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wastedwest

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 9 months ago

 

Adventures

 

Adventures: Deadlands, going to the Weird West

 

Q) What would the effects e on a group of pcs from HOE time traveling back to the Weird West? Would certain powers not work? (Syker, Templar, Doomsayer?) And just what is the Fortress of fear? Im trying to work out a big huge campaign where the pcs eventually go back in time to stop Stone. Not KILL stone people, STOP Stone. You CAN stop the villian without killing him. - scott_henry

A) Syker powers would work just fine in the Weird West, they've just found a new, more efficient way of channeling energy from the Hunting Grounds. Templars, Doomsayers, and Junkers, however, are out of luck. In the case of Templars, many of the Saints are still alive or haven't been born yet, so their powers won't work. Likewise, Doomsayers don't have the high background radiation level they need to perform their miracles. There are very few "free" tech spirits in the Hunting Grounds during the Weird West period. so the TN of all junker tool tricks and powers are increased by a whopping +8. As for the Fortress o' Fear, I couldn't really tell you. That's one of the Weird West products with which I had absolutely no contact during its production, and I haven't got around to reading it yet. The best person to ask would be Hal Mangold (Peghal@aol.com), the Weird West brand manager. He wrote the second adventure in that series and did much of the layout work on Fortress. Sorry. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Adventures: Hell or High Water

 

C) Could be pretty tough for a new posse, so keep that in mind, but overall a fun read.( I loved the contents of the candy and soda machines, but I can't help but feel I missed a joke there.) - Ryan Wilson

A) It was a Seinfeld reference. If you've seen the episode, it'll make perfect sense! - [John Goff, HoE listserv, 1/20/99]

 

Adventures: Junkman Cometh, lack thereof

 

C) Yeah, finally no adventure! I'm sorry to say this, but the included adventures in HOE sourcebooks haven't been nearly as good as the ones in Deadlands sourcebooks. Probably because Goff didn't write any of them. The only HOE sourcebook adventure thats seemed useable so far was the one in Road Warriors. All the others were "Go somewhere, find something out, kill a tough undead version of whatever the sourcebook's about." We've gone to a "no-adventure-all-of-the-time" policy with sourcebooks. Both Junkman Cometh and Cyborgs had way too much material to cram into the book to fit one, and as it is a lot didn't fit. We decided to scrap the adventures altogether so we could fit more reusable game and source material in. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Adventures: Something about a Sword

 

Q) Yep - Ritter's actions and the faith of the townsfolk in him created a "Sanctify" effect. So what's the big deal? If you're perceiving this as some sort of game mechanics issue, don't. - grifflik

A) Yup, that's how I see it too. And yes, Templars *are* supposed to wander, but they can certainly have a base of operations. Law Dogs are also supposed to wander, but can also "base" themselves somewhere so that they can be contacted. I'd read it as "I'll check in at Tucson every couple of weeks." [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

 

Background/History

 

Background/History: Disputed Lands

 

Q) What exactly are the borders of the two nations? Are the Disputed Lands from the Weird West still disputed? I can't find that information anywhere. Who's side of the Dixon wall is Kansas on? Or Utah? - Knighte336.

A) There were no disputed lands by the time of HOE. Deseret was independent. KS was taken by the Confederates. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 2/1/98]

 

Background/History: European Alliances

 

Q) However on page 58 it states: "... Germans staged a massive counterattack through Belgium and deep into the heart of France. Russia came to the Frenchies' aid and all Europe erupted in Flame." So why is a Southern Alliance Country helping a Northern Alliance country. Was France listed in correctly in the Alliances chart? Just trying to figure out who is on which side.... - anderson

A) We didn't go into much detail, I know, but the alliances switched several times in the early days. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/22/99]

 

Background/History: Political division of the States

 

Q) Can you reval your vision of history in the Deadlands world? do any of these ideas make sense? - J23junior

A) I understand your question, but it's just not something I care to get into. We could postulate all day on what might have happened if the South had won. Things are the way they are because that's the way we want them. Want rationalizations? I could give you plenty but I'm afraid I really just don't have the time to get into such a detailed discussion on what would invariably come down to differing opinions. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/25/99]

 

Background/History: Unity

 

Q) In Wasted West it says that there are still survivors on the Unity and that Pinnacle will go into it in the future. My question is--is there any idea of when the information/adventure will come out. In Brainburners it reads that one of the Unforgettable Fifteen left the Unity and more will be put out about it later. My question is--is there any idea of when the information/adventure will come out. - Fuzyn9feet

A) Hey, it's your game, but I'd stay away from the Unity. It has a BIG role to play just before the release of Lost Colony in 2000, and you have no idea what. That's really all I can say. If you really want your HOE characters blasting into space, I'd give them another ship to find. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/20/99]

 

Character Creation

 

Character Creation: Archetype, Chamber Initiate

 

Q) Question #1--In the 'Chamber Initiate' Archetype is listed a hindrance of 'Obligation: The Chamber -2', but it's not listed as a new Hindrance in the book. In the Edge 'Chamber Initiate' it talks about the 'down side' of being a Chamber member but it don't say you have to take a Obligation or Oath Hindrance. So is this an over-site in editing or am I just dense and it's right under my nose? - Fuzyn9feet

A) The Chamber Inititate Edge implies that all members have an obligation when it says "all Chamber members are sworn to further the group's quest for knowledge and to obey the Chamber's leaders." It should have been explicitly stated however, because all members do have a 2-point obligation to the group. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Character Creation: Archetype, Gunslinger

 

Q) Then when I look at the Archetypes I see the Gunslinger has them written as Concentrations, but the Templar (Speed-Load) and the Law Dog(Quick Draw) have them listed as regular aptitudes. The combat section seems to write them as regular aptitudes and not concentrations as well. So are they concentrations or am I just crazy? - redbf

A) Speed load is a regular skill, though it requires a concentration. - [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/31/98]

 

Character Creation: Archetype, Initiate

 

Q) The Initiate has a faith of 3, but under the description of the Initiate edge, you can only have a maximum begginning faith of 1. Which is correct? - ?

A) The Edge description. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

 

Character Creation: Archetype, Lector

 

Q) The Lector and the Outcast both have the miracle Aegis, but under the description of the miracle Aegis can only be possesed by those with a faith of at least 6. But then the example in the body of the miracle uses a character with faith 4. So my question is, do you have to have faith 6 to have Aegis? - ?

A) Yes. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/15/99]

 

Character Creation: Archetype, Outcast

 

Q) The Lector and the Outcast both have the miracle Aegis, but under the description of the miracle Aegis can only be possesed by those with a faith of at least 6. But then the example in the body of the miracle uses a character with faith 4. So my question is, do you have to have faith 6 to have Aegis? - ?

A) Yes. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/15/99]

 

Character Creation: Archetype, Syker

 

Q) Am I dumb, or is the Syker archetype all f'ed up? First of all, it has fortitude as a 2-point edge (the chapter says its a one point edge). The strain listed for him is also waaay too low (its like 6 or something). Am I wrong? - toadpooka

A) Yup. It's snafued. Fortitude costs 1 point as described in the Syker Chapter. His Strain and Pace are reversed. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/24/98]

 

Character Creation: Deadlands archetypes

 

C) According to my GM at Gencon, Jay, all the character types in Deadlands are still runnin' around in HOE, with the notable exception of Mad Scientists. - cyberzombie

R) Actually, mad scientists can exist as well, though they could not make new devices (but they could still have a passel of their own). They could also learn occult engineering and start "junking" as well. [Shane Hensley, DL listserv, 8/16/98]

Q) A friend of mine asked if Hexslingers are still around in HoE. Now, I know that Hucksters are around and we can use the stuff in Law Dogs. However when he asked me this he mentioned the fact that Hexslingers have the hexes to "create" bullets (ed. note - the hex Ammo Whammy). That seem pretty powerful in the HoE setting.. - ?

A) Well, depending on how you run your DL campaign, it can be equally as powerful there, too, but I see your point. Even though the bullets aren't permanent, being able to create them is mighty helpful. But I see no reason Hexslingers wouldn't be around in HOE. In fact, they'd probably have developed a lot of new hexes to deal with the advances in military technology and such. [Steve Long, HoE listserv, 9/1/98]

 

Character Creation: Deadlands archetypes, new arcane backgrounds.

 

Q) I was just going over the Veteran of the Wierd West edge for HOE and I noticed it said that the Vet. couldn't be something like a syker since they didn't exist in the Wierd West. Can this be ignored if a character has a specific reason why he/she may have a "new" arcane background? I.E. -an old harrowed who joined the army in the last war and was given some heavy cyborg tech -an alchemist who developed a youth elixer and after losing his manitou muse became a junker -a hero that crossed the stone path to the future a few months ago, only to step into a nasty rad storm and later become a doomsayer Do these examples seem reasonable exceptions to the rules? - J23junior

A) Sure. All rules are made to be broken. There are always *special* circumstances. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 3/31/99]

 

Character Creation: Faith for the non-religious

 

Q) What effect does Faith for anyone who isn't a doomsayer or a templar? The rulebook seems to imply that people possessing it have some kind of power over creatures of the Reckoning. Is this true? If so, how does it work? - bloopy40

A) A soft and fuzzy answer. It doesn't *work* by and large. But occasionally, a spell, power, or other effect will pit some evil creature against another character's faith. Is it worth jacking up? From a rules lawyer point of view, only if you know you're going to fight a vampire, a cult, or some other varmint likely to test your faith. From a roleplaying point of view, of course. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 10/19/98]

 

Character Creation: Hucksters

 

Q) (snip a lot of argument about hucksters being weaker in the Wasted West - ed note.) At best, it seems like there should be some kind of _benefit_ for the three additional handicaps that HoE Hucksters pick up. The entry states that the manitous are more powerful: shouldn't that mean the Hex effects become more powerful as well? *shrug* It just seems like the Hucksters got kinda...neutered in Junkman. Why would anyone want to play them giving the revisions made? - Steve Crow

A) Well, it really wasn't meant to be that attractive a proposition--there's a reason hucksters are rare in the Wasted West. I included it primarily for the sake of completeness. Since I had mentioned that many early junkers were hucksters (and the main rulebook refers to them getting there power from manitous) I felt I should include the option (or I'd get e-mail asking me where it was :) ). I also wasn't aware of the revisions being made to the hucksters when I wrote TJC. Given the new system makes things easier on hucksters, I'd change the penalty in TJC to be only the +4 to all Backlash rolls. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Character Creation: Mysterious Pasts

 

Q) I have a question about mysterious past when you pull the red joker during character generation. After you draw the red joker your suppose to pull another card and if you pull a 9 you get an Arcane Background (pg196). It refers to chapter 9 to pick a power and assign it a level 1. Chapter 9 is the Sykers and they don't have levels. OK I guess this is the question. Is it correct that it refers to chapter 9 and the level is wrong, or is it the wrong chapter and refers to the Templars? - jyster007

A) Hey, check the errata on the HOE web page (I think it's been posted already.) The answer it you get "blastin'" at level 1. It is a syker power. Our bad. - [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/14/98] - (Ed. Note, as of 9/17/98 - this ruling has not made the errata)

Q) One of my posse drew a nine after drawing a joker which gives him one power from the sykers section of the rules. I was wondering, does this also give him the Blastin' skill or should I just treat whichever skill I give him as a separate skill, meaning that if I were to give him Fleshknit would I just give him levels in that and make him roll based on knowledge just as a real syker would with the Blastin' skill? I know this is a little hard to follow but i thihnk you get the picture. Any help would be appreciated. - holtman.4

A) A hero who gets this result is a one-trick pony. Since he can only do that one power, he doesn't get the blastin' skill, just a level in the power. This is based off Knowledge just like Blastin' though. If the hero got Fleshknit, he starts out with 1 level in a special fleshknit skill. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Character Creation: Renegade Black Hat

 

(ed note - first part of this conversation referring to whether the chipped weapons would still work for the Renegade Black Hat.)

A) Btw, as for the renegade Black Hat, his chip does still work! Of course it won't do anyone else any good. [Shane Hensley, private email, 12/9/99]

R) doesn't that give the archetype one hell of an advantage ? your saying he can use chipped gear - sounds pretty hot to me ! then again - he's got one hell of an enemy too - & Throckmorton ain't gonna take too kindly to a renegade running around. cue Raptor hehe - Pete

R) Yes, it is powerful, but again, he has to kill Black Hats to make it work, and renegades would definitely be high on the hit list for local platoons. [Shane Hensley, private email, 12/9/99]

 

Character Creation: Syker Starting powers

 

(See Sykers: Starting Powers)

 

Combat

 

Combat: Armor and Strength

 

Q) How about it Charles? Do we check if an attacker has damage dice for this purpose before or after armor reductions? - ?

A) It so happens that I had a close-up encounter with this issue in our game just last night. Reno (my character--a Templar) whacked up on this bizarre junker-made critter with his sword: STR+2d8. Turns out the thing was AV4, which reduced the 2d8 to nothin'. Hence no damage, even from his Strength. A little while later, in another fight, Reno's dog Snakebite chomped down on another critter, doing STR+1d6. Turns out that this one had AV2, which was enough to reduce his 1d6 to nothing. So he did no damage either. So, in answer to the question, if armor reduces damage to Strength only, there is no penetration; the attack does no damage at all. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 3/1/99]

Q) If Snakebite had a Str of xd8 (or greater) Strength and NO additional damage from his bite, when chomping down on AV 2 he would still get damage from his strength. Throw in some sharp pointy teeth and all of a sudden the armor stops it all. A) No. Any creature doing STR only =cannot= penetrate armor of AV1 or better (p. 97 of the rulebook). [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 3/1/99]

 

Combat: Called Shots

 

Q) Pg. 88, under Drawing a Bead The rules say you can *never* draw a bead or make a called shot when firing bursts. Pg. 91, under Automatic Weapons The rules here say you can draw a bead/make a called shot on the first burst only. So, which is it? - DarrinBrig

A) P.91 is right. You can draw a bead and get the bonus on your first burst only. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 10/4/98]

 

Combat: Double Tap

 

Q) In Wasted West it says if you declare a double-tap and hit and get a raise, it means the 2nd shot hits the same location as the first. So if you hit and don't get a raise, the second shot misses? Hits some other location? - Draxus

A) If you don't get a raise the second shot misses completely. It also says each double-tap after the first suffers a -2 penalty. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

Q) How do you do more than one double-tap in a round? - Draxus

A) You can do a double-tap on each action your hero has, so if he has multiple action cards, he can do multiple double-taps in a round. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Combat: Double Tap vs Full Auto

 

Q) Double Tap: A PC has two action in the round. He double taps on the first action. He then double taps again on his second action. From my understanding of the rule, his second double tap would be at a -2 penalty. Full auto: Same PC with two actions in the round. On his first action he fires off three bursts. He does the same on his second action. From my understanding of the rules, his second and third bursts of his first action would be at recoil penalties (-2 and -4 respectively). However the first burst on his second action would be at no penalty while his second and third would be at penalties (again -2 and -4) Am I interpreting the rules correctly? - Sandy Addison

A) Yes, you are. The rules are correct, the statement "just like firing full-auto" is misleading. Obviously, it's similar but different. To be completely clear, double-tapping applies over each action of the round, firing full-auto applies only within one action. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/19/99]

 

Combat: Feint

 

Q) The Templar book, Page 62, "Way of the Sword" talks about the Feint maneuver. Basically, you add your _opponent's _Fightin'_ skill level to your roll to hit, but subtract the same skill level from his roll to damage. But according to the basic rulebook (pg. 93), when you roll to hit in HTH, against an opponent with a HTH weapon, you add the appropriate Fightin'/Aptitude level to your TN of 5. So if he's got a Fightin'/Sword 4 and he's defending with that sword, your TN is 9. Maybe we're missing something, but doesn't the Feint simply cancel out the penalty your opponent applies to your roll-to-hit? The Feint entry seems to be worded a bit awkwardly, so we weren't sure if this was the case. Wouldn't it have been simpler to simply say, "Your TN to hit is no longer modified by your opponent's Skill Level - subtract a like amount of damage." or words to that effect?

A) You are 100% correct. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Doomsayers

 

Doomsayers: Altered States

 

Q) Can a Doomsayer cast Altered States on himself? And if so, is it still an Opposed Spirit roll? The answers would seem to be Yes and Yes, but wanted to make sure... - - crow_steve

A) As you surmised, the answer is yes and yes. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/15/99]

 

Doomsayers: Atomic Blast

 

Q) Do supernatural attacks like Atomic Blast/MIRV get additional dice for hit locations? It doesn't say one way or the other. Can it be assumed that all damage types are treated equally unless otherwise stated (eg. massive damage)? Or is an Atomic Blast treated differently from a gun due to its supernatural origin? - tysonium

A) Yup. They sure do. Blast away! [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 5/19/99]

 

Doomsayers: Blue Note

 

Q) I 'm not sure the story implies that Blue Note does the storytellin', since Mad Jack doesn't mention it while telling his story. But...Blue Note doesn't _have_ Tale-Tellin'. So there aren't any of "his stories" to pass off. But assuming us Marshals fill in that gap and move right along... As far as the story-spreading itself, one wonders why Blue Note even needs to be a heavy-duty rad-type, if he's counting on his stories to convince people and he's the one using the added-on Tale-telling. "Yeah, the Kid wasted 'em with a half dozen MIRVs. Bodies? Eh, we dumped them down a canyon - didn't want them polluting up the countryside.." Okay, so he's apparently got the powers to convince other storytellers, and witnesses, that the Kid has Rad-Powers. Fair enough. That raises the question our group's Doomsayer has had for a while anyway. How stealthy _are_ Doomsayer powers? I mean, Blue Note is using some heavy duty stuff like Atomic Blast and Nuke(!!). But he's apparently using these in such a way that (at worst) observers can't tell where the power originates. Now, the relevant pictures in CotA show folks using powers like these with big glowing balls of energy shooting from their hands and stuff. It sure looks like A) these kind of rad powers are pretty obvious in use, and B) it's pretty obvious where they're coming from. Needless to say, enterprising PC Doomsayers want to know. Blue Note doesn't seem to have anything to support such sneakiness, so the mechanic here (if any) isn't very clear.

A) I agree that the character's stats don't match up exactly with the story in the player's section. Blue Note should have tale-tellin' 5 (he's already got a decent sneak). As far as the stealthiness of Doomsayer powers, they're not. The story implies that Blue Note used his quantum leap power to pop in, nuke someone, and pop out. Mad Jack noticed it, and I'm sure others did too. But as you suggested, the reality really doesn't matter, Blue Note can spin the story anyway he likes, and at least this way there are some real bodies and battle damage to back up the story. Sure, there'll be some people saying, " Well...that's not really how I remember it" but as with most legends, people will believe want they want to believe. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Doomsayers: EMP

 

(See Monsters: Black Hats and chipped weapons)

 

Doomsayers: Grundies

 

Q) Can Grundies take the Omega Man mutation? - darrin

A) Nope. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) I'm pretty sure Grundies can't take minor or major mutations as edges/hindrances. What if they get caught in a radstorm, or poke around some ruins too long... can they acquire mutations that way? If so, what if they wind up with one of the age-related mutations? - darrin

A) Correct, Grundies cannot take mutations as Edges or Hindrances. I'd have to say that Grundies are immune to mutations in general, even those of supernatural origin. Their hyper-accelerated metabolisms and immune systems simply squash any mutated cells before they can grow into full-blown mutations. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) Can Grundies become Initiates and learn Doomsayer powers? How about Hekants? - darrin

A) Nope, they just aren't able to grasp the concepts needed to tap the Glow.[John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) It seems obvious enough a Grundy wouldn't have enough time to become a normal Syker. Can they be Greenies? - darrin

A) Since a greenie's abilities usually manifest on their own, and require no study, Grundys can be greenies. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) I think its safe to say Grundies can become Companions, but how about Templars, provided the Grundy has the necessary skills or goes through the year or service as a squire? - darrin

A) They can become Companions, but not Templars. Grundies are far too emotionally immature to administer the Templars test of worth, and Simon would never make one a full-fledged Templar. A Grundie Templar would likely protect a band of cutthroats who treated him nicely and gave him candy and turn his back on a settlement that yelled at him for breaking something. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) Next... what about Grundy Junkers? Don't seem to be any major requirements for Junking, other than Academia Occult and such. - darrin

A) Nope, as with Doomsayers, junker magic is too complex a subject for Grundies simple minds. The thing to remember with a Grundy is that you are dealing with someone who at best is the mental equal of a 6-year-old. That's the official ruling, but if your Marshal wants to allow a Grundy who's a prodigy, he can allow the character to take any arcane background he wants (of course this holds true for every other rule in the book). From a game balance stand point combining Grundy with most of the arcane backgrounds is simply too powerful. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) And... of course... if the serum were available, could Grundies become Super Soldiers? - darrin

A) No, the syndrome has already cranked their body's performance up as high as it will go. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Doomsayers: ICBM

 

(See Edges: Rad Baby)

Q) Do supernatural attacks like Atomic Blast/MIRV get additional dice for hit locations? It doesn't say one way or the other. Can it be assumed that all damage types are treated equally unless otherwise stated (eg. massive damage)? Or is an Atomic Blast treated differently from a gun due to its supernatural origin? - tysonium

A) Yup. They sure do. Blast away! [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 5/19/99]

 

Doomsayers: Initiate

 

Q) Does an 'Initiate' Doomsayer (CotA page 50)need to take the 'Enemy: Cult of Doom' Hindrance, or the 'Oath: Joan's Pact' Hindrance like regular Doomsayers? - James Cook

A) Yes. [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

Q) Does an 'Initiate' Doomsayer automatically gain a mutation?- James Cook

A) Yes. [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

 

Doomsayers: Mirv

 

C) Again, I think most of what John said is correct. Nuke is an easy power to restrict, for the reasons he and I both stated. I don't think MIRV is quite so easy without some revisions, and I tend to agree with the other gentleman who noted that, pound-for-pound, it's far more "broken" than Nuke is. - ?

R) You know, I thought the same thing about MIRV when I first read the description. However, after watching it in action with our Doomsayer (who of course has 5d12 in Faith), I've come to the conclusion that looks might be a tad bit deceiving in this case. Atomic Blast might be a tad weak compared to Brain Blast, but 5 Atomic Blasts for only 3 Strain appears to be somewhat "thrifty." However, after nearly a solid year of play, I've yet to see a MIRV really shake me up--and it's the Doomsayer's weapon of choice. 5d10, or 10d10, seems like a good-sized can of whupass, but the real limiting factor is that each bolt does its damage separately. So, the average MIRV does about 1 wound per hit--as long as the Doomsayer has to choose his targets before rolling for the miracle, it doesn't seem like a game breaker. [John Goff, HoE listserv, 7/30/99]

 

Doomsayers: Nuke

 

Q) on the Doomsayer power Nuke, is the blast radius 10 yards per d20 of damage? The Doomsayer, Clyde, was nuking the Black Hats at one hundred yards out and rolled a 38! Needless to say he got the TN of 15 with 4 raises. 7d20 damage at ground zero with it spreading out a total of 70 yards getting less with each 10 yards. Did I do this right? He nailed almost all of the Black Hats with that one. - WastedDave

A) The raises for damage is actually based on the miracle's TN which is 5, the TN of 15 is just to see if it's on target. With a roll of 38, the Doomsayer got 6 raises (38 - TN 5 = 33 33/5= 6 raises) so the Nuke would do 9d20 and would affect an area 90 yards in radius. That's why they call it Nuke! [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99] Doomsayers: Starting Hindrances

Q) Does the player get the points for Enemy: Cult of Doom and Oath: Joans Pledge? - WastedDave

A) Yes. - [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Doomsayers: Touch

 

Q) Can Doomsayers use Touch on themselves? If they can (or if they do it on another Doomsayer) does tolerance help them avoid the radiation burns? - tbet1

A) Yes, and no. It can't "avoid" damage, it can only cure it. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/17/98]

C) Whooops! Sorry. Yes. Tolerance could be used to avoid the scarring. The truth, however, is that the Doomsayers proably would not want to avoid the scarring. Remember, "mutation is the key to salvation." [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/17/98]

 

Edges

 

Edges: Additional Powers/Miracles

 

Q) In Brainburners it looks like you buy the Additional Powers edge for 2pt and then can buy each power at 2pts each. Example: My Syker wants more than the 1 power per point of Blastin' so he buys the edge for 2 pts and then spends 4 more pts on 2 additional powers. 6 points total are spent for two powers. In CotA it looks like you buy the edge for each additional Miracle you have. Example: My Doomsayer wants more than the 1 miracle per point of Faith so he buys the edge 2 times for 2pts each and gets 2 additional powers. 4 points total are spent for two miracles. Since they are both very similar system I would assume that they actually function the same but the Archetypes in one book are in error. Which is the correct example? Or are they both correct? - ?

A) Your CotA example is in fact the correct one for both Edges. I think the Edges are not clearly written in either case--I would be inclined to use your Brainburners interpretation for both of them on a cursory reading. However, the CotA example is actually the way it works... [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/22/99]

 

Edges: Deadlands

 

Q) Can I use a lot of the new edges out of Law Dogs, such as the Crossdraw edge, or the other supplements for my HoE characters? - redbf

A) Absolutely! [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/28/98]

 

Edges: Dinero

 

Q) Can you, using the numbers from the Weird West book, use the function of "finding" cash for your character? - redbf

A) No, use the numbers for finding cash in the HOE book. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/28/98]

 

Edges: Knacks

 

Q) Hey Charles!! Do Knacks exist in HoE? - ?

A) No, they don't, at least not at this point. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/22/99]

 

Edges: Rad Baby

 

Q) The range of an ICBM is 100 yards per level of faith. Most players will put a 5 in faith, so that puts the range at 500 yards. If a player gets the edge Rad Baby, this increases the range to 1000 yards. However, the range increment is only 20. Does Rad Baby also increase range increments? - ?

A) Yes. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) Would a shot at extreme range actually be at a minus -25 (or a -50 for a Rad Baby?)

A) Absolutely (to the -25 part, at least). Hey, just cause it can travel a long way doesn't mean it's easy to control... [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

 

Edges: Super mutant

 

Q) Can someone take both the 'Mutant' Hindrance (CotA page 48) and 'Super Mutant' Edge (CotA page 50)? If so, do they get multiple mutations? - James Cook

A) Sure. [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

Q) Can someone take 'Mutant' or 'Super Mutant' more than once to gain multiple mutations? - James Cook

A) Sure. Wouldn't recommend it, but. . . [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

Q) With the SuperMutant edge, does the new mutation take the place of the characters original mutation or does the player get both mutations? - wastedDave

A) The super mutant edge gives you a an additional mutation in addition to your regular one. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Edges: Super Soldier

 

Q) Okay, someone replied to my first message saying that the player should lose the two points for the step down in knowledge. - Gregg Gargano

A) Okay, here's my (thoroughly unofficial) take on it: You don't lose the points because they've already been determined. Changes after the point determination don't retroactively alter character creation points. However, I personally wouldn't allow a character to take super soldier and syker--the two just don't work in my square peg-round hole world. Both represent a significant investment of resources and time for the military. Both have fairly different missions, so I doubt the military would put its eggs in one baskets in such a fashion. Besides, although the super soldier drug will give the syker a few extra Strain, it actually lowers the effectiveness of the syker's blastin' skill, making it less likely the powers will be employed in the first place. Thus, the military-industrial machine actually hampers a rare and powerful talent for the sake of making a "super-grunt"--not too probable a course, since the military is responsible for providing the training and other resources necessary to become a syker in the first place. [John Goff, HoE listserv, 2/28/99]

 

Edges: Veteran of the Weird West

 

Q) I was looking through The Wasted West, and on the table for vet of the weird west it says that you should look on page 151 for rules about becoming a nosferatu, but it doesn't give any details there, does anyone know anything about it? - ?

A) This book was out before I was the HOE Brand Manager, and the guy who did edit it (Hal, the DL Brand Manager) is out of the office today, so I'm going to have to wing the answer on this one... You can find a profile for Nosferatu on page 155. To convert a character into a Nosferatu, raise his Strength die type two steps, his Quickness die type one step, and give him the Special Abilities listed in the profile. And welcome to the world of bloodsucking freakdom! [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

 

Fear and Terror

 

Fear and Terror: Making Checks

 

Q) are a number of times, through the various source material, when it is stated that veteran characters don't have to make Terror Checks at all against certain Fear-type opponents. Looking at the Brainburner book, there is an encounter with walkin' dead in a morgue where it notes that these are scarier than usual, so even Veteran Characters should make a Terror Check. Since Pinnacle more or less states this officially, rather than leaving it to the Marshall's discretion, what are the "official" guidelines for this? This seems to go beyond simply having a higher Grit as a more experienced character, and becoming complete immunity to certain "low level" Fear-types that the character may have fought on many occasions and become innured to (Dogs o' War, Walkin' Dead, etc.). - crow_steve

A) There are no set rules on this because it all depends on the heroes' backgrounds and the Marshal's particular game. The Marshal's decision to require, not require, or possibly reduce the TN of a guts check depends on a hero's familiarity with the thing causing the guts check. A hero who was a Texas Ranger before the war and helped put down a walkin' dead outbreak in Nacogdoches probably isn't going to blink when he encounters another zombie. On the other hand, if the thing lurches out unexpectedly from a darkened corner, that would require a check due to the "boo" factor of the scare. As another example, I usually don't require checks for heroes who see dead bodies, unless they've obviously been killed in some horrible and terrifying way. Most people who have survived the Last War have seen enough dead people that a simple corpse isn't going to spook them. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

 

Geography

 

Geography: Alaska

 

Q) Who owned "Alaska" before Judgement Day? - bshurd

A) Alaska was owned by the US, just as in traditional history, before the War. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/5/99]

 

Geography: Space

 

(Okay, so space isn't technically a field of geography :-) ed. note)

Q) I was just wondering if Earth had any colonies in our solar system before the Reckoning occurred. You do mention mining the asteroid belt, but no colonies. - ripper

A) Yes, but there are no plans to explore them at this point. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 12/21/98]

 

Geography: Sybaris.

 

(See Radiation: Radius of effect)

 

Grit

 

Grit: Maximum level

 

Q) Has anyone else noticed that there is now a maximum level of grit? To wit: "Every time your character defeats (or takes part in the defeat of) a fearmonger, his Grit goes up by +1 point to a maximum of +5." Oh, Shaaaane... care to share yer thought process on this one? - B. D. Flory

A) Hey, you can only get so "gritty." Really, there just ought to be. No matter how tough you get, you shouldn't be walking around with a +1000 Grit. 5 points still lets a Deadland affect you at -1. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/8/98]

Q) On the whole, I like the idea of keeping Grit to a sane level, I just think this is not the best way to institute the policy. - B.D. Flory

A) I can't argue with you if you've kept things under control. I'd rather not put a limit on it. We only did it because we get a lot of bizarre email from guys with +50 grit. Something about one bad apple. . . [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/9/98]

R) Also, with a Grit of 5, you can still be affected by a Deadlands (net -1 to guts checks). As for the DL 10 grit events, Shane didn't answer, but I'm going to use something akin to colored grit from the Ghost Dancers book. Basically, the "effective" grit (grit which counts towards making Guts checks) is capped at 5. Any other Grit earned by the posse gets marked down as a different color, both for tracking when the 10 grit events kick in, and to help offset my house rule that anytime you go bust on a guts check, you lose a point of grit. - Darious

A) Poifect. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/23/98]

 

Harrowed

 

Harrowed: Arcane backgrounds

 

Q) In Brainbusters we see that a syker who becomes Harrowed retains all his or her syker abilities. Does this hold true for templars, junkers, and doomsayers as well? - Draxus

A) Yes. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

Q) And for those that it does, can they continue to improve those powers as well as their Harrowed powers, or are the powers they had in life frozen as of their time of death? - Draxus

A) They can continue to improve all of the powers they had while living as well as their Harrowed powers. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Harrowed: Arcane Protection

 

Q) Lets say some Green robe with an attitude problem sends MIRV or ICBM at him. Lets say he has Arcane Protection. My questions (before this comes up) does good ol' Sheol have to roll for Arcane Protection vs. every missile of MIRV, or does one roll cancel the one roll made for the miracle. then I thought, well, what if good ol' Sheol was not the sole target of MIRV or ICBM...lets say some ravenite he has not driven off yet is also being offered a get out of life free. would Sheol's roll cancel the miracle at all? only what was fired at him? does dividing it prevent him from being able to roll?- baron11

A) As long as the Harrowed is a direct target of the spell he can cancel it. This would save the other targets of the spell as well. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

Q) Lets say our new Friend Sheol has some purple robes and Nuke. Lets say he tries to use this on an anti-Templar that he is not overly fond of at the moment. now if said AT used Deflection. Good Ol' Sheol decides to Vamoose to Arcane Protection. can he AP his own shot he just fired? I'd say yes, but looking for opinions. - baron11

A) I'd have to think that Arcane protection wouldn't work in this case. When it works, it prevents the spell from being cast, it doesn't absorb it or nullify it after casting. In this case, for the anti-Templar to deflect it, the spell has already been successfully cast. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Harrowed: Mutations

 

Q) My real point of contention was that, if I remember, harrowed ignore the effect of radiation with regards to wind. Why would mutations be any different? - Chuck

A) It's supernatural radiation. Harrowed are affected. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 3/1/99]

 

Hindrances

 

Hindrances: Ailin'

 

Q) The Panacea miracle can be used to heal someone with the ailin hindrance. This contradicts this the (albeit new) rule in HoE that basically states that a character with ailin has already tried all natural and magical means to cure the ailin. Which is correct? - Patrick Phalen

A) HOE is newer than F&B, so it seems at least as far as HOE is concerned, Ailin' can't be cured by Panacea. Of course, remember blessed aren't a staple character in HOE and thus are very, very, very, very rare. [John Goff, DL Listserv, 9/15/98]

 

Hindrances: Mutant

 

Q) Can someone take both the 'Mutant' Hindrance (CotA page 48) and 'Super Mutant' Edge (CotA page 50)? If so, do they get multiple mutations? - James Cook

A) Sure. [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

Q) Can someone take 'Mutant' or 'Super Mutant' more than once to gain multiple mutations? - James Cook

A) Sure. Wouldn't recommend it, but. . . [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

 

Hindrances: Oath of Unity

 

Q) On page 38 (Brainburners, ed note), there are three new Hindrances, all related to the Oath of Unity. While the book doesn't explicitly say this, I'm assuming that all Banshee sykers MUST take one (and only one) of these three Hindrances. My reasoning is that unless a Banshee syker made it back some other way than on the Unity, she falls into one of three mutually exclusive categories:

1) Took the Oath and has kept it = Oath of Unity Hindrance

2) Did not take the Oath = Apostate Hindrance

3) Took the Oath and broke it = Oathbreaker Hindrance - James Cook

A) Yes, unless the character did somehow come back before the Unity (there were always a few shuttles). So while most Banshee sykers

*should* have one of these Hindrances, she wouldn't necessarily *have* to. [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

 

Junkers

 

Junkers: Agility

 

Q) I want to build a power armor device with junkman rules. if i use the locomotion power and create a 2 legged walker, do i really need the agility power for the suit?There is a pilot driving the thing after all. if i need the agility power, whoose stats d i use when i want to perform maneuvers? the suit's or the character? - regret

A) No, if the device is worn it doesn't need the Agility power. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Junkers: Ammo

 

Q) When you roll your instability check, are you checking for the whole batch, all the bullets in the gun, or for just that particular bullet? Having to roll for instability every shot would get pretty annoying. Also, for reasons listed under general comments, I think each die level should be 1.5 times the cost of the previous level rather than twice the cost. - ?

A) Since ammo is created in batches, it also makes instability checks in batches. Just roll for the batch the first time a bullet from it is fired each day. If it becomes unstable, the effect applies to the entire batch. I made the die level cost double at each level for two reasons: One, to make the components costs higher for larger ammos. Ammo is scarce in the Wasted West, and we didn' t want junkers to be able to make it by the truckload. Two, to keep the ammo size balanced with powers like gunsmith and Flash Gordon. Reducing the cost reduces the size and lets a junker cram huge amounts of ammo into some weapons. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Armor

 

C) This is a problem I've had ever since the new armor rules came out. Under the current rules, there is no advantage to having high die types for your attacks. With the current junker rules, 4d4 costs just as much as 2d6, does more damage, and resists armor better. The die type used to represent shot penetration, so I'm suggesting that after the dice reach d4s, each armor level subtracts two dice rather than one, or reduces damage by half. This'd make it a lot more representative of penetrative power, and prevent all those enterprising players with 20d4 bullets for the same price as 5d8.

R) I like the old armor rules myself, but I did try to prevent people from abusing the new ones with the ammo power. At the bottom of page 65, under Ammo Size, it says, "No ammo may have more dice than its due type. Four dice is the maximum number for a d4 ammo, for example." [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

Q) a junker builds a vehicle using the locomotion rule, it states that a junker can add armor on using the rules in Road warriors. My questions are, 1: does the armor take up slots on the frame and how do we calculate it? - regret

A) No. Once you've designed a vehicle using the Locomotion power, simply apply any modifications to the vehicle as if it were a car of equal Frame size. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

Q) What happens if the vehicle gets overloaded from armor bought?Do we reduce its stats as per Road Warriors for overloading. - regret

A) Yes. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

Q) How much armor can the vehicle carry without overloading? - regret

A) The Locomotion power lists a Load Limit for various Frame sizes. Use this to calculate overloading. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

 

Junkers: Associated Spirits

 

Q) When deciding which powers get the bonus, do we use the associated spirits listing for the power, or the associated powers table for the spirit? If the latter, why have associated spirits? - regault

A) Use the associated spirits listed with the power. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Batteries

 

Q) In The HOE source book, it says that you can build a 50 charge battery for 5 oz ghost rock and 5 struct, however, it says it takes 1 pound (16 oz!!) to recharge 50 charges, no where else in the book does it say lbs instead of oz, i hope that this is a mistake. Is it? - ?

A) It isn't. Spirit batteries recharge at the rate of 50 GR per pound of ghost rock. The 5 oz. of ghost rock that you mention is a component of the battery; necessary when the battery is built (just like the G-ray collector requires 2 lbs. of ghost rock to build). A newly-built battery doesn't come charged, but must be charged up with a G-ray collector before it's good for anything. Thus, the 5 oz. of ghost rock used to construct the battery don't give you a "cheaper" charge that the recharging cost... [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 3/1/99]

 

Junkers: Brains

 

Q) If you make your own dataslugs do you have to check instability for them if they're used? What happens to data stored on them if they go unstable? - ?

A) Junker built slugs do suffer instability. Unless the slug is destroyed, any data on them is fine once it recovers from its instability. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Browsers

 

Q) The following powers were mislisted under the browsers. Car: flight (VTOL?) Appliance: Rotor Tool: Finish is a tool trick; Flow isn't in the book.(Reactor maybe?) - ?

A) This was a fairly complex book to write and we were making changes to it right up until the UPS man pried it out of our fingers. A lot of powers were changed or cut. We thought we had caught all those, but obviously we didn't. Originally there was a flight power for making fixed-wing aircraft and a rotor power for making rotary-wing vehicles. There wasn't enough room to include even a rudimentary set of flyin' rules for these things so I cu them and replaced them with VTOL. Finish was originally a power and flow got cut. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

Q) When browser spirits are in junker devices how often do they produce g-rays? - redurgam

A) The energy put out by a browser spirit is per round. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

Q) Can browser spirits provide a bonus to using tool tricks? If so, what is each tool tricks associated spirit? - redurgam A) Browsers don't give a bonus to tool tricks because the junker actually contacts individual tech spirits while casting them. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

Q) If we use a browser to power a vehicle, does the browser really power the vehicle at its rating? Does a rating 5 browser give 5GR every 5 seconds to the vehicle?? - regret

A) Yes, this provides a lot of excess power which can be used for other vehicle related systems. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

 

Junkers: Collectors

 

Q) I've always had a problem with the Gr output of collectors being a bit too low. Now that there are so many devices with huge drains despite being relatively innocuous (7 drain/hour for the joystick for a remote droid?) available, I've decided that in my campaign, at least, ghost rock will release 5 Gr and ounce, or 80 Gr a pound. This'll make the math earlier, let people burn ghost rock scraps, and just make life easier for everybody. - ?

A) Both Drain and component costs have gone up under the new system. I considered upping the GR per pound, but I left it the same to keep things expensive. Unlike all the other special character types, junkers are the only ones who can create permanent objects, we didn't want the posse to turn into a walking swap meet. 5 Gr an ounce does make the math a lot easier though, and it's not a huge jump in power. I'll have to give this one some thought and see what kind of feedback we get, but more than likely, that'll become the new rule. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Commo

 

Q) Does a signal type selection have to be made if the device is for displaying device output only and does not receive outside radio signals? (I.E. A readout for a computer made with the brains power.) - ?

A) Yes. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Energy Weapons

 

C) My idea: I would rule that weapons that do energy damage don't need ammo. It just runs off the Spirit Battery. - Afterburner

C) I can't find it in the rules right now, but I seem to recall (or maybe I just assumed) the same idea you have. Anyways, if that is not the case, I may play it that way as it just seems to make good sense. - Scott Mickelson

R) That sounds right, but it really depends on the game. If you make something like a blaster, it might require energy *and* ammo. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/14/98]

R) I think some of the confusion is due to the cuts that were made in the junker chapter. As originally written, it had more than twice the powers it does now. Unfortunately, this made it three times the size of any of the other chapters on special character types and much too large to actually fit in the book. As a result a bunch of the powers got axed. One of the powers that was cut is Shielding. This power allows Junkers to build energy shield projectors which absorb damage. The basic Shield works against physical damage only, making one that works against energy damage is more expensive (and even more expensive to block spiritual damage and magic). So the advantage of energy weapons is that they are more likely to work against Junker-built shields which don't actually exist yet (at least not until The Junkman Cometh comes out early next year). Just to clarify the "creates its own ammo" modifier some, this is intended for weapons like the junkgun that can process some sort of raw material and turn it into ammo. Energy weapons which create their damage directly from the energy drawn from the spirit battery also fall into this category. Weapons which don't fall into this category are those which require the junker to actually purchase or spend time creating ammunition. A good example might be a rail gun type weapon for which the junker has to actually sit around the campfire at night creating metal slugs. Not all energy weapons necessarily fall into the creates its own ammo category. A particle beam weapon would fall into the energy weapon category, but it might require a reservoir of stripped Helium nuclei as ammo for instance. It all really depends on the player's concept of the weapon, how much trouble the character has to go through to keep his weapon supplied, and the Marshal. The purpose of the "creates its own ammo" modifier was to avoid giving junkers a free ride. Non-junker characters are often going to run low on ammo for their conventional weapons, so we wanted junkers to have to pay a little more for weapons which weren't dependent on some sort of physical ammo supply. Hope this helps. - [John Hopler, email, 9/23/98]

 

Junkers: Familiars

 

Q) Also, are Familiars supposed to be Frame size 4? It seems like an awkward size for something chiefly used as a scout or companion, and all of the Familiars pictured in the book are at most size 3.(A size 4 owl would break your arm if it tried to perch on it.) Do Familiars need the agility power in order to manipulate things? - ?

A) Actually, most familiars are size 2, about the size of a cat or small dog. This was one we didn't catch when the Frame sizes were adjusted. Familiars don't need the agility power, just the sensor power to see, and locomotion power to move. Unlike most devices, the tech spirit in the device does the rest. As it mentions on page 45, familiars have all the stats of a regular character, but these don't require any extra powers from the junker. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Frame Sizes

 

Q) Another thing that was confusing was frame sizes. I got the feeling that frames were originally numbered from 1 to 19, than it was decided to use them to determine TN, and all the frame numbers were reduced by one. Unfortunately, several examples weren't adjusted afterward. More importantly, the frame sizes need to be a little more clear on exactly how big they are, the examples being unclear and generally unhelpful if the device isn't a gun or a car. How small of a refrigerator? Is it a mini fridge or just a short normal fridge? What kind of large backpack? The kind my dad took on hikes was quite a bit larger than a dog or a rifle. Saying that something is as large as a cello case is only helpful if that person is in an orchestra. - ?

A) The Frame sizes actually dropped by 2. A bunch of the smaller frames were condensed into Size 0 to do this. The main reason for this was to make humans fall at Size 6, so junkers would be operating on the same size scale as everyone else. As far as the size examples go, hopefully things will become clearer as more junker devices appear in other books. Space was really tight in this book, so I tried to include fairly common items or ones which were most likely to be constructed by junkers on the table. The exact Frame size an object needs is still somewhat of a judgement call for the Marshal. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Gun Spirits

 

Q) If a power is associated with both Gun and Computer like targeting or gun and Car like Rocket man do I use the gun spirit rules for creating it or not, does it depend on how it is used Like a surveillance missile as opposed to a warhead? - decker

A) Any power which is associated with gun spirits uses the gun spirit rules regardless of the purpose for which it is used. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Junkers: Locomotion

 

Q) I thought that I'd point out that VTOL is much more powerful than locomotion and requires a lower number of slots even if the car's acceleration is only 5 mph. - ?

A) You are correct. I'm not sure exactly what the "official" fix for that is, but for now, I'd change the locomotion power plant costs to 5%, 10%, 15% [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

Q) Question #1--It states in locomotion that a normal person needs 70 slots of room to sit in something for doors and controls, this looks like 6 slots (half or Frame size 6 slots equals 64) are needed for a normal sized person to have controls & door. My Junker is has the Scrawny Hindrance so his size is 5, does this mean if he custom made a device for just his size all he would need is 49 (half of Frame size 5 is 43, adding 6 for controls). Does this sound right to you guys? - Fuzyn9feet

A) Yup, it also keeps all his big friends from borrowing his car unasked. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: Normal tech

 

Q) It says in the man rule book that we can use regular tech in place of junker tech. But I saw no mention of this is the junkman cometh does this rule still apply or not. I'll give a few examples. (1) I am building a car using locomotion. Now of course I want the car to have headlights so that I can drive at night. Do I have to have the light power or can I just scrounge up some old working headlights to put in. (2) It says in the commo power that I need an audio sensor to build walkie-talkies. Does that mean I must have the sensor power. What if I already have and audio sensor like from an old cell phone or something. To sum up what I want to know is what would be the rules for using regular tech in a device. (if it can be used at all) Like slot space. or power requirements. Thanx in advance. - calabim69

A) You've raised a very good point. Yes, you can using existing tech in junker devices. in fact, this actually makes the junker's and the tech spirit's job easier because they don't need to adapt similar components into the "right" components. Unfortunately, due to the large number of possible powers and devices, it's hard to give any hard and fast rules for doing this. In general, I'd say each component of a specific nature like headlights or a phone mike counts double (or maybe more if it's really large or crucial) toward the component cost of the device. They can also negate the need for additional powers if the component fulfills the right role. In this case the mike negates the need for the sensor power and the headlights negate the need for the light power. As far as slots go, I'd use the Frame Table as a guide. A phone mike for instance is smaller than a mouse (Frame size 1 slots 2), so I'd say it takes up 1 slot. In the case of the headlights I'd say they're about a size 3 Frame and take up about 5 slots. In the end though, it's up to your Marshal. These items, because the tech spirit is able to instantly meld with them, don't cost any additional drain. Now, this might tempt people to try and build devices by saying, well I've got all the original pieces, all I have to do is put them together and I have a device which requires no Drain. That's true, but you've basically just repaired a standard device which still needs conventional batteries, gasoline or whatever--it won't run off a spirit battery. Using specific components doesn't reduce your Drain, it just doesn't increase it. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/15/99]

Q) So does this mean figure final component cost and the half it???? - Calabim69

A) No, what I meant was that each one of these components would count as two components (or more if the Marshal allows). [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Junkers: Origin

 

C) I am considering allowing techno-wizards, probably making them more of a techno-priest (similar to the Doomsayers). But maybe make the magic a bit more difficult to reflect the general lack of magic in the apaocalypse. I do not know yet, but I am thinking about it. Any ideas... Jay

R) Junkers are what the techno-hucksters became. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/24/98]

R) Hmm. The impression I got from the Junker section in HoE (which I understand had some really essential stuff cut for space... any chance we could see the cut bits on the list?) was that they were basically redirected mad scientists. Let me try to state that a bit more lucidly... Mads and junkers both use manitous to get ideas for inventions, but hucksters and huckster/mads can make manitous do that and a whole bunch more. It looks to me like either a) junkers descend directly from mads without any real input from huckstering, or b) for whatever reason, the secrets of how to *really* get results got lost. I know that You Are The Law (tm), but why would junkers lose the real meat of thaumaturgic diffusion once they had it? - Joe

R) I should have elaborated. It was the thaumaturgical diffusionists who first gave rise to junkers when the manitous stopped cooperating. As for *exactly* how all that worked out, you'll need to wait for the junkers book. I don't want to step on John's toes prematurely. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/25/98]

 

Junkers: Reactors

 

Q) Anyone else notice that even the smallest reactor is about 12,500 times more efficient processing energy from IGR than an Atomic Collector, and outputs energy 11 times more quickly? Sure there's more chance of irradiation, but I think it'd be worth the risk. - ?

A) Yup, reactors are much more efficient than Atomic Collectors. Besides the increased risk of G-ray exposure from instability (which Atomic Collectors don't have to worry about), reactors must be fully-fueled to before they will fire up. This got garbled a bit in editing.The line which reads "Ghost-rock reactors require a number of pounds of IGR equal to twice the reactor's Frame size," should have the words "to activate" tacked on. This is the critical mass that a particular size reactor needs to jump start the reaction. That means a junker has to come up with 8 pounds ($8000) worth of IGR just to flip the switch. And once the reactor's been running, if the junker switches it off for some reason, he must replace any depleted fuel before he can restart it. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

Q) Question #1--In the power Reactor is states that the minimum Frame size the Irradiated Ghost-Rock Reactor can be is 4, but in the example said that frame size 4 has 16 slots making it a size 2 in the new table. Now I know you changed the Frame sizes before printing and some things made it through editing that shouldn't have, so should the minimum size be changed to Frame size 2? - Fuzyn9feet A) The minimum size for a Reactor should have been dropped to 2 when the Frame size's were adjusted. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

Q) Question #2--Lets say you have a Reactor with a Frame size of 4 and puts out 16 G-Rays a round. Then someone builds it into a car that only has a 27 Drain an hour. That means the car has a .03 Drain a round, or you can say the reactor puts out 11520 G-Rays an hour, but ether way that's a lot of power going unused. My question is can a reactor be set to a lower power output? If it can't be turned down is the excess power wasted or what? - Fuzyn9feet

A) I didn't address this in the book because I figured most people wouldn't want to get involved in the extra bookkeeping. A fully fueled reactor has 365 days of fuel. Assume that a reactor has a half and quarter power setting. Each day spent at a lower setting burns an equivalent amount of fuel, i.e. a half day's at half power, and 1/4 day's at quarter power. This still wastes some power, but the math gets way too ugly once you get below 1/4 power. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: Reflexes

 

Q) Question #3--Replace the word Strength with Quickness in the last question (as well as the power from Super Strength to Reflexes) See Junkers: Super Strength for previous question and that's another problem I had. - fuzzy9feet

A) Here I'd also use the device's base Quickness based on Frame size. However, this Quickness is only used for actions taken by the device while operating on its own. The hero inside would use his own Quickness for operating the device. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: Reinforce

 

Q) Device Traits: Vigor makes reference to the reinforce power, which isn't listed anywhere else in the book.- ?

A) Again, this is something that was cut and we failed to remove all evidence of. There was a lot of material that didn't make it into this book for space reasons. A lot of it will appear in later books and in the Updates sections. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Junkers: Rocketman

 

Q) have a question on the power of Rocketman from the Junkman Cometh. Uhm. What's the power's TN? It's not listed. - nightchilde

A) Good catch. We'll make sure this gets added to the errata. The TN for Rocketman is 5. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Junkers: Sensors

 

Q) First, what'd be the difference between a passive and active spirit sight sensor? Would a passive only detect ghosts and manitous? Could you use an active in conjunction with some seismic sensor to detect ghost rock? Second, what'd be the game mechanism behind using a natural sense ECM? For example, would a cloaking field add the dice roll to my character's sneak roll, or would it be used instead of sneak? I also noticed that it's a lot cheaper to hide a device from natural sight than it is to hide it from radar. - ?

A) Passive spirit sensors are an enhancement to normal vision, they don't entirely replace it. This means that they can only see spiritual objects which are in plain sight. A manitou behind a door is just as invisible to a passive spirit sensor as it is to the un-aided eye. Active spirit sensors beam out powerful rays of spiritual energy which, like spirit weapons, can penetrate objects in the physical world. This gives these sensors a kind of x-ray vision which can see spiritual objects unblocked by physical ones.Use the sensor's ECM rating or the character's sneak, whichever is higher. This means that unless you build a sophisticated sensor with a high rating, most heroes are better off without it--at least against natural senses. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

Q) Sensor I am a little dense on the difference between passive and active sensors. Do Passive sensors only detect other things giving off the thing that it senses, whereas an active sensor can build a picture of its surroundings? Could someone give me a couple of examples of different sensors please? Is there such a thing as a passive touch sensor, or sound sensor? or are all sound sensors passive since they just detect sound? how bout smell sensors? - decker

A) As you said, passive sensors can only detect things which are giving off the type of energy it is built to detect. A few examples would be: the human eye detects reflected light, the human ear detects sound waves, the remote sensor on a TV or VCR detects the beam from the remote, and the guidance system on a Sidewinder missile detects the infrared waves coming off of hot objects like a jet exhaust. Active sensors detect objects by beaming out their own energy and detecting what is reflected back at them. The most obvious example is radar, it beams out radio waves which bounce off solid objects in the path of the beam and are reflected back at the radar set. Sonar and laser rangefinders work in the same way, but they use sound and focused light instead of radio waves. A passive touch sensor would be something like a pressure pad. The human ear or a sonar set used in listening mode are both passive sound sensors. Smell sensors are normally passive--they wait for the smell causing molecules to touch them--but it is possible to make active smell sensors. These normally use a very high-frequency laser beam and detect molecules in a gas by the frequencies of light which are emitted by molecules struck by the laser. - [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) It says all active sensors must have a range but that passive mainly depend on the range of the active sensors they are listening for. Does this means that they don't buy ranges or that they have ranges, but the thing they are sensing for must sense within the passive sensors range? - decker

A) The ranges listed for passive sensors are there as guidelines for the Marshal. It really depends on what the sensor is detecting. A passive sound sensor, for example might be unable to hear a whisper 100 yards away, but it can hear the sonic boom of a supersonic jet from many miles away. A radar detector might detect a handheld police radar unit from a half mile or so away, but it could detect the traffic control radar of a major airport from a long way off. There's not really any way to give hard and fast rules for this. The best guideline to use is if the detector is within the active sensor's range, it can probably detect it. When in doubt, roll the sensor's rating versus a TN set by the Marshal. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) Also it says the Sensor powers have max ranges enhanced senses 5 miles and spirit Sight 5 miles yet when you look at the chart for Range p89 it lists 1 mile and 10 miles but no 5 miles. Shouldn't there be a 5 mile range?

A) The sensor ranges listed for the various types is for passive sensors. The range table on pg. 89 is for active sensors. The 5-mile range was skipped on this table to condense it slightly and to keep the slot costs down at the high end of the table. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Junkers: Shield

 

Q) "Your garden variety shield projects a dome-shaped field over the object within it." This is worded a little confusing to me. It sounds like it projects a dome completely around the object, just maybe not under it, but does this field just project around the object it is built on, or does it go a little further. I was thinking of making a bird type companion that would have a shield, and could sit on my shoulder and project the field around us both if need be. If I made the bird size four, and gave it a size seven shield, could it sit on my shoulder and project a field around both of us?- decker

A) Yes. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) would I need the spherical variant? Also since i'm on the subject could a size 7 shield be run at size 4, perhaps with a 1 slot selector switch? - decker

A) You wouldn't need to make it spherical. As long as the bird's shield is large enough to cover you, it gives normal protection. A shield can be run at any size between 1 and it's maximum rating. Like most variable setting devices a 1-slot selector switch is needed. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Junkers: Slugs

 

Q) In particular Slugs... . "He can also make slugs containing original programs if he knows the science:computer programming Aptitude. The slug creation time doesn't include the time it takes for the junker to write the program." My question is how does this work? Do you make a slug with a TN 9 and a science:computer programming roll set against a TN set by the marshal for what you want to create? Also can you create a blank slug, and then using a computer programming roll create a program for it? Provided you have a makeshift computer? - decker

A) The TN for the creation of the program is set by the Marshal. The junker doesn't have to have a computer, he just needs to record the program on something--toilet paper, stone tablets, whatever. Once the program is done, the junker just makes a slug using the TN of 9, and the program is automatically encoded on the slug. If all you have is a blank slug, the junker has to do it the old-fashioned way: put the program in a computer and download it to the slug. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

Q) Similar Question, can you take a program that's in storage and transfer it to a blank slug? - decker

A) Yes. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Junkers: Super Strength

 

Q) Question #2--While building a Battle Suit I found a few snags. I want to use the power 'Super Strength' to give anyone using the suit +2 steps of strength, but the way it works assumes that the added strength is fixed and of the device. The slots are the same for raising the strength by two steps but the drain is based off the 'final' die type. So my question is should I go with my gut and say that average person has a d6 strength and use it as a base, or just use the device's 'strength' given by it's size as the base (Frame-6; strength= 3d6 so +2 steps is 3d10, Drain 3), or just say the +2 starts at d4 (raising the strength to d8) and give the device a drain of 2.

A) I would use the device's base Strength based on its Frame size. If you want to cheat a little and squeak in an extra die type, there's no reason why a battlesuit couldn't be slightly larger than man-sized (Frame 7), this would let you start at 2d8 and bump it to 2d12. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: Tech spirits

 

Q) How often do tech spirits produce g-rays when built into a device?(ex. Bus spirit in a scooter) - redurgam

A) The amount of energy produced by over-sized spirits is also per round. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: Tool

 

Q) When casting a tool trick the book say to roll Spirit/science: occult engineering. What does that mean? - redurgam

A) This means to use the number of dice equal to the junker's level in science occult engineering, but use the junker's Spirit die type instead of Knowledge (which is what that skill is normally associated with). [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: VTOL

 

(See Junkers: Locomotion)

 

Junkers: Weaponsmith

 

Q) Question #1--I was looking at Weaponsmith and noticed that the Energy Weapon slot requirement it probable way to much. For the example to work (Str+4d6) with 24 slots it wouldn't fit an anything smaller than a rifle sized thing (unless you can roll a 26 on the Miniaturize Tool Trick). That would be extremely too unwieldy. Even an energy pocket knife with 1d4 wouldn't fit in a pocket knife body. Is this a mistake or is it right? - Fuzyn9feet

A) The slot requirement for this option should be half the listed amount. The Drain remains the same. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Junkers: Weight

 

Q) One of my players asked me this question and the both of us cannot answer it. Besides armour, how do you calculate the final weight of a finished product? Do we use common sense or is there a system around that we missed? - regret

A) Figuring the weight of a finished device is up to the Marshal, using the Frame size examples as general guidelines. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Metagame

 

Metagame: Arcane Backgrounds, setting atmosphere

 

(Ed Note. This is a response from John Hopler regarding the HoE setting in general. It was just too good to not include somewhere, so here it is. Including Bflory's initial post - which was also pretty good)

Q) First and foremost are issues of game balance. I can say with some degree of certainty that I am far to the left when it comes to schools of role-playing. Storyline and character development are items that I hold near and dear to my heart. As such, game balance between different "classes" (in this case Arcane Backgrounds), usually matters very little to me. However, when such a glaring disparity exists as does in the HoE universe, I *do* notice. Fortunately (or unfortunately), this problem seems to be restricted to HoE; I've never had a problem with Hucksters, Mads, or Blessed overpowering the "norms" in the party in a Weird West game. In all honesty, I do not expect to be able to say the same of HoE in a few months. A primary factor in this concern is the mitigation of the probability of backlash. In the Weird West, power always comes with risk. Even Blessed- potentially the most powerful AB in the setting- need to be wary of the Sinnin' table. In HoE, I cannot say the same. For the most part, the backlash rules in HoE seem to be included strictly for form's sake, and do not present a real danger to the posse. Sure, every now and then a Doomsayer is going to go bust on his 5d12 faith roll. Maybe. A similar situation exists for sykers. The Templars, OTOH, get off scot free, nary a naughty backlash mechanic among them. The only AB that seems reasonably balanced under the current rules are junkers. Sure they can build devices of incredible doom, but there is risk involved. Risk of jury-rigged components falling apart. Risk of the fickle tech spirits abandoning you at your hour of need. The risk of being *burned* is very real. Thereby the junker is perhaps the only AB that is roughly balanced with a non-AB starting character. Kudos to you, Mr. Hopler, for including this aspect in "The Junkman Cometh". Exacerbating the problem of overly powerful ABs are some of the Edges and Hindrances (?) available. For the best example, one need look no further than Children o' the Atom. The hindrance 'Lifetap' is either ill-conceived, ill-categorized, or ill-managed. In any case, it makes *me* ill. For those of you in the dark, the Hindrance affects the way strain is spent by a Doomsayer. Half of the strain a Doomsayer spends on any spell is instead (not in addition to) lost from the Doomie's wind total, with any odd point distributed as the Doomie sees fit. For example, he would cast a Nuke for 2 strain and 2 wind, with an additional point lost from either strain or wind, player's option. Can you say "broken"? Good, I knew you could. In my experience a Doomsayer is largely limited in the long term, when it comes to strain. Normally, low strain issues will not come into play until the end of an adventure, forcing the Doomie to make some hard choices on when and which spells to cast. By subbing Wind for Strain (which, I might add, requires a *minute* to recover, as opposed to an *hour*), the problem of strain management is essentially removed. Barring property and posse damage, the Doomie may now cast nuke with abandon. Ah ha! But I could make individual encounters more difficult, yes? Perhaps. But what about the gunfighter? The old soldier? What about all the other characters that can't dole out destruction on a massive scale? To use a D&D frame of reference for a moment, it's like plopping a 20th level character into a party of 1st level characters. One of two things is going to happen: tailor to the low-levels, and have the high level clean house. Bored low-levels. Our other option is to challenge the high level, and to hell with everyone else. Because that's exactly where they'll go. They won't have the firepower to stand up to the punishment they'll take. Further complicating matters are additional edges such as Child o' the Atom (extra strain). It's no wonder the days of AB-lite posses have passed us by. Rather than being a rare, mysterious, and sometimes dangerous gift, players often must take an AB simply to keep on an even keel with the rest of the party. Feh. Finally, I come to the last (and possibly most important) complaint: Killer Tomatoes. The complaint is more general than that, but I find killer tomatoes are the symptom most emblematic of the underlying disease. Stuff like this simply does *not* belong in Hell on Earth. Right about now, I can hear many of you cracking your knuckles, ready to lay into me for making a blanket statement like this. I'm sure I'll receive plenty of messages along these lines: "Who do you think you are, coming in here and telling us what does and doesn't belong in the HoE universe?! We'll play the game however we want!" Guess what, kids? You're welcome to it. But Killer Tomatoes and other assorted silliness are not out of place just because *I* say so. I'm just another guy who plays Deadlands. Killer Tomatoes and such are out of place because they're inconsistent. Because until now, the Deadlands universe has not been a Saturday morning cartoon. And with a dime novel entitled "Killer Clowns" coming down the pipe, it looks like it's going to get worse. I realize that any and all of these complaints can be fixed by Marshal caveat, and in my campaign, most will be. But every game needs a baseline. Every game needs a style, a genre, and a substance that is indelibly linked with said game. Looking at Hell on Earth as a whole, the universe seems to be slowly sliding into a mish-mash of ideas- a patchwork quilt of style and substance. I only hope it can still be salvaged. - bflory

A) HOE was intended from the beginning to up the power meter a bit from Deadlands. The chances of backlash and such were reduced to allow magic-using types to cast spells more often and reliably. This was at least partly in response to the gripe we often heard that hucksters (by and large the most common AB in Deadlands) were underpowered and too unreliable. (To those concerned that the recent changes may make hucksters too powerful, don't be. The changes only reduce the huge number of points hucksters had to sink into their powers, they don't make them any more powerful other than allowing them to have a slightly large selection of hexes available.) As for heroes with ABs totally overshadowing norms in the posse, I have to side with Goff on this one. I have run a HOE game for well over a year and I've also played a bunch, and in my game the biker chick with the auto-loading shotgun and the ex-special forces soldier generally deal out more damage than the arcane weanies in the group. Sure, when ammo runs low or they're up against some sort of supernatural threat, the posse has to depend more on the arcane types, but the normals usually contribute just as much to the group in combat. Non-AB heroes also tend to be more rounded characters than AB heroes. The average character has roughly 20 points (plus any Hindrance points left over from buying Edges) to buy skills with, 8 points for an AB and casting skill is 40% of that total. Non-AB heroes usually have a wider range of skills because of this and tend to do better in the social/investigation portions of adventures. In my experience AB players tend to want to increase their power, so most of their bounty points get sunk into more powers. At 5 points a pop that's a lot of skill development they pass up. It also depends on how the game is run. I'm not talking about slapping the arcane types with arbitrary restrictions or using gamemaster fiat to keep them under control, I'm talking about structuring an adventure to challenge the group's weaknesses and considering the ramifications of the heroes' actions. Take Nuke for instance. When writing an adventure for a posse with a Doomsayer with this power, early on I'd throw in an encounter against a mutant horde or a swarm of radrats. Something that seems overwhelming. That way the Doomsayer can throw a few Nukes, get it out of his system, and more importantly burn off a few Strain. Then don't let the group rest, keep the action going so the ABs don't have time to get their Strain back. "Complete rest and meditation" does not mean simply that no one is shooting at the hero. He has to be somewhere relatively quiet and peaceful where he can relax. Bumping down a rutted fire road in a pickup with broken shocks or pulling sentry duty in a cold downpour don't cut it. There are a lot of ways to keep AB heroes from getting their Strain back.Later in the adventure, I'd have some of the action take place in close quarters or in some other area where tossing a Nuke would be dangerous. If setting a large explosion off someplace would be a bad idea in the real world , it should be a bad idea in the game. If the Doomsayer throws one anyway, be creative. If the area is much smaller than the spell's radius, but pretty sturdy, intensify the power of the blast and make sure the posse gets a good dose of it. If the area is rickety, have the ceiling fall on the group, or maybe have a portion of the building or mine tunnel completely collapse. If the Doomsayer Nukes everything he sees, the posse's salvage potential should drop accordingly. Nuke victims' equipment should be shattered, broken, and useless, and just because a hero spends some chips to avoid damage from a friendly Nuke, doesn't mean his equipment was unscathed. After a few posse members lose some equipment to their Doomsayer's extravagance, they'll be begging him to tone it down. In short, if you make an AB hero feel the real effects of the power he has unleashed, he'll quickly learn to only pull out the big guns when they're really needed. This can be applied to any of the ABs not just Doomsayers. If a syker uses Arson in California during the summer, start a brush fire that rages out of control for days and then triggers mudslides in the winter because of the lack of foliage. Or it gets out of control and burns down the building the posse's fighting in, killing some innocent townspeople. Don't let players get in to the mode of thinking that their powers are simply an arcane widget maker in which they insert Strain X and get canned effect Y out the other end. The use of their powers should have real consequences. I do agree that Lifetap should not be a Hindrance, since it gives the Doomie extra Strain with no added chance of Backlash. It should be an Edge. I'd put at 2 points (between the cost of Fortitude and Overkill) because the Wind loss is mandatory, not an option, and the Wind loss makes it more likely for a hero to get put down in combat. As far as tone and atmosphere go, I'm with you on the Killer Tomatoes. They don't exist in my game. Obviously, Marshals can selectively edit the material however they want, but as a company Pinnacle has a responsibility to try to cater to what the audience wants. As the third, and hopefully last for awhile, HOE line editor, one of my goals is try to establish a more consistent mood for the line. I want to keep the humor, but make the world a little darker and grittier. Since the vast majority of the writing for the coming year is going to be done by myself and Mr. Goff, I think between the two of us we can come up with a consistent atmosphere. As for Killer Clowns, I've played it (and survived, I don't know why everyone keeps whining about Goff's adventures). It's both very creepy (I hate clowns) and very deadly. Sincerely, John Hopler [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/30/99]

 

Monsters

 

Monsters: Black Hats and chipped weapons

 

Q) Could a Doomsayer use EMP on these chips, and if so, what would happen? Would they all immediately explode, or have the chips been shielded from EMP effects? - DarrinBrigA)

A) They're shielded. Just boost the TN by +4 or so. That's my "quick" ruling. Use that until John gives you the "official" answer. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/25/98]

Q) Buffy the Doomsayer wants to use EMP on some black hats. The Black Hats have chipped brain bombs, chipped assault rifles, and are riding around in a chipped HMV. Will EMP work on them, what's the TN, and do their brains automatically explode? - darrin

A) EMP does work on Combine equipment. If a Combine chip is shorted out by EMP, the attached charge detonates immediately. Throckmorton has taken steps to prevent this, of course, so the chips have some degree of hardening against this. The chips in individual soliders and small arms are considered military computers (TN 11). Combine vehicles and large, crew-served weapons have more shielding, requiring a TN of 13 to short. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Monsters: Black Hats Template

 

Q) On pg. 210, under the Black Hat description, a large knife is listed with a damage of STR+1d4. Damage should be STR+1d6. A) Oops! I'm forwarding this on to Matt Tice so he can post the errata on the web site. My bad, friends! [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 10/4/98]

 

Monsters: Bloodwolf

 

Q) What happens when say a bloodwolf takes killing damage from a normal bullet? Or the bloodwolf falls 100 feet onto a bed of wooden stakes?

A) The bloodwolf is undead, so it's not immune to normal bullets. Killing damage to any place other than the heart (its focus) simply racks up wound modifiers, but the thing keeps on coming. In vampire form, falling onto the stakes would do full damage and probably kill it. In werewolf form it would take damage from the fall, but ignore the stakes because it is immune to wooden weapons in this form. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Monsters: Counting Coup

 

C) What, even the redone counting coup? - ?

C) Well - afaik - that particular rule change hasn't made it to a DL book yet. - Darious

R) Because that rule DID NOT change for Deadlands. It's an after-effect of the end of the Reckoning. Let me be clear, ONLY Harrowed can count coup in DL. In HOE, anyone can. [Shane Hensley, DL listserv, 8/20/98]

 

Monsters: Deadlands survivors

 

Q) Is it safe for me to assume as a Marshal that some of the creatures from Deadlands have survived? I realize that is pretty much up to me anyway, just curious as to whether or not there's an offical say in it. Ryan Wilson

A) Absolutely. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 10/5/98]

 

Monsters: Vampires

 

Q) How is a "true" vampire created? Are we looking at possibly seeing "master" vampires (whose bite creates "true" vampires) in a later suppliment? - Prince Nightchilde,

A) The Jersey Seven are indeed "true" vampires. There is no need for a "master" vampire to create a "true" vampire, any "true" vampire can do it. They have to take care and perform a small bloodletting ritual which will birth their new compadre into the unlife of the vampire. It is only when one of them just kills someone (without the ritual) and leaves the body to be forgotten that it turns into a nosferatu. [Zeke Sparkes, Direct email, 3/3/99]

 

Mutations

 

Mutations: Ace of Spades

 

Q) Is the player allowed to see the Marshal's action cards? If so, what is the Rad Screen for? In discussing ways to handle combat with mooks, the books say something along the lines of, "slap down a couple cards behind the Marshal's screen." If not, what is the point of the mutation's ability to effect the Marshal's cards? - Frostbit

A) In general, no, don't let the players see your cards. A guy with this special ability obviously presents an exception, so let him peek. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 2/1/98]

 

Mutations: Harrowed

 

(See Harrowed: Mutations)

 

Mutations: Missing cards

 

Q) Hey where are the 10 of Clubs and 10 of Hearts from the Major Mutation Table? - ?

A) Durn gremlins. You can't set anything down around here without them runnin' off with it! Looks like they took off with our 10 of Clubs and 10 of Hearts. You'll have to draw again if you pull those cards. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/22/99]

 

Mutations: Omega Man

 

(See Doomsayers: Grundies)

 

Radiation

 

Radiation: Radius of effect

 

(Cut out is a lot of annoying stuff about how Sybaris is within 11 miles of the ground zero of a nuke - ed note.)

Q) But...according to the basic rulebook, page 103, everyone from 5-30 miles has to make a TN 5 Vigor check _every hour_ to avoid radiation poisoning. So, everyone in Sybaris is making Radiation/Vigor checks, every hour, to avoid rad poisoning?? In general, do people find this 30 mile radius thing a bit...restricting? Or should I just take Pinnacle's route, and ignore it, as the whole Sybaris thing seems to suggest? - Steve Crow

A) The rad zone rules in the main rulebook were meant as very general guidelines. The actual danger zone around any impact site is up to the Marshal, and is very dependent on the particular terrain and weather in question. A town only 5 miles west of an impact, but on the other side of a mountain with strong prevailing winds blowing east, could be perfectly safe while another town 50 miles away to the east might be hotter than the inside of a microwave. Basically, the Marshal should use whatever makes the most sense and fits best in his story. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/15/99]

 

Radiation: Vigor checks

 

Q) On a related note, has anyone figured out a way to...well, figure out a way to speed up or compress Radiation-vigor checks? Making 24 rolls a game-day tends to really put a crimp in _role playing, although it does wonders for roll_ playing. Given a group size of 6 people, that's a big 144 rolls - more if I, say, compress time. Or, by having my current adventure in a relatively small city, but within a city that is 28-30 miles away, am I doing the wrong thing, and for extended says, I should just set all adventures further out? - Steve Crow

A) Hourly checks can mean a lot of rolls, but they were intended to make players either take precautions against the radiation or spend only limited stretches of time in hot areas. If you spend a lot of time in a radioactive area simpy bump the TN up by +2 to +6 depending on how much time goes by. If the roll is made, the hero's fine. Otherwise they take Wind equal to the amount by which the roll is missed. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/15/99]

 

Rulebooks, general

 

Rulebooks: General

 

C) As a rule of thumb, any time there's a conflict between a rule in the book and an archetype, go with the rule. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

 

Rulebooks, Junkman Cometh

 

Rulebooks: Deadlands Dispatch

 

C) I really could have gone without the Deadlands Dispatch. It just seemed kind of useless and filled with stuff I already knew. Those four pages would have been better filled with more example devices. - ?

R) As the author, I have to admit that I was pretty grumpy about giving up those four pages. I was already having a hard time cramming everything into the book as it was. However, even with those four pages I wouldn't have been able to fit everything, and the Dispatch gives me a place to put the stuff that got cut so it will eventually make it out there. Also, once all of the main character books are done (which will be as soon as Cyborgs hits the stores) the HOE story line will come out of the holding pattern it's been in and things will start to happen. The Dispatch is one of the places that players will hear about these things, since many of them may have no relation to the topic of the book they appear in. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/2/99]

 

Rulebooks: Junkman Cometh

 

Gremlins love gizmos and a few of them managed to worm their way into The Junkman Cometh. Most of these were spotted by diligent readers on the listserv. Here are the corrections and a few clarifications.

*) Associated Spirits: There are a few spots in which there is a conflict between the associated powers listed for a browser spirit and associated spirit listed in the power's description. Where conflicts exist, use the listing in the power description.

*) Non-existent powers: This was a fairly complex book, and many of the powers were changed and/or renamed numerous times. We thought we had kept up with all the changes, but we missed a few. Ignore references to the flow, reinforce, and rotor powers. These were cut (although they may appear in later updates). Any mention of the flight power actually refers to the VTOL power.

*) Ammo Instability: Since ammo is created in batches, it also makes instability checks in batches. Just roll for the batch the first time a bullet from it is fired each day. If it becomes unstable, the effect applies to the entire batch.

*) Page 37: The new device system has increased the Drain of many devices. To help junkers out the power output of a conventional G-Ray collector should be increased to 80 GR/pound. This wokrs out to an even 16 GR per ounce, allowoing junkers to burn whatever small scraps of ghost rock they can get their hands on without killing themselves with the math.

*) Page 45: Familiars are not the size of a cello case. The Framse size of 4 listed for familiars is incorrect. They have a frame size of 2. Just to clarify things, familiars don't need the agility power, just the sensor power to see, and locomotion or VTOL to move. Unlike most devices, the tech spirit in the device does the rest.

*) Page 81: the powerplant sizes for the locomotion power are too large. Ten percent should be subtracted from each of the listed powerplant sizes. [HoE Cyborgs book, errata in the back, 8/16/99]

 

Rulebooks, Last Crusaders

 

Rulebooks: Last Crusaders, source material

 

Q) I just had to delurk and ask this after reading Last Crusaders...Shane are you an Oakland Raiders fan? :) - Mike

A) You know it. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 5/9/99]

Q) I just started reading Last Crusaders, and want to confirm something? The head Librarian's name is Liebowitz? If he's named Liebowitz for the same reason I'm thinking he's been named Liebowitz..... .. just freaking absoing perfect. Just one of those things that makes me go, damn I wish I thought of that. Also makes me think that I should have thought of that long ago. - darious

A) (Grin.) It is. Canticle anyone? (BTW, I live for this stuff! Thanks for catching it!) [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 5/10/99]

 

Rulebooks, Main

 

Rulebooks: Hell On Earth Main, Dr. Pepper (Hey, enquiring minds gotta know)

 

Q) Chapter 4. The burning question, what's up with the Dr. Pepper? Am I missing something being Australian or do you have some sort of weird Ad campaign going with them? - tbet1

A) There's long been an "urban legend" that a certain chemical in Dr. Pepper washes out radiation. Sheep supposedly have high levels of the same chemical in their body, and are also particularly resistant to radiation. I've figured out what the chemical must be, but can't find any real proof. So we decided that since it was fun, in our world, it's real (and it MIGHT be in the real world as well). I'll let those who are smarter than me tell the real story if they know it. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/15/98]

 

Rulebooks: Hell On Earth Main, errata

 

p.58: The "Police Hellfire" SMG should simply read "Police" SMG. The "Hellfire" entry was left-over from a Hellstromme Industries weapon that appears in Wasted West.

p.58: The footnote for the Grenade and Rocket Launcher should be 5, not 4.

p.74: The syker archetype's Strain and Pace are reversed.

p.74: Fortitude costs 1, not 2 (the syker's chapter is correct).

p.91: is right. You can draw a bead and get the bonus on your first burst only.

p.121: Atomic Blast: The last sentence should read: If the miracle succeeds and hits the target, it inflicts 1d10 damage plus 1d10 damage for every raise over the miracle's TN (not the TN to hit the target). Example: The TN of the miracle is 5, the TN to hit your target is 7. You roll a 15. That's 2 raises on the miracle causing 3d10 damage. That's also a raise over the TN to hit, so you can adjust the hit location by +/-1 (just like with a firearm).

p.196: In the Mysterious Pasts section it talks about a "Arcane Background" the character gets at "level 1." This needs to read, he gets "blastin' at level 1" and one syker power.

p.210: under the Black Hat description, a large knife is listed with a damage of STR+1d4. Damage should be STR +1d6. [Pinnacle Website, http://www.peginc.com/HOE/HOEOops.html, 8/11/99]

 

Rulebooks, Radiation Screen

 

Rulebooks: Radiation Screen, errata

 

Shootin' Thangs

A) The "Police Hellfire" SMG should simply read "Police" SMG. The "Hellfire" entry was left-over from a Hellstromme Industries weapon that appears in Wasted West.

B) The footnote for the Grenade and Rocket Launcher should be 5, not 4.

 

More Important Thangs

 

While it's not errata, the "Wounds & Chips" Table has been misinterpreted. It has nothing to do with negating wounds, it's the system for marking wounds on bad guys (see p. 180-181).

[Pinnacle Website, http://www.peginc.com/HOE/RadOops.html, 8/31/98]

 

Rulebooks: Road Warriors

 

Rulebooks: Road Warriors, similarity to Car Wars

 

C) If I were more familiar with the Car Wars rules, I'd do this in a heartbeat. In fact, my current impression of the Road Warrior rules is they are nothing more than a warmed over hack job of the Car Wars rules anyway. The Car Wars rules are probably a lot more balanced, as they've been around quite a bit longer, but then again the kludge work PEG put together would go a LOT faster. If the focus of your game is going to be arena duels, might as well micromanage the battles and cut down roleplaying to a minimum. I guess the real issue is speed versus detail, and all that really boils down to personal tastes. - darrin

R) As the hack who wrote the "kludge" work, I've got a few bones to pick. First, I freely admit I've played Car Wars. When I was in high school, my brother and I played lots of Car Wars (and that was back in the "old days" when the game came in a little zip-lock baggy). Was I influenced by the game? Sure, but show me a game designer who says he wasn't influenced by other games he's played and I'll show you a liar. Anyway, here's how the current rules in Road Warriors came to be: My main goal was to create rules that would integrate vehicle combat into the existing HOE initiative and skill system in a way that was fairly realistic without significantly slowing down play. As anyone who's done it can tell you, trying to integrate vehicles into a role-playing combat system (which is essentially a man-to-man infantry simulation) is a royal pain in the butt due to the huge differences in movement speeds. Specifically to avoid charges that I copied Car Wars (which is pretty much the standard by which other vehicular games are measured), I started out working on abstract systems which didn't require counters or measuring movement, or anything like that. None of these systems satisfied me because they all lacked the detail which I felt most players wanted and because they were bound to cause all sorts of questions if a player wanted to do something out of the ordinary (although these systems did give me some ideas that I used as the basis for the chase rules in Road Warriors).

I eventually decided that I was going to have to do some sort of tactical system. The first few systems I tried were aimed at being able to use HOE minis, but trying to resolve vehicle movement at 25mm scale either required an enormous playing area, or changing the ground scale. Changing the ground scale caused all sorts of problems, because then the figures and car counters were ridiculously over-sized and pedestrian movement became almost insignificant. This eventually led me to the conclusion that I was going to have to scale things down. I eventually decided on Car Wars scale (1"=15 feet) for probably the same reason Steve Jackson did: it's small enough to be playable on a tabletop and it makes the math very easy--10 mph = 1" of movement (10 mph is 15 feet/second (14.6666...for you purists)). I also chose this scale for a reason that has already been pointed out on the listserv (and which I couldn't point out in a Pinnacle product): there are tons of car counters, road sections, and maps available from Steve Jackson Games in this scale. As far as the actual system goes, the details of moving the counters around are similar to Car Wars for a simple reason: the physics of vehicle movement are the physics of vehicle movement. I suppose I could have come up with fancy, outlandish names for the maneuvers, but that would have been a purely cosmetic change. The actual play mechanics are pure HOE. The only real change to regular HOE mechanics was breaking the 5-second combat round up into five 1-second movement phases for vehicles. I originally had cars move on their driver's action cards just like pedestrians, but this gave some pretty unrealistic results, especially if a driver got a single high card. He could floor it and pull out of sight in a single action before anyone could react. Adding the phases put an end to this and gave much more realistic results. I think the fact that the Road Warriors system limits a driver to a single maneuver per second (two if he's got a sleeve card) is actually more realistic than Car Wars, where a car can pull 1 maneuver for each 1" of movement it has per second. That means a car going 60 mph could attempt 6 maneuvers per second (provided the driver doesn't blow a roll). The next time you watch an action movie with a car chase count seconds and see how long it takes to pull off some maneuvers. Hard turns and bootleggers can take nearly an entire second for the one maneuver. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Shamans

 

Shamans: Existence

 

Q) All the shamans are gone (wiped out by the Reckoners & others). - Gwydion758

A) Nope. They're still around and GD should have been in the list (check the HOE errata posted on the new site later today). - [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/24/98]

Q) You ARE planning a new source book. Gwydion758

A) Yes we are. It will cover the new "toxic shamans." [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/24/98]

 

Skills

 

Skills: Jumping

 

(Ed note. This is in response to the observation that the "Kid" in Doomsayers has no skill to back up his story given jumping ability)

C) For those of you who want a jumping mechanic, I suggest adding a new Nimbleness based skill called...ta-da... jumpin'. (I'd give the Kid a 5 in this skill). The base TN for most jumpin' attempts is a 5. This can be modified by the Marshal as he sees fit due to bad footing, differences in height between takeoff and landing sites, etc. The distance a hero can jump is based on his Strength die. Each raise on the jumping roll adds distance based on the type of jump being attempted.

Distance Per raise

Vertical Strength die/4 feet 1/2 foot

Standing Long Jump Strength die/2 feet 1 foot

Running Long jump Strength die/feet 2 feet

[John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/16/99]

 

Skills: Quickdraw

 

(See Character Creation: Archetype mistakes)

 

Skills: Scroungin'

 

Q) Are scroungin rolls (bullets, junker parts) open-ended? - Patrick Phalen

A) It's a skill roll, so sure. - [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/1/98]

 

Sykers

 

Sykers: Arson

 

Q) Arson - Does this have a burst radius? The description says that it is a "fiery burst with a DIAMETER equal to the Syker's Spirit die type in yards..." (our emphasis). Bursts are usually rated in terms of Radius, not Diameter. But otherwise this sounds a lot like our old friend the burst rules, albeit one with a radius equal to half the Syker's spirit die type. - Steve Crow

A) Arson does not have a burst radius, it doesn't explode, it simply causes flame within its area of effect. It does full damage within the listed diameter. Anyone outside this area of effect is perfectly safe [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Sykers: Brain Bomb

 

Q) In Brainburners, it states that for a Syker to successfully use Brain Bomb, they have to achieve 3 raises against a target. This is against the victim's Vigor for a TN, and each action spent trying costs 1 Strain. My question is, if you were to roll incredibly well and hit your target number with 2 raises, is that sufficient or do you need to make the TN and get 3 raises above it? Example: A victim's Vigor is 3d8, so the TN is 8. Let's say you roll 18. Does his head explode or would you need to get 23? - judasstone

A) Your example leads me to believe you don't understand how raises work. The victim would *roll* his Vigor, and your syker must get 3 raises over *that* total. Say the victim rolls a 10 and you get a 15. That's one raise. Next action, you try again. He goes bust (a 0), and you get a 10. That's two more raises. Kaboom. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/27/99]

 

Sykers: Force Field

 

Q) Can a Psyker Vamoose to put up a Force Field? - darious

A) Nope. Only powers which specificly state they can be used as a vamoose can be used in that fashion. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Sykers: Greenies

 

Q) it says that the greenies are actually the tempests of Deadlands. My questions is that, if the greenies can improve their abilities, can tempests do the same? Can they learn new powers, or improve their existing one? - smilingbandit2

A) Perhaps, but it would be unusual. The training methods didn't/don't exist in the Weird West. They've developed extensive ways to cull a greenie's power in HOE. But hey, it's your game. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/18/99]

 

Sykers: Inspiration

 

Q) Have you been living on the edge so long where the winds limbo roar? Just curious?! - Wes

A) I've been living on the edge so long you wouldn't believe it brother. And you can't imagine how much inspiration that song was. . . [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/13/99]

 

Sykers: Learning new powers

 

Q) If you are learning a power under your specialty, it takes 1d6 days to learn. If you have a mentor, it halves that time. If another teacher is teaching you a power outside your specialty (which you can't self-study at all), then it only takes 1d6 hours. 1d6 days/2 for specialties compared to 1d6 hours for non-specialties? Am I the only one who is confused by this? - Alex.

Q) Obviously, we were confused as well. Just cut the line that says "half that if he has a mentor syker with that power to teach him." Assume that your mentor can teach your character a power just as fast as another syker can (embarassed grin). BTW, this one is purely mine and Matt Forbeck (the editor's) fault, folks, not Steve's. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 2/4/99]

 

Sykers: Martial Arts

 

Q) First up The Brainburners book says that Sykers get their history partly from the martial artists, does this mean that they would be able to use the "enlightened" Martial Arts rules from Wasted west? Would it make it easier if they later learned them? it would seem to make sense, plus the military would want sykers to be able to fight...what do people think? has there been any ruling on the list about this? - ?

A) Sure, you could use DL-style martial arts and fu powers in HOE if you want to. Heck, you can use *anything* from DL if you really want to. Knock yerself out. :) I agree that the military would certainly like its highly-trained sykers to be able to fight HTH if necessary. If you wanted to create some syker powers used to simulate/enhance HTH combat, a la martial artist fu powers, you certainly could (sort of like Killing Hands physical adepts in SHADOWRUN, if you're familiar with that concept). However, given the enormous amount of training required to manifest/use syker powers, I expect they'd prefer to concentrate on developing those. Learn/use the right ones and you don't even need to bother getting your hands dirty. }:) [Steve Long, HoE Listserv, 1/19/99]

 

Sykers: Psychic Link

 

Q) Brainburners Book, page 73, Psychic Link: Range is listed as Touch to initiate, than 1 mile/blastin' level. However, the third paragraph then states, "The link continues to function REGARDLESS OF THE DISTANCE or obstacles between the characters." (our emphasis) These two entries seem to contradict each other. Which is it? - crow_steve

A) It is actually the 1 mile/blastin' level. In this case the description is wrong. [Zeke Sparkes, Direct email, 3/23/99]

 

Sykers: Pyro

 

Q) The description in BB states that "it flares on each of the controller's actions, causing 3d6 damage to its current target" and "if the Marshal is keeping track of target's wound areas...the damage is centered on one body area of the controller's choosing". Does this mean the Psyker can, in effect, generate a "head-shot" simply by designating the head as said "body area" upon successfully using the power and thus doing an additional 2d6 of damage? At a base TN of 5 with no sort of "called shot" modifier?!? If the Psyker rolled well for initiative and successfully used the power on the first of, say, 4 actions, this would mean 5d6 points of fire damage to the head of the target four separate times over the course of the round based on one pretty easy die roll for two lousy strain (not to mention the 1 in 6 chance of having clothing, etc. catch fire as well each time it flared)! Yowch! Am I interpreting this correctly? Perhaps the damage bonuses for head and gizzards don't count in this case? Or perhaps you roll body location as normal for the first action (with normal called shot modifiers) and then the controller could just move the flame to an area where it would do more damage on their next action? Are there rulings on this type of thing somewhere? I need some feedback. - grifflik

A) The syker can just pick a body location, but I'd allow the target the option of a dodge roll on each of his actions versus the syker's blastin' . If the dodge succeeds, the flame does no damage and the syker must spend an action moving the flame back onto the target. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Sykers: Starting Powers

 

Q) The wording in Brainburners is very ambiguous about what a player can select to start a character. With some help from Shane on the mailing list, I understand that any of the powers from the HOE main book can be chosen. However, what I'm wondering is, can you select any power from Brainburners, regardless of your specialty, or only within your specialty. This is only for initial character creation, not learning after you've started adventuring. I really would appreciate any help with this. - Judasston

A) As it is written in the book you are only allowed to start with powers from the HoE main rulebook. It was poorly worded and meant to convey that the powers in the main book are available to everyone. You can start with anything from the main rulebook and any power from Brainburners that is in your specialty. (What good would a book filled with powers be if you couldn't use them right?) Sorry about the confusion. [Zeke Sparkes, Direct email, 2/24/99]

Q) On page 37, Starting Powers. The paragraph mentions that a syker can start out with any of the powers in the main book. Does this mean that a syker CANNOT start out with a power that was introduced in Brainburners? If so, there's really no reason to put the new powers in the generator, save for allowing VotWW characters to take them. - James Cook

A) This is a bit of an error. What was intended was that a syker could start with any power in the main book OR any power within his speciality. New powers in BB that are NOT in his speciality must be learned after play begins. As a house rule, I'd also let a player learn powers outside the speciality with the "Additional Powers" or Veteran Edge as well. - [Shane Hensley, Direct email, 4/27/99]

 

Sykers: Sturm and Drag

 

Q) In regards to the syker power sturm und drag (page 79 of the Brainburner's sourcebook) it states the the strain remains with the juice thief until it is used or the duration of the power expires. Unfortunately the sturm und drag's duration is instant. A little clarification would be of great help. - sandy_addison

A) My bad. Simply ignore the line about the power's duration. It goes away once used. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/19/99]

 

Sykers: Telekinesis

 

Q) The power Telekinesis (BB page 79) has a Strain listing of "Special," but there is no other information that I can find in the rest of the book to tell me how to determine it. Presumably it has to do with how much the thing you're moving weighs. I've been really bad at guessing Strain costs for other powers, so I don't have a clue as to what the scales are for this one. - Xotzil

A) I think we're calling it 3. That was my mistake folks. It's supposed to go up on the Brainburners errata page asap. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 1/27/99]

 

Vehicles

 

Vehicles: Armor

 

Q) In Roadwarriors, the cost for Armor is listed as $50 X Armor Level X Size per side. What does it mean by "size per side"? I combed thru and I wasn't able to find an answer. Please help! - twilight

A) The size refers to the vehicle's size modifier listed with the vehicle's stats. A motorcycle with 2 levels of armor would pay $100 (50 x 2 x 1) per side for armor, while a semi tractor would pay $500 (50 x 2 x5). [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/14/99]

 

Vehicles: Cargo Capacity

 

Q) what is the cargo capacity of various vehicles....my trucker PC in my party wants to start hauling cargo for towns.

A) Dimension-wise the average cargo trailer is 8' wide by 8' tall (inside) by 40' long (2560 cubic feet), although 53' trailers are becoming more common (3392 cubic feet). Weight-wise, most trucks can easily handle loads in excess of 20 tons. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Vehicles: Damage

 

Q) I have a question about vehicle damage. Is it calculated like wounds? By dividing the damage by a particular size rating or some other way. - WastedDave

A) Vehicles have a Durability which is broken up into 5 Durability Steps. A vehicle with a 20/4 Durability has 20 points of total Durability and a Durbility step of 4. Damage to vehicles is divided by a number, 10 for small arms like rifles and pistols, and then subtracted from Durability. Each time the vehicle loses a a full step, it suffers a cumulative -1 penalty to all rolls to operate it. Once a vehicle hits 0 Durability it is destroyed. If a rifle did 40 points of damage to the vehicle above, it would subtract 4 from its Durability. Since this is a full Durability step, the vehicle now suffers a -1 penalty. - [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Vehicles: Junker Built

 

(See Junkers: Armor, Junkers Browsers)

Q) Can junker vehicles use the superchargers,air dams,etc?If so, how do we factor it in? - regret

A) Only those which run on spook juice. Just apply the effects ot the supercharger, etc. to the stats generated with the Locomotion power. For instance, if the car has a 10 mph acceleration and gets 50 mpg on spook juice, adding a supercharger would increase its acceleration to 15 mph and drop its mpg to 45. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

 

Vehicles: Motorcycles

 

(See also Vehicles: Mounting Weapons)

Q) How do areas on a Motorcycle work, exactly? The Mount Location areas on page 77 don't include the "Handlebar" area listed for Street and Dirt Bikes. Presumably it works and is limited similar to...Hood? Front Fender? Something else? - crow steve

A) The Handlebar area works in the same way as the Hood. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

Q) And the Side description seems a bit odd, since the "Side" description under Mount Location talks about stuff like "the long sides of big rigs...". Granted, there's no real difference between the Side Location and the Door Location, so either one should work for Motorcycles. But it still seems mildly odd. - crow steve

A) The side mount locations on a motorcycle should actually be treated as Fender locations (as far as the mount restrictions), front or rear is the owner's choice. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Vehicles: Mounting weapons

 

Q) Particularly, page 79. Under The Weapons, it says, "To mount a weapon, simply pick a weapon and a mount type, determine the TOTAL Load Points (our emphasis) for the combination, and compare it to the Load Limit OF THE AREA you wish to mount it in. But up above, for Servo Controls, it notes: "Because of...heavy-duty electrical servos...the LPs from these controls count against the mounting area's Load Limit. Doesn't _any_ mount count against an area's Load Limit? So why does the Servo Controls area reiterate this? This kinda implies that normally the Mount LPs don't count against the area's Load Limit, and the Servo Controls are an exception. -crow_steve

A) The reason the clarification "Because of...heavy-duty electrical servos...the LPs from these controls count against the mounting area's Load Limit" is there is because servo controls are not a mount type. They are something which is added to an existing mount (which does count against the load limit of an area), to allow the driver to control the weapon remotely. It must be admitted, designing motorcycles can be a bit tricky, since you only can put weapons on the front and back of size LP 1, since a mount always takes up at least one other point, for a total of 3+ for a 2LP weapon. Except for the sides, but we had trouble visualizing most of the 2+ LP weapons mounted on the side as fixed mounts. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/22/99]

 

Vehicles: Spook juice

 

Q) how is spook juice made? (player's details) - therusty

A) The ghost rock is powdered and dissolved into the water along with a number of chemical additives. The resulting is mixture is heated and stirred until the transformation into spook juice takes place. The transformation is obvious because it is acccompanied by a groan and then a sudden change in color from clear to a deep, blood red (spook juice is sometimes mistaken for wine). This is good for a Fair (5) guts check the first time someone sees it. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 6/28/99]

 

Vehicles: Travel Times

 

Q) On Page 7 of the Wasted West Sourcebook, where it is talking about daily travel speeds. It says that A Car travels on average 20mph and it says that travel times are 8 hours. It also says that the Car could go 400 miles in that same 8 hour period. My question is which is correct. If the Car goes 400 miles then it's average speed is 50 mph or If the Car's average speed is only 20 mph then it only goes 160 miles in the 8 hours. - OUR0B0ROS

A) The 20mph average is the correct number, due to bad or blocked roads, fallen bridges etc. This means a car can only travel about 160 miles per 8 hour period. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 8/13/99]

 

Weapons

 

Weapons: Automatics

 

Q) My first question involves automatics. I understand how to do a single burst, I have that down pat. My question is what happens with any burst after the first. If I have figured it out correctly you roll them like a normal completely seperate attack except minusing for recoil Is that right? - redbf

A) Yup. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 8/28/98]

 

Weapons: Bows

 

Q) It takes 2 actions to use a bow, or if you shoot from the hip, only 1. So loading an arrow, does that count as part of the actions, or is it separate? So it actually takes 3 actions. 1 for the arrow, and 2 for using the bow? - jyster007

A) That would be my call. If you already have the arrow knocked, it would take 2 actions for fire it normally, or 1 to shoot from the hip. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) Bow is considered under the shooting concentration now? - jyster007

A) Nope. It's its own skill (listed under Deftness). [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) If it takes 1 action to get a arrow, can you Quickdraw the arrow, or would you Speedload the arrow? - jyster007

A) I'd say Speedload. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

 

Weapons: Glow Rod

 

(See Weapons: Nukin' Stick)

C) it gives the stats for a control rod (Glow Stick, page 73) are: Defensive: +1, Speed: 1, Damage: Str+1d6, COst: $2,000

R) These stats are (again, almost) correct for a nuclear control rod/non-powered Glow Stick, which is a lightweight graphite staff. When powered up, the stats are the same, except that Damage increases to STR+3d10. The text was poorly-worded; the DB of +1 and Speed of 1 are the same whether the Glow Stick is powered or not. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) Finally, can Nukin' Sticks be used as Glow Sticks and vice versa? Again, I would assume so, but...

A) I'd guess not, actually. - [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

 

Weapons: Modifications

 

Q) Do all the gun modification from Law Dogs in DL (guns of quality, etc) still exist in HoE? That is, can I get a submachine gun of quality, or an officer's sidearm of quality? Do lengthening the barrel and other such things have the same effect, given the increase in gun technology? Thanks for the help - IronPen@aol.com

A) Personally, I don't see why not. Heck, had I the time right now, I could come up with an extensive list of potential gun modifications and suchlike. I'm sure several others could do the same. If I get the time, maybe I'll whip it up as a PEG website article. [Steve Long, HoE listserv, 2/3/99]

 

Weapons: Nukin' Stick

 

(See Weapons: Glow Rod)

C) In the second chapter, in the Gear section, the stats for a Control Rod (i.e. Nukin' Stick, page 53) are as follows: Defensive: +1, Speed: 2, Damage: Str+1d8, Cost: $1,000

R) These stats are (almost--see my note on prices below) correct for a Nukin' Stick, which is a heavy metal staff =rumored= to be made from a control rod. These are relatively unique items, each of which is hand-created by Joan or Silas. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) Also, it seems to me that one of the specially charged Nukin' Sticks (as blessed by someone important) should be worth a hell of a lot more than a mundane unblessed Control Rod. - ?

A) Yes, that's generally true. But remember that nuclear control rods don't necessarily carry a $2,000 price tag--that's just what some scavs can gouge out of Doomsayers when they know that the Doomsayers are really keen on using them for Glow Sticks. Also remember that Nukin' Sticks are not out there on the open market--the $1,000 price tag simply represents their relative value when bartered/traded/sold between friendly Doomsayers. In short, yeah, we should have been clearer. But always remember that no costs in the Wasted West ever represent hard-and-fast price tags. It's a society based on barter, where the relative value of an item to the trading parties is far more important than any fixed cash cost. [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) Is there any outward effect of having a Control Rod in your possession, in terms of radiation exposure? It says that a Control Rod will redline a geiger counter, so I have to figure that it's a good deal hotter than what a person normally comes in contact with, but there aren't any real guidelines with the descriptions. - ?

A) "Redlining" the geiger counter is pretty much just a figure of speech--they don't have any real in-game effects.

Q) Finally, can Nukin' Sticks be used as Glow Sticks and vice versa? Again, I would assume so, but...

A) I'd guess not, actually. - [Charles Ryan, HoE listserv, 2/19/99]

Q) the info on Nukin' Stick (page 53) says that, "Rumor is that the sticks are actually control rods...". However, this is not clarified in the Marshall section one way or another. Are they or aren't they? Why is there any uncertainty here? - Crow steve

A) Nukin' sticks are actual control rods. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/30/99]

Q) But if they are Control Rods...can they also be used for the Glowstick miracle (page 73)? I could see this as being a remarkably abusive combo. - Crow steve

A) Yes, they can be used for the Glowstick miracle. I hardly think it's abusive, the Doomsayer still has to get up close and whack his enemy with the stick. He could just as easily use the extra Strain to cast MIRV or Nuke. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/30/99]

Q) And thirdly...Nukin' Sticks only have a "cost" of $1,000. But a Control Rod has a "cost" of $2,000. If a Nukin' Stick is a Control Rod with extra perks like Strain Storage, why does it "cost" less? Unless it's made out of something less valuable than a Control Rod. But if so, what? Having a Mentor send one of his students out to gain the components for a Nukin' Stick (for the student himself, or for the Mentor to make for someone else) seems like a good adventure hook... but this "Rumor has it..." description isn't very helpful here. For that matter, why do Nukin' Sticks have any "cost" whatsoever? They're not of any use to anyone except Rad-types, and I can't imagine most other types would really want to hold on to this. ("Yeah it gives off a lot of radiation, and those green-robed red-eyed guys are probably going to show up for it eventually anyway. But I'll hold on to it to trade anyway."). Crow steve

A) You're right there is very little trade going on in used control rods. The listed "price" is there primarily for players who want to buy one for their hero with the belongin's Edge, but can also be used by other types who might have a use for such an item like junkers. As far as the cost, the listed price for a Nukin' Stick is much too low. The only way to get one is by taking it from another Doomsayer or to have one bestowed upon a character by one of the higher-ups in his organization. They should cost $4000. [John Hopler, HoE listserv, 7/30/99]

 

Weapons: SA-XM-60

 

(ed note - first part of this thread dealt with why this weapon overpenetrates on low damage numbers.)

C) Actually, full damage is usually the result of a projectile spending all of its energy in the target. Over penetration tends to result in lower damage to the original target since a lot of the energy passes straight through without hitting anything vital. It seems like a contradiction, but overpenetration is bad for delivering damage (I think anyway). - Aussie Mike

R) Yup. That's correct. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 12/9/99]

 

Weapons: Shuriken

 

Q) I was wondering if the shuriken damage listed in HOE was wrong str+1. If it is correct what extra damage is added for a gizzards or head shot? - jyster007

A) Use d4s. [Shane Hensley, HoE listserv, 9/9/98]

 

Weapons: Technological Improvement from Deadlands

 

C) (ed note - the origin of this thread is lost, but involves a discussion about how weapons should have improved from the DL times)

Interpretation -technology improves. The clunky, unreliable Mad Scientist weapons just aren't stable enough to allow for accuracy. Now - in Hell on Earth where the technology has advanced, the weapons are capable of being aimed with that first shot. Hal - does this sound good? - Darious

A) On the nose. There is a BIG difference between a sleek, modern assault rifle and a big clunky Gatling pistol :) [Hal Mangold, DL listserv, 11/5/98]

 

Weapons: TSAR

 

Q) I can't find it so, did I miss it, as I cant find the price of a TSAR, only its ammo, is it generally unavailable then, except by starting character or plot device? (which is what I gather from the description) - ?

A) I don't honestly remember if I originally put a price in there or not. However, I'd tend to regard TSAR rifles as nearly priceless; they're not something the posse should ever be able to buy. That would "cheapen" them considerably. If they ever get their hands on one, it should come as a reward after a long, hard struggle and lots of great roleplaying. ;) [Steve Long, HoE listserv, 1/19/99]

Q) Constantly sticking a sharp prong into your temple has got to be really bad for you, not to mention the serious risk of infection since it's going right through to the brain. I would think that in order for this to be practical you'd need some type of socket or jack. Otherwise there's just too many dangers and reliability problems. While from a mad scientist point of view this may not be much of a problem, we are talking about a piece of state of the art military equipment. I would think they'd have something more than just stick this pointy thing in your temple and put this band-aid over the hole when you pull it out... And isn't machine-head just a jack so you can plug things in? That's what it sounds like from the description in the book... - ecyoung

A) Unless the text from my manuscript has been altered in editing (which is entirely possible), there's no jack involved at all. You have to shove the plug, which is sharp, right in through your temple. Impractical? Maybe. Risk of infection? Maybe. I dunno. I wasn't going for practical or safe, I was going for creepy. :) We are, after all, talking about a game with mental powers, magic, and radiation-spawned mutant powers so I'm not overly concerned about the practical/realistic aspects of the process. :) Though, in truth, I can't claim complete credit for this idea. The basic idea of the TSAR -- an assault rifle which the syker is mentally connected to -- was all mine. When I ran it by Shane last GenCon, he suggested the "plug- in" aspect, which was too cool an idea to pass up. :) [Steve Long, HoE listserv, 1/21/99]

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