[DL] Shootists (spoilers)(long)

[Reemull <reemull@yahoo.co.uk>]

OK final post on Lone Stars this time focusing on the new Shootist AB,
again here be spoilers... 


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Ok first of all, I loved the original Hexslinger concept by Steve Long,
but thought that it required a little more of a split from the Huckster
image, therefore I eager awaited this revision.

The first thing I thought as I read through he preamble was, this isn't
the Doc Holliday (DH) I imagined, he seemed too moralistic and into
fighting the good fight, in general too nice a person. I've heard the
stories concerning how historic figures generally get portrayed
favourably, Wyatt Earp for one, however DH always came across as being
pretty unpredictable, with the exception being his loyalty to Wyatt
Earp.  It looked to me as if DH was being viewed through tinted glasses
- I would have thought that some of the hindrances that were likely to
exclude him teaching you could have applied to him at one time or
another.   I understand the motivation behind presenting him in this
light was to provide the Marshal with some framework for determining
whether DH would teach a PC or not, possibly an example of a successful
candidates approach to tutorage would have given a better feel for the
situation.

The relationship between Ketchum and Holliday seems crucial for the
whole Shootist/TR link - however there is little more than a "they met
- they got on" comment.  I would have liked more than this as the
relationship affects any reaction a TR gets from DH while in Tombstone
(could be wrong here, but wasn't DH traditionally not fond of lawmen,
with Earp being the famous exception?) Plus any rude TR's could affect
the future training of others as well.

I just feel that there are many facets of DH's character that could
have been used here to add more flavour - he turns out a little bland
for my tastes.

The hexes are ok - as I said earlier not as many extra hexes as I hoped
for - assuming that people had seen the cut hexes from Law Dogs that
were in the accumulated rulings, there was only one new hex.

I liked that all the hexes now are directly related to guns and I can
see that there has been an effort to make all the hexes directly
relevant to guns although I still think that there is room for a couple
of hexes related to the gunfighting image as well.  One which comes to
mind was the whole issue of the gunslinger managing to stand under a
barrage of bullets - however I can understand that the wind related
hexes were removed to prevent PC's maximising their wind hence making a
mockery of the wind cost required to extend the duration of the some
hexes.  However even a hex that allowed a Shootist to stay standing a
little longer while losing blood would suit the image of the hard nosed
gunslinger very well I'd have thought.  Something like

"Still Standing"
Trait: Spirit
Hand: Pair
Speed: 1
Duration: 1 Round/hex level
Range: Self

Even though the blood flows freely from the gunslingers wounds -
through sheer grit, determination and otherworldly magics he manages to
stand and staredown his remaining foes.   For a minimum hand the
character will not fall unconscious from wind loss until his wind
reaches -2.  For each hand above the minimum this increases this
negative limit by 2, note while the hex is in operation the shootist
doesn't take any additional wounds from reaching his size in -ve wind. 
Once the hex is complete or dropped, the character will fall
unconscious if his wind is currently less than 1 - plus he takes
additional wounds to his guts as normal if his wind has reached -ve
size value.  Once the shootists wind reaches zero, no more wind can be
spent maintaining hexes.

After comparing the tweaked hexes to the old hexes I discovered a few
holes that my group could have exploited, so well done in sorting these
out.  I like the fact that the hexes as they stand have some nice
tactical effects that a thinking gunfighter can use rather than being
limited to the "more damage, but in different ways" type of hex.  Out
of interest was there any reason for removing the Cognition trait as
being one used by the hexes?


Cheers

Roy


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