[BNW] The Powers That Be

[Alex Karls <xanxstrom@yahoo.com>]

Hi folks, I'm Alexander, and I'm a long time player of
Hell-On-Earth.  I've only recently gotten into Deadlands,
and as many of you can imagine, when I heard Pinnacle was
making a superhero game (set in a fascist America no less!)
I waited with great anticipation for its release.

Segue for a moment.

Just to add my two bits, I think a delta is most likely to
become an alpha when he dies either an extreme death, or
when he dies with 'unfinished business', like ghosts from
popular myth.  As the proverbial 'Bucky' of this universe,
Superior (they only changed 3 letters.  :) sure wasn't
willing to let Kaptain Krieg kill win, even if it mean't he
had to die in the process.  So he did.

Back to the regular programming.

I waited and waited, and saw someone at work who brought a
copy back with them from Gencon.  He said it was cool, but
he hadn't read it entirely.  Two weeks later, I went and
grabbed up a copy of the main book and Ravaged Planet from
my local gaming store.  What did I find?

Ultimately, no passion in these two books.  I understand
that you guys at Pinnacle can't cram everything you'd like
to into the books you produce, but when I opened that book
and read it, I felt like it was rushed, and incomplete.

I really like this universe.  However, in the first two
books, there really isn't enough material to hook a group
of players into the universe.  The material is patriotic
and...well, mostly patriotic, as a few outspoken deltas go
on about how JFK has ruined our great nation (what a cool
concept BTW.  Reminds me of that Quantum Leap episode where
Sam was Lee Harvey Oswald, and was there to save Jackie!)

But ultimately, after reading that material, I was
disappointed in that this felt like a world that was left
too...mundane.  Everyone in my group would play for 5
minutes, realize that we were just patriots in an America
that didn't want us, and become bored, because its a very
mundane plot, one that I don't feel deserves the attention
of superheroes.

In otherwords, please give us more plot!  We don't even
have the crumbs of conspiracy to work off of!  If I have to
make an Uberplot myself, I'll have to resort to one of my
cracksmoking alien genesis sci-fi stories!  Don't get me
wrong, I loved the Patriot plot, but I felt that valuable
space was wasted speaking a paragraph or two of places like
Scandanavia, when you could've been giving us GMs and
Players something to chew on, something to create our next
great epic dramatic story from!

As far as the book itself goes, I'm sounding off about a
couple of things.  First, I don't think the package system
works, at all.  While the fact that it is a slightly dumbed
down Deadlands system works, the packages don't.  Brainy
vs. Covenant.  'Nuf said.  There's been alot said for the
balance between Deadlands Arcane Backgrounds, but this is
very silly.  Also, it feels like the writer was trying to
say one thing with descriptions of the hero's powers, and
another with the system.  At several points references are
made to a deltas powers getting cooler or more efficient
over time, but in the packages area, it clearly states that
you can never get another package, and these packages never
change once you get them, save getting new tricks.

Mr. Forbeck, I plead with you to consider putting an
alternative power system in a future book, and please, for
the love of god, give us more playable material in the next book!
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