Re: [DL] Advice, Pitfalls, and Monsters of the Week

["William Ogden" <w_ogden@hotmail.com>]

I'm also working on a campaign, and my idea to avoid the characters being 
guns for hire is to base it around thier home town.  Thus instead of hunting 
down monsters for cash, they do it becuase the critters threaten their 
family and friends.

I also plan on starting with a some more Westernish scenarios, a range war, 
a cattle drive, Indians on the warpath, etc., and intermixing the weird 
aspect with the western aspect.

>From: "Daniel Stack" <danielstack@mediaone.net>
>Reply-To: deadlands@gamerz.net
>To: "deadlands" <deadlands@gamerz.net>
>Subject: [DL] Advice, Pitfalls, and Monsters of the Week
>Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 10:10:10 -0400
>
>To my pleasant surprise, the players in my group seem to like the idea
>of using the classic Deadlands rules when we play a campaign (not
>for another month or two at least...)
>
>What I'm interested in is what advice people out there would offer in
>starting a campaign.  Being a big fan of massive epics like Babylon 5,
>I've learned NOT to inflict such a complicated storyline on my players,
>at least not at first, but rather to start out slowly.
>
>What I do worry about are some pitfalls I see and I'm curious if some
>more grizzled Deadlanders have encountered them or have advice
>on how to avoid them...
>
>- My biggest worry is that there will be a lack of direction.  This is
>a new campaign setting for the players, so a lot of the early game
>will be dedicated to slowly immersing them in the setting.  One
>thing a lot of the adventures seem to assume is that the characters
>are a bunch of mercenaries, always looking for the next way to
>make a fistful of dollars.  I'm contemplating whether giving the
>characters a long-term patron would help give them direction
>and help them learn about the setting.  Two obvious patrons
>are the Agency and the Texas Rangers.  But I don't want to
>lead the players by the nose either - anyone have any experience
>in such games?  The other possible patron would be the teacher/
>mentor of the Huckster in the group - the player of that character
>loves D&D-style wizards, with the whole master-apprentice
>relationship.
>
>- I also see something of an X-Files syndrome.  It seems Grimme
>and Hellstromme are behind EVERYTHING going on in the
>Weird West.  :-)   Am I imagining things?  Is there a good way
>to present this?  After a few dozen battles with the Guardian Angels
>I'd think any self-respecting possee would start thinking about
>taking Grimme out.  Which I'm sure they couldn't do, which could
>get really frustrating.
>
>- Are there any regions that lend themselves really well to immersing
>characters into the setting without overloading players with too
>much information?  I absolutely love the Maze, but at the same time,
>it looks like there is a LOT going on there...
>
>Thanks for all the advice given to this Deadlands newbie thus far.
>I hope I've contributed to ideas and campaigns beyond being a
>voice in the wilderness throwing out random questions... :-)
>
>-Dan
>
>
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