[HoE] Revised Edition

[PEGShane@aol.com]

Hey gang,

Okay, the big news I have is that the Revised Edition got broken up into two 
books: The Weird West Player's Guide and the Marshal's Handbook. Both books 
are 208 pages, with color, and $25. (Pretty good, I think!)

We took out all the spoilers from the player's guide so you Marshals can keep 
your plaeyrs in the dark a little better. We also made a number of  rule 
changes, which we'll post on the web site, AND, I'll post right here, right 
now.

You HOE players can use or ignore these changes as you see fit. We'll likely 
include them as optional changes in the "Waste Warriors" book coming out 
later this year.

From the Player's Guide:

***Changes to Player's material***

Trait Checks (36): Coordinations have always bugged us, so we got rid of 
them. Sort of. They’re now called “Trait Levels,” which in itself isn’t a big 
change, but it changes the mindset of those who are frustrated that their 
Trait is often better than their skill, particularly when making the 
old-style default rolls (see the change to those below). We also draw 
attention from the controlling Trait by having you list your character’s 
Aptitudes with the die type. It’s subtle, but it makes the game much easier 
for new players to learn.

Default Skill Rolls (26): Along with the change to Trait checks, we made 
default rolls diffferent so that players aren’t looking at their 1d12 search 
and wondering why they wouldn’t want to always roll their 4d12 Deftness 
instead, even with the old “unskilled” penalty of -8. Changing the way 
unskilled rolls works to a single die with a -4 penalty also changes the 
mindset of those who think it’s better to be unskilled at something and 
suffer the modifier than to get less dice. (Statistically, it’s true in some 
cases and not in others.)

Skill Lists (38-48): These are now alphabetized instead of listed with 
individual Traits.
Throwin’ (46): Who wants a concentration for all the different things you can 
throw? Like with Hell on Earth, we divided the concentrations up into 
balanced and unbalanced.

Night Terrors (56): Everyone hated the way this Hindrance worked, and it was 
a pain in the saddlesore to keep up with. The new night terrors works like 
this. Make a Spirit roll at the beginning of each session or lose your lowest 
chip. If you do lose a chip, however, your character experiences a prescient 
dream as before.

Gift o’ Gab (62): Characters now get to pick up languages as if they had a 
skill of 1 after a few minutes of conversation. This cleared up some 
ambiguities on the old system.

Luck o’ the Irish (63): This Edge now give the character an extra Fate Chip 
per session. Much simpler.

Knacks (Quick & the Dead): These are no longer Edges. Your character can get 
them only by gaining a mysterious past (drawing a Joker during character 
creation).

Movement (116): In earlier editions, movement was broken up over your 
actions. That was mainly done to figure out when a character was running or 
not. It was clunky and made for some strange situations (characters with more 
actions moved in small increments while slower characters raced around the 
battle area). We changed it so that your hero can still move up to twice his 
Pace in a round, but you can break it up however you want. Move over his Pace 
in a single action and he gets the running penalty.

Weapon Speed (118): The biggest change to combat is that we got rid of weapon 
speeds. We originally did this so that there was a difference between single- 
and double-action pistols. It’s a very slight difference in the real world, 
and hard to model in a game. We started with the most realistic but it made 
single-actions, rifles, and shotguns slow and a pain to remember the 
“shootin’ from the hip” modifier. So we ditched all that and did this 
instead: double-actions get to fire twice each action while single-actions 
fire once (but can fan). Rifles and shotguns can fire once per action.

Fate Chips (145): Chips can be spent on the Strength portion ofhand-to-hand 
damage rolls. Legend chips can be used to reroll anything, including table 
results like backlash. They’re also discarded once used! Use ‘em wisely!

Hexes (154): Hucksters have gotten a rock from the start. Not only did they 
have to buy each hex as its own skill, they then had to make a skill roll, 
draw cards, and risk getting their heads blown off by manitous as well. They 
still have to do the card business, but red Jokers are always good, and all 
their hexes now use a single skill—hexslingin’. That means they can get 
better at their craft and have better chances to pull off their spells.

Mad Scientists (165): Red Jokers are always good and no longer cause madness.

Rituals (182): Shamans got the same makeover that hucksters did. Their 
various rituals are now one skill with several concentrations.


From the Marshal's Book:

***Changes to Marshal's material***
Howdy, Marshal! If you’ve been with us for a while, we’d like to point out 
the most significant changes we’ve made in this book
s. Changes to skill and combat mechanics, as well as those for some of the 
character types with arcane backgrounds, can be found in the Weird West 
Player’s Guide.
New Marshals can ignore this page—and it won’t be here in future printings.

Fear Effects (19): We’ve made the bad guys a little more powerful and greatly 
reduced the job of the Marshal in tracking fear effects. From now on, the 
Marshal simply draws chips at the beginning of each fight in areas of high 
fear (Fear Levels 4-6). 1 Chip at Fear Level 4, 2 at 5, and 3 at 6.

Grit (22): We got rid of the whole concept of “fearmongers.” Too many folks 
just couldn’t decide who or what a fearmonger was. From now on, award Grit 
when your posse defeats a major evil—it’s your call if the end of any 
adventure is worthy. Also, a character’s maximum Grit is 5, and it can now be 
lost by going bust on a guts check made against a TN of 9 or higher.

Fate Chips (24-25): We made sure you knew Fate Chips for solving the 
adventure are rewarded during the adventure, not at the end of each session. 
We also made it clear that the Marshal isn’t supposed to use Legend Chips 
(put 'em back and draw another).

Knacks (39): As we mentioned in the Weird West Player’s Guide, Knacks are now 
a mysterious past. If you have players who bought knacks as Edges, leave ‘em 
alone. You can institute the change on any new characters brought into your 
game if you want. We also gave knacks Legend Chip abilities.

Monster Powers (61): We made a set of standard monster powers as we did in 
Deadlands: Hell on Earth. Special powers that don’t fit into these standard 
subsets will still be listed on each individual creature profile.

Size Table (61): The long-awaited Size Table helps you figure out how big 
your own varmints are. (Will post on web-site next week).

Los Diablos (71): The devil bulls come calling sometime after they’ve reached 
5 Grit. Treat it more as a minimum than an alarm bell. When the hero becomes 
a real thorn in the Reckoner’s side, they come calling.