Re: [HOE] Yet another Unity review... (Shane) (now with an added solution)

[Dirk <darklord@dark-sky.net>]

Kai Tave wrote:

> >spoiler space
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> So we have a group of hard-bitten veterans of a post-apocalyptic Hell who
> have, in all likelihood, not gotten where they are today by trusting every
> freak that moseys on out of the sky, yet they're expected to completely and
> unwaveringly trust some goofy robot that, well, moseys on out of the sky
> because he says that he just happens to have sucked up the Reckoners into a
> little box.  Just like that.
>
> The posse will likely have NO PROOF AT ALL that it's actually Hellstrome, a
> man who left the public eye for about, what, a couple hundred years, and has
> only reappeared within the last week, and yet they're expected to just take
> this box that this ambulatory brain in a jar says contains the four most
> powerful beings that humanity has ever faced and go launch themselves into
> space, because if they don't then the story crashes to a halt like an Amtrak
> express carrying chemical waste.  It's quite possible that some posse
> members might not even know who Hellstrome IS.  All they see is, again, an
> ambulatory brain in a jar, an automaton the likes of which they've just
> mowed down by the bucketful, except this one is telling them to do things in
> a British accent.
>
> This is a section that, in my opinion, needed more work.  Since the entire
> transition point of the adventure from "Now Leaving Hell on Earth" to "Now
> Entering Lost Colony" hinges on this encounter, I feel that it should have
> been given more detail, including a list of ways to get players to go along
> with it without it seeming forced.  You CAN just make the players do it, but
> if you're going to force everything along, you might as well just not even
> play things out and just write down what happened.
>
> Maybe it's just me, but I just want to find a better way to make this work
> than "But it's HEROIC!"
>
>
> --Kai Tave
>

Thanks Kai Tave, you just got my brain pumping. I'm going to flesh this idea out
more later but here are the basic rewrites. (Forgive poor wording and the
sketchiness, it's late)
Right at the part where death would be sucked into the box, Hellstrome's ship
flies overhead as usual, but Death turns his bony finger on the ship and knocks
it out of the sky.
The race to Hellstrome's ship occurs as usual, but now hellstrome hands them an
empty box and says "This box has the power to contain the Reckoners, if only for
a short while and it's your job to capture them and get them to Banshee. The box
requires a willing blood sacrifice to be spilt on it to activate it, and will
use a piece of your very soul to contain them."
Now the Heroes have the box, have to hunt the Reckoners and have to make the
sacrifice to save the world. What's the sacrifice? Bleed on the box? No, bleed
on the box, beat the Reckoners in an opposed spirit roll and suffer a permanent
die type reduction in spirit. Now only three Reckoners left and time to see who
the real heroes are, time to see who will make the sacrifice.
And for added fun, whenever the box shakes and the Reckoners try and escape, the
characters who made the sacrifice feel the Reckoners tearing at their very soul
(can you say wind loss and spirit checks anyone... I knew you could...).

Once the Heroes have the Reckoners contained, get to the unity ASAP, cause if
they fail the spirit checks, the Reckoners could escape...

Comments?

--Dirk

Dirk: "Now Shane, what would the Reckoners have for spirit?"
Cryptic Shane: "A lot"