[HoE] Real Men

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2.  Real men wear Black Hats

    Begin the adventure with one sentence

"So, who's driving the speedboat?"

    when the party looks at you quizically, say

"Look guys, there are four speedboats behind you chock full of armed black 
hats, I presume ONE of you is driving your speedboat"

    And after the confusion dies down, much arguing (hopefully in character 
arguing) when the guy with presumably the highest mechanic skill volunteers, 
look at him quizzically and say.....


"Funny, I figured you'd be more interested in disarming the bomb"

    And... Action movie beginning.  And after a high octane, gun 'em, swimin, 
lake monster infested firefight (Don't forget the bomb, maybe the players 
will... hopefully the players will.. but you better NOT) when a moment of 
pause descends, pass an envelope to a PC to have him say something like

        "When I woke up this morning, I knew I hated Mondays.  Nothing good 
ever comes from Mondays"

    <<<<<<<<<<< CUT SCENE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

        ---Some time earlier-----

    Have the party walking along, a short conversation (in character) about 
their last exploit (throw a character a fate chip if he makes sure to mention 
it's Monday and that he hates Mondays).  And they see a line of smoke in the 
distance.  They ride up to find a man  at the bottom of a canyon in a smoking 
truck.  

    When they greet him, he asks for help, amiably.  He also mentions that 
he's heard of these guys, a pretty tough bunch of hombre's as he's heard it.  
He makes chit chat, he was a job placement specialist before the war, etc.  
He misses baked beans in the microwave... blah blah... They presumable fix 
his car (it's not hard) and afterwards he pulls out a crate and throws it to 
them as a gift.  His eyes twinkle 

    "And in that crate, is an offer that tough guys like you may be 
interested in"

    Whoever opens the crate first, give them an envelope which reads
    'Roleplay that everyone else should have a look, things just got a lot 
uglier'

    Once everyone looks inside the crate, then you lower the boom,

--Inside is a package filled with black berets.  The man says "Try 'em on, I 
bet they'll look good on you.  Meet interesting people.  Go interesting 
places."

    At this point, if they refuse (or more likely put seventeen rounds into 
the poor sucker who tried to recruit them), Have black hats galore jump from 
behind rocks and the hunt is on!  Lots of gunfire, it's action hero time!  
Outnumber the party three or four to one but these Black Hats are yahoos!  
Use every trick to make 'em disposable, every hit to the guts, shootin of 
3d8, no fate chip usage, one or two action cards a piece, roll 'em in 
groups...


    The plot is simple, the black hats are trying to salvage a bunch of heavy 
military hardware from a base that's on a lake.  There's even rumored to be 
sunken Destroyer (rumored blasted here ALL the way from the ocean via the 
force of a nuke) in the middle of the lake.  The local communities are 
frightened because their protectors are either getting gunned down or 
recruited.  But, as you see in the above, it's all in the delivery.  

    The kicker, there are other small groups who also want to stop the Black 
hats, like the Alliance for Freedom.  these pansy yahoos pretty much are the 
well-meaning yet impotent freedom fighters who can do little but 
inconvenience the Black hats.  Have the party meet the freedom fighters and 
role-play them as extra naive.  

    Now all you have to do is get the party to realize that if the black hats 
can get their hands on that hardware, things are bad.  So they have to sneak 
on the base, steal a boat to get to the raft in the middle of the lake where 
they're looking for the boat.  Then the boat makes noise (which summons the 
black hats), and a hidden voice says

    "Combine oppressors!  This is from the Freedom League!  We shall not bow 
to you! You have two minutes to repent your imperialist ways to whatever God 
you believe in"

            And that's the bomb... see? And if any of those JERKS immediately 
say 'I look for a bomb' before they enter the boat', kick 'em and I'm afraid 
you'll have to rail road them ANd kick them for being in poor taste and 
refusing to play along with a setup they know they'll survive anyway...


     Now since you've already done this action sequence ANYWAY, cut ahead and 
continue the adventure.  Does the party find a way to scuttle the mission?  
Blow the boat?  Can they hijack Combine Scuba gear and go underwater in 
Combine water sleds?  Combine scuba bad guys and lake monsters and a wrecked 
destroyer with missiles in tact?  Or no?

    (My idea of the combine, sort of like an evil GI Joe.  endless 
accessories, disposable troops a plenty.  Like Cobra really.  Play up the 
toys).  Have 'em yell "Comm Biiinnee!!"


    Other spruce 'em ups.

Remember the Recruiter?  Maybe he's actually a cyborg, so when the party 
tries to atomize hime, he's got shields which will absorb much of the blows.  
Then he can be a main villain, personable, always smiling, the quintessential 
salesman, that is salesman for Evil!

Perhaps the combine may call in a heavy hitter or two.  A vile Automaton 
called in to add firepower if the party inconveniences them.  Maybe a small 
squad of hunter killer automatons to up the combative ante.  Play these guys 
as Naaaahsty!  It's nearing the climax and the badguys have just called in 
the big guns who will make things really difficult for our poor heroes.  

Cliffhanger!  At some point, like when the Automatons jump in the water with 
their HI Hellclaw Harpoon guns (Soon a toy by Whamco!) and the party is 
almost out of oxygen, pause the action right there.  End the session.  

Give yourself a fate chip if you think of saying
"Whoa, looks like you Duke Boys are in trouble now!"

Begin the next session, draw from Fate pot, and onward!