Re: [DL] Night Train d20 (Spoilers and Tinhorn Questions)

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

Quoting nytbloomer <nytbloomer@netzero.net>:

> Old D20 standards corrupt us all at times, man.  Here's my take on it.  Most
> vampires aren't REALLY all that powerful, the ones like oh, say, Dracula and
> the other vampires of fiction are the head honchos.  It's like any big bad
> guy; a master Vampire has to have his own little replicant minions.  I'm not
> totally up on the plot of Night Traim...but I'm fairly sure that any vampire
> infestation would be mostly little minion vamps, with the elder who made 'em
> lounging back with a tall hot one somewheres.  Of course...years of playing
> Vampire: the Masquerade may have corrupted my view of vampires...so take
> this all with a big heapin' teaspoon of salt.

Not even close my friend.  

This is Deadlands, and specifically Night -aka PC Death- Train, written by John
-aka Kill them all, God knows his own- Goff.

The noseferrets on the train are a pack of FAST, hard-hitting bloodsuckers.  And
there are a lot of them.

In a very real sense under Deadlands flagship mechanics, PC Death Train is a
classic "out-think not out-fight" adventure.  

To translate them into rough D20 terms - give them damage resistance 20/*, where
* is any damage given to the head (-4 or -8 to target) or area effect attack
that would get the head anyway.
Regen 10.
Permanent haste, Dex 18+, Inproved Init +8, high movement, and 2x claw attacks
for their high speed.
To translate their damage - I'm not certain if it's possible.  In Deadlands
flagship, just about every PC could stand one or two actions against one of
these - but it's the second round or if the noseferret got a hand of five
actions, that the PC is in trouble.
That doesn't translate well to Deadlands D20 - the kind of hit point damage
required to threaten a high hit point character will flat out slaughter a d4/d6
hit point type class.  I'd definately go with a Strength of 18+ and at least a
d8 (if not 2d6) for claw damage.  

If I remember correctly, the noseferrets couldn't hit too well.  It was just the
fact that they had so many actions that made them horrific.

I'd also raise the save DC of the stench so that the "average" save of the party
allows it to save 75% of the time.  

The energy drain - I can't remember what the mechanics were for Deadlands
flagship were, but for D20 I'd either go with a coup-de-grace type thing (it's
got you down and sucking you dry - no save) OR make it a d2 or d4 Con drain
dependent on a successful bite attack.  

But I'm an unabashed fan of stat drains.  It's the only thing that makes high
level characters have that feeling of mortality.





-- 
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com