Re: [DL] Wildman (was: Huckster Problem)

["Leybourne, Brian" <Brian.Leybourne@airnz.co.nz>]

> >
> >  (thank god I don't have a wildman.)
> >
> 
> You really have no idea... I just got to realize how powerful 
> a wildman could
> be (as did my marshal) when a smart player (Me) could start 
> combining powers.

Playing a WIldman properly is a little like playing the swashbuckler thief
in AD&D - it only works if the Marshal gets into the spirit of it.

Yes, it's relatively easy to combine the Wildman powers and have a fairly
powerful character for a short while, but the "cost" is in the compensation
you have to pay to the animal spirits, and if your Marshal isn't "charging"
you properly, then it's his own fault if the Wildman is getting off too
lightly and is thus too powerful.

Compensation traits should be obvious, hard to hide, and even harder to
explain away to "regular" folk. My playtest Wildman and the Wildman in my
posse spent a lot of time hiding away from the posse trying to not let
people see the cloven hoofs, stag antlers, rats tail, or whatever they had
grown because of the powers they were drawing. Note also that combining
powers raises the compensation cost of the powers involved, so they get even
worse/more obvious. And when a player has the hoofs, antlers and tail all at
the SAME TIME, things can get really bad.

So while the rest of the posse are enjoying a little down-time (and alcohol,
female company, etc) the Wildman is sitting in a cold hole in the woods,
hoping nobody spots him/her and thinks there's a new terror in town, which
could accidentally raise the fear level. And there's no reason to make
*that* too easy either. Perhaps the Wildman was spotted running for the
woods, and now there's an angry mob of gun wielding townsfolk hunting him
(/her). He has to get away, and still not let the people see the changes in
his body etc. Whole adventures can (and have) sprung from this kind of
thing.

Finally (and this wont be popular with the Wildman players out there, I'm
guessing) now that there are over 25 powers for the Wildman, I'm thinking
that they should have a cost also. Back when there were 12 or so, getting
them all for free was fine, but now I may look at changing it. New Wildman
characters will probably start with 2 x Spirit: Wildman level powers (so 10
for most characters) and new powers will cost 5 bounty each, or something
like that. I'm still thinking over that one.

> But this power comes at a cost, it's a pain having to 
> completely blow a decent
> stack of chips to save your bonded animal's life (In two 
> months of playing once
> a week I have been able to accumulate 4 pts of bounty... and 
> That's IT!... 

Well, it's generally not as bad as that - you chose to have a Bengal Tiger
as your bonded animal (which would be a bit iffy if I were your marshal
*grin*) and so it gets into combat a lot. Most Wildman characters I have
seen (or been told about in email - there are actually quite a few people
playing them I think) tend to have birds or small animals as their bonded
animals, and keep them out of combat so as not to have to spend chips
keeping them alive.

> plus you get to be a plot 
> device of the
> marshal, check this out:

ALL characters (Wildman or not) should be plot devices.

> But the Role Playing fun of the character far outweighs the 
> minuses and is even better then the power

I'm really glad you're enjoying playing it. The feedback has been really
good.

Brian "Wildman" Leybourne.

.-->
"The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted
sexual mutant you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. 
Type in 'Find people who have sex with goats that are on fire' and the 
computer will say, 'Specify type of goat.'"

Brian Leybourne
brian.leybourne@airnz.co.nz
bleybourne@hotmail.com
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