Re: Hirudo

[Steve Ames <steve@ns1.cioe.com>]

> Most importantly, the hirudo in this description still can drain another
> hirudo for experience points.  

Yep. I actually view this as necessary to keep Hirudo at one another's
throats. Self limiting. 1000 eeps/rank is tradition. You don't want a
number so high that it unbalances the game, nor do you want it so low
that Hirudo would rather form alliances than kill one another. Perhaps
the xp bonus should disapear in favor of a game bonus such as the
winning hirudo gaining the losers bloodline? That puts him in a better
rank position within the religion without an xp increase... There has
to be a tangible benefit.

> From what few adventurers that have been
> hirudo, I have noticed two actual cases where this rule was employed and
> caused a disruption in the balance of the game.  The first case is when I
> ran an adventure in Centralia.  In this adventure, I had a group of hirudo.
>  All members of this group were killed except one.  The one that survived
> was immobilized and drained with teresium.  This particular hirudo was
> roughly rank 50.  The members of the party took this hirudo to one of the
> player character hirudo.  Well this PC hirudo drained the actor and gain
> 50,000 experience points.  

Innocent :) However I've done this in character. I've gathered groups
of people for the purpose of hunting Hirudo... and I've never hunted
pudly little rate 50 ones. *sigh* I've taken 100s of thousands of xp
this way. My rate was never really affected because I channeles the
eeps right back into magic items and spells over rate 12.


> I can see two improvements that I would make to this modified description. 
> First, get rid of the draining hirudo for experience points.  

What about my above suggestion of inheriting the bloodline instead of
getting eeps? This creates some further adventuring material in that
the Hirudo would need to track down his bloodline and bring them into
line before they decide to whack him/her.

> Second, add the limitation that a hirdo can
> have only one usage of each of the Decay spells affect a hirudo at any
> time.  Under some interpretations, a hirudo can use drain strenght on five
> or six people and get an effective five or six levels of exceptional
> strength.  

Agreed.

> (take OSHA's recent clarification of the use of restrooms as an example).

? I was wondering just the other day if using the handicap stall was
equivelent to parking in their spot :)

> As for allowing hirudo player character, I like the idea if the definition
> of the hirudo is fixed.  However, I believe senior game masters should
> place heavy restrictions on who can or cannot have a hirudo for two
> reasons.  I don't believe that some players would be able to handle a
> hirudo that is not overly disruptive of the game.  Secondly, the number of
> hirudo should be quite low (just by the nature of the religion).  This way
> adventures where half of the party are hirudo would not happen.

I don't believe in GMs limiting player choice. Hirudo are hated by
followers of every other religion and most atheist as well. I'd wager
that nomads have no great love of them either. If someone blatantly
demonstrates that they are a hirudo they will become hunted. If you
were seen as a friend of a hirudo you'll likely be tortured. Hirudo are,
by and far, only really welcome among their own kind.

As for the number of player hirudo, I believe I covered this in my
write up. You _CANNOT_ start as a hirudo. You must be made a hirudo
and that means finding an actor who won't just kill you or a player
who is willing to lose 10% of his xp over your sorry ass. This _IS_
self limiting.

						-Steve