Heheh...I've never considered William a mindless/wanton murderer, for what it's worth. I tend to think of him as similar to what Carl might've been if he'd grown up with enough to resent not having more and no-one darker to look down on, sharing that same kind of almost-zen pragmatisim with little to no moral restraint (i.e. controlled sociopathy).

As such, my thought was that he'd either be cutting down the potentially-bitten/Marina's before his mother got on the scene, or using his Super Shooting Skills to get the poor lad in the lower leg, which would certainly stop him running off and getting minced by Marina. William'd probably wind up geting a >:( from the priest if he did that, though.

To add to the hilarity, the old Pierce's biggest fan is now outside, and he's brought a buddy...

I see him as similar to the eponymous protagonist of Dexter - a sociopath who is using his proficiency and proclivity for killing people in a socially beneficial manner.

Dexter has the dis/advantage of being psychopathic (born without a natural empathic response) as well, mind, so his options are differently weighted...plus if one's a vampire already on the mortals' map, so to speak, becoming a vampire hunter is the most practical thing to do regardless.

...maybe William does have a heart, though. We'll just have to see if the posse can win it over before Marina does. Or before Sarah gets overenthusiastic and stakes him, if Percy doesn't accidentally shoot her first...

Don't forget, by the by, that Marina is a very different beastie to our hopping friend - being that old and that savvy, she's probably smarter than y'all and stronger than men; avoid giving her patterns she can work with and engaging her in close quarters.

Well, there's the vampire hunting part - and the walking into saloons and shooting folks he's never met part too.

Are you suggesting that was an attempt to kill people in a socially beneficial manner?

...or that was how Adrian won his heart?

No, the beneficial manner is killing vampires.

But there's still the underlying 'mindless sociopath' lurking that is down with just shooting people for kicks.

Spades was squealing about how Adrian was a zombie going to eat him at the time; it's quite rational to defend your contacts, even if your employment prospects might be changed a little by having been ambushed by half a dozen vampire whores...even the killings that resulted in his (vengeful) ghost friends were committed for gang status, law avoidance, and proving he was serious about killing hostages, though, so I don't see a case for joy-killing in his past.

The Belt Demon might, but the Hawk thinks it's some kind of large reptile and thus has no cause to be attached to puny humans anyway, though if it starts randomly murderin' it'll quickly be spotted and put down...Pierce's vampire instincts, now, those you might have to worry about. If he starts trying to go too long unfed and/or wounded, they'll prompt him to get food however possible, which is still practical, but so is disposing of witnesses if it gets out of hand...

Compare Vinny, who got vampire powers and subsequently saw no reason to stop at almost beating people to death, because that made him feel high and powerful. I suspect the buzz he got out of violently forceful exchange/spattering of bodily fluids as a vampire was a stand-in/escalation of the acts of a common rapist...William, on the other hand, has been wandering about for a while now with those physically weaker than him in easy reach and has even been trying to make friends with the mortals, albeit not entirely suscessfully.

He may need plus hugs and happy thoughts.

When you take into account that he wasn't in the building to hear the charges of undeath, and that any notion of defending a contact is premised upon out-of-character information and actions that hadn't happened yet (based on the Savage Worlds rules), the whole act does seem much more like a random act of violence, doesn't it?

The clank heard him from outside (he was loud!), and William followed it in...to find Spades reacting to a dude with a weapon drawn and a large angry-looking buddy like they were a threat; I don't think any meta knowledge was required to draw the conclusion that Spades might be in immediate danger.

Now, you could make a case for the level of response being disproportionate, i.e. that Pierce should've pointed his gun and threatened Adrian rather than shooting him, but from Pierce's life experience, going in hard and snarling survivors into submission has likely kept him alive a few times. It's not mindless violence like Jesse off the leash, or Danny getting his hands on anything sharp: it's calculated violence in line with his character's past.

[offers peace oatcakes] ...the irony is, the whole incident is pretty much down to William's Heroic Hinderance, as I'm nigh-certain he doesn't like Spades even as much as Spades likes him.

Mindless may have been the wrong word, but I think that sociopathic is nonetheless applicable. Unless you think proclivity for murder is characteristic of a normative mental condition...

Oh no, he's a sociopath all right, just a mindful one.

Worse, he had decent early socialisation, so he understands how people/society works and how to exploit it...our Billy's much like a feral dog, resentful of having to fend for comforts given to others and aware of what his teeth can do if he ignores "no!", but without fear of man (though individuals might privately faze him).

Heeeelllllooooo! I'm standing, like, right here! :-)

But yes, everything Alouette said. I *try* to keep player and character knowledge apart from each other, which isn't always easy (especially in this format - was William present when X was discussed in that conversation that happened in-game 30 minutes ago, but IRL 4 months ago?).

But yeah, shooting Adrian was just that - I was killed after barely setting a foot in this town, had been shot myself in the back by some guy as soon as he saw me (so, apparently, that's a local custom), my only other contact in town was threatened, and I am trying, really, really hard, to be a better man and to redeem myself.

Plus, I had an abusive father.

And please add to that that there was some player confusion as well - I remember that I thought I was facing you and didn't shoot you in the back, but rather your chest.
Ret-conning that seemed hardly worth the effort though.

Also: I was shot in the back by Alistair as well! So, two shots to my back compared to one to yours.
As I said, local customs.

I think William is a very well played character, and certainly do not mean to besmirch anyone - just engaging in idle discussion as I tend to do. I am very easily drawn into idle musings about in game events, characters, and game mechanics and how they relate. It really all started with the funny "why does everyone think he's a sociopath?" thing, and went down the rabbit hole.

No offense taken at all, I was getting a kick out of that whole discussion. ;-)

Were your ears burning, William? [ruffles the vampire]

Character backgrounds/setting interactions interest me a lot, but then I'll jump at most things gaming-related, too.

Ahoy! Do we have any Spanish-speaking PCs? Presumin' maybe Adrian...?

¡Si!

Well, I looked for it on my character creation thread and my character sheet, and I don't seem to have ever made an official determination as to what my character's languages were supposed to be. So if it's alright with you:

- English (of course)
- Spanish (his daddy's Mexican, woulda learned some growin' up)
- French (probably just a little, picked up while living in New Orleans)

Jake speaks English, French, Spanish, and Cherokee

Gracias; preparar vos orejas...

Sorry to get the last shot in with a karkadann, by the way. It was me getting annoyed/tired rather than NPC killstealing, and Jingles' eventual defeat was definitely down to Adrian, but I still feel awkward for it.

No worries - I'm pretty sure Jingles was gonna go down pretty soon anyway. Toughness buff expiring, and toughness down two steps from whatever it originally was, he would've been much easier the next time around.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:59, Tue 19 Aug 2014.

Aye, but there's a certain  ^_^ feel for a PC ending a tough fight...at least you got to meet a 'lord of the desert' and not be squashed? He might actually be useful later, 'cause the Big encounter for the ranch was designed by the Stray and I have no idea how folk're going to get out of it in a minimum number of pieces.


Returning briefly to karkadanns and their close relatives, I've never been able to decide which version I like better for that legend about Ghengis Khan's forces leaving India alone:
- frikkin' kirin turns up and starts chatting to the generals.
- Ghengis' scouts encounter a real live wild rhino and are too weirded out to keep conquering this place because what the hell is that.
- Exit entire Mongol horde, pursued by a karkadann.

I really like, by the way, that on our way to the house a PC suggested burning it down, only to be strongly discouraged by an NPC clergyman as there may be living souls inside.

And then later when that group has gone inside the house, an approaching NPC suggests burning the house down only to be discouraged by a PC clergywoman.

God says don't burn the house down!

Yeah...let's not burn it down. There are folks inside.

Live folks, too! Took the liberty of shunting the Mine thread further towards action; please excuse wordiness and blatant pop-cultural anachronisim (Carl totally is Huckleberry Finn, though).

Murderin' that poor corbie baby broke my heart, it really did, but I couldn't justify Wildcat using it as a weapon/guide/mine canary/many other useful things with her b/w worldview (plus Vengeful Minor, which tends to come out hard on annoyances with her). I am sad now.

Dust Adder/Ranger dynamics update, as it's been a while: Only Carl and Murphy know for sure that the rumour of their comrade Jesse (gunned down by said Ranger) "coming back right" is true - the others still think he's either plain dead or at worst there's a chance of him walking due to her actions, and expect Carl to revenge-kill her at the next sensible opportunity.

Wildcat also knows Jesse's back, but thinks the Dust Adders are Wicked Men who naturally want to kill shining paragons of the law like herself anyway (though she's beginning to realise killing their friends and throwing her weight around on their territory might have something to do with it) and has neglected to inform them.

Carl, for his part, doesn't like the Ranger but has started tolerating rather than outright murder-hating her since she's accepted that she can be like her dad without being her dad (getting less machimismo-poisoned/aggressive in the process and thus more sanely forivable) and the rumours that Jesse was back right started. The fact that she gave him food at one point helps, too (Carl isn't aware how deeply his childhood food issues affect him, but Mike has noticed over the years).

How do Mike and Heavy Henry view her?