[HoE] Re: Movie Town Magic - specifically John Wayne

[Hank Woolsey <hwoolsey@precisiongraphics.com>]

jason@tanet.net wrote:

<snip some good stuff about John Wayne and a nice example of how
Storytellin' can work>

>Also, the Martyrs were usually killed by deliberate plotting by the
>Reckoners.  In this case, it would be their henchman, Baron LaCroix who
>would poison the Duke, and inevitably killing him.  The Doctors of the day,
>unversed in Occult matters, would of ruled the infection Cancerous, and
>left it at that.

Part of this I have to disagree with.  It seems to me that, around 100
years after the Reckoning, doctors would have had a pretty firm knowledge
of occult matters.  These are scientists.  They have had a century (by the
time The Duke dies) of seeing their deceased patients leave the morgue
under their own power.  Prairie ticks, tummy twisters, and faminites all
would have been written up in journals by now.

I don't think we've ever gotten official word, but it seems to me the
occult would have become pretty commonplace byt the late 20th/early 21st
century.  As communication technology improved (even independent of weird
tech - look at our communication abilities without magic) news of these
events would have been harder and harder to cover up.  I can see a backlash
occurring in Hell on Earth, when the public at large decides that "those
who trafficked with the devils to receive their unholy powers brought the
end of the world down on us all and should be hunted down and made to pay
for what they've done to us."  This creates, in my mind, the gritty, dark
setting I would use to run HoE.  Keep those ABs scarce, or at least
concealed, so you don't have to face the crowd of townsfolk with torches
and pitchforks.  Even Templars would be a group that was respected out of
fear rather than appreciation.

Ironically, I can see this kind of setting making Junkers the best AB to
play.  Their tech would be the most subtle.  Yeah, anyone who sees them
build an item knows they use magic, but once built the item would look like
a jury-rigged, cobbled together device, much like most things technical
would be by now.

Just my ramblings.  Thanks for your patience.

Hank Woolsey