Re: [DL] two general questions

[Markus Finster <markus.finster@chello.at>]

At 20:14 12.08.2002, Fred Jandt wrote:
 >> Now, could our tale tellin' player just
 >> tell the townsfolk it was
 >> just a band of CSA deserters, & we settled their
 >> hash, & just leave out the
 >> "dead" part?
 >
 >IMHO I would say sure, but it wouldn't help the local
 >Fear Level any. The idea is to show the locals that
 >you can fight and are winning against the supernatural
 >menaces that are plaguing the countryside. Passing off
 >the walkin' dead as normal bad guys just keeps them in
 >the dark as it were, it doesn't strengthen their
 >resolve against the horrors they have to face.

Why wouldn't it help?
To stay with the example above: A village is terrorised by undead CSA 
soldiers. Enter the posse that takes care of that problem. Now they tell 
the villagers that they were saved.
Why would it be more effective (=fear-level-lowering) to tell them, "yes 
they were undead. Happens all the time now. But those Brainfeeders won't be 
up and around any longer" than "It was a bunch of CSA deserters. They 
didn't look alive? Yeah, nice decoy to scare you even more. Believe me, I 
killed their leader myself and he was a scumbag as regular as any."

I guess both versions would work. And in the end it depends an the 
Tale-Tellin' role.
The first version might backfire when one not-so-dull villager realizes "If 
the dead can rise, why shouldn't they rise again? Or what else is true from 
all the fairy tales?"
The second might backfire with "Yeah sure, I saw them too and they were not 
normal and no lunatics. Lunatics don't try to crack your skull and eat your 
brain while it's still warm, I don't care how crazy they are!"

Markus