Re: [DL] Outlaws game available [ot]

[Mike Buckalew <mike_buckalew@filemaker.com>]

Allan Seyberth said:

>What would folks like to see in a Deadlands computer game?
>
>I'd love to see a Deadlands game using the Fallout engine myself.  As long 
>as I get my self-exploding Hucksters and Mad Scientists with flamethrowers.

Fallout was an excellent game and the interface would work well for 
Deadlands.  The folks who did Fallout are releasing a fantasy/industrial 
revolution game called "Arcanum" soon btw.

For me, the primary difference between a crpg and a video game is a 
turn-based interface.  If I want to play a gunslinger, I don't want to be 
hampered by my own 1d4 in Quickness.  Hybrid turn-based/arcade interfaces 
like Fallout and Baldur's Gate are a nice compromise here.

Another advantage that both of these games have is that the player 
generates a single character and then encounters NPCs to round out the 
party.  Baldur's Gate really improves over Fallout here by giving each 
NPC a unique personality that not only interacts with the PC, but with 
other NPCs based on their individual personalities.

In our tabletop DL game, we had a lot of squabbling between the Blessed 
and some of the of the other characters, particularly the Huckster, on 
moral grounds.  It would be fun to watch the same sort of interaction 
between NPCs in a crpg ala Xzar and Jaheira in BG.

To do Deadlands right, there would have to be a strong horror element.  
Where a computer game has an advantage here over a human is in total 
control over the environment.  The player will actually see the events on 
the screen instead of imagining based on descriptions provided by the GM. 
 To take advantage of this would require strong music, images, etc. to 
make up for the lack of the human element.

My first foray into the Mines of Nashkell in BG was pretty damn creepy.  
I had the powerbook in my lap and the lights turned out and even though 
the denizens of the mines turned out to be pretty weak, my heart was 
racing with the same sort of excitement I get from watching a good horror 
movie.  This was provided by good music scoring, poor lighting of 
well-executed graphics, and the occasional creepy sounds.  It also helped 
that my (character's) childhood friend Imoen (an NPC thief) kept saying 
in a fearful voice "There's something unnatural here."

It certainly would have been cool if there had been an abomination at the 
bottom of the mine instead of the [spoiler-free] fantasy-standard villain 
at the bottom.  It would have also been nice to plug him full of holes 
with the ol' smokewagons instead of the +1 sword.


Buck (Mike Buckalew)
buck@filemaker.com
Test Manager
FileMaker, Inc.