Re: [DL] Who forks out the loot? (Goff's question)

[Martha Frey <natasha_corey@yahoo.com>]

Gee, sounds familiar!  As a player, a format like that
is double-edged.  It's great for the character; you
have absolutely no preconceptions or out-of-character
knowledge, so you get gut-instinct responses to
situations.

The only problem is you can't memorize a system
without a book (well you can, and I've done it, but
it's a -lot- more work).  One of the things EMGB
prides itself on is it's well-balances players; we can
not only role-play extremely well in a manner that
both is in character and party coherent (we call it
"checking both boxes), but we can manipulate a mean
system.  Just ask to see some of our Champions
characters; in fact when we started in on DeadLands,
we went through several MONTHS of nothing but combat
trials, learning the in's and out's.

I think my favorite part about the revision was
splitting the base rules into two different books; one
posse approved, one Marshall only.  Ideally, this
could be done for every book (wincing in anticipation
of the costs arguments against).  I know it wouldn't
be cheap or easy, so until you can lock part of a book
away, the Marshalls out there have to either accept
that their players will have access to knowledge you
don't want them to, or you have to lock up your books
and dole it out piece by piece.

[OT - p.s.  I also loved Amber, still one of my
favorites.  There were rumors of a Rebma book a few
years ago, but it folded when the company apparently
did.  All I hear from them theses days is the annual
AmberCon mailings.  Plus the book's got great how to
roleplay tips!]

--- "Leybourne, Brian" <Brian.Leybourne@airnz.co.nz>
wrote:
> > How many of posses out there just use the
> Marshal's books?
> > 
> > How many players purchase _only_ the book
> appropriate to 
> > their particular character?
> 
> Certainly in my gaming group, the GM is pretty much
> expected to provide all
> the resource necessary for playing. We swap around,
> but I tend to be the GM
> at least 4/5ths of the time, so I'm generally the
> guy who buys everything.
> 
> Actually though, I don't mind this for two main
> reasons:
> 
> 1) It means I get to read everything - I'm a bit of
> a fanatic when I really
> get into a game. I have every DL sourcebook and
> suppliment up to The
> Agency/Ghostbusters. Before Deadlands we played
> Vampire, and I have every
> book WW ever published for that (Now that one is a
> damn big collection, let
> me tell you) as well as all the Mage books. Before
> that we played Amber
> (Luckily, there are only 2 books out for Amber, so
> that one was easy) and a
> few years back I sold all my AD&D books second-hand
> and got well over a
> thousand dollars, so you can imagine how many of
> those I had.
> 
> (Additionally, I buy RPG books that interest me,
> even if I think I may never
> play the game. I have most of the HOE books, HOL, In
> Nomine, and numerous
> others I can't even remember off the top of my head
> just because I wanted to
> read them.)
> 
> 2) I have to admit, I don't really like players
> reading the books. I know
> this sucks from PEG's (and other companies) point of
> view, because they
> don't sell more copies of the books, but I prefer to
> be able to control what
> my players read and don't read about a game system.
> When we started
> Deadlands, just over a year ago I think, the players
> knew nothing - they
> thought we were just playing a normal "Wild West"
> style game, and I brought
> the weirdness into it very slowly. I could not have
> done this if the players
> had seen/read the books. I started my first Vampire
> campaign off the same
> way - the players all started as mortals and got
> embraced in the first two
> sessions, and then had to learn everyhting about
> (un)life the hard way,
> which again would not have worked if they had read
> through the books (or
> even seen the name of the game they were playing
> *grin*).
> 
> So certainly for me, the whole book is really a
> marshall's section. :-)
> 
> On the other hand, as we get more into a game I like
> to release information
> to players, and it's a hell of a lot easier in
> Deadlands because I can let
> them look at parts of the players section, rather
> than in a game like
> Vampire where one paragraph (or even sentence) may
> have what I need them to
> read, and the very next bit on the page might be a
> GM-only spoiler. So keep
> up the current format, John, it works!
> 
> Brian "jealous marshall" Leybourne.

=====

Marguerite


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