RE: [DL] How mean and bloodthirsty is "Mean" and "Bloodthristy"?

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@poboxes.com>]

I've currently got a player with both "Mean" and "Bloodthirsty."  He plays
both in the way that you and your player decided they should be played -- as
enhancements to the persona, not the definition of the persona.  This
happens to be the longest lived character in our game.

He is played as a mean old bastard.  If he wants the prisoners dead, and
feels motivated to make them so, he kills them.  But he also waits until no
one is looking.  If confronted, he denies having killed them.  If
intercepted in the process of killing prisoners, he relents.  If the
prisoner is possibly valuable, nothing happens (wouldn't want to _not_ find
the hidden payroll strongbox...).  The character isn't against transporting
prisoners to the local jail, as long as the character still has a horse to
carry himself and his gear.  He probably wouldn't just up and shoot the
prisoners if there were transportation issues, but he wouldn't hesitate to
leave them behind in a hostile environment.

The character also has a hankerin' for tobacco and alcohol.  Both of these
hinderances are also played up.  The character's, um, character is
multifaceted -- but still an old (mid to late 60s -- pretty old for a
gunslinger!) bastard at heart.

My point (finally!) being that I think that your player probably could have
kept his Southern Gunslinger.  Make an announcement that you and the player
talked, mutually agreed that the hinderances were overpowering the
character, and that you both request the rest of the posse cut the
Gunslinger and player a break, and reevaluate both based on the new play
style.  Yes, the character is still Mean... and Bloodthirsty, but not a
completely disfunctional sociopath anymore.  Still a sociopath, but not a
_disfunctional_ one.

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-deadlands@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-deadlands@gamerz.net]On
> Behalf Of Dan Davenport
> Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2000 6:14 AM
> To: Deadlands
> Subject: [DL] How mean and bloodthirsty is "Mean" and "Bloodthristy"?
>
>
> One of my players created a Southern gunslinger with the hindrances of
> "Bloodthirsty" and "Mean as a Rattler". He REALLY played up these
> hindrances, which is good... but I think he went to extremes, which is
> bad.

<SNIP>

> Have any of the rest of you encountered a similar problem? If so, how
> did you handle it?
>
> Dan Davenport
>