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Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Oct 13, 2015 8:03:14 GMT -8
I just got done being a part of my wife's Deadland's Noir one shot for my birthday (E-mail will be sent to the show with details) and it got me thinking about Harrowed. Harrowed are big time characters that come back from the dead when a demon grabs their soul on the way to hell, slaps it back in the body, and tags along to cause a little chaos by fighting the soul for control of the body. They're characters built with a great dichotomy and a ton of inner conflict that gives them power and is a constant risk of taking over and hurting the ones they might have loved in life.
My question is this, and maybe I'll throw it into the e-mail above to the show: How would you create a Noir setting around an all Harrowed party? It seems like it would be similar in concept to a Vampire: The Masquerade Sabbat campaign but without the thoughtless destruction and debauchery "for the lulz" that Sabbat are known for.
Who would the Harrowed ultimately answer to? If you pregenerated the characters, how would you make them all different? When would you have the inner demon attempt to take control from the Harrowed character?
I have a great idea for a New Orleans game called "The Soul Rippers of Bourbon Street" and want to do my research before I put the pen to paper.
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Post by ericfromnj on Oct 13, 2015 11:18:42 GMT -8
Could you make it where the group has a "near death" experience as a group and they don't know they are harrowed because they actually died?
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Post by shadrack on Oct 13, 2015 12:09:21 GMT -8
So... I have a couple questions, then I'll throw out some ideas.
1) Do they all have to be harrowed? 2) Do they know that they are harrowed? 3) Do they know the others are also harrowed?
Anyway, as far as making them different, they would be just as different as the characters were when they were alive, except now they have a Manitou that wants to drive from time to time.
As far as setting creation, I think you need to have them brought together for some reason. They were friends/business partners in life. Perhaps a new syndicate came into town and "rubbed them out", maybe they worked together in a detective agency/newspaper/as cops... etc. Perhaps this new syndicate has a voodoo practitioner they have wronged and that houngan or mambo thought this group would be just the folks to revive and set against his/her foes. Maybe the mambo (or houngan) makes themselves known to the characters maybe not.
So now they have a mystery or two: why am I alive? who killed me? who revived me? Why do I like my steak super rare, especially after being shot? (you've basically made a whole party of Crows - the J.O. Barr version)
Now, when would the harrowed spring? Well, you could go classic and assign each Manitou a vice and trigger that fight for control when that vice is in play? Just keep in mind, Manitou are clever, and don't want their body getting all messed up. Also, usually joe average doesn't get to be harrowed. The hosts probably need to have been pretty important/impressive people in life (hopefully with good and/or powerful reputations). That way the Manitou can use that body to damage reputations and spread fear.
a concern: with a whole party of harrowed, you've pretty much created an invincible party. As long as they can get away and not get entombed in concrete, or have their first death happen again, they're going to be really hard to kill. Also, whoever killed them the first time will know that something is up, and might know how to fix that 'walkin around' issue.
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Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Oct 13, 2015 12:34:01 GMT -8
So... I have a couple questions, then I'll throw out some ideas. 1) Do they all have to be harrowed? 2) Do they know that they are harrowed? 3) Do they know the others are also harrowed? 1: I'd like them to be, so yes. 2: Yes, they would know they're harrowed. The smell is usually a dead give away. 3: Yes, they would. Again, the smell... Which makes your example really helpful. If they all know they're Harrowed and their allies are Harrowed that means someone pretty powerful rubbed them out and a handful of manitou got interested enough to hop them back into their bodies. True, they will be very hard to kill but I see this campaign becoming a revenge story much like The Crow where they figure out who iced them and they get revenge...or die. Either way it would make the game fun to say "Hey, you don't take wound modifiers...but if you take a wound that part of your body is hamburger until you heal." That is where I think the fun would be, being these unstoppable forces who actually are stoppable in the most inconvenient way. Thrown into the era of the Depression where money is hard to get and quality goods even harder to get and the players will be forced to think outside the box.
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