
if my posse would double chip to save an NPC.  Fortunately, they did.  What 
followed was one hell of a battle, in which Stone got half of his head blown 
off, (but obviously he wasn't dead.)  Still I figured he'd had enough and 
Stone took off.
One 'Helpin' Hand' and a little time on the other side of the portal (to 
avoid the Crossbreeds and to let Jackie rest,) and everything was 
hunky-dorry.  Well...except for that Los Diablos I threw at them for fun, 
(hey two of them had reached 5 Grit and I'd been teasing them with that 
"Ghostly Stampede" effect for weeks.)  They played with they're usual 
intelligence and effectiveness and all of them survived (sigh.)
In the end, Jackie takes the Heart of Darkness and heads for home, but not 
before turning around and asking, "Ya wanna come with me."  At that point I 
left it up to my posse, and we all called a night.
Now that was my take on it and it worked really well.  I do agree with 
others that say the first two books were better than the last one, but the 
ending doesn't have to be such a disappointment.  In fact, with a little 
creativity it can be ALOT O' FUN!
Remember, Jackie is supposed to take the Heart back to HOE, so I don't 
recommend killing her off (unless you want to play a crossover.)  I do 
recommend incapacitating her for that last battle though, unless your posse 
is really wimpy (in which case, they shouldn't be playing the Heart Trilogy 
in the first place.)

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com