Re: [HOE] Would you allow this man his character?

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

>Risik@aol.com wrote:
>
> >   The only problem with this is what if it was fair?
>
>Life isn't fair. Do RPGs have to be any different?
>

Ummm, not sure if "RPGs" have to be "fair," but Marshals/gamemasters do.  
Unless players have no other choice, I've rarely seen them stay with a 
unfair/cheating Marshal.

And by cheating here, we're not talking fudging the occasional die roll, but 
the proposed "Well, I think that player cheated so I'm going to screw him 
over" attitude suggested here.

> >I have seen people draw hands like this and better as well.  Sure you 
>could mess with them, but what is the point unless you know they cheated.  
>Better, I say to make him redraw then to cheat back.
>
>When it comes to cheating, the GM/Marshall always has the upper hand.
>
>I'm not so worried about cheating. HOE is gritty enough that even an
>Ubercharacter can get fragged pretty easy. And any player who draws a

Agreed.

>hand that good, either by chance or design, has got to KNOW that the GM
>is going to have it out for him, and if he still wants to take that kind

And also agreed.

>of heat, then he can take his chances. I was just trying to enlighten
>one of the things I learned from Call of Cthulhu... if one character is
>turning out to be the God of Combat, take them over with possession/mind
>control and turn on the other players. Next time they'll know better
>than to play something so unbalanced.
>

Well, first of all a player who fairly got such a draw doesn't have a 
choice.  The character creation rules permit such a thing as an unbalanced 
character.  You're basically telling characters:  Hey, you should have 
dropped a couple of those Aces so I wouldn't screw with you.

While I have no problem with the occasional mind-control/takeover gambit 
(heck, John Goff uses it to good effect in Boise Horror! :) ), it becomes 
pointless as a dramatic plotpoint if used constantly (although less so in 
CoC, which tends to focus more on those kinds of things than HoE).

Anyhoo, a Marshal stepping in and _building_ it into a player's character as 
a hindrance, if they legitimiately drew the hand in question, would seem to 
pre-empt the whole point of a player designing a pplayer character.

And if it wasn't a legitimate draw...they're a cheater.  Giving them a 
hindrance that may screw over the other PCs and penalize them (whether they 
are attacked by the mind-controlled PC direct, or have to deal with the 
repercussions of his actions) makes no sense whatsoever.  Either kick his 
sorry ass out, or give him a warning and make him redraw.

Speaking from experience, I would have to note that using game penalties to 
penalize real-life actions really doesn't work.  Your mileage may vary.  :)


---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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