Re: [DL] Mad Scientists are so weak!

[Marshal Black <marshal_black@yahoo.com>]

My campaign is currently centered around 3 mad
scientists and a blessed living in Gloom. One of them
has been playing his same mad science character nearly
the entire time he has been playing Deadlands (his
first two characters met quick unfortunate ends). I've
seen mad science on the trail, on the fly, in a wagon,
in a lab, in an airship, and now in the converted
warehouse that has become home to all of my campaigns
loony geniuses. Given this, I've got a thing or two to
say about whats possible.
They do not recieve the instant gratification that
hucksters and the other backgrounds get, by contrast
their devices hang around long after the huckster has
blown out their brains all over the floor of some
haunted house. Because most mad science requires a
theory to work, it requires a lot more thought then a
hucksters spell however blueprints essentialy only get
into the multi-month/year area when you stray to far
from the technological basis of the era. The
compartively small effects that a mad scientist can
create in almost no time at all can be absolutely
amazing. 1-6 days for a fully automatic machine gun? A
little prep time and you are doing far more consistant
damage then a huckster with soul blast, even with
reliability rolls. 1-10 hours for a bullet proof vest
is pretty good when I've seen two seperate hucksters
put out of a fight by persnickity manitous just trying
to make the base hand for bodyguard. Using the cards
to make poker hands is tough for every AB, however
with a mad scientist you only have to make the hand
once and then you have the benefits from then on.
One of the things to keep in mind for non-alchemical
mad science is that putting more thought into your
theory is liable to help you. While a freeze ray is a
four of a kind, a portable dispenser of liquid
nitrogen does not flaunt the laws of science at all
and therefore would provide a similar effect at a full
house or lower. A magentic rail gun would be a nasty
hand to try and pull, but a ghost vapor cannon will
usually work just fine in its place and takes less
then half the time.
Now if you've got something really spectacular like
the time machine, weather control sattelites, or
robotic sea monsters then you do have to spend a lot
of time on that but good lord! None of the other
arcane backgrounds even get to touch those levels of
effect! A scientist who was motivated enough (and more
then a little loco) could probably have a low yield
nuclear weapon at somewhere around the four of a kind
if they wanted. I'd love to see how many limbs a
Shaman would have to cut off to achieve that
particular feat.
Now that probably isn't a lot of comfort when you are
looking at 10 years of research for what you feel will
be your crowning achievement in science but that
balances out with the terror your Marshal must feel
when he sees you with the devices that are possible at
the royal flush level. Those devices are INCREDIBLY
powerfull, and so the time required provides the game
balancing mechanic that allows the game to continue to
run with those possibilities.
A mad scientist can get along really quite nicely by
using his skills to make devices specific to a
situation that aren't particularly big technological
leaps. Armoring up a horse drawn wagon to escape from
rampaging forest demons, creating a sauna in the dead
of winter to help those suffering from frostbite, or
just plain adding an extra barrel to a rifle to do a
little more damage are all things the mad scientists
in my party have done with barely any effort on their
part and made a BIG difference.
Alchemy, as a science, also makes up some of
speed/fantasy factor that mad science seems to lack.
It provides a number of usefull effects at the 3 of a
kind "minor power" level, healing, night vision and
the like. At the flush level you can justify an awful
lot so long as it looks like it would make a decent
hex or arcane power of one sort or another. I also
cannot count the number of potential explosions
carrying around 2 part nitro as opposed to dynamite
has avoided for the party I play with.
Anyway, all this adds up to the fact that the Mad
Scientists really didn't get hosed on powers. They are
a lot less user friendly then the other powers, and
they require you to keep in mind that you are playing
in the Weird West, not a science fiction setting, but
when played properly they can more then make up for
those troubles.

Marshal_Black

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