Re: [HoE] Posse Cohesion Crisis! Alert!

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>twilight@vbe.com wrote:
> >
> >     My posse consists of one Ravenite Bounty Hunter, a Faraway Syker
> > Vet, Two Road Warriors, and a Amnesiac Templar (can't remember who he
> > was before the bombs).
>

Well, excuse me jumping right in.  Since I just joined, I missed the initial 
posting.  However, at least in the campaigns I tend to run, and I know this 
is pushed for in the rules of some games (Vampire/Storyteller comes to 
mind), it is typically the players' responsibility to come up with reasons 
that their characters would stay together.

Are the players A) deliberately trying to come up with reasons that they now 
want to separate, or B) have they reached a point that they feel the 
campaign has developed that their characters, to stay "in character," need 
to pursue these separate agendas?

If A, then there's not much you can do as a Marshal to deal with the 
situation.  B) can be a bit trickier, but I think Mark's comments can be 
used to deal with the matter.

>Are they generally friendly towards each other?  If they are, there's a
>solid reason for them to stick together right there:  there is much
>safety in friendly numbers, and no one should venture far on their own
>in
>the Wasted West...
>

If they've already adventured together, have set watches, slept while some 
other member of the party has watched over them without killing them in 
their sleep, you might note that that right there is more in the way of 
trustworthiness that they can expect from 95% of the Wasted West population. 
  :)

> >     The problem is a matter of cohesion, I've reach the point in the
> > campaign where the players want/need to split up.  (Read: I don't want
> > this) The Ravenite is gunning for a Sawbones who didn't ante up on a
> > deal--in Northern Nevada, the Road Warriors *main source of transport*
> > want to find the Convoy, which is in The Dakotas, and the Syker is
> > returning a batch of recovered info to the Librarians in NorCal.
>

Also, what's the timeframe?  Does all of this (from the players' point of 
view) have to be done within, say, the next three months of game time?

A couple of questions.  Where are the players now (in the Dakotas or east, I 
kinda get the impression)?  Does the Sawbones _have_ to be in Nevada, or 
could he have been intercepted/captured/relocated prior to that?  Could he 
be in the Dakotas in the vicinity of the Convoy?

Does the info _have_ to be given to the Librarians in NorCal?  For instance, 
in my campaign, I assume that the Templars have "waystations" scattered 
throughout the country, rather than anyone who wants to seek help from them 
having to travel all the way to Boise when they want to submit a request.

A similar arrangement with the Librarians comes to mind, although I haven't 
had any in my campaign to date.  It seems silly to me that they have only 
one base, and insist that anyone who has info to sell to them come to that 
one location.

Of course, my campaign is set in the "eastern" Wasted West (Minnesota, Iowa, 
Missouri), so I tend to be biased in that matter.  :)  However, my opinion 
as a Marshal is that I don't want to limit certain aspects of the genre 
(i.e., Librarians, Templars) simply because I wanted to set my campaign in 
an area that both me and my players are familiar with, but seems to be an 
area that Pinnacle has (to date) not developed very far as far as the "major 
elements" of the setting are concerned (i.e., Boise, NorCal, Las Vegas, 
etc., are all a great deal more "westernly" than I'd prefer).

> >     In reality, the posse is only together because they sort of bumped
> > into each other in a time of crisis and needed to rely on each other to
> > survive. So, currently, there isn't much glue to hold them together.
>

It may be too late, but as noted above, I tend to take the approach that it 
is the players' responsibility to find reasons for their characters to stay 
together.

If they're really intent on wandering away from each other, you can either 
A) try to run their individual adventures (which you don't want to do, and 
who can blame you?), or B) tell them that they'll have to create new 
characters (losing their old characters with accumulated experience and 
gear), come up with new ways to stick together, etc.

You can also do C), which is where some characters create new characters to 
accompany one particular "splinter" of the old group.  In which case those 
characters would lose accumulated experience, unless you have some 
"developed characters/experience" way for folks to bring in characters if 
their old ones are killed out/retire.

B) is kinda harsh (as is C for those who have to take new characters).  But 
if the players don't want to come up with ways to have their characters 
stick together, there's really not much else of a solution.

The problems you mention don't seem insurmountable, as Mark notes.  It might 
require a little more work on your part, but if the players _want_ their 
characters to stick together, it shouldn't be a problem.  If they want their 
characters to go their separate ways, then you'll have a fight on your hands 
no matter what.

> >     Do any of you guys have a clue as to how I can get them to stay
> > together in reasonable/realistic terms without being unfair? I really
> > like the Road Warrior's book adventure and Infestations and I want to
> > get them to that area.  Currently they are in Arizona's Sonoran desert
> > w/ no fuel and low on food.  I don't like a lot of 'downtime'.
>

Ah, so that's where they are.  Not familiar with Road Warriors, but how much 
of that adventure can be transferred to a different locale?

It might be a bit "unrealistic" for their characters to stick together 
despite their disparities and varying agendas, but a campaign is about a 
group of characters working together.

Hope that helps.


---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com