Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Erich · Novice Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 35

I'm planning my DLR campaign and am planning on introduceing the horrer aspects slowly. I was thinking of introducing the concept of the harrowed by having a Ranger take out a local badman and then take steps to ensure he dosen't come back.
Is there anyway to prevent a body from becoming harrowed besides putting a bullet in it's head? Would a totaly severed spinal column do the trick, or would the manitou be able to heal that?
Thanks
~E

RJack · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:46 pm Post subject:

You should note that a shot to the head doesn't necessarily keep a body from becoming harrowed. There's at least one well-known harrowed walking around in Deadlands that went down that way. A severed spinal column might not work either, it just might mean that the resulting harrowed walks around like a broken marionette because of the break. Even destroying the body entirely, say through cremation, isn't going to prevent some form of undead from coming back, like a ghost. In fact, if your marshal's kind of a bastard, taking extreme steps with the mortal remains could be interpreted as "desecrating the dead," and actually result in an increase in the chance to come back undead.

Classic Deadlands had a blessed miracle specifically designed to prevent a dead body from coming back, Last Rites. A power like this doesn't exist in Reloaded, but you might say that just showing proper respect to the dead reduces their chance of coming back. For particularly bad people, specific precautions from folklore like what was used to prevent suicides from coming back may be required. I'm not sure if you'd want to make that a power though. Just something that the characters can research and then do.

Another alternative would be to allow blessed characters to try the Exorcism power on a corpse that's dead but hasn't come back. Sort of a "preemptive exorcism."

Ultimately, its going to be up to the Marshal how easy or hard it should be to prevent coming back. Personally, I'd lean towards hard or at least not always certain. Having evil, or at least annoying, NPCs come back as freaky undead to harass the players is part of my fun as a Marshal.

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

SlasherEpoch · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:38 am Post subject:

Preventing a Harrowed? Cremation.
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Pakiii · Novice Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 79 Location: Kansas

Since you were just asking about Harrowed, not coming back from the dead (which is an unstoppable story mechanism not a game/world mechanic) I'll address that. From everything in the books, if the brain can no longer control the body, the deader stays dead.

The "very famous" Harrowed died from a gunshot wound to the head, however this didn't destroy the brain (it did cause a bit of damage to it), it caused massive trauma to the person, who died the day after the gunshot.

I would say cutting off the head, putting (several) bullets in the brain, or sledgehammer to the head would be relatively sure fire ways of preventing them from coming back harrowed. From a "Introducing the players to the horror aspect" I would say cutting off the head would be a good mechanic for that.
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Clint · Site Admin Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 16271

Erich · Novice Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 35

So how much of the brain has to be left for a manitou to set up shop?
I'm thinking that removing the brain through the nose, al la Egyptian style could be pretty creepy.

Commissar Jake · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:15 pm Post subject:

Well since the destruction of the brain is the only true way to kill them.

You could always shove a hook up the nose and break up the brain. Just like they did in mummification.

Or poison... I guess.

shadd4d · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:20 pm Post subject:

Acid is also a fun alternative...or so thinks the mad scientist in my game.

My question is...how do you get your posse to stop leaving corpses that are going to need closed casket funerals? One they figured out "head shots 4Life", it's taken a bit of GM hand-waving and some creative deaths to not let them walk up on dead bodies and cap them at their leisure.

Don
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Clint · Site Admin Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 16271

Commissar Jake · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:49 pm Post subject:

Oh yeah. Like old Abe.

Shot in the head but he still came back.
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Clint · Site Admin Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 16271

Guess it's a good idea to add a Spoiler tag to the subject line now. Wink

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Commissar Jake · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:10 pm Post subject:

Sorry.
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Thule games!

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Hurray for my own rp!

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Count Zero · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:17 pm Post subject:

I let the needs of the story decide this kinda stuff. Wink

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Clint · Site Admin Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 16271