[HoE] Re: Commonplace Magic

[Hank Woolsey <hwoolsey@precisiongraphics.com>]

>> Two words: The Agency.
>>
>> Two more words: Texas Rangers
>>
>> And most people would think "Bull. These are fairy tales." The Tombstone
>> Epitaph is supposed to be akin to The National Inquirer. The Agency and
>> Rangers will selectively eliminate memories from docs that did see dead
>> bodies rise or even disappear the docs. OTOH, the Reckoners themselves
>> know better than to overwhelm the world with abominations again, because
>> then people's fear will turn to anger and they'll start fighting back.
>
>From reading Back East: The North, the Agency make people
>vanish if they find out too much (anything, then).  Seems
>to set a precedent.

In the Weird West I have no problem with this.  Shorter life expectancies,
poor communication, the dangers of the wild, etc.  Even in the east it is
easier to cover things up than in a modern setting.

In a modern PEG world, this is not so easy to do.  You have to work against
a (presumably) communication-based society.  Eliminate memories or the docs
themselves?  Yes, but there are the janitors, security officers, coroner,
transportation people (those who push wheelchairs and gurneys around),
nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. who saw the dead body and may have seen the
harrowed leave.  In society, there are the cops, social workers, neighbors,
rivals who saw the drug dealer die before he comes back to the area he
knows to start sowing fear or (if he has dominion) return to his life.  All
of these people having a memory problem or disappearing will be noticed.

The E[itaph is akin to the Enquirer.  I am constantly surprised by those
who believe what they read in that rag.  Additionally, by the time we are
talking about, the Epitaph has been publishing for more than a century.
This lends credence to what they are saying, to those who are willing to be
influenced by it.

The problems I see are these:  Let one credible doctor "slip through the
cracks" (which must happen, unless the Agency or Rangers are so numerous
that people would wonder why there are so many of them) and the word will
spread.  Let one muckraker get the sotry out and people will start to
wonder ("Alien Autopsy" anyone - a fake that Fox mocks, but people watched
it and some of them believe it is possible), let it happen several times
and the problem is multiplied.

Unless the Agency and Rangers have total control over their respective
nations, the info will get out, especially over the full 200 years between
DL and HoE.  The lid just can't be kept on the secret that totally.  I love
both games.  I've been running DL for years.  Unfortunately, I think this
(how the secret has been kept) is one place PEG hasn't given us a plausible
explanation.

Hank Woolsey