Re: [HoE] Something About a Sword - the EMP *SOME SPOILERS*

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

>[SPOILER SPACE FOR 'Something About a Sword...']
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>>Anyhoo...so they deal with the muties pretty easily.  And the final-battle
>>centipede, although fairly tough, ain't a great fighter either and isn't
>>really going to give them a whole lot of problems either.
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>  I'm running the same adventure for my posse, and we are about at the same
>point you are.  My milage does vary- my worry is keeping a straight face
>about the EMP thing- I think my posse had forgotten about it.
>  But the reason for my post is this:  Why do you think the centipede thing
>won't be a problem for your posse?  I mean, it does have an Armor for 4,
>IIRC.  My posse's only hope is the Templar who has an obnoxious damage roll
>with his swords (he fights Florentine).  Just curious, and exploring
>possibilities.
>

First of all, given the EMP's 100 yard range, it's not totally clear if the 
centipede might not be within range of the device if it is set off during 
the Combot/Doombringer fight in the factory (the factory map lacks a scale, 
unfortunately).  While the factory itself might be the size of a football 
field, I don't get the impression that the everything in or atop the factory 
is 100 yards away.

So it's possible the group might hold off on the EMP and fight the combots 
normally.  Or they might activate the device in that battle, but not get to 
the control room before the duration wears off on the paralyzed centipede 
creature.

(How does the EMP affect Rosalita's hook-up, anyway?  That's also not clear. 
  It's almost like the writers built up the presence of the EMP, finally 
gave it to the characters, and then completely forgot it...)

Or you can assume the centipede has "military-grade shielding," of course.  
That would be my assumption.  Of course, that would be my assumption for the 
Combots as well.  So if every robot the group encounters in the "big finale" 
is immune to the EMP device, and the EMP device (apparently) has no affect 
on Rosalita, you kinda wonder why it's there...

However, basically the centipede's Fightin'/Brawlin' ain't that great (4d6). 
  Evanor provides AP for white chip expenditure, and the group has plenty of 
AP ranged weapons.  I imagine the basic strategy (from past experience) will 
be to have the group's Templar engage the creature, while the rest hang far 
enough back (a simple 5-15 yards) so that they're too close for its grenade 
use, but close enough to use their AP weapons with minimum range penalties.  
The centipede is big, but it can't move because it's protecting Rosalita.

With the Templar in HTH, that means the centipede is going to need around a 
15 to hit on 4d6 (sword fightin' 5, Guardian Angel gift 5).  I have 10 chips 
going in, but most of them are white and even red/blue re-rolls may not 
assure a hit.

The centipede also has only slightly-above average Quickness (3d8).  Given 
you've got 5 party members with at least that much, you can pretty much 
figure it's going to have 2-3 cards (and therefore actions) compared to the 
party's total of 12-20 cards/actions.

Note:  Of course, I can fudge/alter/modify all of this.  Give the centipede 
an automatic five cards, boost its combat skills, make everything immune to 
the EMP, etc.  But my question is less "How do I do this?" then "What the 
heck were the writers thinking and how have other folks handled this?" The 
adventure is presented as fairly tough, tough enough to warrant extremely 
exceptional awards.  Yet the dangers of the adventure itself as written 
don't seem to warrant this.

Let me quote from the review I did for Azrael On-line:

The last area that I have some problems with is the nature of the rewards 
for this adventure.  The sword, Evanor, is one very powerful piece of 
cutlery.  Even used as a simple sword, it's extremely potent.  While its 
Legend Chip ability (basically, kill any major supernatural opponent, even 
unkillable ones, in two rounds) is impressive, it's lesser (and more often 
used) white, red, and blue chip abilities are rather scary as well.  I 
suspect most Marshals will be very tempted to tone it down a bit.

On top of the sword, the authors are very generous in handing out Bounty 
Chip rewards at the end of the adventure.  This is a bit puzzling.  The 
rewards given as guidelines in the basic rulebook are equaled and then 
enthusiastically exceeded.  Something… is cited as a tough adventure.  
However, as per my comments above, this is an extremely difficult call to 
make sight-unseen.  A party of Harrowed cyborgs may have very little problem 
with this adventure.

Granted, this argument could be used against any reward, even the basic one. 
  Still, this seems like the kind of thing each Marshal would have to 
determine for himself.  It would perhaps have been better if the typical 
award system had been adhered to, and Marshals left to tailor it to the 
actions and difficulties their own groups may have had.

Plus…presumably the guidelines in the basic rulebook are to be used for 
standard more-or-less balanced adventures.  If the rewards here are higher, 
that implies that the adventure is not balanced.  So if it's not balanced in 
the players' favor, how are they supposed to survive?  Presumably the 
Marshal needs to "tinker" a bit.  In fact, there are a couple of areas where 
suggestions are made for how the Marshal can tinker.  But if the Marshal is 
going to have to tinker to make the adventure balanced, then why give the 
players unbalanced Bounty Chip awards?  This makes for a somewhat oblique 
approach.


>-Damon Harper
>   "I only please one person per day.
>    Today is not your day.
>    Tomorrow isn't looking good either." -Scott Adams
>________________________________________________________
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---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

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

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