[HoE] Howdy 'gin folks

[Dusarat@aol.com]

Mr poe, I like the way you think!!

    But there always is a big question with introducing a new party to HoE, 
'How do you convey the history to them?"

    Well, with a world with this much history, I could suggest some ideas.

#1, give the party a 'saint', a spirit guide who was gunned down by Stone 
before he could become the hero he would have been.  Kinda metaphysical, but 
hey, some visions, some flashbacks.   I had my HoE party do three flashbacks, 
one where they were the Earps who won at the OK corral, and a second where 
they learned Stone was sent back in time.  And the third where they were the 
Earps again,

        And Stone put Uzi bullets into all their noggins with unmodified dice 
rolls.  End vision, they know how this happenned and not to mess with Stone 
until they can call an orbital strike

#2, A man out of time.  Have the party run into a man in a nice car who is 
terribly disoriented.  Because this man is ACTUALLY from the history where 
the Last War didn't happen.  This could be fun because even though this guy 
would be a mild mannered insurance salesman from Hoboken, the reckoners would 
want him BAD.  Get the party embroiled in this, and wondering why Reckoner 
Heavy hitters are coming after him. 

#3, A book out of time.  Like #2, except it's a book.  Maybe something 
innocuous like a Madeline Stewart Cookbook discussing what the Earps had for 
dinner after they fought the gunfight of the OK corral...... when everyone 
knows the Earps didn't eat nothin but dirt after the gunfight.  or use a 
reference to any other hero of the ages.  You know John Wayne was on Stone's 
hit list.  And I bet Jimmy Stewart was killed in a freak mugging (though most 
muggers don't put two bullets into precisely the same hole between the eyes) 
on the way to the set of 'It's a Wonderful life'.

    I hear he was killed on Christmas too.  

#4,  Iowa, Famine country.  I'd think of some good ways that Famine would 
keep things nice and starvin for the party.  Bloaters raiding villages.  
Maybe a sub-plot where they are in an extended area where they don't feel 
hunger (you keep track of their wind loss and minuses behind the screen) and 
wait to see if they begin to notice they aint shootin too good and are 
getting winded easily.  Other clues

---- Corpses of people starved to death yet with full packs of food

---  Legends of this land being the 'wastes' yet its fertile.

    All the above can be done with Black hats in the background as just 
general mooks.  Having the bladk hats hunt the party during #4 can REALLY 
distract them from the fact that they're not eating because they're not 
feeling hungry, I mean gunwielding yahoos sure can get me to forget a meal.