[DL] general ramblings (spoilers)

[s <neko@evolove.net>]

Howdy all,

it's monday down here in Oz and I'd thought I'd write a ramble about 
deadlands.. Firstly - I don't own the revised edition, so apologies if I've 
addressed something that's already been 'officially' covered.

1/ (SPOILER)
yesterday I ran "last stop" for my posse in my campaign. It went pretty 
smoothly, Jenny got kidnapped by Bob and the posse pursued, blowing away 
fingers en route (poor little feller never had a chance). One of my posse 
got bitten on the head by a patchwork coyote, resulting in 6 wounds to the 
noggin ! Plenty of fate chips later two posse members had to abort due to 
wounds, leaving the pinkerton of the group to 'finish it off'. He went 
inside and searched around for Radcliffe's secret laboratory, while he was 
doing that the sherriff (phelps) arrived and talked to the 2 posse members 
who had fled outside. He went in and rescued the pinkerton as he was 
defeated by the dessicated dead (winded). I then made it so the sherriff 
was actually an ass-kicker of a sheriff and he went in and blew away all 
the zombies and defeated bob (all told from the perspective of a 
dazed/winded pinkerton). When the pinkerton got his breath back he rescued 
Jenny and blew up the laboratory (after snatching radcliffes notes).

While waiting for the train to be fixed, the posse shacked up in Las 
Cruces. The mad scientist of the group hassled the pinkerton as to what was 
in the tunnel and, upon receiving a stony response, decided to go back to 
the mine and take the right tunnel (which they didn't take before), burying 
himself in the process. After a while , the other posse members clued in 
and, 90 man hours later, retrieved a weak scientist from the rubble.

all in all a good days roleplaying.

2/
It has come to the attention of myself and my posse that the process for 
building gizmos (mad scientists stuff) seems a little flawed. I'm referring 
to the construction of the blueprint. It seems that the direct relation 
between the role for the reliability of the design and the cards you draw 
to make the hand means that all DIFFICULT gizmos that you create 
(submersible, etc etc ) will have a high reliability because of the amount 
of extra cards needed to make the hand. Conversely, all easy gizmos (such 
as a scope) will be more likely to have something wierd occur to them (by 
drawing a joker) due to large number of cards drawn because a high 
reliability is desired.

Example: I want to create something that requires a flush. I decide that 
I'll need at least 8-10 cards to get that flush so I spend fate chips and 
roll a 21, giving me 3 raises and a reliability of 16. Therefore by being 
able to design such a gizmo means that I also have a high reliability. Not 
exactly how I'd view mad science.

Example #2: I want to make a scope. I want this to have a very high 
reliability (19), but I'd be happy to draw 5 or 6 cards and go for the pair 
of jacks required. In order to get reliability 19, I'll need 5 raises to 
get there (2+2+2+2+1). So I spend a few chips and score a 30. I now have my 
reliability, but I draw a heap of cards, increasing my chances of drawing a 
joker. Conclusion: most 'simple' gadgets and doo-hickeys now have all sorts 
of funny things going on with them. Not exactly my idea how that should work.

This is just my posse's opinion, but it seems to be a little flawed. 
Difficult gizmos always have a high reliability and simple items will often 
be inhabited by manitous or what not.

An alternative option we were toying with was varying the base reliability 
depending on the hand required for the blueprint. This would start at 10 
for a straight, then go up 2 points for every hand above and below.

Eg:
...
full house: 14
flush: 12
straight: 10
3 of a kind: 8
2 pair: 6

Lastly, I think the drawing of any joker (red or black) making you check 
for weird things is a bit harsh. I'd be more inclined to only check on the 
'weird things' table upon the drawing of a black joker, much like it was 
changed for hucksters.

3/
What book is good for knowledge about the deadlands world in general? 
Mainly I'm referring to the weather, the effect of the war upon daily life, 
do railroads ignore the war, or are they tightly embroiled etc etc. I don't 
own many deadlands books, but I'm starting to collect 1 each month.

that's all for now, it's safe to come out, my rant is over :)

neko