RE: [HOE] Templars? Advanced Posse? WAS: Cyborgs to unbalancing was AboutRules of Engagement...

["Jeffery Yates" <jyates@qlinktech.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hoe@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-hoe@gamerz.net]On Behalf Of
> Theo McGuckin
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 10:00 AM
> To: hoe@gamerz.net
> Subject: Re: [HOE] Templars? Advanced Posse? WAS: Cyborgs to unbalancing
> was AboutRules of Engagement...
>
>
> > Oh yeah, we have a Syker character who's literally been alive for like 2
> > years (real-life time).  The SOB just won't die.  He has 7d12 blastin by
> > now, and like every frickin Syker power.  He's a madman.  My
> Templar has GR
> > in Celerity, Inner Strength, and Armor of the Saints, and
> there's another
> > Templar with GR in Deflection, Sixth Sense, and Speed, so they
> compliment
> > each other quite nicely.  Oh yeah, and one Harrowed Law Dog
> who's Fast as
> > Death, and has whatever Edges and Hindrances you need to be
> able to use a
> > gun simultaneously in each hand and fire at seperate targets
> with no penalty
> > (or something like that...he's badass).  Everyone else in the
> Posse (there's
> > like 3 or 4 more people) is basically cannon fodder, since the
> adventures
> > are geared towards the bad boys now...everyone else just sort
> of assists.
>
> How do the "scrubs" feel about that? That is the problem we're having, it
> seems like the doomie is on a whole different level than the rest of us.
>
> Our posse is still pretty young. The Doomie JUST raised his faith to 6d12.
> My Greenie now has a 4d10 blastin' (hey, she started at 1d10 and sat there
> for a long time) and 6 powers (she found a US Syker's Handbook!). The
> templar has... three blessings in the mid/low-range (1-3ish) and two
> martyr's. The other syker has 11 powers, but hasn't uped her blastin' to
> 6d12 yet. Finally the Law Dog has a 4d12+4 quickness (he drew the mutation
> that ups yor quickness and str. die types by two, funny thing is his
> quickness was originally 1d12, talk about all or nothing!)
>
> Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab

I've got a similar situation in the Weird West posse I marshal for.  One
player has kept his character (Josey) alive since we started the game, and
that was less than six months after the orange books were first available.
He had a terrible draw for stats (no d10s or d12s, two or three d4s, only
one d8).  We had small flub in that he took 10 hinderances, rather than 10
points worth, but we've since fixed that.  Having lived thru everything --
sometimes barely -- he now has great scores for things like shootin', and
guts and fightin', and a decent quickness too.  He's a legend in the group.
The character has been blown up more times than I can count, defeated the
best of my baddies, and just when I think I've got him on the ropes, the
character looks my baddie in the eye, pulls off an overawe of about 30 or
so, and gets a chip and a reprieve as I lose cards with an opposed guts
check of 10 or 11.  He's got twice as much grit as the next PC, too.  And
all while spending his entire life nearly three-sheets-to-the-wind (as per
the PEG drinkin' rules).

Everyone else in the group has cycled thru many characters - most because
they themselves provide the explosions that didn't quite do Jose in.  It's
gotten to the point that when a new PC is being created, I have the player
spend an extra 30 bounty points when they've made the character.  The PCs
only drop one at a time (usually), and it seemed harsh to have them start
completely green.  30 bounty points don't bring them up to where the rest of
the posse is (not even close to Jose), but it's better than nothing.  Makes
my job as GM a little easier when trying to balance enemies later.

The base question as to what the rest of the group thinks of Josey -- he's
their hero.  They don't begrudge the character nor the player anything.
They've seen the player make really smart decisions that saved Josey,
they've seen him take one of his d4 rolls and get 20 something totals on
more than one ocassion.  They've also seen Josey beaten to 3 or 4 wounds in
every location, so they know I'm not going easy on him.  The combat-envy
problems you guys might be seeing I don't have to deal with -- Josey has the
same kind of guns on him that the rest have, where you guys have PCs with
guns next to a Doomie with Nuke or MIRV.  Josey's just better with his guns.
My campaign balances out character usefullness issues by having situations
where Josey's attitudes and lack of Mein and Ugly As Sin (several times
over) don't help dealt with by the other PCs, then they plan their attack
using the info the others gained and considering when Josey's alcohol
induced coma is over.

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang