Re: [HoE] Junkers Gear and a minor rant

[jayson@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Jay E Treat III)]

| Agreed.  I figure the "necessary" books for playing Deadlands are:
| The main rulebook
| Quick and the Dead
| Ghost Dancers (if you want a strong Indian presence)

	Well, by that note you're going to want F&B if you've got a strong
Blessed prescence and H&H if you've got a lot of Hucksters.  The thing
about DL is that with the main book and Q&D, you really can have a
complete and cool game.  Each of the supplements makes the game just that
much better but not one of them is really necessary.

| One glaring absence from HoE was a map.  At least Deadlands had a map to let
| you get the big picture.

	I thought that at first too, but then I realized, what the Hell on
Earth are they going to show us?  Well, let's see.  The American West.
Check.  All the major cities... blown up.  Check.  Salt Lake City and (was
it Denver?) Denver not blown up.  Check.  The map's too big to pencil in
all the little towns that have built up so really the map wouldn't be
giving you any information you don't already have.
	Besides, it leaves room to do what you want.  None of this, "But
Marshal, the map clearly shows Boise ain't no where near Tahagamut Falls!"

| Also, everyone knows something about the Old West, so we could game with
| that inherent knowledge.

	Good point.

| No one, outside PEG, as yet knows anything about the Wasted West.  How big
| were the cities before the Big Bang?  Were there arcologies?  Tube trains?
| Hydroponics domes?  How many bombs hit each city, on average?  Did the bombs
| cause any geologic upheaval like the Maze (is Florida now another maze?)

	On the upside, that gives us plenty of room to make stuff up.
	How big were the cities?  Most would have been the same size they
are today.  The really big industrial centers and populace monsters might
5 times as big, maybe.

| Is it just me, or does anybody think that it would have helped to better
| explain the Junkers rules, if the sample Gears, had point costs associated
| with them?

	I agree.  I tried reconstructing those gadgets, and the points
never jived with the Drain costs.  I figure they used dramatic license.

| So far, I don't get the same feel from HoE.  Granted, I haven't completely
| finished the book yet, but so far it seems that it will be really tough to
| play Junkers until their source book comes out.

	Yeah, I've got to agree with you on that one.  But I'm going to
give it a go and let myself be taken by the game.  Hopefully.
	It's just such a depressing world is all.
	Oh, but I like Junkers so much, I refuse to be intimidated by
their lack of material support.  I'm gonna push 'em through anyhow.

	(Oh, and _I'm_ not afraid to deviate from the campaign world.
Especially the bits that don't exist yet).	

| Otherwise, I'm pleased.  This is a genre that I never really liked, and
| Shane has made it cool for me!  I'm not buying the HoE card game, though!  I
| need to set my limits somewhere!

	But what about the minis game?

_____________________________________________________________________________
Jay E. Treat III		         	    jayson@ccat.sas.upenn.edu