Re: [DL] Deadlands d20 question

["Matt the Drifter" <deviantsevant@msn.com>]

> My gaming group is playind D$D right now, and I've been working on a
> deadlands campaign in the background (we've played 2 Deadlands campaigns
so
> far).  A couple of them are interested in trying DL d20, one because he
> thinks the DL system is a bit broken.
>
> I'm curions, has anyone else tried both, and what did they think?

Yes I've tried d20.

d20 Pros:
1. Combat moves A LOT faster. Last week in DL a combat with 5 heroes & 1
Automaton took 2 hours to finish. And that was with my "time saving" rules,
i.e. 5 seconds to respond or lose your action, the Marshall shortcuts to
damage on bad guys etc. The same combat in d20 (ran with another group) took
20 minutes.

2. Easier to award experience. I never did get the hang of tossing out Fate
Chips for playing hinderances. XP is a lot easier to award & spend.

3. Not nearly as deadly. If run "correctly" characters survive much longer
and don't face the possibility of a single lucky shot causing 7+ wounds.
This could be a con as well, because the deadliness of guns is readily
apparent in the DL system and realism gets lost when it takes 6 shots at
point blank range to drop a cowpoke.

d20 Cons:
1. The Deadlands "feel" is almost completely lost. Some would say that the
setting is independent of the system, and for those who haven't played with
the DL rule set it may be, but after spending years playing with Cards and
Chips, letting them go is a big loss.

2. No conversion rules. I don't know if this was excluded for copyright
reasons or as a marketing ploy to sell more d20 stuff, but it does kind of
suck that a Marshal can't take a big baddie from the original and move it
into d20.

3. Less customization of characters. The d20 skillz system is a lot more
restrictive than the DL skills system. Making a gunslinger who happens to be
really really good at picking locks is difficult.

I've considered converting from DL original recipe to DLd20 simply because
in my current campaign I have a lot of newbies who are already balking at
the expansive rules, but I'm going to give them a few more sessions to maybe
settle in before I actually suggest it.

My suggestion would be go ahead and start it all up in d20 and get them
hooked on the game. Then as time progresses you can start interjecting "You
know, in the original system you can do this and this but they don't really
allow for that in d20..." or "You know, in the original system they have a
lot more information and powers for Hucksters..." and maybe veer them back
toward the original.

xxoo
Matt the Drifter