Re: [DL] Monster Survey (long [as in long message, not you Steve])

[The Baron Samedi <baron11@netmcr.com>]

At 09:16 PM 3/29/00, you wrote:
>May be
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>No this is not a really big survey, this is a quick
>question on how people handle monsters.  Do marshals
>only use a particular monster once?  Are there certain
>monsters they refuse to use?  Has anyone modified
>existing monsters to confuse the posse?

I sometimes use monsters repeatedly,. depends on my mood.  I am going to 
babble here, and cite where I get these monsters for you Marshals who don't 
know what I am babbling about.  if I don't cite, figure it is in Deadlands, 
Quick and the Dead, Marshal's Handbook, or Players Guide.

I have never actually used a Hangin' Judge or Maze Dragon.  I don't care 
all that much for Jackalopes either.

I like to use Ghosts (BE: the South and RVC2).  Ghosts stories are 
excellent, when done well, and The very flexible Ghost rules make it easy 
to customize them.  I actually use them quite a bit.  Some of my most 
memorable sessions were "Ghost Stories" in their own right.

I never did the Walkin' dead/Harrowed Power idea cuz I like the metaphysic 
that the human psyche is what lets the manitou channel the powers. all 
comes back to "if Walkin' dead can do it, why make harrowed?" to me.

Tumblebleeds and Walkin' Dead are two favorites.  I will confess, however, 
my Posses generally have little fear of either.  Now Bloats, Bloats are a 
whole different can o' worms.  They are really scary, really smelly, and 
hard to hurt.  Their uses in "Hell or High Water" (for HoE) was nothing 
less then masterwork (but then, Goff wrote it, and forgive my fan 
boyishness, but I must confess having more respect for Goff's ability then 
anyone else in the RPGS industry right now).  Bloats can be found in River 
o' Blood, Hell or High Water, and RVC2

Hopping Vampires and Famites are good because of their Infectiousness.  I 
enjoyed using them a couple times.  I also liked the Hunger Demon.  I have 
used a couple of them now.  I think they are one of the more feared 
monsters I have pulled out of my sleeve. Still, it is great how even a 
powerful posse will fight HVs and Famites with such care.  These are all in 
The Great Maze

another all time fave are Tonton Marcouts.  My goodness, I LOVE these 
suckers. I modified them slightly, here are my changes
Size 8, not 6 (they are big people) AR1 Normal, AR2 verses spells. (River 
o' Blood)

Nosferrrets (RVC2) are fun.  They can seem a bit heavy handed at times tho.

For Innsmouth-esque fun, I love using Croakers (HoE).  They are, however, 
quite weak, their shock value is their biggest strength.  I had one group 
go through some related stories dealing with Croakers. Since there are no 
Shraks (HoE) yet, I sued Jellymen (BE:North) as their dogs of war.

Speaking of borrowed HoE monsters, I really like Night Stalkers but have 
not used one yet.  They are in M3 and are quite useable in weird west.

I use a Two Face (RVC) in one game.  He stalks the PCs and has shown up 
like 3 times now.  They put him down each time, but without salt he always 
comes back.  That same game saw an interesting phobia: I used the old Demon 
Stats (from Heart o' Darkness) as a fallen angel (waxing poetic on the 
fallen aspects) and managed to get a player with a phobia of Angels from it.

That is all for now but I know I will be posting more.  I look forward to 
contributing to this thread a lot.

TBS