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[HOE] Re: Losing edges



Horace Black wrote:

>   One of my player's character recently lost their
>animal companion, a dog named Bama.  The dog was shot
>up by some cyborgs and then the templar tried to stop
>his bleeding and botched, killing the dog off.  They
>buried Bama in the woods only to be awaked in the
>early morning by scratching sounds.  They discovered
>that Bama had dug his way out and with filmy eyes, a
>permanent limp and an oozing wound he was still living
>(as a harrowed).  Well needless to say this didn't sit
>to well with the party so they voted and put Bama down
>for good.
>   my question is should the character be able to find
>another animal companion (he did pay the points
>initial) or should he have to gain the edge again?
>Let me know what you guys think.

Most of the responses so far say something to the effect of "Yes - 
he's paid the points so he should get a replacement."

Now, maybe I'm a complete bas***d, but I say no.  You spend your 
points and you take your chances.  If a player builds a two-fisted 
character and loses an arm, should he get an arm back to keep his 
edge?  Or an eagle-eyed character who has one eye poked out?  Maybe 
an even batter example is the Belongin's edge - if someone uses it to 
get a semi and it gets blowed up real good, getting a replacement 
should be a real chore.

I'm not saying you should rule out the chance that he'll find and 
train another animal companion.  I am saying that this should be hard 
work - it should require the character to have animal handling: 
whatever the new companion will be.  It should require a serious time 
investment - both to train and to find an exceptional enough animal 
that it can become a companion.

I guess I'm pretty stingy when it comes to giving the players 
freebies or replacements.  For example, when a player wants to take 
the appropriate Veteran (Weird or Wasted) edge for either game, I 
make the player build the character, spending all but the Veteran 
points _before_ I make the draw on the Veteran table.  My reasoning 
is that the character will have developed to a certain point before 
becoming a veteran - this is reflected by the initial points they get 
to spend.  Whatever happens on the veteran chart is a result of 
getting the extra points - their character didn't know it was going 
to happen to them when they chose an initial career and the skills 
that go with it.  I've had a two-fisted gunslinger lose an arm on the 
Veteran draw.  The player was slightly disappointed, but understood 
my reasoning ahead of time and used it as a roleplaying opportunity.

Hank