Re: [HOE] Staggering powers WAS: Mundane Background

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> Ah I left out a tiny important part. :) When we rebuilt them they only had to
> use one stat for all of the hexes and such. Spirit. Yes it was a bit off from
> the older Hex to Attribute rule but it was the closest thing that worked with
> the newer stuff. Now we did this due to the change not really because the
> Hucksters seemed underpowered in 1st edition.

Well isn't that just like trading problems? With the new rules you start
at level 5, but it might be in a stat you only have d8's in. And it takes
a lot more to raise that d8 than to raise a skill from 1 to 5.

>  The way I ran Deadlands the Arcane and all was rare and dangerous.
> Leaning closer to a very Gritty world as opposed to Semi-gritty with
> lemon scent. The Huckster in the posse spent several months (game
> time) before he would let anyone know what he was because he was
> afraid of the reaction after dealing with some cultists and black
> magic. Hexes do look just like black magic or even if it isn't
> identical most people are going to assume you are "E-ville"
> 	But making it one stat based and then having to Buy them
> seperately seemed a good compromise. Picking up a new Hexes was only 1
> point and then bought up from there.

Yeah, but with that skill of 1 you had a 1-12 chance of going bust and
still had to contend with jokers. Plus good luck getting a hand that you
can do anything with. That was always the other problem, even with a 5 in
the hex you were still lucky to pull off more than a pair or two. Sure
their was an occasional straight or flush, but those were few and far
between.

> Yes the odds of any Syker or Doomie with 5D-something actually busting
> and having to roll on those tables is so low as to not be any danger
> what so ever. We did use the Syker and Doomie backlash tables but with
> a small added step since busting was more likely with various powers
> at different levels. If they busted a card was pulled. On a face card
> they were zapped for whatever meanness the tables said. On a numbered
> card they took that much in wind. It never slowed anything down and
> ran pretty smooth.

Well HoE is a more veteran environment. Most of the char. are usualy in
their 30's (because they had jobs and stuff before the bombs) and have
survived 13 years of "Hell on Earth". I always figured that the higher
powered arcane backgrounds were there to balance the grenades and
machine-guns that mundanes had. The problem is that a lot of marshals like
to limit the supply of ammo to get the wasteland scavvies feel, but then
don't know what to do with the MIRVin' Doomie and Brain Blastin' syker.
That's why Bob made the "only newbies" rule for the new campaign.

> 	This works as well, simple to keep track of and quick. :) I have
> wanted to use the Deadlands game system for a contemporary setting for
> a while but I have another game runnung at the moment. We did play a
> short 1936 game using some older Indiana Jones modules. It was a
> blast. I look forward to Weird Wars but after reading about the work
> and stress trying to cram a great setting into the D20 system I can
> only hope the conversion isn't too hard to Deadlands because as much
> as I like 3rd D&D I can't stand the D20 system. I know that semms
> contradictory but one is a specific game setting and the other is a
> painful Generic rules set.

I agree that the d20 system is a horrible fit for some games, but I can
understand it from a business perspective. It's also a way to bring in
younger types that can't appreciate a more sophisticated system like
Deadlands (I know I'm going to catch flak for that).

Greywolf? That you? I've been keeping up with your groups (mis)adventures
for awhile now.

Actually the game we're running isn't in the DL universe. It just uses the
rules and has a little bit of the supernatural in it. I've taken to
calling it Notlands:Y2K or Notlands:Y2Weird

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab


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