RE: [HOE] Apocalypse Now! thoughts?

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@poboxes.com>]

Well, as a player (and Marshal for Weird West), I can say that this module
is survivable, with beginning characters.  Our posse had five or six in
it -- a Doomsayer that didn't live to the end, a Junker who had a huge
plasma cannon kinda weapon, but it was empty already, my own harrowed 200yr
old self, and a couple of biker types.


Repeat of spoiler space...













Thru bad playing, a character or two died in town, but we saved the
townfolk.

Thru huge bad luck, we lost two to the chop bots.  I've not seen
surprise/cognition rolls so bad for two people!  The 'bots got several
attacks on those two, who had happened to run ahead.  Diced 'em up pretty
good.

My self and the junker (who was sporting a borrowed .38 snub nose pistol --
worthless against armored beasts) made it into the wormling lair, and were
battling wormlings trying to get to the girl.  Oh, and the NPC sheriff was
there too.

This was my first chance to use an assault rifle, and I overestimated the
penalty for recoil, so used single-fire called head shots.  I hit nearly
everytime (I was very good), but just didn't put enough lead in the air. I
was put down -- sorta.  My harrowed head only had 4 wounds, but my body was
mostly destroyed by the wormling's axes.  I got to watch the villains
surprise ending go off.

I probably would've made it if I had gone full auto with the assault rife
and just torn 'em up.  If our Doomsayer had been alive, he might've been
able to shut down the bomb, and nuked or Green Goliath'ed lots of wormlings.
But we had lots of fun!

Any suggestions I have would be for players -- have at least one stealthy
guy (ours sneaked up on the roof and took out the emplacements there,
without setting off any alarms);  use shots to the head for Black Hats, they
die easy that way, and no armor (OK, so my harrowed was a gunslinger from
the Old West, and called shots to the head with his old Colts were easy for
him);  arcane backgrounds are useful against the wormlings, cause they are
very durable, and they are everywhere at the end.  Other than that, our
marshal ran it pretty much as written.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hoe@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-hoe@gamerz.net]On Behalf Of Bryce
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2000 1:25 PM
To: hoe@gamerz.net
Subject: [HOE] Apocalypse Now! thoughts?


Spoilers for Apocalypse Now!

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and you all know it!  Okay, now the topic at hand..

What are your all thoughts on this adventure in the Radiation (GM) Screen?
When I first read it I was blown away.  It came across as a potentially
extremely good adventure.  I immediately saw the first part as a kind or
SWAT scenario, with the players moving through the town avoiding
confrontation with the Black Hats until the final scene at the school.  Then
the final part of the adventure could be a bit like aliens.. I even had the
background music all ready.  Then the players entered... Two templers and a
couple of lawdogs. They survived the town... just... the hostages didn't!!!
Then they finally get killed by a couple of those Chop-bots, the small
scavenger automations.  They didn't even get to see a single wormling.  And
I tried to keep them alive, I even removed the body armour from the Black
Hats.  But I learnt, oh did I learn...

What are your thoughts to Apocalypse Now as a beginning adventure?  Too
tough?  I've come to realise that Deadlands (this was my first time with the
system) is a very, very deadly system.  And Black Hats are tough hombres.  I
was personally surprised, but the numbers and the kelver vest did take their
toll.  It was sheer luck that the Templers kept the group going for as long
as they did.  Is it too tough for beginning players, or were my players's
characters simply to weak.  Should I encourage more arcane background types
(I personally am a bit hesitant to allow Doomsayers, I feel that they
inhibit the characters ability to interact with other survivors, unless
played well.  But, with nuke and the other abilities, they are a powergamers
dream character choice.  I'm sure their balanced character choices, what
with strain and all that, but that still won't prevent a powerhungry player
choosing them, then annoying the heck out of everyone else by either always
preaching over the top, or playing a non-practicing Doomsayer, that is, a
Doomsayer in name and power only, not in character.)  Oops, sorry about the
rant...

Also, any suggestions on how to run it probably (maybe I screwed up too)?
From tips on how to play the bad guys to mood music and all that stuff.
(Also, how to keep the characters alive a little bit longer)  I might be
running it again soon, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Marshal Bryce