Re: [DL] (long) New Marshal New Posse - Minor Spoilers

[Reemull <reemull@yahoo.co.uk>]

>Hello Everyone,
>
>I just Marshaled my first DL Classic game this weekend for a group of
hard 
>core D20 players (I'm a reformed hardcore D20 GM myself) and we all
liked 
>it.  I'm hoping for some guidance from the old hands on the mailing
list.  I 
>hope I'm not too long winded of you guys.
Deadliness - is really controlled by the number of combats and the
number of chips you give out.  I always err on the side of caution
before settling on a balance.  For instance, if I start giving out
chips freely to begin with, find out that I'm over doing it and scale
it back, the players get a little grumpy as their fate chip well has
dried up.  If I give them fewer, see that they are starting to carry a
wound or so from non-important combats that hinders their actions - I'd
up it a little and the players are happy about the extra fate chips. 
That said I am reknowned in our group for being stingy about bounty and
fate chips - but my players still enjoy it (plus I've just run the last
3 sessions without any combat :-o  - so they are rolling in chips for
the moment).

When I first ran Deadlands I found the combat a little tough and after
I reread the rules I discovered I'd forgotten to add in stun.  I've
ended up ignoring stun and it allows my posse to be a little more
heroic during firefights.  It does mean that they sometimes forget that
they are actually carrying nasty wounds - however we go with the flow.

One thing I have found to reduce the deadliness of my games is a decent
Huckster with Helpin' Hands.  The ability to reduce heavy wounds to
light with only two pair is very helpful and prevents minor wounds from
building into nastier ones over time (as a week between healing rolls
can be a long time)

If you find that they leap into combat a little too quickly - just have
NPC's use cover.  Cover is a great leveller and hiding behind that raid
barrel that gives a couple of armour levels to the guts can be a big
difference.  

I personally don't like the option of giving them an increase in size
as it lessens the benefit from the brawny edge etc (difference from
Size 7 as opposed to 6 is more significant than 9 as opposed to 8). 
The option of the GM reducing it (as someone else suggested_ sounds a
little bit too much like GM control too me (personal opinion).  I have
never had a problem with saying to my players that after a couple of
weeks of playing a game I there might be a few adjustments.  As long as
I've been open and honest about it there haven't been any problems.  I
have had problems with players buying the book and discovering I
haven't been sticking too the rules all of the time :-)

As for the weirdness. I'd definitely recommend starting off playing it
as a normal western game and building up the weirdness as you go along.
 Suggestions of possible abnormal happenings that can be reasoned away
worked well for me.  It also helped to have a Ranger/Pinkerton actively
think up those reasons.  I've found that once you throw in the
weirdness the game works  little differently.  Deadlands has certainly
worked best for me when there was weirdness going about but it wasn't
immediately obvious for the players - gave it the creeping horror
feeling.  One of my players really disliked the Heart O'Darkness
adventure as the horror was too in your face and felt it was more
hammer house than creepy weirdness, which ruined it for him.  However,
it all depends on what your players like to play.  

I try not to trick my players into thinking things - just give them the
facts and let them figure out the angle.   One of  the things going on
in town was that someone was a werewolf.  Other events had drawn a
Nighthaunt into the vicinity - so they ended up with kills on non-full
moon nights - which confused them.  Then there was the townsfolks fight
against the Indians - some of which followed the Wolf Spirit. So there
ended up many avenues for them to investigate as well as the continuing
mundane threat of the Indians attacking.  The mixture of normality and
weirdness kept them guessing.  I also had a shaman sending nightmares
to the town that gradually built during over months (our time) of game
sessions - so it started off with different characters getting
disturbed, tothem noticing that other people in the town were also
having difficulty sleeping, to them finding it all but impossible to
get a decent nights rest not long before the climatic Indian attack on
the town.

Finally, in Deadlands death is not necessarily then end.  So the whole
idea of a character dying is not immediately the same as in other
systems - there is always the chance of becoming harrowed.  In other
game I ran prior to Deadlands I tended to reserve death for those that
made really stupid choices (which there were a few), with Deadlands I
have tried not to pull punches.  If they die, they die.  I don't force
it and I allow other players to bail people out if it is at all
reasonable - but if it ends up that way - they kick the bucket. 
Sometimes it's hard (especially if I have a plot hook hanging on the
characters background - inconsiderate sods) but death is really part of
the Deadlands game.

Hope some or any of this is of help.  There are still quite a few web
sites out there that give a list of their house rules, which might be
of benefit.

Roy


	
	
		
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