so i have this character who is the leader of Royalist faction. we started in Usurpation phase. she has Hammer and Anvil Affiliations, the Vaylen equivilent of a forged lord.
i want to start Hulling her people. how do i do that within the game mechanics? would a successful take action against the Royalist faction be appropriate or can i just say ‘yes’ and do it in color scene? same with other factions. the fool PCs let her soldiers have shore leave to have sex with the pent-up workers so the workers wouldn’t strike. can i use this to start hulling the freeman and the members of the commune, or do i need a take action against that faction as well?
on another note, it seems right that i’d hull some relationships NPC. i have this Lord Steward sitting around, just begging to have a Vaylen in his head. he’s technically not an FoN, and he’s innimical to all the PCs, so he’s in my camp. should I spend a builder hulling him? color? say ‘yes’?
If you haven’t already, you may want to review Hulling, pages 194-198.
Hulling people could be part of a number of different maneuvers depending on what’s going on in the fiction: Take Action, Flak, Inundate, Pin, and possibly others.
It really depends on what’s going on in the fiction and the Vaylens’ aims in performing the hulling.
As long as the fiction supports it, you could hull anyone who hasn’t been mechanically represented in the game. As long as it’s color, you can do whatever you want with it in a Color Scene.
Personally though, if you were to do that, I’d want to see you using a Building Scene somewhere along the way to set up a hulling facility or something along those lines.
For relationships, and even characters that have been brought into the game with Circles, I think you really need to use a Building Scene.
If someone spent points on him, he’s axiomatically important to that player’s concept for their own character. You need to roll. (Literally, you’re taking away a point of relationships from them.)
if you are just hulling that army, that’s a take action, as you deprive them of powerpase.
I should note that the above is really extrapolated from the Technological Color section (p. 379). Of course, we’re not talking about technology here, but I think the principles are sound and fit our philosophy for the game.
yeah, it’s mostly just her non relationship hammer and anvil crew i’m worried about. since we’re a high index world, and she’s fairly wealthy, i bought an effector field medical drone. it has a surgery skill of 20. is that enough to be considered a feasible operating theater for hulling, or should i use a building roll with fabrication to tweak it for foramen magnum hulls and optic nerve hulls?
The Effector Field Medical Drone is good for hulling.
Sometimes, I like to set up color scenes in which I’m hulling a human character – sans roll – and bait the human side to using a builder (or conflict) to stop me. This only works, of course, if you can afford to lose a Vaylen surgeon and host. But it can make a good distraction!