Re: [DL] Re: deadlands D20 [OT]

[Ross Coburn <coburn@videotron.ca>]

I'm going to ignore the more flammable aspects of this post, and concentrate on the on–topic portion.

I have been role–playing as long as just about anybody alive, designed systems, played and ran a whole lot of games (mainly the latter in the last ten or so years), and I can say one thing with perfect confidence:

I have never seen a system as well–suited to its concept and setting as Deadlands. For a western (or weird western) game, the mechanics are just about perfect, and the feel of the system is bang on.

I wouldn't want to use it for a science fiction, fantasy, modern, super hero, etc., game, but Lawd ha' mercy, it does fit the bill for the genre at hand.

No, the gaming universe doesn't begin or end with PEG or Deadlands, but the western or western horror genre in gaming certainly does. Ask the White Wolf people what they think of their efforts in that area vs. Pinnacle's, for example. Or find yourself a copy of Boot Hill, etc.

There are indeed a lot of games out there, but there are few real gems. (For my personal short list, Call of Cthulhu makes the cut, as does pre–Revised Edition Mage, and a few others, but I shan't bore everyone with my personal preferences or justification for same.)

I like D&D Revised, in a round about sort of way, but I don't pretend to think it's the right choice for everybody, or even everybody wanting to run a fantasy campaign. It is indeed utterly full of holes. Doesn't make it a bad game—too many people have put too much good work into this edition for that kind of blanket statement to apply, but when I play/run D&D, I certainly don't pretend it's anything but, and demand/try to evoke the kind of suspension of disbelief that any RPG requires, but is especially necessary for such a complex/abstract (to borrow a phrase) system.

There's my money's worth.


On Wednesday, June 13, 2001, at 10:28 PM, Seanchai wrote:

> Or maybe we're cosmopolitan enough to realize that the gaming universe
> doesn't end with Deadlands, that there are better systems out there, and
> that the air is a little more breathable outside of Hensley's ass. One of
> precepts of my group is exploring the wide variety of games out there; I
> guess to do that we don't have to have high INT scores, but we do have to
> keep an open mind...