Re: [DL] Which System to Use for a New Game

["Daniel Stack" <danielstack@mediaone.net>]

No one expects the Spanish inquisition... :-)  Seriously,
some good questions about things I probably should have 
indicated in my first e-mail.

Marguerite Frey wrote...
> How long has your group played together, and which
> games did you play?  
Hmm, the group fluctuates in membership and is currently
pretty small, but overall has been together since fall of '98.
We've played Star Trek (Last Unicorn Games incarnation
which has a similar dice mechanic to Deadlands - hi Steve!),
Star Wars (both d6 and d20), and D&D 3e.  With an
occasional one-shot game thrown in.  I'd say it's a pretty
adaptable group.
> If, for example, you have a seasoned group
> used to working together ...
<snip>
> I think it would be advantagous for
> you to all learn the DeadLands system together.  Spend
> at least a night or two experimenting with building
> characters, and then pit them against each other in
> combat tests.  

An excellent idea.  After whipping up characters, I can
see it being real useful having a few gunfights just for
"fun".  As for passing the GM hat, I'm the main GM,
with another player GM-ing occasional one shots 
in Star Trek and Toon. Hmmm... Perhaps Deadlands
can quad-stat and use the Toon system... :-)

> How much support do you like for a game?  Do you play
> primarily pre-generated modules, or do you never use
> them?  
Somewhere in the middle I'd say.  I enjoy sourcebooks for
background - I splurged and fell in love with the Great
Maze last week, but I'm not a huge fan of pregenerated
advantures, though I do use them when in a time-crunch,
I still get them to shamelessly raid them for ideas, encounters,
and maps.  I sometimes freak my players out by whipping
out an adventure or two for a game they've never heard
of.  Kinda threw them for a loop when  Star Wars and
Star Frontiers adventures got pulled out a few weeks ago
for our current Star Trek game... :-)  Overall, I'm pretty
comfortable converting stuff to d20 if need be.  I'm mainly
debating if the DL system is worth the learning curve for
our group and is compatible with out style (which is
pretty rules-lite, winging it).  To be honest, I think it is -
some of the players' eyes lit up when I mentioned poker
hands.

-Dan