Re: [DL] Dead + Famous = Harrowed?

["Derek D. Bass" <wangenstein@mad.scientist.com>]

First off, hi Ghoull, I absolutely love your "Today in the Old West" plot
hooks. I like the irony in a mechanical heart keeping John Henry alive, but
I don't think I explained my original point well enough. I wouldn't have
John Henry avoid the steam hammer confrontation because it was too hard. He
wouldn't end up racing the steam hammer because, for whatever reason, when
it was introduced as a new-fangled contraption, he wasn't in a position to
challenge it. Between the Reckoning, the Great Rail Wars and the ongoing
Civil War, there are any number of reasons for his race not to have taken
place. My thought was for a John Henry who never faced that particular
challenge in the first place. What would he have done, where would he have
gone? The next greatest challenge (I thought) for such a steel-drivin' man
was to see that his rail team was the first to reach the Great Maze.

Personally I'm fascinated by alternate, "What if he/she hadn't died when
they did? What would they have done for the better or worse?" histories. For
me, that fascination is served in Deadlands by finding ways for them to
avoid death in the first place, besides supernatural means. Of course,
_some_ of them have to die, to keep it 'realistic', else you'd have the same
problem in reverse of 'Dead + Famous = Not Dead'. What if you gave a party
and nobody died? That sort of thing.

As for his ultimate sacrifice, you're right, it is integral to the whole
idea of John Henry. I just think it'd be cool to have that sacrifice take
place in front of the Posse, rather than it being old news. What a tale the
Posse would have to tell! You could have _them_ write the Ballad of John
Henry around an adventure in which he helps the Posse defeat a great evil,
danger or menace, but gives his life in the process. That's what I meant in
the first place, I just shorted my original idea/storyline a little too much
the first time I told it here.

Derek "I load 16 tons, whadda I got?" D. Bass

Etheric Musings -- The Science of the Sons of Ether
http://web.cari.net/~ddbass/Ether.htm


>     Although I definitely understand your desire for a non-Harrowed >John
Henry, I don't think that this conversion really does him >justice. He's
famous because he gave his all against implacable >odds, not because he said
"Gee, these ghost rock steam hammers are >certainly tough...guess I'll go
find a challenge I can win instead." >If I were to include him in a
Deadlands game as a non-Harrowed, I >would have had his organic heart give
out during the competition, >only to be replaced by a newfangled artifical
one powered by ghost >rock. Being reliant on such a contraption would be
anathema to >Henry, of course, forcing him to wander the West in search of
>someone who can fix him. Since the sacrifice he made is so integral >to his
story, simply writing that sacrifice out of things seems >wrong to me.

---Ghoull

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