Posted by daShrink on May 15, 2002 at 08:01:43:
In Reply to: Reckoning: an accounting, as for things received or done posted by The_Meehan on May 14, 2002 at 22:32:14:
: Your prejudices are showing here. *Sometimes* violence is the *ONLY* answer, and *sometimes* it's the best of the alternative options. In normal day-to-day life, either in the WoD or here in RL, neither are likely to be the case, but the life of a Hunter is NOT normal, anymore, and it brings new meaning to day-to-day. For the Hunters, violence is probably always an ever-present option.
Probably. But violence, used capriciously, is also an easily exploitable tool placed in the hands of the less visible supernatural influences in the WoD, isn't it? Not that many hunters would realize this, I admit, but the overall idea of the system was, I thought, an attempt to ameliorate the influence of all those dark agencies, and not give them a perfect excuse to ratchet down the screws on humanity another notch.
(Come to think of it, there is no creed in the system that would actually function in a way that would serve to genuinely ameliorate this situation, as the biggest problem to be faced is the willingness of the general population of unimbued to cling to what is safe and comfortable, ie: the dark agencies' party line.)
: As for the Zealots; have you read the game ad copy? "Inheirit The Earth", "Take Back The Night", "You are the Reckoning" - these are *not* armchair activist slogans. Going through my collection, the back cover copy statistics stand like this :
: Call to violence (7/18) - HSH, HSG, HPG, HbJ, HbA, HtN, HbW;
: Call to action (4/18) - tWD, HbD, HbM, HtR;
: Statements of horror (2/18) - HbH, HHW;
: Neutral (3/18) - HFC, HbV, HSC;
: Peace overtures (2/18) - HbI, HbR;
And your prejudices are showing here. Since when is a peace overture made from an armchair? I mean, I know the type you're talking about, they're one of my favorite targets in RL, the SUV drivers with Greenpeace stickers in the window, the Amnesty International flyers on the coffeetable, as dusted by the illegal alien Guatemalan maid; oh, how they twist and squirm with just the slightest application of guilt. But "armchair activist" is one of those oxymorons, like "jumbo shrimp," and "military intelligence," and not, IMO, an accurate representation of what a member of a Mercy creed would be. More likely, in the WoD, the armchair occupiers would be the dupes and pawns of the supernatural influences, and the targets of the Mercy creeds' attentions.
And if we take out the automatic assumption that action = violence, the numbers are still skewed towards violence, but not nearly in the proportions you assert. And the assumption that Mercy creeds are not also taking action, and dangerous action at that, is absurd. Those action points should, at the very least, be shared by all the creeds.
"You are the Reckoning" is an interesting phrase, and one that I have luckily never associated in RL with an automatic call to do something violent. I can see as much "reckoning" in forcing a supernatural to look on it's effect in the world and how far it had strayed from what it thought it would be, as in setting it on fire and chortling merrily on to the next execution. And in it's own way, having a far more devastating effect on the unseen structures which control humanity than killing off a dozen "street-level" bad actors. That is, after all, what cannon fodder is there for.
As for "Inherit the Earth," I believe the borrowed phrase, in it's entirety, is "the meek will inherit the earth." And as for "Take Back the Night," isn't that also borrowed, from an organization which calls for neighborhoods to bring about change by their nonviolent presence on the streets of their community in order to combat crime? What those phrases mean are not nearly as cut and dry as advertised.
: Please note the overwhelming preponderance of the "Call to Violence/Action" categories; also note that they include a strong majority (6/9) of the non-creed supplements (including HtR itself). Also, and I'm being flippant here, the name of the game is "Hunter: The Reckoning" not "Comforter: The Cuddling".
Again, action is always violence? (I'll try *not* to keep that in mind the next time I have to meet with the state boys and girls for the next grant proposal review. My turn to be flippant. Mostly.)
And I find the Mercy edges to be anything but cuddly and comforting; in psychological terms, they're pretty damned nasty. They just don't go "Boom!" in the traditional sense.