[HoE] House Rules

[Matthew Steflik <grifflik@stny.rr.com>]

Paul Zichichi wrote -

> Well, actually, yes.  In reference to certain Edges and Hindrances, I
> usually only let them go at one per game.  Things like Grim Servant O'
> Death, Monster Magnet, Last Man Standing, Super Soldier, Omega Man and high
> point levels of Ailin' and Enemy.  I figure that these Edges and Hindrances
> are just WAY too powerful to allow to more than one character, not to
> mention that more than one "Last Man" can cause arguments over who's going
> to be left standing to fight the monster and multiple "Super Soldiers" makes
> any creature you throw out into so much hamburger.  Multiple "Monster
> Magnets" cause havoc as all of your critters still divide up evenly, and
> several "Grim Servants" turn every survivor settlement into a ghost town.
>
Not bad at all.  Using that same kind of thinking, I sometimes tell
players that draw for Veteran to redraw if another player already has
the effect - believe it or not I almost had two eternal heroes once.

> On a similar note, I have allowed ONE and ONLY one player in my HoE campaign
> to take both Veteran Edges.  He pulled the a Joker for his stats and we
> talked for about two days about the possibility that he could play his old
> Deadlands character.  I thought the idea had some merit to it, and we came
> up with one hell of a background problem before I got the Wasted West
> sourcebook.  His old character was Paranoid/Obsessive-Compulsive as a Vet of
> the Wierd West (he thought he was in a big game of tag! with the powers that
> be.  whe he was IT, he obsessed about finding a critter to tag, and once
> that was done, he became paranoid, fearing that he would BE tagged), and now
> he's REALLY got something to be paranoid about.  He's on Stone's hit list,
> as Stone killed him in 1897 and he didn't have the sense to stay dead.  Not
> to mention the fact that as a Harrowed survivor with both Edges, he has two
> conflicting sets of memories: one where he dies of old age with a family
> around him in the early 1930's and another where he dies, comes back and
> watches the world end.  How's THAT for an added disadvantage for you.
>
Nicely done.  While I admit you seemed to handle this situation well and
balanced the advantage with some significant disadvantage, I don't think
I could do it with my group (believe me, it would be a bad precedent).
If it had been me, and assuming he already had Vet of the Weird West
from his Deadlands character, I would have just given him an extra 10
points and the 3 grit (to have him get the complete bonus as if he had
taken the edge as a Wasted West character) and sent him on his way. This
would reflect that extra stretch of time he'd been around.   Of course
Grit has a max of 5 - if this put him over in the Grit department I'd
just round down.

Let's keep these house rules coming, guys!

Matt Steflik
Master of Wahoo
Gimme Shelter - http://www.geocities.com/grifflik/