RE: [HOE] Running the perfect HoE Campaign

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@primaryfunction.com>]

> Now, I'd like to step back for a minute and say that suffering isn't the
> only way you can become a hero.  I'm not sure exactly what DOES
> make a hero,
> but GENERALLY a healthy disregard for personal safety falls somewhere in
> there.
>
> And in that case, it's entirely possible to have a heretical Doomsayer be
> the most heroic SOB to ever walk the glowing sands.  There's a lot of
> interesting stuff to work with when you talk purple-robes;
> multiple kinds of
> discrimination, persecution, being hunted by the "true" cult,
> shunned by the
> norms, watching the purity of the Word fall by the wayside, and all the
> while STILL going on because of what you believe and how strongly you
> believe it.  Doomsayers should be DRIVEN people.  They don't have to be
> slavering fanatics, but these are folks with a MISSION and a
> PURPOSE.  Just
> like Batman drives himself, so shall the righteous in times of need.  Or
> something.
>
> Same goes for Sykers in a very "Vietnam" sense.  Templar too.  Junkers are
> closest to mundanes in the sense that they don't necessarily come with
> prearranged "baggage" to tack on to their personal goals.
>
> I'm sure there's a better way to put this.  I don't want to give
> someone the
> impression that "Constant PC torment = the way to run games", but what I'm
> TRYING to say is that every kind of character in any RPG, arcane,
> cybernetic, alien, or just plain ol' normal, has just as much potential to
> be an interesting character.  If Billy Bob uses his Doomsayer as nothing
> more than a mobile Nuke factory, then maybe it's time to reevaluate Billy
> Bob rather than the Doomsayers.
>
> If you and your group enjoy playing all "normals", then more power to you.
> I don't see anything wrong with that.  Just, y'know, if someone hears that
> this game where you get to be a radiation priest and how cool that sounds,
> well...give'em a shot.
>
> --Kai Tave
>
>
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I have to agree here.  A hero isn't in the powers or flash, it's in the
personality.  In a game of all norms, I could easily build a waster with a
powersuit, grenade launchers, plasma cannons, etc, and eat ABs for
breakfast.  But he's perfectly "normal."  And to calls that the GM can keep
the powerarmor lacking in ammo and recharges -- the GM can just as easily
make Nuke worthless.

And I'll agree with the "if it works for your posse, run with it."  If
enforcing an all-norms policy makes for a fun game, then do it.  If having 2
each of Doomie, Toxic Shaman, and Syker makes for a fun and interesting
posse, more power to you (as if there _were_ any more power to be had with
that group!).  My posse knows I'll find the weakness of any power character,
if I want to.  And that the interesting characters get rewarded.  Combat
monsters get rewarded, but usually lose a few chips and lots of ammo to earn
the chip for killing the enemy.  The "interesting" bits earn a player chips
without usually having to spend any ("What, one of you guys actually took
Search?  And actually found a clue?  Well, that earns you a chip!  No
shooting required!").

Now, for something that actually adds to the thread, rather than just being
a wordy "me too."  All this talk about AB -vs- Norm forgets that sometimes a
character needs to exist merely for comic relief.  The PC that really just
fulfills the role of posse-sidekick.  He may be a norm, an AB, or he may
even be a she (trying to not exclude the ladies!).  The player doesn't even
have to be funny.  But the character usually has nothing exceptional about
them.  My group almost always has one (I'm one now while being a player --
the character isn't actually bad, but my dice-karma stinks.  "Let's make
Brock swing at it! He misses everything!").  Characters like this make the
stressful, scary, suspense-ridden parts of the campaign even more stressful,
scary, and suspense-ridden by really lightening the mood in between s., s.,
s.-r. parts.  They really do add to the enjoyment of the campaign as a
whole.

My two cents -- which won't get you squat in a blasted waste of a survivor
settlement.

Jeff Y.