Re: [HOE] Well, I'm a failure (not long anymore)

["Scott Pedersen" <spederse@hotmail.com>]

> > SPOILER
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> > SPACE
> >
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> > IS
> >
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> > THE
> >
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> > PLACE
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> > >7) The Junker wants to rip parts from the now-crashed Unity and use
them
> > >to build a vehicle of some sort to travel to civilization or something
> > >resembling it. Now, there was some argument as to whether or not the
> > >parts of Dempsey Wilton's octopus from Killer Klowns should be Relics,
but
> > >if anything should make for Relic parts, it's the Unity. Any advice on
> > >powers and taint?

As before I'm leery of turning things into relics.  I'm not neccessarily
opposed to any particular case, I just worry about diluting the idea of
relics if everything the posse touches becomes one.  That being said, the
Unity certainly seems like prime fodder for some serious relics.  However I
would not make everything on the Unity a relic.  Instead I would limit it to
specific pieces.

If anything is left of the demon-imprisoning boxes they would make great
candidates all by themselves, without being turned into junker components.
I also expect that, as mentioned in the Brainburners book, the Unity is
filled with all kinds of other neato widgets brought back by the human
forces fleeing banshee.  And now that those neato widgets are back on
Banshee after a long vacation they may be displaying all kinds of powers and
abilities.

As for junker components, I think parts of the drive and navigation system
would make good relics.  Perhaps they would allow a junker to build a
hunting grounds tranportation device of some sort, to eventually get back to
earth.  Plus some other components from various arcane systems that
Hellstromme installed could be relics of some kind.  The exact details of
the powers would have to be tailored to which system they were pulled from,
of course.  The easy answer of course, is to just give all kinds of bonuses
to stablity and drain for appropiate devices built with components from
appropiate systems.  And to me, the obvious taint would be that anything
stripped out of Unity would have a faint odor of Hell.  Not really enough to
notice conscously, but something that would be immensly attractive to demons
since it just kinda smells like home.  Another entertaing taint would be to
have the pieces of the Unity live up the ships name and desire unity.  That
is, if sperated they will seek to be reunited.  Any Junker working with
these components over time may develop a compulsion to collect all the
Unity's pieces and return them to the wreck, including pieces that broke off
on re-entry.  This compulsion could even go so far as to trying to rebuild
the ship.  This could be especially entertaining when combined with the
spirit of the Unity that's floating around out there, as discussed later in
this message.

On the other hand, I don't think i'd give any particularly special powers to
every little chunk of steel stripped out of the hull.  It would be a pain in
the arse to keep track of if nothing else.  If a situation like this were to
occur in my game, I'd give the junker a choice.  You can either loot the
random generic components from deck plating, and crew quarters, and what
not, or you can try to extract the super nifty components from the magical
systems that powered the drive.  It's so much more fun when the posse gets
in trouble of their own free will.  I'd also make salvaging any relic
caliber components more difficult than a simple scroungin' roll.

> Hey, one more thing: since the Unity itself is more or less kaput, I'd
> imagine its tech spirit is free in the Hunting Grounds.What, now, should
the
> Unity's spirit be? Should it be damaged goods? A really powerful Browser?
> Something else? If it's a Browser, what do you lot think should be the way
> for a Junker to attract it?

Hmm... A giant ship designed to fly through Hell, built by the El Primo
Madman himself, powered by a demon who feasts on the souls of people
murdered in cold blood, destroyed while releasing the Reckoners onto a new
world, and whose guts contain the Hell Hole...  Yeah, I'm thinking damaged
goods with a vengeance.  I think the deranged spirit of the Unity,
especially if teamed up with some city buster spirits and the like, could
present a fairly serious threat to the existence of the Net.  It could
probably send a lot of nature spirits runnin' for mommy too.

Of course, the spirit of the Unity was released on Banshee rather than Earth
so the situation may be entirely different.  The spirit of Unity could have
some interesting implications for the nature spirits of Banshee since
they've never had to deal with tech spirits of any number or size before.

If you wanted to make the Unity spirit come out on the side of good, I think
it would be more than just a browser.  Some how I don't see the spirit of
such a mighty starship being crammed into a box to power a beer cooler.
While I don't think I'd use it myself, one entertaining idea occurs to me.
You could borrow a page from the Templar's book and have a few 'martyred'
devices that help junkers out from time to time.  Spirits from things like
Gutenberg's first printing press, ENIAC, the Pyramids at Giza, and SETI come
to mind.  The spirit of the Unity could join the ranks of mighty devices
from the past.

Finally, the spirit of the Unity may be fairly neutral and simply wish to be
re-assembled and returned to space.

-Scott Pedersen