Re: The Thing With Many Bodies

From: julianlord <julian.lord_at_FXttCnreoWxErL9UxR18OZH4MzbzdrKwQLRunNVzifOwOMRD4Aiyqsn9wldZEyUq>
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 14:11:02 -0000


Stephen Tempest :

> Think of it this way: the monster can kill individual members of your
> clan, but that doesn't kill The Clan itself. That goes on from
> generation to generation. Killing the monster works the same way in
> reverse: you can kill the thing with many bodies, but not The Thing
> With Many Bodies.

This would be my approach too -- although...

> It's supernaturally tied to your clan, part of its
> self-definition, drawing its strength from you and vice-versa. Killing
> it permanently, if that were even possible, might have drastic and
> unpleasant effects on your clan...

I'm not *certain* that I'd handle it that way if I were to use it in a game, I think most things would depend on my players' playing style, and the campaign style.

Sure, treating it like some kind of supernatural link, or as a HeroQuesting enemy is one way -- but hard-nosed down-to-earth solutions can be just as much fun.

I'm personally inclined though, that with this sort of "enemy", towards the approach that it's simply far too big for the player characters to handle in almost any campaign, I *might* provide the players with some means of upping the ante, but I generally prefer to just dump the massive problem in their laps, and wait for *them* to come up with some workable means of dealing with it... or not...

Another way to portray it would be like a force of (super)nature, which just blows in and out of your lives, leaving behind it a wake of destruction and death. There is absolutely no requirement that it needs to be defeated by the Heroes. Disaster movie storylines can be fun too :)

This doesn't mean that all of these ideas can just be brushed aside, indeed it's very useful for the GM to be *aware* that successful plans to defeat it *are* possible. But it will be a lot more fun if the players either independently invent one of these plans, or not, or especially if they invent a completely new plan of their own.

I'd personally be likely as GM to shoot down the "let's just HeroQuest" solution, by pointing out (in my game) that seeing as this Horror has actually *never* been defeated, nobody in the clan knows any myths that would allow the Heroes to do so. Then see what the players do with that info. Who knows, they might find a brilliant HeroQuesting solution *anyway* :)

Julian Lord            

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