An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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CTPhipps
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by CTPhipps »

NoOneofConsequence wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 1:46 am That would explain it. Thanks for that.

I think the biggest problems with the two Back East books were that they didn't really have a "hook" to hang that part of the setting on, the way the Weird West had "Spaghetti Western with Zombies" going for it. In hindsight, maybe they should've just done a single "guide to the world" that gave a brief overview of the entire world for players who wanted to play immigrant and Tinhorn characters. Maybe even just make that a Tinhorn sourcebook that talked about that character archetype and introduced a bunch of obscure abilities/powers from other regions they might possess.
It didn't help that the South book was also somewhat infamous for its incompatible vision by writers. There was an RPG,net WIR where they talk about how it was a post-racial non-sexist vision of the CSA that also had the Knights of the Golden CIrcle controlling vast amounts of power and wealth while Jefferson Davis was a magically created doppelganger who ruled with a terrifying iron fist. DEAD PRESIDENTS was the resulting gonzo adventure where the PCs assassinate Davis on behalf of Robert E. Lee.

I agree that a WORLD OF DEADLANDS would have been a good idea like the World of Freedom and just a nice little collection of information for people who want to do adventures outside the box. While playing Red Dead Redemption 2, I actually wondered about Dutch's plan to visit Australia and thought that would have been a pretty good setting in its own right. It being the time of the Kelly gang and all.
Author of Cthulhu Armageddon, Lucifer's Star, Space Academy Dropouts, and The Rules of Supervillainy
NoOneofConsequence
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

Honestly, the two main books I would've put in the original first edition line up would've been a Muckrakers/Tale-tellers book which covered reporters, photographers*, storytellers, singing cowboys, and anyone else who fights back against the Reckoners by telling stories of good people triumphing over monsters and villains, and the aforementioned Tinhorns book, which gave a really brief overview of Back East, Europe and elsewhere for characters who are from those places, as well as optional obscure power sources such as Spiritualism, Stage Magic, Kabbalism, Samurai arts, mystic falconry, or whathaveyou.

*(There was a WIR thread on RPG.net where someone mentioned the really cool idea of a Mad Scientist whose starting gadget was one of those cameras that can take pictures of monsters, with the idea of them being primarily a photographer who has made advances in that field rather than a scientist per se.)
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
Voltaire, "Tolerance" (1764)
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