Sometimes it's good to have a really vile dude whose ass you can kick. In that case I'd use heavy shit to make clear that yes, this is a vile guy they can kill without remorse.

But more often heavy shit should come with heavy choice to define the PC's.

It's looking like the games I'll be running for the foreable future are going to divide into two types:

1) Light-hearted and gamerist.  Feng Shui, Tales From the Floating Vagabond, that sort of thing

with the occasional

2) Playtesting a very, very intense simulationist/narrativist game where if the characters and/or players screw up the characters will die and burn in Marine/Ranger/MI6/SAS/CIA hell.  There's one particular point in the next session where if the characters follow their orders to the letter (instead of doing the Right Thing) they will witness something that will stay with them (and probably the players if I run it right) for the rest of their lives.  First piece of feedback, Tim: I think that section deserves a Horror Check - probably at a serious penalty