RE: [DL] Everything to everyone

["Roy Spence" <roy.ster@virgin.net>]

> First, I recently bought the Marshall Law screen and got the
> two adventures
> with it: This Harrowed Ground and Ghostriders in the Sky.
> Any good?

I've not played or ran either of them, however I remember THG ranking highly
a while back when people were puting forward their favourite (published)
adventures (the comments encouraged me to buy it).

> Second... CoD

I've only read/skimmed CoD so am of no help there.

> Third, I'm thinking of running a Deadlands game set in one town.  The
> characters will have businesses, jobs, family ties, etc., to
> the town.
> Anyone had any experience with a campaign like this?

I ran my first years worth of Deadlands adventures in a town in Nevada.  I
had an overall grand plan for the town which was hinted about and advanced
through some crucial adventures.  I hid these crucial adventures amongst a
number of other "town" related adventures (rancher vs. miner fights etc) and
also some adventures that focused around some of the characters'
backgrounds.  They found out secrets about the townspeople's sordid pasts,
cleaned out "abandoned" mines, and helped out an overworked deputy (for
some, limited, reward).  I kept my posse poor for this and fed them work
from people in the town and from the deputy - this kept them motivated.

The campaign had little supernatural weirdness initially, however this was
built up as time went on and the PC's realised that something was very wrong
in the little town.  The reason for setting it in the town was I wanted to
experiment with giving the PC's answers to clues, before they got the clue
itself and see if they would remember and gain a step for a hintin their
investigations.  SOmetimes it worked, at others it didn't, however if they
didn't remember, they would just get there be a more round about route.

All in all, it's probably the most successful campaign I've run, although it
took a lot of effort to keep the locations updated and their information
changing.  I did fancy modifying THG and do something similar there - so
that the PC's would have longer to figure out the big problem with the town,
however would have other (lesser) unrelated problems/adventures to go
through first (hence by the time they started THG proper they would be
familiar with the town and would have some of the clues - they just wouldn't
know it yet)

Hope this is of help,


Roy