Re: [DL] Was "Re: Critter info" now Rail Wars

[balance@tubas.net]

On Tuesday, June 25, 2002, at 01:22  AM, Janne Matti Oskari Vuorenmaa 
wrote:

>>> If you don't own ToT1877, I strongly recommend it. It's got data on 
>>> all of
>>> the things you asked about.
>> Okay, looks like I"m up to RVC I or II and ToT1877. I wasn't sure how 
>> much
>> I'd get out of ToT so I've been putting it off. But it looks like I'll
>> probably need it. Dang you PEG and your spiffy game!
> I'll second that. :)
> If you're planning on running your campaign along the official timeline,
> then ToT is worth it's weight in ghost rock. Otherwise it's just a good
> source of ideas.

The RVc series do a good job of setting the Deadlands tome... Without 
them, a lot of adventurs might be 'D&D' style with a tendency to have 
neat monsters just dropped in the area... Which amazingly kinda works in 
deadlands, but the best bosses are the earily appropriate ones.

'Course, I'm the kinda nutcase who let my posse tangle with a rank 2 
Garou in Hell on Earth... If he had been a 
hell-bent-to-eat-posse-memeber kinda villian, it would have been messy.

>> Vaguely related to this topic, any idea how in tarnation the rail lines
>> actually duke it out? Looking over the material, it looks like there 
>> are
>> only a few spots where the rail lines actually meet up, and several of 
>> the
>> rail lines aren't any where near others.
> Well, in the aforementioned book it is stated, that the rail companies 
> do
> send even large amounts of troops (can you say it like that??) to hinder
> their competition. Then, as Rich already pointed out, the main lines are
> just that --  main lines.

True... also, many of the GRW barons are industrialists in their own 
way, so strikes against factories and staging areas seem to be common.

> The fact that they don't have to use regular troops helps them out a 
> lot.
> They just need to send in somebody with the skill and money to hire a 
> few
> troubleshooters, and he can create a unit at the spot for the spesific
> job. A plus side to that is, that if they get caught, the hired hands
> don't need to have any idea who they're working for, except for "that
> feller with the hefty bag o' greenbacks".

As per the GRW game books, this seems to be supported. Most fielded GRW 
troops are generic posses of gunslingers and the like, reinforced by 
appropriate special troops... You can, however, field a viable force of 
all common troops, I think.

>> Does this just limit who picks on who? Are there only certain spots 
>> where
>> the rail barons get into tussles? Or do they form little armies and 
>> just
>> march them over to another line and start causing problems? I 
>> understand a
>> little sabatoge every now and then from a small squad, but the way the
>> source material reads, they're battling it out with decent sized 
>> forces.

Certain groups seem to concentrate on others...

> Battle of the Cauldron is one of the rare occasions of which there is 
> any
> solid information. They even give some numbers on how much casualties 
> and
> broken machinery there is.
> My view on these things are, that the major battles are not that common,
> companies mostly relying on small units and big bags of dynamite. Then 
> of
> course, if one company is about to gain a significant edge, they rush in
> with numbers.

is this from ToT 77? I never picked that up, so I'm not familiar with 
it...
--
Brett

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER 
MAN? (Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett)