[HoE] Answers to my "Something About A Sword" post...

[OUR0B0ROS@aol.com]

<< Make it storming when they hit the Water tower. Always good for lightning 
and
such. Sure its cheesy but heck, its fun.  :) Ha. >>

  I love it.  Will do.

<<Does Deflection work on Burst Radius attacks?  I suppose Doomsayers _could_ 
target a specific person (yes, they have to roll to hit), but it seems 
easier just to target a spot of ground (within 10 yards, certainly) near a 
target.  Why give them a chance to Dodge, use Guardian Angel, or anything?>>

  Well, that is how a Doomsay usually WOULD do it, but the Marshall 
specifically targeted it DIRECTLY at the Templar, knowing that if it hit him, 
it would still take out the posse Doomsayer and the main building.  Bill, the 
Templar's player, asked, "Is it coming at me? Like dead on at me?  Like it 
was aimed direcly at me?"
  He knew what he was doing, even if none of us did.  He made sure he backed 
the Marshall into a corner before trying to deflect it.
  He just tried to do it with an invisible Syker attack that he was not aware 
was coming, but I had to rule that he had to be aware of the attack coming.
  Crafty bastard.

  <<, "Now?  We die."
>

*heh*  Nice quote.
>>

  One of the Klingon commanders in Star Trek 2 or 4, I believe.  One of the 
greatest lines ever.

  <<Not sure I would have let that limit me as a Marshal.  Just bring in a 
second Doombringer who was lurking in the background.  Did you give the 
Templar the coup for killing Malias?>>

  Naaahhh... I like the idea of an adept doomsayer being in charge now.  
Smarter, craftier, less "Oomph" behind his powers, but quite a bit more of 
them, with a better range.  Plus, he's more of a "man of the mutant people," 
using Sibilant Speeh of Silas to draw in mutie ofter mutie to his cause, 
making Rock Springs a major mutie jumping-off point.

  And I haven't decided about the coup, really.  I wasn't running that 
session, and I thought that a person would have to be really close at the 
time of death.  They were about a hundred yards away.  The closest person to 
the Doombringer was the Adept, Kirkland.  I think that they may have just 
given their enemy the doombringer's coup...
  However, for the posse abandoning Last Chance, I dropped a Black Chip in 
the pot (3 sessions s far, and still no such luck), and for the fact that the 
Templar used the 'bringer's own nuke on him, I gave Bill an Arcane chip.

  <<...oh, right, there aren't 
any distances given between the various Something... locales, are there.  Or 
a useful map.  Or anything like that...>>

  What the former GM used as a placement for Jarrett, Wy was a little town 
that actually is on the maps called Garrett, Wyoming.  HE change the name to 
Garrett as we played it, too.  We put Last Chance about 35 miles away, 
somewhat off I-80, which puts Rock Springs about 180 miles away from there, 
give or take.

  One thing I WILL have to do is give you guys a web address to get a map of 
Rock Springs...

  http://www.wwcc.cc.wy.us/community/rock_spr/rock_spr_map.html

  It's not the best, but it was a start.  It's from the Rock Springs 
homepage, and I looked up other maps on Mapblast and Encarta, and did some 
figuring on where things are.  This map you'll get from the address above 
will tell you where main street is (I'm going to set up a sniper ambush 
there), which is supposed to be near the Apfeltech plant, where the railroads 
and where Blairtown is (which is where the watertower is supposed to be).

  <<Well, the first thing is to hope it all works as planned.  As has been 
often 
noted, "No strategy survives contact with the enemy."  It sounds like 
somewhat of a deliberate...well, screwover to me.  How it goes over depends 
on what the players are like, what they expect, etc.  Whatever works, I 
suppose. >>

  Yeah, I guess you could call it a deliberate screwover.  I just like the 
idea of the Templar really feeling like he deserves to get the sword when he 
finally gets it, because of all the hardship he will have gone through, an 
Anti-Templar he will have killed, a cybernetic arm he will end up using for 
the rest of his life... I want it to be a well-deserved reward, not an 
entitlement because the adventure says he should get it.  
  And I know all about the "No strategy..." line.  It's true almost all of 
the time.  I have no aspirations for greatness, the group screws me almost 
every time.

  <<Your plan seems strong, although it strikes me as just eas easy to simply 
have a second Doombringer make his presence known.  Certainly your plans 
will make the adventure a lot tougher than written...  :)>>

  No, I want to make only one doombringer in this adventure.  They'll find 
out what happened to Malias in this Saturday's session, since they just 
killed off a group of mutants that Kirkland sent gunning for them, and if 
they do even a little searching, they'll find the dataslug containing 
Kirkland's orders to the hunting party, including the "Malias is dead, I'm in 
command now" information.  I feel like it will be a little hope for them 
(after I've beaten down their morale for 3 sessions now, stuck in enemy 
territory, all but chipless, two posse members dead in the last fight...), I 
want them to realize that the Doombringer, the guy they thought was so tough, 
is dead.
  And that this new guy may be a lot worse.
  I don't want them to feel like Doombringers are popping up all over the 
territory, Kirkland was there from the beginning.  It'll give them a little 
sense of accomplishment, having offed the Doombringer.  The sheer 
power-monger. 
  Now they have got to face the guy who is creating alliances, who is an 
excellent charismatic orator, who is turning mutants who might otherwise be 
neutral into siding with Silas.
  One of the muties in this attack party that the posse just fought was one 
of the Templar's oldest friends, a fellow supersoldier, and one of the three 
survivors of their company.  The other is her husband, who is in Rock Springs 
as they speak, setting up defenses for the attack that Kirkland knows is 
coming.
  One of the mutant attackers in their lat fight was a Technomancer, who cast 
Tracer on the Doomsayer, at Kirkland's orders, so he'll be able to tell when 
the party arrives in Rock Springs, and frm what direction he'll be coming 
from.

  <<Yup.  That's the way I look at the development you just put on to that 
small 
story.  Bravo, I say.  I just saved that...I now think I have ALL the 
material I need to run "Something" (it did feel lacking, but the Harrowed 
Eliot Ritter, etc...that makes it all worth it.)  I think I'm going to do 
that to my posse whether they screw up or not! <Grin>  After all, it is a 
Harsh New World, and nothing is easy.

Poe>>


  Thanks, Poe, Sam 'n Max, Crow... you guys make me feel all gushy inside.

  - The Worm Ouroboros