[DL] Re: deadlands-digest.20021219-1

["Jeff Shoffner" <shoffner@esper.com>]

>Subject: [DL] What do i do wrong? (High Targets and booring long Combat)
>
>My group and me where playing CL original 3 times yet and while in the
beginning they where quite excitet about the system now 3 of 6 players dont
want to play anymore and the rest has the opinion of "lets see one more time
then we decide if we play again"

[snip]


Gathering from other posts, & your responses, it sounds like the biggest
problem to your group is the players do not understand combat play well
enough to play.  When we first started, combat would easily take an hour.
Now, we usually knock it out in ten to fifteen minutes.  This is with a lot
of folks shooting.

One thing that tells me folks haven't read the rules too well is that it is
+2 for each action of aiming, not +1.  With the maximum amount of aiming,
that's +6--if your guys can't hit with that kind of bonus, maybe they should
rethink the way they have skill points distributed.

The absolute worst character I had in the means of figuring out "to hit"
modifiers was my Shootist.  I finally made a complex slide rule that I could
use to keep track of ten different modifiers; was very useful.

I'd suggest rereading the combat section, reread it again (I think I read it
three or four times, & finally think I have MOST of it memorized), and
either copy sections for the posse to read, or let them read the section out
of the book.  Then, I'd suggest running a no adventure, straight combat
fight.  A simple, "You're walking down the street when ten bandits pop out
of nowhere, & start pulling out pistols, everyone roll Quickness." kind of
thing.  Make sure they understand this is a sample combat to help them
understand the way of combat.

Finally, it does matter about what cards you pull for your character & how
you distribute skill points and how you use them.  We had a saloon gal that
picked up a rifle off a dead guy, and from then on, shot lots better than
the gunslinger.  Why?  Her deftness was better, she was smart enough to hide
behind cover every time they got into a fight, and she always aimed.  Plus,
4D8 damage will always do better than 3D6.

Jeff S