RE: [HOE] What is wrong with the sourcebook adventures? (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

[GalenRasputin@aol.com]

SPOILER SPACE












SPOILER SPACE







STILL MORE SPOILER SPACE










>Hell or High Water:  While not the best module in the >history of RPGs, this
>scenario is probably the best HOE adventure in terms >of writing quality and
>fairness to the players.  It gives players a good >introduction to the
>Wasted West, has opponents both mundane and >supernatural, and the final
>villian is not an overpowered monstrosity so often >found in HOE products.
 I disagree a party with mostly automatic weapons is going to wipe out the pirates right quick,
And the undead abominations are wussy's.

>Apocalypse Now (comes with the Radiation Screen):  An >amazingly
>well-written adventure.  Truly the author put a lot of >work into it.
>Unfortunately unless your characters are super->experienced jack of all
>trades supermen (or women) the portion of the >adventure involving the town
>held by the Black Hats can easily devolve into an >utter slaughter of the
>posse at several points in the adventure.  While >everything the Black Hats
>do is logical, it also makes it nigh-impossible for a >starting to
>intermediate posse to survive.  If this was the final >encounter of the
>adventure this would be okay, but as the midway point >of the scenario it's
>way too much.
Agreed, you need a smart skilled posse to win this one. A posse with 3 to 4 adventures under the belt should do.

>Children O' The Atom Adventure: Besides the sidebar on >why you should keep
>your posse poor (apparently it's a mortal sin in a >Hell on Earth adventure
>to allow your posse to be well-equipped; to Hell with >the fact your players
>enjoy having lots of weapons and/or trinkets, keep 'em >poor!) this
>adventure also starts out with any vehicle the posse >has being
>automatically wiped out in the first encounter (hope >you didn't sink too
>many points into belongins' for that car).  The main >villian is one of
>those Doombringers that only a Doomsayer can put down >for good, and there's
>a mutating virus that can only be healed by >Doomsayers, so if no followers
>of the Glow are in your posse you are out of luck.  

If the posse has automatic weapons, and a Doomsayer in the group then it was not that hard, but if they do not have a Doomsayer do not even think of running this adventure.


>Infestations:  A well-written story comes in this dime >novel, but the final
>creature is just too tough, with a weakness that most >players will never
>think of.
Agreed

>The Last Crusaders sourcebook:  To quote my review of >the adventure from
>www.rpg.net:

>1. The adventure starts with the PCs in Boise, having >to leave the town and
>travel to confront the
>Destroyer, who is about 130 miles away. The Destroyer >has several hostages,
>and if your posse is
>on foot all of them will be dead before your heroes >arrive on the scene. 

Have the PC's arrive with the Convoy, attack the convoy and have the convoy leader beg them to go get help or have the PC's surrender and later escape.

They might wind up losing their favorite piece of equipment, but have the Templars arm them. It fits with their attitude of we help those who help themselves.

Have the templars lone them a vehicle, or a sigle templar has a vehicle and is willing to help them out.

>2. Along the way to confront the Destroyer the posse >must encounter an
>abomination they can't permanently put down. It can >end up your PCs have to
>go past the monster several times during the course of >the adventure, and
>from running this scenario I can tell you the >abomination can do major
>damage to a posse. 

Remove the abomination, no need for it to be there.

>3. The adventure can not progress past a certain point >unless the posse can
>come up with some ghost rock. If the posse has no >ghost rock the Marshal
>must improvise a scenario detailing the posse's hunt >for some solidified
>souls of the damned. 

Should be some in Boise, or I'm just going to place some on some bikers.

>4. The final battle has the posse fighting Modeen, >three Anti-Templars, and
>twenty well-armed mooks. PCs who try a straight-on >assault will be
>slaughtered. For PCs to survive they need to know the >value of stealth and
>diversions while possessing a good deal of luck. The >PC casualties nearly
>got into the double digits when I ran this adventure, >with four characters
>with a year of weekly gaming
>sessions under their belt getting cut down like wheat >by Modeen and his crew.

Again a party with automatics, who use cover effectivly, and manages to sneak up on this group should butcher them quickly, a head on fight with the group walking into the middle of them will just get them all killed. Sneak in, activate distraction, free prisoners, run away, fight running ambush.

>5. Modeen is without a doubt the most powerful foe >that has appeared in
>Deadlands: HOE. Only one thing can kill him, a sword >which does STR+1d6.
>Modeen has the Greater Reward of Armor of the Saints, >which drops the
>sword's damage to STR+1d4-5. Modeen also wears armor >that provides an armor
>value of 2 or 3, depending on a roll made by the >Marshal after every
>attack. A posse member's only chance of hurting Modeen >without using magic
>is to hit his unarmored head. It's a +6 to the TN for >a called shot to the
>head, with another +3 to the TN due to Modeen's three >levels in Guardian
>Angel, and since it's a fightin' attack Modeen gets to >add his fightin'
>score of 8 to the TN as well. That come to a total of >TN 22 to hit Modeen
>in his head! And that's not even counting any >Defensive Bonus he gets from
>the ax he carries. The only reason my posse was able to
>bring Modeen down was through the use of paralyzing >magic one of the posse
>possessed. 

I Do not have stats in front of me if he is not immune to all then he still takes wind and stun damage. KO him and slice and dice, if he is immune then marshell I highly recomend removing that immunity. My posse has done this to several bad ass lately. Particularly Red Eyes, and Gorzell in Hell Riders.

>Something About A Sword:  BLOOD PRESSURE RISING!  HEAD >SPINNING!  URGE TO
>KILL INCREASING!  Just say "no" to Something About a >Sword.  I'll let
>someone else on this list point out its flaws, or >check out the digest
>archives from around this time last year.