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

[Marshal Black <marshal_black@yahoo.com>]

--- Ben Rasmussen <nyddoybdyle@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- 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
> > >
> > > !
> > > !
> > >
> 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. =)

See, I agree with that. The game I run is first
edition deadlands so we use the old rules about Legend
chips, that they stay in the pot permanently (short of
using them to cancel a black chip) once they are there
but that the posse has to get a rep (via tale telling)
in order to achieve legend status. I also follow the
fear rule, you only get a legend chip if your actions
can result in a lowered fear level. As a result the
party has very few legend chips to their name but
we're all a bunch of first edition nuts anyway and
they seem to like it.
Because of this, the black chips they earn do not
leave the pot unless countered by a legend chip. As a
result I generally only consider a long term fear
level increase, or a major bad de-railing of history
to be worthy of cursing the party like that. Turn
Dodge into a Deadland, earn a black chip, invent a
ghost rock bomb and give it to the knights of the
golden circle, earn a black chip.
You know we have something like that exception you
made for them (about getting not getting a black chip
in the pot because there was no one left). In our
posse the only way they can claim access to the legend
chips they earn is if they had the story passed on to
them by someone who knew it. So if the posse I play
with were to get wiped out completely they'd be out
their legends and their black chips because there
would be no connection between the old posses
characters and the new ones.

Marshal_Black

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