Re: [HOE] re:...Crazy Junker

[toadpooka@juno.com]

(Steve, I'm replying to 2 messages at once)

On Wed, 06 Dec 2000 14:26:28 "Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>
writes:
> The main problem is, where are you going to get the chemical 
> components to make 8d8 damage Ammo?  Depending on your Marshal's
stinginess and 
> how he interprets the section on chemical components, they can be
extremely 
> hard to find.  And they should, IMO.
> 
> Stinginess in handing out ammo even for the lower calibers isn't 
> hard to justify.  For 8d8 rounds, it shoudl be a lot tougher,
comparatively 
> speaking.

The purpose for which you intend chemical components doesn't affecct how
hard they are to find.  A component is a component is a component. 
Granted, the 8d8 damage round will need more chemical components, but the
chemicals are the same.
Of course, my old posse had something like 2 mechanical and 3 chemical
engineers in it, total.  This led to a lot of conflicts over what is and
is not a component.  Technically, water is a chemical component, etc.
But I pretty much just told them to shut up and roll scroungin'.
 
> Of course, what happens if the Junker's player gets the idea to _do_ 
> make the party similar guns to his own...?

They run out of ghost rock very very fast.

> The primary problem with this (and the "stealing" option above) is 
> that the campaign then becomes about the gun.   IMO, if you're going to
make 
> an encounter or adventure or something just to deal with the gun...why 
> let the gun into the campaign in the first place?

Doing one or two sesisons about someone stealing this gun is one thing,
but having to have a bad guy steal it every week is going to get lame
fast.  Sometimes Marshals want to run their own adventures, in which the
heroes get to save people and be heroic, not just try to get all their
crap back.

> IMO, the problem with this theory is that you then get into a 
> nuclear escalation kinda thing. 8d8 damage (with some AP) is the kind
of 
> thing that can kill a PC in a single shot.  Having Player/Librarian B
take a 
> 8d8 shot to the gut because Player/Junker A has a 8d8 weapon doesn't
really 
> "fix" the problem.
> 
> In fact, depending on how it's handled, it can set up a 
> rather...awkward relationship between the Marshal and the player(s):

I had a player in my old posse (Hi Chris, if you're still on the list)
who could and usually would consistently make characters that could whomp
anyone in 1 or 2 actions.  And he wasn't even doing anything weird, most
of the time, so there wasn't really anything I could disallow to end it. 
I tried doing the thing of making the bad guys bad enough to be a threat
to him, but that meant they either had to concentrate on him or they
would slaughter the rest of the party.  And in the end, it was usually
the rest of the party that paid the price for having the Terminator in
the group, and that's not precisely fair to them.

> My suggestions would still be basically:
> 
> 1) Don't let them have the gun in the first place, lest the campaign 
> become about the gun.
> 
> 2) Make it really hard for them to get new ammo, in accordance with 
> the established rules.
> 
> 3) Make sure the stability rules are inforced.  In theory, after 20 
> days they should have some kind of problem (particularly if it's a 
> starting piece of equipment).  And that's just for the gun.  For the
ammo...?
> 
> 4) Make sure the gun taint rules are enforced - eventually they're 
> going to draw a joker, if they're making ammo that often.

1) I've said before that there are worse things a character can ask for
or have, junker or otherwise.  I can guess right now at what powers thisd
junker character in question started with (Gunsmith, Ammo, Weaponsmith,
Shield, Flash Gordon).  I would tell the player not to make such a gun
mook character before I even saw the device.

2) The established rules don't discriminate based on what you want the
components for.  Constantly making ammo will be tough, take up a lot of
components, and possibly give you the Taint after awhile.  I've said
before that you probably don't want this character to have the Taint. 
I'm guessing that he's the sort who likes to show off his big, shiny gun
as much as possible, and dropping hindrances like Mean as a Rattler and
Bloodthirsty on him won't imporve his attitude much.

3) Stability is going to take this gun away from him at one point or
another.  It might explode in his arms, or it might just vanish into the
Hunting Grounds.  At a Stability of 16 (starting device), it should be
even less than 20 days before it makes itself a problem.

4) Again, see my position on Taint.

>Ummm, I don't have the rules right here in front of me, but ammo-type
guns 
>(as opposed to energy weapons) don't _require_ g-rays, do they...?
>See above.  Maybe I missed something, but the gun we were originally 
>discussing was just a plain old bullet/ammo type gun, not a rail gun or 
>anything nasty, was it?

The ammo processing function only works with rail guns, since their ammo
is just little chunks of metal.  Rail guns use Drain, and this one
probably uses a lot of it.

--
From Whom It May Concern,
Rich Ranallo
"Long live the legend, it'll outlive us"
-Violent Femmes, "Death Drugs"

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