Re: [DL] Crying posse (Black Chip debate)

["Ben Rasmussen" <nyddoybdyle@hotmail.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marshal Black" <marshal_black@yahoo.com>
> Greetings,
>
> --- Dom Gallegos <stylenz@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > !
> > !
> >
> > S
> > P
> > O
> > I
> > L
> > E
> > R
> >
> > S
> > P
> > A
> > C
> > E
> >
> > !
> > !
> >
> > 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.
>
> While your party should have known better it is my
> opinion that this was not a black chip offense. Black
> chips should be reserved normally for monumental
> screwups in my opinion. The text of the rules give
> another examples (letting tough bad guys get away,
> major public disgraces for the posse and the like)
> which mostly seem to base on the posse gaining
> notoriety as opposed to fame. While blowing up
> civilians is a great way to earn some bad karma there
> are some mitigating circumstances in night train.
> 1)While the posse did wind up killing potentially up
> to 14 innocents (and one ornery cuss the name of
> Knags) the supernatural evil of the Nosferatu probably
> weighs a little more heavily in the minds of the
> surviving towns folk. (Though one or two might take it
> on themselves to avenge their dead kin if they saw the
> posse do it)
> 2)If the players do nothing, all those people die
> anyway so their deaths by themselves do not seem to
> constitute a black chip offense.
> The Black chips rules state "When the posse royally
> screws up an adventure and ends up leaving things
> worse than when they started, they earn a 'Black
> Chip'." So I think they would have to do something so
> that by the end of the module things were worse off
> then if they had never been there at all. Now if they
> actuallly wound up killing an awful lot of the
> civilians not being carried off and blew up most of
> the town trying to do it, sure they deserve the kind
> of hell a black chip will give them. But for a simple
> failure of heroic judgement... I personally wouldn't
> have given it to them. (I just would have delighted in
> the oppourtunity to make any characters who have the
> heroic hinderance MISERABLE afterwards with dreams of
> dieing townsfolk, and maybe an angry ghost following
> her/him around)

This is how I use the Black Chip. Legend Chips are earned when the posse
does something that is extra heroic or, um, Legendary. And I like First
Printing statement that the posse sorta has to let other's know about the
deed. I'm not a stingy enough bastard to actually require the tale-tellin'
(but I do use second printing 'give a legend chip to the teller' bit) but
others have to know about it, otherwise it ain't that legendary, now is it?

Same goes for Black chips, but they're for Fear. Anytime the posse does
especially horrific stuff, whether on purpose or on accident, a Black chip
drops. But usually others have to know about it or it has to have visible
effects. You're tryin' to save the world, not stear it to hell!

As for this specific situation, it depends on HOW the PC's were killin'
townfolk. Were the town folk hapless bystanders that were slaughtered as the
PC's tried to kill the critters? If so, it's probably forgivable, especially
if they were trying to save other town folk in the process. Or was the Posse
poppin' townfolk just to keep them from getting carted off? This is likely
to actually scare the pants off the other town folk as the Posse is just as
bad as the critters! Plus no one is gettin' saved, cept maybe the Posse.
Black chip.

Running away is normaly forgivable. While it denotes fear and is unheroic,
it doesn't normaly raise the fear of others. But there are things that may
change that. If the posse makes a big show about how 'tough' they are or
demonstrate that they're a rough group of homebreys I'd give 'em a Black
Chip. Nice bit of fear for the locals when the toughest bunch in town runs
away like a passel of school girls. I'd also give 'em a chip if they run
away and then go tell others how scary the encounter was or not to go
somewhere cause the big nasties will come along and eat 'em.

Short of it is, it's all about Fear. Lower it by bein' a manly hero, get a
Legend Chip. Raise it by being a selfish sissy, get a Black Chip.

My posse should have a Black chip in the pot now. Dispite tryin' heroicly
they turned an entire area into a deadland. They failed, and the price of
failure in this case is worth a Black chip. But there's no posse left to
earn the chip, so they get spared this time. =)


--
"Going to war over religion is like fighting over who has the better
imaginary friend."  - - Richard Jeni