Re: [HoE] Some Thoughts on Doug's Thoughts on My Messed-Up Campaign (was Myplayers derailing the campaign yet again

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>Doug also said:
>
> >I think the posses should now be hunted down.  not by the evil doomies or 
>the
> >combots, but by another posse.  A good posse.  A posse dedicated to 
>restoring
> >order and bringing the peace, and killing those who raise fear levels.>>
>
>But that would result in either the destruction of a good and noble posse,
>or the death of my Liquid Satan-ingestin' posse, and if the latter occured
>I'm pretty certain my players would just create another band of 
>no-goodnicks.
>

This is an excellent point, and one I rarely see mentioned when folks bring 
up the "Oh, sic a really bad-ass (or good-ass, in this case) NPC or group of 
same on them."

(remembers back to the "good ole days" when I played Torg, some group 
members were rather...over enthusiastic about Reality Storming, and West 
Ends' response was "Sic a really big reality-scored NPC on them." ;) Great - 
so they're effectively zapped out of the campaign or get even more 
powerful.).

The point here is that the players are running their characters the way they 
want to run them.  To "punish" them for this is a bit odd, and ultimately 
not going to help much.

But with that in mind...yes, occasionally the posse in question _should_ run 
into a "good and noble" posse.  Not as a form of punishment, but because 
that's what is going to happen to evil-types.  In this "mirror-reversed" 
campaign, I wouldn't feel any worse about good & nobles getting destroyed 
than if you were running a "regular" campaign and bad & corrupt opponents 
were getting killed.

>And finally Doug said:
>
> >And now they have a powerful artifact they cant use... It's locked in 
>that
> >junker made box.>>
>
>Oh, I'm afraid you've given too much credit to my posse; remember they left
>Burke's house before they found out the box was booby-trapped.  They
>decided to smash open the box, detonating the explosive.  The damage I
>rolled on 4d20 was so pathetic that not one of the posse was seriously
>hurt, much less killed.
>

And don't now if anyone mentioned it, but as specified in the scenario, the 
explosion won't destroy the artifact.

>You know I've been thinking.  There's exactly four characters in my player
>posse.  Maybe each one is a servitor of one of the Horsemen, and just
>doesn't realize it.  It's as good an explanation as any for all the harm
>they've done in the Wasted West.
>
>-Ralph
>
>

*shrug* The problem seems to be, quite simply, that the players don't want 
their characters to be anywhere close to the "heroic ideal."  You can either 
run them as an evil group, or hit the reset button, explain to them that's 
the campaign _you_ the Marshal want to run, and see if they go along with 
it.

---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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