Re: [HOE] Yet another Unity review... (Shane)

[Richard A Ranallo <toadpooka@juno.com>]

On Thu, 18 Apr 2002 22:51:06 -0700 "Kai Tave" <kaitave@harborside.com>
writes:
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> >> >more spoiler space...
> 
> Yes, Hellstrome's character, physically, is likely to be unique, but 
> he's still a robot with a human brain floating around inside.  Why a 
> posse should implicitly trust him because he (it, whatever) says that
he's 
> actually Dr. Darius Hellstrome is completely beyond me.  You can
program an 
> automaton or can to speak in an accent, and the Reckoners have tried
stranger 
> things before.  Can't be too careful, especially in the middle of a
war.

I think there's another angle that everyone's missing here.  I don't
think the posse should listen to the Doc because he IS Hellstromme, or
the Harbinger, or whatever.  They might be inclined to listen to him
because he's the guy who just saved their asses (and the rest of the
Convoy's) from the Doomsayers, and later from Death itself.  I mean,
things were lookin' rad for the forces of bad before this
robot-who-thinks-he's-Hellstromme showed up, and maybe it's time to call
in some favors.
Seeing his ship just hoover up Death probably also lends some credibility
to the robot-thing.  Tech-savvy characters will probably note that
there's only one mind in history that would stand a chance building
something that can do that.  Tech-unsavvy characters probably wouldn't
care whether it was Hellstromme or not; he's a somewhat obscure footnote
in scientific history at the time.  Sure, he invented the bomb, but the
average Joe isn't likely to blame him for the world's state; it's the
politicians/generals/Yankees/Rebs/whatevers' fault.  It'd be the same if
Oppenheimer, Fermi, Einstein, Heisenberg or Bohr walked up at the same
moment.  You listen because he knows what he's talking about, or else he
wouldn't have been able to get Death in that box, and because he did you
a Hell of a favor, and looks like he needs one in return (recall that the
Doc is in pretty bad shape when he asks for the help).
All in all, I don't tihnk that every posse out there will ake the bait. 
But I do think it's reasonable to assume that most will; certainly enough
for a published storyline.  The characters will always have the option of
walking away form The Plot, but no written story can account for every
eventuality.
Say the posse does go away.  What happens when Hellstromme gets
desparate?  He's already being pretty utilitarian...why not force the
characters to go along?  The adventure might be more interesting if the
posse is cursing his name constantly for intimidating them into this
trip.

From Whom It May Concern,
Rich Ranallo

"Rock and Roll will be the new planetary culture, believe it or not."
-Prof. Michio Kaku