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I don't like the "White Hats" speech. I'd
create a series of adventures for the players that started them down the road of
the Reckoners. Put them in similar situations where they have to choose
how to act and if they continue playing as they have been, play into their
powertrip. Have townspeople fear them and roll over to their demands if
the town isn't adequately protected. Give them the rush of power that
comes from being evil. But always include signs that they are choosing the
path of their damnation. Preacher sermons, newspaper articles, bounty
hunters, lawmen etc... Give them a classic "save the helpless woman and
child" scenario and have the women recoil in horror and tell her children to run
when she realizes who her benefactors are. Then introduce them to a real
fearmonger. Have them join up with someone who is REALLY evil and reveal
it over the course of several adventures. Show them what evil really is
and show them how they first stepped on that path during this adventure.
If you simply GM-kill them with cheating NPCs that won't solve anything except
make players think "Ok, we're not playing the way the GM wanted, so he killed
us." That's not going to make them appreciate and get into the Deadlands
setting. Making them realize it for themselves by letting them take your
campaign down that dark path for a while will end up giving the players a
healthy respect for what's down that road and will make them realize why they
shouldn't go there. At the very least, when they eventually die either to
the good guys or the bad guys (and I agree, this particular group MUST
eventually die, it's just a question of what lesson you want to teach) they will
realize you didn't GM-cheat them and they will respect you a lot more for
it.
CRK
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