Re: [HoE] Templars and Anti-Templars

[J23junior@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/30/99 9:34:44 PM Central Daylight Time, Draxus@aol.com 
writes:

<< the ATs as they seem like the latest in "coolest new type of character" 
that
 the munchkins are going to flock to. Last Crusade clearly says the Templars
 are the best hope for HOE and the AT's are a VERY BAD thing. They are
 tragic characters who think they are doing the right thing but are really 
just
 playing into the hands of the enemy. >>

  by that same reckoning, should a Deadlands player not be allowed to play a 
Mad Scientist- as we now know Mad Science was the downfall of humanity.  
Besides, in Last Crusaders it says that there are a few AT's that are able to 
be good- why buy the cow if you can get the sex for free? Anyway- If a 
munchkin wants to play a super-power character, I doubt that the AT would be 
at the top of their list, probably below syker at least.  
   "I can have mental blasts and amazing mental armor and justify everything 
I do as my bitterness from the faraway war? cool!".  I have/had been playing 
in a HOE game with a very old munchkin who had a syker character who 
justified everything he did as "I saw worse on faraway".  While this 
justification seemed decent to start with, it soon became just damn silly.  
He arsoned a village full of gangers (which inadvertantly destoyed our 
Marshall's plot), he set ME on fire because he just had to be sure that a 
pair of doomies were dead after being shot and having their car crash and 
lord knows we couldn't try to question one before dying, and then he (after 
we spent a few sessions in an underground base rescuing pre-apoc. scientists) 
killed 50 innocent scientists because he wanted to see a rattler (long story, 
but it basicly went that he got 4 scientists to make a lot of noise, attract 
rattlers, and they ate a bunch of the scientists).  He finally started to 
turn into a servitor, but spent hours arguing that he shouldn't be a servitor 
since his character didn't recognize killing as evil anymore.
   The point is that the AT's are only a small piece of the munchkin problem 
if you really want to deal with the munchkin problem.  BTW, I really don't 
see where everyone gets this idea that the Arcane Backgrounds are so amazing- 
they really are not that great unless every game revolves around tons of 
combat.  While I have had several great AB character ideas, I spent my last 
campaign playing a character based on Will Smith's character from Bad Boys.  
In a game where basicly everyone around me was an AB of some sort, I not only 
got the most done for the posse- I was also the most bad ass and most heroic. 
 If there is one thing that I think many people forget is that munchkins 
(usually) build characters that should have had years of army ranger 
training- they plan for every possible situation, take no risks, and react 
like a robot to everything.  However, Deadlands and HOE are games that work 
really well when one is playing with pure balls.  Any character that never 
takes risks only to be killed by a stray road-ganger bullet in an unimportant 
part of a story seems to really blow- its just a very little bit tougher to 
kill the AB's.  However, a character that is willing to try some John Woo 
action sh** and can creativly get out of most situations is much more likely 
to become a hero/ get the rad-babes.
    If you don't want AT's as player characters, I can't stop you.  However, 
I would suggest that if someone in your group wanted to be one- listen to 
their idea.  If you know they will eventually just munchkinize-poke the 
character full of holes (he wants to be a good guy but was too impatient to 
wait for training?  Well, how about we just see if he can try to be on the 
good side- lets make him a squire), if you can trust the player, let him make 
the AT based on Hamlet or whoever- you may get a really great story out of it 
down the road