[HOE] my wacky posse (Servitor spoilers for them) [kinda long]

["Nick Zachariasen" <zacharin@pluto.dsu.edu>]

Well, my posse has managed to get through Killer Clowns without a single
casualty, thanks to lots of Fate Chips and a good sniper rifle (1). Now
they're moved onto the area around Lubbock in an effort ot take out the
S-Mart Overlord (2). I'd like to toss a couple things at you people and get
your thoughts on them.

SPOILER SPACE




(Bruce, you'd best stay outta here.)






(That goes for the rest of my posse too!)





O.K., now that that's done, let's move on, shall we?

1. The posse, thanks to the aforementioned sniper rifle, managed to take out
Dempsey Wilton with only a single Wound to the Guts (though it did cause a
heart attack- survived-  as the player busted his Stun check after having
recently seen a Gabriel Hound from RVC2). The Junker, who got DAMN lucky on
his Scroungin' rolls, managed to strip down the Octopus into a lot of
components, some of which he used to make a hover barge to transport the
rest. I must say, that was quite a good idea. Now, I've decided that the
Dempsey parts are going to be relics, though I'm not quite sure what to do
with them. I was thinking the following:
Power: Using these parts in a Junker device grants a +2 to the construction
roll for every 10 slots filled, but any raises gained as a result of this
bonus don't count toward Stability.
Taint: The device's Stability is lowered by a number equal to the local Fear
Level.

Now, our Junker (Adam Larson, for those of you who've noticed him on here-
we call him Bruce because we also have another Adam, who plays the Templar)
thinks that this would make them damn near useless, and I'm inclined to
agree, largely because he has such bad luck with his rolls. After all, two
of his devices so far this semester have disappeared into the Hunting
Grounds (what's with the two 19s on the Instability table anyway?) and one
has exploded. Any ideas on what to do with these parts for their Power and
Taint? He's also used them for a cloaking device for the posse's bus
(equipped with an LGAT, which fired TWO rounds at the Overlord this past
session, which I'll get to shortly), a large energy gun to go on the bus, a
sonar sensor (to get a reading of the layout of the S-Mart compound), and a
cloaking battlesuit.

2. My posse got a small band of followers from 3 towns they liberated from
the Overlord's tribute collectors and loaded them onto the cloaked bus with
the aforementioned roof-mounted kaboomage. They then blew open the gate to
the compound, killing several mooks. More mooks then poured out to either
side of the gate, with one group catching an LGAT round for their trouble.
The Overlord himself came out to see what in the Hell was going on. The
Templar then emerged from the still-cloaked bus, challenging the Overlord to
combat, as I thought he would. However, when he noticed the tide turning
against him after nicking the Overlord (chipped damage, but I left the
scratch as a hint), he withdrew a few yards and radioed the bus to open fire
with the LGAT and the big-ass energy gun. Yes, they ran into some money a
while back.  Anyway, they explode the Overlord and he reconstitutes, the
scratch now gone. Oops on their part. They then keep up this pattern of
fighting until he's down to a single blue chip, at which point they explode
him again, using their last LGAT round (thank Shaft). They then drive ot the
Templar and pick him up so they can run away and regroup.

Bruce says he has a plan for when we get together again. He's going to
challenge the Overlord because he figures that the big guy can't turn down a
fight. Ding! However, his plan for going about it seems somewhat iffy,
though admirable. He plans on building a cloaked remote detonating 20d20 AP1
energy gun, figuring that the Overloard's weakness is that he has to be
killed in one shot. He hit a Whammy there, but here's the rest of the plan.
He's going to go in cloaked, plant the gun (also cloaked), challenge the
Overlord, try to keep him in roughly the same spot until the gun is ready to
fire by using banter, mockery, or bluffing, and then when the gun's ready
set it off and hope to kill He Who Shops Smart.

My sticking point is this: the Overlord's weakness is that the fight has a
be 1-on-1 and that, as it says, "just shooting him won't work." So, do I
take it that to mean that it has to be a melee fight, or can he use any
methods available to him once the battle's begun? In a toe-to-toe fight he
probably doesn't have a prayer, battlesuit or no, but if this would be
"legal" according to the Overlord's weakness, it would be a damn impressive
way to defeat him and quite crafty at that. I'd probably have some of the
former Servitor's followers join Bruce (also the Junker's name) and go with
him to Junkyard, where they'd stop on their way to Boise just before
beginning the Unity.

As for other post-Overlord ideas, I'm trying to think about relic stats for
the Overlord's axe. I'm thinking that due to its size you'd need at least a
Strength die of d10 to be able to wield it without penalty, with each step
below incurring a -2 penalty. I'd probably give it a DB of +3, which I
actually forgot to factor in in the fight. Its Power would probably be that
it would grant the Don't Get 'Im Riled Edge and perhaps a damage bonus equal
to the wielder's Strength Coordination..As for its Taint I'm thinking it
could grant both the Berserker Edge and Bloodthirsty Hindrance and/or giving
the wielder one Corruption point if he uses it to kill anything other than
an Abomination or Servitor.

I welcome and request any feedback you lot have that could help me figure
this stuff out, particularly if Bruce's tactic would work. I'm leaning
toward "yes", but I'm not quite sure if it's cheating or not. I'd also like
more ideas on the axe.

Nick Zachariasen
Editor Emeritus
Trojan Times