Re: [DL] Dead + Famous = Harrowed?

["Dave Haendler" <DHaendl1@swarthmore.edu>]

> After I'd just about finished writing his conversion to Deadlands I found,
both in the List Archives and on the PEG website, references to John Henry
in >Deadlands (rats!). But in both cases, John Henry was Harrowed! There is
absolutely no reason for John Henry to be Harrowed in Deadlands! Yes, I know
> he beat the steam hammer and then his heart gave out, but things are much
different in Deadlands. If I remember correctly (I don't have my research in
> front of me), John Henry's race took place in the 1870s. By that time, a
ghost rock steam hammer would have been well-established. There would have
> been no need for a race against new-fangled technology. I estimated that
John Henry, never one to turn down a challenge, would have joined Union Blue
in the
> race to the Great Maze. No Harrowed, no Relic hammers, just a big man with
a lot of Strength, Vigor, Sand and two fifteen pound hammers. He'd work
> at the railhead, driving steel and laying track, and pounding to paste
anything that threatened either the railroad or innocent people living in
towns near the work >area. I just love to picture John Henry defending a
town from walkin' dead, hammering one after another, right and left, never
slowing, never tiring.

     Although I definitely understand your desire for a non-Harrowed John
Henry, I don't think that this conversion really does him justice. He's
famous because he gave his all against implacable odds, not because he said
"Gee, these ghost rock steam hammers are certainly tough...guess I'll go
find a challenge I can win instead." If I were to include him in a Deadlands
game as a non-Harrowed, I would have had his organic heart give out during
the competition, only to be replaced by a newfangled artifical one powered
by ghost rock. Being reliant on such a contraption would be anathema to
Henry, of course, forcing him to wander the West in search of someone who
can fix him. Since the sacrifice he made is so integral to his story, simply
writing that sacrifice out of things seems wrong to me.

                                            ---Ghoull