Re: [HoE] Seeing mutilated bodies

[Rich <toadpooka@usa.net>]

When you walk into a funeral parlor or an anatomy lab, you certainly expect to see a dead body lying
around (nevermind that an embalmed corpse or prepared cadaver is very different than a freshly
killed body).  However, it's another thing to just happen to walk up on one when you're out on the
trail.  Besides whatever killed it, there's probably a lot of decomposition, maybe worms or swarms
of ants munching away on the face, signs of a long and painful death, horrible smells, etc.
Now, according to the Terror chart, seeing a body in a funeral parlor or anatomy lab wouldn't even
require a roll.  "Just a body" is not even listed.  A "gruesome corpse," akin to the ant-eaten bit I
described earlier is a 7, with 3d6 on the Scart Chart.  A dismembered corpse, say a victim of a
vivisection, is 9, with 4d6 on the chart.  Assuming you don't reroll Aces, that makes the maximum
effect for the first corpse 3d6 Wind, and for the second body, a Major Phobia.  Even if you fail the
roll, the results aren't that bad.  I still think the best solution is to just have players buy Guts
skills appropriate to their characters' experience.

Don Schniepp wrote:
> 
> Now I have to admit that I haven't seen too many dead bodies in my lifetime
> (a couple of funeral wakes and a visit to a Gross Anatomy lab at a med
> school) but I sort of think that if you've seen one dead and mutilated
> body, you've kind of seen them all.  Sure, maybe the next mutilated body is
> REALLY mutilated (which seems to happen a lot in HoE) but that would be a
> special case.  However, I think in the case of Abominations, they are each
> very unique and each one has to be handled differently.
> I do like the idea you bring up about not having to roll Aces on the Scart
> Table though to show that the character is not as affected by whatever
> caused the roll.
> 
> Don S.
> 
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-- 
And so ends the case I call "The Case Of The Guy Who Was So Stressed-Out About His Lost Keys That He
Eventually Had A Heart Attack, And It Turned Out They Were In The Sofa The Whole Time.

Richard A. Ranallo,
The Man They Couldn't Hang