Re: [DL] Dead + Famous = Harrowed?

[Patrick Phalen <pphalen@yahoo.com>]

If I said this once, I've said this a gazillion times:
It's your world, do whatever you want.  If you want John
Henry to be living, breathing Man, than so be it...

The dsigner himself will tell you that the rules and
setting information are onnly guidelines.  Your are free to
do whatever you want and don't have to worry about John
Goff showing up at your door with a Clockwork Demoler
becuase you aren't plating "official" Deadlands.

Patrick

--- "Derek D. Bass" <wangenstein@mad.scientist.com> wrote:
> I know this has been thrown about at least once before on
> the lists, but
> does every single notable person who died between 1863
> and 1880 have to turn
> up Harrowed? I've recently started writing my own
> Deadlands material, and
> thought I'd start with a favorite character from American
> folklore: John
> Henry.
> 
> After I'd just about finished writing his conversion to
> Deadlands I found,
> both in the List Archives and on the PEG website,
> references to John Henry
> in Deadlands (rats!). But in both cases, John Henry was
> Harrowed! There is
> absolutely no reason for John Henry to be Harrowed in
> Deadlands! Yes, I know
> he beat the steam hammer and then his heart gave out, but
> things are much
> different in Deadlands. If I remember correctly (I don't
> have my research in
> front of me), John Henry's race took place in the 1870s.
> By that time, a
> ghost rock steam hammer would have been well-established.
> There would have
> been no need for a race against new-fangled technology. I
> estimated that
> John Henry, never one to turn down a challenge, would
> have joined Union Blue
> in the race to the Great Maze. No Harrowed, no Relic
> hammers, just a big man
> with a lot of Strength, Vigor, Sand and two fifteen pound
> hammers. He'd work
> at the railhead, driving steel and laying track, and
> pounding to paste
> anything that threatened either the railroad or innocent
> people living in
> towns near the work area. I just love to picture John
> Henry defending a town
> from walkin' dead, hammering one after another, right and
> left, never
> slowing, never tiring.
> 
> It may just be me, but it seems like it takes more effort
> (and is more
> rewarding) to rewrite history so that the character
> avoids death in the
> first place, rather than simply saying, "Oh, yes he died,
> but he came
> back... Harrowed!"
> 
> Opinions? Which do you think is better (or more fitting
> for Deadlands):
> maintaining historical accuracy (as far as can be done,
> given the Reckoning)
> or rewriting history to create completely new
> circumstances for historical
> figures? Is there a place for a non-Harrowed John Henry?
> 
> 
> Derek "was a steel-drivin' man" D. Bass
> 
> Etheric Musings -- The Science of the Sons of Ether
> http://web.cari.net/~ddbass/Ether.htm
> 
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