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

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

Thanks for the response.  A few notes...

>Steve wrote:
>
>SPOILERS
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>
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>
>
> > My options here seem to be either to derail the EMP (make it malfunction 
>or
> > assume the combats have the appropriate shielding), or lessen the chip
> > awards.  No problem there.  But I'm just wondering if anyone knows where 
>the
> > writers were going with this whole thing.
>
>Here's what we did in my group (bear in mind I have no idea what the 
>writers intended, only
>my own experiences with the adventure):
>
>We were running a relatively small group--4 players (1 DS, 1 Temp, 1 
>Gunslinger, 1 Junker)
>and one (the Junker) was out during the final battle. We used the EMP--but 
>then again, with
>3 players, we might have needed. Then again, we'd aced the Doomsayers 
>during the attack on


Oh, my group aced them as well.  Wasn't hard - they were the only ones there 
with decent ranged weapons (the overseers have shotguns and the mutant 
grunts have _no_ ranged weapons).  They were both DOA.  It's Malias the 
Doombringer who is the toughie.

But the writers seem to seriously underestimate the scale of his Nuke.  He 
uses it on a single robot.  Don't know what the Doomsayers in other folks' 
campaigns roll when casting this, but the craters we get are _tens_ of yards 
in diameter.  Heck, some of the ones my group's DS casts, there wouldn't be 
a factory left standing...  :)

Malias has MIRV, though, which makes up for a lot.

>the gas station (long story--suffice to say we're pretty darn violent and 
>bloodthirsty when
>mass combat breaks out). Anyhow, the main goal for the EMP device with us 
>was to short out
>most of the factory, not drop the few combat bots there. With only three of 
>us, the

Hmmm, but what does that _do_ exactly when you "short out most of the 
factory".  It shouldn't free/kill Rosalita (it's kinda dramatically 
important for her to get in those last words and stuff).  It doesn't sound 
like your group fried either the combots or the centipedes.  It doesn't 
sound like they actually did much with the EMP.


>Centipede was a bit of a fight, eating most all of our chips to kill it and 
>survive
>ourselves.
>

Well, depending on what my group does, I could see it going either way.  
There's a chance they might rush in anyway besides just letting the Templar 
participate.  Problem is, it won't be the Templar that's getting waxed then. 
  We'll see...

>Afterward, we decided as a group to only add 1 Legend Chip to the pot 
>rather than give
>everyone one. However, we did decide to go ahead and award the Templar a 
>Legend Chip per
>the adventure as well. Be warned, Templars do come out this one smelling 
>like a ROSE; if
>you wanted to cut back the Legend Chip award for finding the sword, I don't 
>think anyone
>(except a greedy Templar player) would find fault with it. After all, that 
>sword is pretty
>godawful...
>

Hmmm, well there's only supposed to be one Legend Chip _for the group_, plus 
one for each Templar-like character.  I'll probably stick with the 
one-in-the-pot, and maybe some extra blue chips.

As far as the sword itself, we're going to see how it plays out.  I kinda 
fiddled with the scenario with a totally out-of-the-blue intro.  Borrowing 
heavily from this season's premiere of Sliders, they've been contacted by a 
suspicously Peter Jurasik-looking scientist who is dimensionally unstuck.  
He needs a powerful relic native to this dimension to stabilize himself by 
"combining" multiple dimensions (like, thousands).  He can also manipulate 
the final outcome of exactly how those dimensions combine.

(Some interesting trans-dimensiional theory I tossed in:  the scientist is 
from 1994.  The Reckoners' manipulations actually accelerated the Deadlands 
universe at twice its normal rate as part of the whole tech thing.  So the 
Deadlands universe is 100 years ahead of the rest of the multiverse.  Also, 
it's a single dimension, with none of the infinite number of branch-offs at 
every if/then branch point that cause alternate dimensions.  So there is no 
other dimension with the Reckoners.)

Anyhoo...the scientist has managed to lock onto an appropriate "dimensional 
foci" as it were (Evanor), and sent the characters off after it.  He does 
indeed plan on doing what he promises, and even maintaining the dimensions 
enough so that they keep their powers.  Whether they stand by for the 
genocide of billions in literally thousands of dimensions (not to mention 
their home dimensio) remains to be seen, though...  As you can imagine, the 
campaign might be going off in a totally direction.  :)

Backing him are an army of Automatons, and he's "tweaked" this dimension a 
bit so that he can temporarily summon alternate versions of some of its 
residents.  So the group will have to face, say, a Trevor Baines who took 
Silas' role as psychotic Doomsayer-leader (the group's Doomsayer has Trevor 
as a mentor), and a Mordeen who dethroned Simon and led the Templars along 
his own dark path.

>My two cents,
>
>John Goff
>
>
>
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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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