Prysus wrote:Greetings and Salutations. I figured I'd post a few references I didn't see mentioned earlier ...
Rifts World Book 18: Mystic Russia; page 90 wrote:... as a result, even the less extreme and well intentioned Death Mages radiate with a Horror Factor!
"Death Mage" here refers to Necromancers, as this is in the Necromancer write-up (under Horror Factor). This tells us even if "well intentioned" the character will still radiate a Horror Factor.
A non-Rifts source also worth note can be found in Palladium Fantasy ...
Palladium Fantasy Book 3: Adventures on the High Seas; page 34 wrote:All necromancers are inherently frightening, even if their profession is unknown to observers.
So, in this case, even if you don't know a Necromancer is a Necromancer you'll still deal with the Horror Factor. This same quote can also be found in Bizantium and the Northern Islands (also for PF). As this is for Palladium Fantasy (not Rifts), this can be given as much or as little weight as one sees fit.
Hawk, I think Prysus's examples here have us dead to rights.
I hadn't realized that the description under Horror Factor for the necromancer OCC was updated in Mystic Russia compared with the original in Africa. Rifts Africa made no mention of an Aura, or anything radiating, it simply said that necromancers were frighting. This was my strongest argument that the source of the necromancers HF was his appearance and reputation, which of course could be easily masked with a disguise. With the addition of the phrase "
... even less extreme and well intentioned Death Mages radiate with a Horror Factor" in Mystic Russia, I am now convinced that they have an aura that would be more difficult to cover up.
This citation was a particularly strong point because it came directly from the OCC description under the heading explaining the necromancers horror factor power. It wasn't some one off example from an NPC write-up, or something tangentially aligned with the social impact of of necromancers having a constant radiating horror factor. It was right at the source where the game mechanics of the horror factor was introduced for the necromancers.
I still think in my games, when I have a necromancer in disguise, I don't want to give away the pooch too early. I plan to play more loosely with the HF mechanic, and only use the HF as a cinematic tool for foreshadowing and what not. At least until we actually have a battle where the necromancer reveals his true colors.
I really need to be careful though, because I've got a bunch of Metagamers in my group. One time I had my secret villain flash an "evil grin" to one of the party members, and that was all it took for the rest of the game, everybody was certain that my NPC was the bad guy, and went out of their way to spoil his (
My) plans.