Re: [HOE] Running the perfect HOE-Campaign

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> > Any tips I should always think of?
> > Any mistakes to avoid?
> 
>     Just be aware that the overall power and danger level in HoE is pretty
> jacked up, compared to Deadlands.  If you don't mind your players running
> whiz-bang Doomsayers and Sykers, blowing up things left and right, that's
> cool, but if you want a tamer power level starting out you may want to
> monitor character creation and place restrictions from the start.

The marshal that runs HoE got kind of overwhelmed when we started playing
it. We'd been doing Deadlands for a year or two and had gotten used to the
power level there (which is fairly flat, all pistols pretty fire once per
action and do 3d6 damage, all rifles do 4d8, or do more, but have to be
reloaded after each shot, etc.)
We got to HoE and things were nuts, we had a syker, a doomie, a
greenie-syker, companion with a gadget, etc. The power level was not only
very different from Deadlands, but very different from player to player.
This lead to a lot of problems. The doomie could basically kick anythings
ass between Molecular Cohesion (lets you make a faith roll to IGNORE
wounds) and MIRV (lets you fire off 5 atomic blasts at once). Meanwhile
the greenie-syker could only use her shotgun (a good gun, but on a much
different level) and the templar was running around with a 9mm pistol
(what's the point) while the syker has an assault rifle and 200 rounds of
ammo.
In the end we decided to reset the campaign and put limits on character
creation: no Veteran of the Wasted/Weird West, and any arcane's had to be
the newbie version (basically most all the arcanes in HoE get a newbie
version of their AB in the source books, usually this makes the AB cost 1
or 0 points but you can only start with a 1 in the associated skill
(faith, blastin', etc.) and only one power).
Problem is that you don't have the source books so you can't really go
that route. My best suggestion would be sit down with the group and talk
about how they view the Hell on Earth world. Is it going to be like Road
Warrior? Shadowrun? The Postman?
Then set limits based on that.
Things to consider:
- how plentiful is ammo? This is a big one as it determines whether people
are carefully mothering their bullets and using alternate attack methods,
or if they can pretty much spray ammo in the air with impunity. This is an
important one to get even across the posse. There's nothing worse than
having one character with a shotgun, 20 shells and one precious slug and
another character with an SA assault rifle who takes Belongin's 1: 1000
rounds of 7.62mm ammo.

- sykers have many nasty powers that usually only work on one person
(brain bomb, aztec surprise). The nasty powers are mostly in the source
book, so you should be okay. But be prepared for the syker in the group
to go out an buy the book and want to use the new toys. The important
thing to remember is that a syker's bald head is a pretty big indicator to
the rest of the west. It's going to be pretty plain to most that he's a
syker and that he probably needs dealing with before most.

- doomsayers are walking guns. In the sourcebook about 85 - 90% of the
powers are directly or indirectly combat related, and beware that this
mentality has a tendancy to promote the "walking-gun" effect in players.
Again doomies are pretty much required to walk around in their robes all
the time (can't preach the faith if your afraid to show your own) and this
is a dead (sometimes literally) give-away to the rest of the world.

- templars are not really a problem. Their powers aren't overt like
syker's and doomie's and hence they don't have to walk around proclaiming
themselves to the masses. The only concern here is if you get a player
that takes the "Test of Worth" to the extreme and you wind up with a
player unwilling to take part in the adventures because NO ONE is worthy.

- junkers can be painful for a marshal. The main reason is that they can
make big guns and armored things to rival a doomie or a syker, but don't
have the overt indicators (baldness and robes) to match. What's worse,
they don't even have to worry about strain! They have spirit batteries,
but I think the general conscenous is that the batteries are a lot less
limiting than strain. The best advice that I can give is to not be afraid
to take away or destroy a junker item that is too powerful. You may not be
able to take away the syker's arson, but you can steal the junker's AV 5
field projector.

- vehicles and fuel- a lot? a little? this will determine whether your
posse is centeralized in one area or can pretty much roam the wasted west
freely.

This is all I can think of off hand, I'm sure there's plenty more. But
hopefully this will help some.

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab


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