Oh, dear, the "black chip" problem. I, myself, have debated much with this idea. As for my game, the posse "accidently" opened a black hole in the middle of a town of poor brainwashed town folk, sucking the entire town--120 souls and all--as well as every living thing in a five mile radius into oblivion. (Word of advice: never mess around with wild hexes in a magic amplification zone where all spell effects and backlash are tripled, and then pull a natural royal flush and two jokers--followed by two natural 20 on the backlash table. OUCH!) Some of the party survived, but needless to say, the Navajo who sent them on this quest were not happy campers. Anywho, I seriously considered giving them a black chip for this little mishap. I like the idea of making the posse deal with the consequences of any less than heroic actions, but then again, there actions were not intentionally evil or even intentionally indifferent. Hell, accidents do happen. Another point in the players favor is the fact that Deadlands does not have alignment rules for a reason. Therefore, a character that doesn't act like the paladin all the time still has an important and interesting place. I mean, Deadlands wouldn't offer hinderences such as Bloodthirsty and Vengeful, not to mention Veteran of the Wierd Wet, if they didn't want or even encourage the "more rounded" characters. Therefore, in my game, black chips are added to the pot when characters commit intentionally evil acts or deliberate indifference to the suffering of others. As for your game, abandoning the town folk to their fate wasn't very heroic, but if there was nothing they could conceivably do, then so it goes. To me, the black chip determinate should be in their attitude. If its "Damn, tough break for those folks, but, hell, no skin off my nose...anybody for a beer," then, hell yea, give those cold hearted SOBs a black chip. However, if they were truly sorry for the victims, did their best to save them (albeit, without blind, stupic heroicism) and even tried to learn more about the train for the "next time", then I would have let them slide.
As to the Academia:occult role question, I always thought that by studying the occult, one is breaking from their social/cultural beliefs and delving into things that may not agree with their upbringing. The extent of this delving, however, is determined by both the level they have in the skill and the role vs TN they make. If they don't make the TN, then tough toodles, you just never come across something like this and must go on what you've been taught all your life. I don't know what the proper TN for the role in question was, but if they got a good enought role to constitute the TN and a raise, then it seems to me they should have at least gotten a teensy hint. Whew, didn't mean to write so much...just my thoughts on the matter.
Ta ta,
Mary
Dom Gallegos <stylenz@hotmail.com> wrote:
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A couple of sessions ago I ran Night Train. We all know how that goes. Well
my posse earned a Black Chip for 1. Blowin up the town folks as the critters
were carrying them off. 2. Just giving up cause they couldn't kill the
critters with their guns.
They didn't know they earned one until they drew it. After I explained why
they all thought I was wrong. Their arguments were: "I made my occult roll,
why didn't you tell me how to kill them?" I tried to explain that they only
got one raise and told them what they believed the critters were and how
they should die according to normal beliefs. "We as players don't know what
our characters know so since I made my occult roll I should of known how to
kill them or at least some weaknesses." So I explained that what their
beliefs were could kill them or slow them down. "But you didn't state it,
you just said our characters believed this. How were we supposed to know it
would work." And it went on like this for about 10 minutes. I didn't back
down. Told them to suck it up, play like a team and be heroes. "But if we
know we can't stop them, then being a hero is to alert the next town and let
them go. We couldn't do anything for the town folks anyway so why die?
Because sometimes it's better to run than die for ppl we can't help." etc.
I hope they got the idea what they need to do. It was interesting. Keep in
mind that these guys are in their 30's+ with years of gaming. Usually a good
bunch. Anyway, did I sound out of line or to harsh? Does anyone have
something similar? Thought, concerns, questions?
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