Re: [HOE] A fistful of questions

["Kai Tave" <kaitave@harborside.com>]

Welcome.

>In the spirit warriors book, do caretaker shamans still have to perform
>dirty deeds for their toxic guardian? From what I can tell, unless I missed
>a paragraph  or something, they do. It just seems a bit of a step in the
>wrong direction for 'em.

I don't have the time to read the section in depth at the moment, but the
gist of it is that toxic spirits hang around caretakers because when the
caretaker performs a ritual, he sends concentrated pollution back into the
Hunting Grounds.  Toxic spirits love the stuff like candy, so even though
the shaman is apparently going AGAINST the wishes of the spirits they still
love him for the sweet pollution that he feeds them.  Like junkies, kinda.

>From the same book, p46, when a rad shaman spends a legend chip, what
>damage do these bolts of radiation energy do? Apart from1d4 wind to the
>shaman?


Well, radiation spirits have the same ability.  Under their listings, it
says that the bolts do damage equal to their Spirit die type.  If you go by
the exact wording, that means 1dX (where X is the die type).  Seems a bit
low to me; I'd say that the bolts do damage equal to the shaman's (or
spirit's) Spirit, period.  Thus a shaman or spirit with 4d10 Spirit would
fire bolts that do 4d10 damage.

>From Waste Warriors, what happens if your project damocles soldier gets a
>red joker on the soldier table? Does he still have to pay the points for
>Damocles?


If he bought the edge beforehand, I'd say he still pays the points.  If you
want to be TOTALLY fair, you can always draw the cards BEFORE he chooses
what Soldier package he wishes to take.

>And can a Damocles soldier take the Super Soldier edge?


It's possible, but doubtful; the US government created Operation Damocles as
a way of rebuilding the US in the event of a nuclear disaster.  To that end,
it strikes me that they'd want very intelligent, clever people able to deal
with a great deal of situations easily and effectively.  Super Soldiers
aren't really that kind of soldier.  They're tough, but the serum does
atrophy the mind, so it's doubtful that they'd want someone like that going
in the tubes.  Also, the formula DID have a tendancy to drive folks mad.
Even if the Super Soldier DID come out of the process okay, the higher ups
might be worried that he'd go nuts after the thawing process.

Other than my assumptions, there's no official ruling on it; GM's
discretion.

>And a general question... What ways exist for magic-users to increase their
>strain within the game (other than boosting their vigor die type?)


Well, sykers and Doomsayers both have edges that increase their Strain on a
one-point to one-point basis.  Even if you don't have the books, you can
just use the process for buying edges listed in the main book (three times
the cost I believe, so it would be three bounty points for one extra
strain).  You have Spirit Warriors for information concerning toxic shamans.

>And does anyone know a good site out there for maps? Like the kind for when
>the posse's explorin' some ruined settlement or something? Or am I gonna
>have to break out the pencils and paper...


And here's where I falter.  No clue.  Sorry.

Hope that helps.

--Kai Tave