The Heroic Hindrance

One of the house rules I've made for the Deadlands: Reloaded: Something Wicked This Way Comes campaign is that every Posse member must take the Heroic Hindrance in addition to the usual 1 Major and 2 Minor that a character is allowed. In return, the PC gets a 0 XP, Novice Rank Advance.

I have at least three reasons for this:

1) Deadlands is predicated on the idea that the Posse will fight the Reckoners, often for no other reason than because there is evil out there that must be defeated. Giving everyone the Heroic Hindrance means that the Posse will get rewarded with Fate Chips if they do the right thing, regardless of consequences.

2) Making all of the Posse members heroic also helps explain why a diverse group of people get together and stay together. The formation of a Posse, just as with the formation of any kind of party in any game, is often artificial. What do a vaquero from Texas, a huckster from St. Louis, and a gunslinger from the Maze have in common? If they all have the Heroic Hindrance, they share at least one common trait.

3) Finally, I've mentioned before that my group tends to be of the "kill them all, the GM will know his own" mentality. Forcing the Heroic Hindrance on them gives me some leverage when the Posse starts making plans to dynamite an entire town to take down the one Harrowed NPC that they don't like. I also can't help but think that eventually the Posse will actually join the Reckoners. I suppose that there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not the kind of campaign that I'm looking for.

As a separate point, D&D has alignments. The general expectation is that a typical party will be fighting evil and that most characters will be Good. The Heroic Hindrance functions in much the same way as the Good alignment. Likewise, Bloodthirsty  functions much like the Evil alignment. Hindrances, however, are not absolute. There not even incompatible. One could have both the Heroic and Bloodthirsty Hindrances. In Deadlands, a cowpoke might have the Heroic Hindrance, but only have it apply to white folk. The Bloodthirsty Hindrance would apply to Indians. Or vice versa.

I plan to use the Heroic Hindrance to drive the Posse and the campaign forward. We'll see how it goes.


Tim

Deadlands: Reloaded: Something Wicked This Way Comes

The name of our Deadlands: Reloaded campaign is Something Wicked This Way Comes. Anytime I start creating a new campaign, I look for a name that nicely captures one or more of the themes of a campaign. Some names come easily. For the Legends of Steel Campaign, "Shadows of Yar" foretold of plots and skullduggery by an evil, sorcerous, demon infested land. Some names do not come easily. For Mars, I wanted a wide-open, sandbox campaign. I eventually went with "Under the Moons of Mars" because I couldn't come up with anything original.

For Deadlands, the name of the campaign actually came before any campaign themes or adventure ideas. I was brainstorming and writing things down; surfing and googling the net, looking for inspiration for the campaign and first adventure. I stumbled upon the phrase, "Something Wicked This Way Comes." The phrase clicked with what I wanted: a plot point campaign against a Big Bad Evil Guy (or Big Bad Evil Something, in this case). The setup seemed easy enough: a cult or other evil organization is tying to summon something evil. The Posse finds out about the plot and does their best to stop Something Wicked from coming this way.

I wanted to lay out a number of premade scenes that the Posse would run through whenever it seemed appropriate. In between the plot points, the Posse could explore the Weird West or work on character goals.

I'm still working on the actual writing of the scenes for the plot points, but I have an outline of what the Posse will need to work through.

I have the first adventure laid out.

- It takes place in the southwest corner of Kansas. Bloody Kansas is a free state, claimed by the US and the CS; it borders Indian country, the Coyote Confederation; and it lies between two railways, Black River and Dixie Rails. Any kind of character would have reason for being in the area.

- All of the characters will be on a train headed for Dark Horse, Kansas. Any character with the Old Ways Oath (Major) is screwed. I'll have to figure something out if this happens. The characters may or may not know each other. I'll leave that up to the players.

- The very first scene will be a fight on the train. Assuming that we avoid a TPK, the post-fight cleanup will reveal evidence that Something Wicked is coming this way and certain elements of humanity are making preparations to welcome it. It's up to the Posse to stop it.


Tim

When the Stars Are Wrong

I GMd a a fun episode of Cthulhu/Northern Crown last Friday night. Only two players showed up. One created a crazy witch hunter and one played a scout/wilderness warrior. I started the characters at 20 XP, but the players had to draw cards on the Veteran o' the Weird West table from Deadlands: Reloaded. The crazy witch hunter ended up lame while the scout ended up forsaken.

I ran a modified version of Drake Manor from the Realms of Cthulhu book. The characters started in Innsmouth, Massachusetts. They dispatched a group of cultists and their fishman allies. Then they travelled to Arkham to seek out the dread book, the Necronomicon. The PCs ultimately ended up burning down Drake Manor. The scout died at the very end of the session, collateral damage from a blast of blunderbuss fire from the witch hunter. Good times.

Horror definitely works with Savage Worlds. However, I don't think Cthulhu/horror is going to work long-term for our group. We've always played Savage Worlds as gonzo and over the top. I've always generously awarded Bennies to the players. For the Cthulhu/Northern Crown/horror session, though, I deliberately restricted the number of Bennies awarded to give a different vibe to the game. It was fun, but not as fun as most of our other sessions.

Most of my players belong to the school of "kick in the door and kill anything that moves, and some things that don't. The GM will know his own." I tend to encourage that style when I GM to be truthful. I also tend towards action the on the seldom occasion that I play. I'd like to return to Northern Crown someday, but it would be more of a Solomon Kane type setting.

 

Moving onwards, I'm starting a Deadlands campaign. Several years ago, my intro to Savage Worlds was via Deadlands. I ran eight or so sessions, including a couple of one sheets and Coffin Rock. Then that particular group broke up. I was lucky enough to find my current group soon after.

Tim

 

When the Stars Are Right . . .

My group is finishing up a Mars (the one from Adamant) campaign. It's time to start a new campaign and the players expressed a preference for horror. So I dove into my many books and PDFs of Savage Worlds goodness and came up with the beginnings of a campaign.

After much debate, I've decided to go with colonial North America. There are number of campaigns out there that would support a colonial era campaign without any trouble. There is a d20 campaign setting called Northern Crown which offers an alternate and fantastical history for colonial America. There is Solomon Kane, which fits into the time period. There is Pirates of the Spanish Main. There is Totems of the Dead for the Native American tribes (called the First Ones in Northern Crown). Take all of these great setting, add horror (the Guts skill and the Sanity stat), and blend with the antics of my players until desired consistency is achieved. That is a recipe for awesomeness.

I'm thinking that the PCs will be European settlers or explorers. The campaign will include not only wilderness adventure, but city ones as well. First Ones might not integrate well into urban adventures or a dinner party at the Governor's Mansion.

I'll be using the maps for Northern Crown and most of its alternate history. The maps were once available for free from Atlas Games website, but I don't see them there anymore.

- The year is 1699, but the history is not our own.

- North America is called Northern Crown.

- The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1691, but in this world, the Puritans were right. They uncovered a real coven of witches. These witches (called Witchlings in Northern Crown) fought back, ousted their overlords, and established their own state in Salem, which has been renamed Naumkeag.

- The Glorious Revolution took place in 1688, but was led by Gloria, the half-fey daughter of Queen Elizabeth.

- James II fled not to France but to Northern Crown. He established the Kingdom of Carolingia in what in our world would be the Carolinas and Georgia.

- Massachusetts declared independence from both Queen Gloria (for being fey) and King James II (for being Catholic, or Holy Roman in Northern Crown).

- There is a Kingdom of Vinland to the north, established by Vikings centuries ago.

Mechanically, here are some thoughts:

- From the Realms of Cthulhu book: "Fate is Unkind. Any time a player rolls snake eyes, they may spend no further bennies on the roll in question. This rule reflects the fact that the cosmos does not always favor the fortune of the investigator. We’re certain Lovecraft would approve.

- Arcane Background: Magic exists. We'll use the slow/ritual casting that we used in Shadows of Yar.

- AB: Weird Science exists and is a new phenomenon. It's called Natural Philosophy in Northern Crown.

- No AB: Miracles or Psionics.

- We'll go with the Heroic Horror option from Realms of Cthulhu. This means that combat and physical damage will play out normally. Mental Anguish can also be Soaked.

- Bennies will be awarded sparingly, as in one or two at most per session.

- PCs will start at 20 XP, but must draw from the "Veteran o' the Weird West" table in the Marshal's Handbook for Deadlands. No Harrowed results if you draw a red joker, though. I'll come up with something else.

I'm thinking that the campaign will start in the fishing village of Innsmouth in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The heroes are tasked with taking a dozen magical staffs or muskets to the First Ones city of Onandaga, which is part of the Five Nations Confederacy. The Confederacy is currently allied with the Commonwealth against the dastardly French, who are based in Canada. Naturally, before their mission even begins, the heroes are attacked by people or monsters related in some way to the dastardly French and to the Cult of Cthulhu. The campaign will spiral out of control from there.

Tim