[HOE] More Unity opinions (some new ideas) - Long (Some for Shane)

[Hank Woolsey <hwoolseylists@yahoo.com>]

First things first - I thought "The Unity" was a great
read and did a good job tying up many HoE storylines.
Unfortunately, it will also leave many of my players
feeling unfulfilled - mainly because it is a great
story, but not one in which they have much influence.
I understand why this has to be the case (and think
Shane did a good job of keeping this from being
something that happens completely as a narrative), and
this is mainly true for the first half of the
adventure, but it is how they will feel.

Next, this is not intended as a complaint, but a
question. Does the price reflect a change in price
structure at Pinnacle? I was very surprised at the
length of the adventure compared to the price.
Pinnacle usually give us 128 pages for $20. Only
getting 96 pages of Pinnacle's large-type design
(which I like - it's easy to read and feels friendly)
for that price was a change. I would not be surprised
to learn that costs have gone up, or that price
structure needed to change for Pinnacle's bottom line.
I'm just curious if this represents a lines-wide
change we should expect from now on. I still feel I
got my money's worth from the story.

I know that my players are different than everyone
else's, that my opinion is only true for my players,
and that any GOOD HoE posse would just play along no
matter how they feel. So I really don't need to be
told to stop bitching about the adventure. Thanks for
playing, you know who you are, and we have some nice
parting gifts for you. To all of you who value shared
opinions, mine follow in no particular order:



Now some spoiler space, as most of what follows is.





(Spoilers, that is.)







Most of the battle scenes feel way to impersonal. This
has been mentioned before, I wanted to agree. On the
other hand, it will be fairly easy for me to make
missions like taking our the SAM entrenchment. I will
do so and replace many of the combat table sections
with them.

I think adjusting the combat table to account for
edges, hindrances, and other skills (sneak, medicine,
etc.) is an excellent idea. Again, one I will use.

The box. I know my players. I have no idea how they
will react to Hellstromme. None at all. Anything could
happen. I do know that they will be very disappointed
at being handed the solution to the Wasted West's
biggest problem. Not playing an active part in the
capture of the Reckoners will make them feel like
sideline players. Not a good thing in any campaign. I
don't know a good way to solve this.

"Murder, murder, murder" made me think "You want me to
force my players to do WHAT?" when I first read it.
But the longer I think about it, the more I like it.
Save the world or save your friend? A great moral
dilemma to give the posse.

I too would love to have seen more of the ship. This
left me feeling a little flat. Again, it would be easy
to introduce more encounters along the way, but I'm
not really looking for more combat. I think I would
have like to see more of Shane's vision of the ship as
a whole.

Overall, the adventure just left me feeling like my
players are just along for the ride. I don't mean in a
railroaded sense - that has to be expected in any
canned adventure. It just seems like there is no
freedom for them to figure out how to accomplish the
goals of the adventure. It's all fight, fight, fight,
take this here, land on Banshee. I'm not articulating
this impression very well. I feel like we've been
building up posses to be big heroes in the Wasted
West, and now they just sort of play the role of
sidekicks or errand boys and girls. Anybody else know
what I'm trying to say?

Thanks for sharing opinions and ideas.

Hank

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