RE: [HOE] Coup questions

["Christopher Merrill" <Fuzzyand9feet@earthlink.net>]

> Hi all!

Hey there...

> Don't know if this counts as spoilers, but it's talking about some
> potentially behind-the-scenes stuff, so consider yourself warned....
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> 1) The huckster has a very high Spirit, especially now that he's dead
and
> bought Supernatural Trait.  I'm concerned that everytime a
Servator/nasty
> beast dies, he'll be the one to count coup on it.  I don't want to
> overpower him any more than an undead Huckster who rolls 6d12+2 to
cast
> hexes and has his Greater Manitou cowed in fear already is
overpowered,
> and
> I don't want to piss off the other players by leaving them out.
Should I
> just blatantly ignore the rule here and hand out the coup as seems
fit, or
> is there some other trick I should know about?

Having been a GM/StoryTeller/Marshal/Whatever four longer than I care to
admit, one rule has been pounded into my player's heads. The one running
the game is the one running the game. If you don't want someone to do
something there are ways to get them to not do it and still let the
player play the game. If it's counting coup, have him get clocked on the
back of the head just before the end of the fight. Maybe his Manitou
uses the moment to spring a surprised attack on his posse, sense they
are all standing there with their defenses down (all you need is a White
Chip and a Fair (5) Spirit roll from the Manitou to take control for 1
minute, long enough for the other players to roll for the coup and punch
at the Huckster a few times). Or distract the character with a different
threat or prize.

> 2) With that, I'm having trouble thinking of appropriate coup for
these
> servitors.  Originally I was going to do a standard "Immunity to the
> powers
> of this reckoner" type of thing, but the entire original posse managed
to
> get killed, meaning that 3 out of the 5 regulars are Harrowed and so
don't
> care too much about immunity to disease, freedom from hunger, or
immunity
> to aging.  The servitors are:
> 	-A snake-oil salesman with a product that really does cure
disease,
> but he
> grows a den of plague gremlins to keep business good

I like David's first idea but I'd end up goin' a more personal rout, the
character can tell if someone's tryin' to pull a fast one on them. Say a
+6 to all Scrutinize rolls but the character also gains the Lyin' Eyes
Hindrance. Remember coups should have a up and down side to them, but
the up should be slightly better.

> 	-A really nice, super friendly young woman who everyone loves;
no
> one's
> figured out she's Harrowed yet.  Worse, she's mildly radioactive, and
has
> a
> nasty habit of killing all the crops in any town she vists.
> Accidentally,
> sure, but Famine doesn't care about her motives, really.

I have to agree and disagree with the other on this one, yes she sounds
too innocent to be a servitor, but at the same time "the road to hell is
paved in good intentions" proverb is one of my justices for many of the
horrors in my game (like a little gray in my evil, if anyone remembers
the Fear Mongers PEG post of mine some years back). Make it so she
learned the truth but ignores and she would get you to the bad girl your
after. As for a coup power...the character can chomp on green glowin'
food all she wants and wouldn't even burp. She can eat radiated foods
with no problem, but the get a Minor Hankerin' for the radioactive
ingredients.

> 	-An  S-Mart Overlord style gunslinger, based on Herrod from "The
> Quick and
> the Dead"

I did the same thing once and the coup was a pair of tricked out custom
six shooters (like David said) but they could have any bullet loaded in
them. Once the bullet was loaded, it magically change into the right
caliber for the pistol, but in my game guns cost the same, but bullets
are not only rare but cost 5 times what the book lists. So I made my
posse's day to get these guns.

> 	-A slightly over-the-edge Syker who likes to walk around in
black
> robes,
> being all spooky, and ripping people's hearts out of their chests,
> exploding their heads, or crushing their rib cages.  You know, for
kicks.
> He's a bit like a supernatural Stone Jr.

The coup could be as simple a the Iron Will Edge at 5 or David's idea
with the character losing her hair.

> 3) One of my players has said the dreaded to me.  "It doesn't seem
scary;
> it just seems like rolling a lot of dice, to me."  Given, I'm new at
this
> and have been overusing the Scart Table and Guts checks, but I'm still
not
> happy with this.  How do you create horror, fear, and terror in an
RPG?
> My
> prior experience is all with fantasy and swashbuckling RPG, so this is
new
> to me.

Horror is not just in what you do in the game but what you don't do in
the game. This in my cheesiest suggestion but it works. Make the posse
roll Cognition a few times for no real reason. No matter the roll
there's nothing to hear or see, but you don't tell them that. Tell them
they can't discern much but the insect seem to stop making noises every
once in a while, or there's the sound of leaves crackling in the
distance. Both come from the fact that the posse is moving in the area
but they don't have to know this. It puts the players on edge and that
will carry over to the characters.

Also never have the bad guys attack out right. Lay ambushes, send
subordinates/henchmen to soften them up, lay impromptu traps or simple
have them follow the posse for a while, letting them know they're there
but not reviling themselves just yet. The last suggestion can be done by
have the Cognition rolls turn up foot prints from the big bads that once
followed, lead in a circle back to the posse's last
location/camp/town/whatever. Or they find evidence of what the big bad
can do. A brick building with massive gouges from a clawed critter.
Bodies littered everywhere holding unfired weapons from a gunslinger. A
decapitated person next to a bridge with scorch-marks on the ground.
Remember, anything you throw at them can be made scary by creating the
right "atmos-fear", but nothing you create will be as scary as what you
let them create in there heads from some simple clues you leave. They
will scan their own nightmares to figure out what their after. So when
you make that Bloodwolf leap out of the bushes and you scream at them
"Graaaa, a red furred beast leaps out at you," they'll have no idea what
to expect; and what can be scarier than not knowing.?

Christopher Merrill
A W.H.A.T.T. Member