[HoE] RE: The Slaughterfest that is HOE

[Ralph Dula <rdula@ezonline.com>]

<< I've been running HoE now for some time and have kept up-to-date with the 
rules modifications, but continue to notice an occurrance that appears to go 
un-addressed on this list. 
 
 That problem can be summed up quite nicely in one word, DEATH. I run the 
game to the letter of the rules, however it appears that regardless of my 
players actions they end up dead at a rate not seen since the days of 
Paranoia!  >>

Well, from personal experience the easiest way to keep your posse members
alive is to introduce a Harrowed into the posse.  The second adventure I
ran my posse through our Polish railroad worker Zywiec (anybody recognize
the name?) got killed, and his player managed to pull a Joker for his
Harrowed check.  As soon as the player was informed of his newfound undead
abilities (ignore non-magic Wind damage, ignore 2 levels of wound
penalties, etc) he immediately began to walk point in every adventure.  He
normally managed to be the target of enough attacks in each encounter that
the other characters would survive.  Or course back then I didn't know a
Harrowed needed the Reconstruction power to rebuild maimed limbs, so he
shouldn't have lasted half as long as he did, but having an undead in the
party tends to increase life expectancy.

Another thing your posse can do is recruit people to help them in their
adventures.  The female member of our gaming group has her character
Persuade people that she's "a helpless damsel in need of protecting" every
chance she gets, resulting in an entourage of men about her that any
would-be attacker must hack/shoot/atomic blast his way through to get at
her.  Another player hires savages and gunslingers to help him, sends them
off on suicide missions to gauge enemy strength, and then takes the money
he paid them off their still-cooling corpses.  

Hope this helps.

-Ralph