Re: [DL] Starting a Game

["B.D. Flory" <bflory@frontiernet.net>]

> So... what should I do? Run a game with the books that
> I have? Get the updated rules and run that? Get the
> d20 books and go that route?

Sheerly as personal preference, I'd go with the first or second of these
options, for the reason you mention below: the d20 rules strip out most (if
not all) of the really flavorful mechanics of the classic DL system.

As to the differences between the rules you have and the Revised rules
(where core books are the Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook), they are
as follows:

Fear effects change. IIRC, in the original rules, the Marshal drew extra
chips when the fear level was sufficiently high and certain cards came up
in the action deck (Suicide King, One Eyed Jacks, etc). This is simplified
to one or more draws from the fate pot for the Marshal at the beginning of
each combat, based on the fear level.

The process of gaining grit (and now, losing it) changed; rather than a
when the posse defeats a vaguely defined "fearmonger", they now gain a grit
when they "defeat a major foe at the end of an adventure." There is now a
maximum grit cap, as well as a slim chance of losing grit when things get
*really* bad.

Legend chips are a bit more common now, but are always lost when spent.

Knacks (from The Quick & the Dead) no longer exist (though could be pretty
easily translated forward, if you so choose).

Taking aside the above, there are a few other changes, mostly to streamline
combat and give hucksters and other AB's a boost.

If you have The Quick & the Dead, the revised Marshal's Handbook includes
most of the setting info therein, but revises and updates it to 1877.

> My players will be relatively new to roleplay and will
> not know the Deadlands system at all and will probably
> have some knowledge of D&D 3E.

This is about the only argument I can think of to run d20 over classic DL.
Even so, however, I'd try to learn 'em the classic system. It's fun,
flavorful, and flexible.

> Having gone through the rulebook, I think the use of
> playing cards and poker chips is charming and adds
> character to the game (still not sure how hexes work,
> but I'll re-read the section). Don't know if d20
> excludes these devices but it would be a shame if they
> did.

As I said above, most, if not all, of these elements were excluded from DL
d20. And it is a shame. :(

B. D. Flory
Freelance Writer/Editor

"Healing is a matter of time, but sometimes it is a matter of opportunity."
                                                         -Hippocrates