Re: [HoE] Boise Horror

[Xotzil@aol.com]

>>   From the reviews, doesn't it seem like merely a string of endless 
>>combats?  Don't get me wrong, a little whuppin is needed for a gun-toting 
>>game like this, but it's hard to keep the adrenalin level high when it's 
one 
>>hard fight after another! 

I gave a very bare-bones review of what's going on in the adventure, because 
I didn't want any nosy posse types understanding what was actually going on. 
Don't get me wrong...this IS a very combat-heavy adventure, but there are 
also ample opportunities for role-playing located herein...for one thing, the 
posse gets to meet and interact with a veritable uber-hero for a goodly part 
of the adventure, and there is plenty that could come out of that alone.

As far as the party getting de-senseitized to the amount of combat, I don't 
think that'd happen in this case. It seems to me that John was VERY careful 
about the way this whole thing was scripted, and combats that happen close to 
one another happen for very specific reasons. It isn't splatterpunk...more 
like Nampunk. Just when you think you're out of the woods, you realize it's 
because someone used Agent Orange on it. :-P

>>    As far as I can tell, the only motivation for the party in Boise is 
that 
>>Simon asks them for a favor.  Where's the fun in that?

As I mentioned in the review, if your party doesn't have a Templar, there 
really is no reason for Simon to get them involved, nor (unless you have a 
Law Dog in your group) will your party likely want to be. If there IS a 
Templar, they WILL get involved BECAUSE Simon asks them to. They have an Oath 
that requires it. On top of that, Simon is one of the most visible bastions 
of Good in the entire Wasted West, and any Templar worth his tabard is going 
to want to help him...assuming they haven't been listening to that Modeen 
fella, that is.

There IS an element of railroading in the adventure...there is in ANY canned 
adventure. If the posse/party does NOT want to talk to the old man in the 
tavern and get given the map to the secret temple, they aren't going to get 
there without the GM rearranging the world so that they do. The railroading 
is handled with a great deal of sense, though, so it isn't too far out of the 
realms of What May Be.

--Jacques