Re: [HOE] Running the perfect HoE Campaign

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Zachariasen <zacharin@pluto.dsu.edu>
To: hoe@gamerz.net <hoe@gamerz.net>
Date: Sunday, July 15, 2001 1:46 AM
Subject: Re: [HOE] Running the perfect HoE Campaign


[MAJOR SNIPPAGE ON HEROISM, NORMALITY, SUPERHEROS, ETC.]

I think the thing that makes Batman seem more "heroic" than the invincible
Superman isn't that Superman has nifty superpowers, it's that Batman...

Okay, this is going to sound stupid.  It's because Batman SUFFERS.  I mean,
his parents get shot when he's only a kid, he pushed himself through an
incredible amount of training, he's been beat black-and-blue on NUMEROUS
occasions, had his spine snapped, and gotten up to do it all again.  He's
also "dark" and "edgy" and "numerous other catchphrases."  Superman never
really suffers much.  He can get tossed through a building and not have a
hair out of place.

Okay, so he died.  But he got better.

Now, I'd like to step back for a minute and say that suffering isn't the
only way you can become a hero.  I'm not sure exactly what DOES make a hero,
but GENERALLY a healthy disregard for personal safety falls somewhere in
there.

And in that case, it's entirely possible to have a heretical Doomsayer be
the most heroic SOB to ever walk the glowing sands.  There's a lot of
interesting stuff to work with when you talk purple-robes; multiple kinds of
discrimination, persecution, being hunted by the "true" cult, shunned by the
norms, watching the purity of the Word fall by the wayside, and all the
while STILL going on because of what you believe and how strongly you
believe it.  Doomsayers should be DRIVEN people.  They don't have to be
slavering fanatics, but these are folks with a MISSION and a PURPOSE.  Just
like Batman drives himself, so shall the righteous in times of need.  Or
something.

Same goes for Sykers in a very "Vietnam" sense.  Templar too.  Junkers are
closest to mundanes in the sense that they don't necessarily come with
prearranged "baggage" to tack on to their personal goals.

I'm sure there's a better way to put this.  I don't want to give someone the
impression that "Constant PC torment = the way to run games", but what I'm
TRYING to say is that every kind of character in any RPG, arcane,
cybernetic, alien, or just plain ol' normal, has just as much potential to
be an interesting character.  If Billy Bob uses his Doomsayer as nothing
more than a mobile Nuke factory, then maybe it's time to reevaluate Billy
Bob rather than the Doomsayers.

If you and your group enjoy playing all "normals", then more power to you.
I don't see anything wrong with that.  Just, y'know, if someone hears that
this game where you get to be a radiation priest and how cool that sounds,
well...give'em a shot.

--Kai Tave