[HoE] Response to Steve

[Grant <ghoeflinger@netscape.net>]

Let me begin off by appologizing. I wrote that response before your response
to Jeff posted, and at the time it sounded to me like you were one of those
people who felt like roleplaying was "I kill the orc and look in his pocket
for his money." I've changed that impression since reading your later replies.

My players do tend to make rolls for their persuasion, bluffs, etc. but only
after they've been roleplaying what their characters' have been saying, and
only if I can't decide what the NPC's reaction would be. You are right about
certain groups wanting combat in their game. I spoke with my players at the
beginning, and we were able to come to an agreement as to how much combat
there should be. Like I said, I prefer to use it as an adventure's climax, so
those fights tend to be pretty spectacular. I haven't gotten any complaints
yet, so I guess my group must be liking it.

As for HoE being more about combat, I'm not certain I agree about that. I
think that there's plenty of mystery given to Marshals and Players in the
Wasted West book to keep things interesting, but I do agree that the base book
does seem rather combat oriented. I've had to do a little work, but I've been
able to make there be mysteries in HoE, some of which (I feel) are the equal
to Call of Cthulhu. But I also don't just use wierd supernatural things in my
mysteries. One of the recurring themes in my adventures is the fact that
humans are a source of evil as well as the fearmongers and servitors, so my
posse tends to run up across mortals much more often then fearmongers. Since I
keep them pretty much to a restricted location (one fairly full of corruption)
I need to keep the fearmongers to a minimum (lest it just become like a comic
book). And my posse is no where near being ready to face a servitor. I don't
know if I want to go that direction anyway.

Of course, I do understand if your group doesn't want to go the route mine is.
The first group I played with (this was Deadlands) loved combat, and turned
everything into dice rolls. It infuriated me enough that I left the group (a
few of the sessions were nothing more than one long combat). That's why I
talked to my players about combat before I started.



____________________________________________________________________
Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com.