Re: [HoE] Revised Edition

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

PEGShane@aol.com wrote:

> 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!)

I take it Q&D got combined with the players stuff from the original book?  Good
deal.

> Trait Checks (36): Coordinations have always bugged us, so we got rid of
> them.

I had no problem with the old system, and I'm not sure I follow whats been
changed, but I'll take your word for it.

> 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.

Thank you!  That -8 was a real beeeetch, and pretty much meant "don't bother
rolling". -4 on one die is MUCH better.

> Night Terrors (56): Everyone hated the way this Hindrance worked, and it was
> a pain in the saddlesore to keep up with.

*shrug* Didn't have a problem with it before. Okey dokey.

> 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.

Hmm. Ok. Sounds good.

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

Yeesh. Ok. Well, the problem with Luck o' the Irish was that the only time you
really WANTED to use it was when you botched, and you couldn't. This doesn't
change that, but I guess I'll have to try it out. But I could probably munch up a
chip-magnet with this edge... heh.

> 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).

Reminds me... I gotta get that durned alternate table finished off.

> 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.

That sounds really cool.  Great way to handle running.

> 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.

I'm assuming a double-barrel shotgun still has a ROF of 2, but ok. Hmm. Not sure
I like this... I think you've made the problem worse, now the double actions are
even better than the single actions. The whole pistols=fire twice reminds me of
GRW, though, so I can see where your going. Ah well, nothing a house rule can't
fix.

> 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!

I'm really not happy with this disposable Legend Chip ability. I've only seen a
group get 1 or 2 legend chip anyways... there are so many powers and abilities
that rely on Legend Chips now that I think discarding them is a bad idea. That
means the Marshall has to give out more of them, and that just doesn't sit right
with me.

And I guess I liked the idea of pulling a legend chip out of the pot and then
remembering what our group did to earn it.

Anyway, put me down as against this. Legend chips should stay in the pot. Or if
they get discarded, then black chips should be discarded as well.

> 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.

Yes! I don't know why I didn't think of this before... but...  wow! Thanks,
Shane, this change is really kick-ass!

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

Hmm. Didn't expect this one. I'm a little worried that you've now made rituals a
little vague... all that wonderful work Paul did really added a lot to the
atmosphere of calling on favors, even if it did take a little too long. I can see
why the more complicated system would be ditched for speed and smoother gameplay,
though.

> From the Marshal's Book:
>
> ***Changes to Marshal's material***
> 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.

Cool! I think this will really put the fear into players that walk into areas
with high fear levels. Does this apply to HOE, which has levels this high almost
as a default?

> 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.

Any word on colored grit or game effects that happen at 10 grit?

Also, something I want to point out, and I think this is a BIG problem with a lot
of the Deadlands materials out there... almost EVERY guts roll is a TN of 9. It
seems whenever anyone has to roll guts, its always a 9... some more variety would
be nice.

Also, and this bugs me a great deal, regardless of how close or how far people
miss their guts TNs, they all pretty much respond in the same way... someone who
fails the roll by just 1 number and someone who fails by 7 or 8 gets basically
the same results, and when its a TN of 9, all those d6's bell-curve into
basically the same result over and over again. Here's a little house rule to
spice things up: Subtract the highest number the player rolled from the Scart
total. That way, if someone rolls an 8 on a TN of 9, he's not as bad off as the
yuts who rolled all 2s. Plus it should scale down the Scart effects of the
players who get really close to the TN. It's a little more bookkeeping, but it
patches up one of my major problems with how Fear works.

I should stop yammering now. Nobody seems to pay attention to any post over a
page or two anyway. Looks good, though... thanks, Shane!