Re: [DL] [OT] Re: Western Series

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

Quoting Wraith <Wraith530@comcast.net>:

> Spoilers!  Though, for the point of argument, they aren't grim and 
> foreboding spoilers.

Addendum.

Massive spoilers follow.

 

> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why do so many people see deadlands as simply a dark and foreboding 
> setting?  It's a dark humor, and if you need any proof, take the 
> following fact into consideration:
> 
> There's an undead gunslinging super secret agent Abe Lincoln in the setting.

And if I remember correctly, at one point old Abe lost control of his manitou,
and started slaughtering everything around him.  

That is not the stuff of campy humor.  

A lot of the campy humor came from the supplements, and the different authors of
same.  Looking at the core books, and looking at the major goals and power
sources of the Reckoners, you get a very grim and dark world where the heroes
are desperately trying to hold the darkness at bay against evil, implacable,
cunning, powerful and ruthless foes.

Think about the inherent flavor of the Huckster - gambling with demons for their
very souls and sanity.  
Think of the Harrowed, who reawaken to life by clawing their way out of their
own grave only to have to fight daily to keep an evil within them at bay.  An
evil who would love nothing better than to slip in and and slaughter a room full
of schoolchildren, just to see the looks on their faces.  
Look at Mad Scientists who are only allowed to create bizarre contraptions and
weapons in order to increase the efficiency of the meat-grinder of war, with the
long term goal of bringing about Armaggeddon and the death of 90% of humanity by
nuclear fire.
Look at Ghost Rock is - the souls of the damned wailing as they burn away.
Look at what Raven did to release the power of the Reckoners.
Consider the industrial wasteland beneath the Steel Sky in the City of Gloom.
Think about the atmosphere and malevolent aura that a Deadlands practically
radiates out of it's warped and twisted reality.

When I think of the Agency, I think of dark shadowy halls and the Smoking Man
from the X-files.  


Deadlands is certainly not all grim and dark.  There are elements of light, and
and humor,, and there are plot elements and mechanics (the mad scientist's
reliability rolls for one) that allow for a campy game.
But while the game can certainly be played to allow room for likes of James
West, Artemis Gordon, Maverick, and Brisco County Jr., there is one thing above
anything else that truly sets the dark tone of the setting for me.

For me, the ultimate expression of the darkness across the land is Stone, the
slayer of heroes and extinguisher of light.  A man so evil that his own personal
demon is afraid of /him/.
Any PC hero, regardless of experience or power, who stands toe to toe against
Stone will die -period-.  Any /group/ of PCs who stand toe to toe against Stone
will have half of them die in the first round, and the other half who wisely
fled will be hunted down and exterminated over the next four months.  

Stone turns the game away from a "let's romp off and slay the evil wizard in his
tower, er, scientist in his laboratory" and makes it personal.  There is no safe
place, no haven, no refuge, against an evil like this.  Night is falling and one
by one, Stone is extinguishing those lights that stand against it.  

Those heroes who still stand against that exemplify the highest forms of
courage.  It is the heroism of the Night Watch of George R.R. Martin, who fight
in the frigid North against overwhelming odds so that those who have forgotten
them in the South might live free and safe.  It is the heroism of Tolkein's
Dunedain, a slowly dying race that still range far and deep into the darkness to
slow the spread of evil.  
It's the heroism so perfectly summed up on Frank Miller's Dark Knight, when, in
one scene, the Supes had one and only one thought.  

"If I fail, millions die."


It's the heroism of the thin line of Rohirrim at Helm's Deep, standing between
the thousands and their families.  It's the heroism of the lone samurai who
holds the bridge, the guardian at the gates, and shepard with his flock.  It's a
heroism not diminished, but enhanced, by the mortality of the defenders.  For
they know all to well the fraility of flesh and yet they stand resolutely
against the hammer's fall.

To paraphrase Marion Zimmer Bradley, only the flawed can ever truly be heroes. 
It is easy to wade into a fight when you know you can't lose.  That's not
heroism and it's certainly not courage.  At best it's a form of ignorance and at
worst a form of slothful cowardice
But when you know the risks, when you /know/ what is at stake and can be lost,
and yet you still stand up and hold the line. . . THAT is heroism, that is
courage.   


The deeper the darkness, the brighter the light shines within it.  

And there is Stone.  Extinguising those lights.  One at a time
     Resolutely,
     Patiently,
     Ruthlessly.  
One   by   one, hero by hero, the darkness deepens.  The samurai falls into the
blood tinged water, the shepard disappears and the flock destroyed, and the
guardian lays impaled on the shattered remnants of his gates, a now empty and
desolate city behind him.  

That's not to say there isn't hope.  This is what the heroes stand against,
these are the odds that the face, that they have to face.  Because the cost of
losing the fight is far, far too high.  




But that's just me.  I've always preferred stories like that so that when I read
Deadlands, my preferential filters pick up and focus on those elements I enjoy,
while subconsciouly skimming over and downplaying those I don't.  (I think it's
something that we all do).  



-----------
Allan Seyberth
'Mouth of Sauron'
darious@darious.com