Deadlands campaign

[Dewbakuk]

Well, I've been asked for this a couple of times in the past and I did say I'd do it, so here is a write up of the Deadlands campaign I'm running. We took a break for awhile to play D&D and for someone else to run a game but restarted last night. Figured it was a good place to pick up.

First, a quick introduction to the characters:

Castor Drake - A Vatican investigator and member of the order of St George (Catholic Church's supernatural fighters/investigators). Highly intelligent, eagle eyed and a 10lb weakling with few social skills. (Highly entertaining as the player was going for Van Helsing but ended up with Ichabod Crane)

Rachael Garret - An American gunslinger who was sent east after a trauma in her childhood wiped out her family and she was taken into care by the church. Her aggression made her difficult to school until she was guided into a more militant role. She is currently assigned as Castor Drake's bodyguard.

Mei'lin Riverfall - An Indian-Chinese woman who grew up in Harmony, north California, a settlement of the 'New Tomorrow' triad. From her Indian heritage she has learnt the ways of the land and is an accomplished tracker. From her Chinese heritage she has learnt to focus her Chi in ways normal martial artists could never imagine, she is an accomplished martial artist. She's also convinced her horse can talk and chats with it regularly.

Bessy Malone - A stunningly beautiful and strong willed woman with a shadowy past. A skilled gambler and stage singer, her voice and looks got her into trouble when an admirer pushed his attention too far. She fought him off but put a knife in his chest in the process, turns out it was the marshals son. She grabbed her belongings, stole a horse and ran. She’s a natural healer too, probably could have become a doctor had she gotten the chance.

Professor Vikarus Brown – Mad Scientist, doesn’t believe in all this supernatural mumbo-jumbo, it’s clearly just idiots who don’t know what they’re looking at! Employed by Smith and Robards, currently on “Walkabout” tracking down interesting technologies and ideas. Never seen without a ludicrous amount of gadgets and components weighing him down as they “might come in useful.” Has an imaginary servant called ‘Jeremy’ who is often the voice of reason when the Professor gets carried away.


Got to go out now so will continue later.

[commissarmoody]

intresting do go on

[Dewbakuk]

I've been trying to write a brief catch up on what's happened so far but I'm really struggling. I think I'm going to have to steal the players copy of the notes as a small person used mine for drawing and mopping up water.

I'll replace this post with a recap this weekend. I'll post this weeks session later today though.

[Mac Finn]

Keep the info coming my man!

One of my favorite genres!

[Dewbakuk]

I will do honest, I got the notebook from Kim (she plays Rachel) and I've run more than I thought. A quick catch up just isn't going to cut it  So I'm writing it up properly, finding it difficult to get time right now though.

[Dewbakuk]

Okay, with the limited free time I have to write this it'd take about 6 months just todo the catch up so I'll have to do it as a summary, so here it is.

Another three characters who are no longer around -

Kato Ramirez - Smelly, mexican gunslinger. Not particularly trustworthy and it later transpires he's a hexslinger. (The Deadlands wizards are 'Hucksters', they get powers by beating manitou in imaginary, instantaneous poker games. It's not pretty when they lose. Hexslingers are a combat variant)

Father Esteban - A spanish priest who came to America as a child. He feels he failed his people when a disaster struck the town and creatures wiped out almost everyone living there, while he hid in the church. When he saw a child about to be devoured he stepped in front of the creature to take the blow instead. He then felt the power of the lord flow through him and the beast was repelled, he joined with the Posse to drive the creatures out and atone for his cowardice.

Barty Smythe - An English reporter sent over by a major newspaper to report on life in the US after half of Chicago fell into the ocean and a ceasefire was called between the North and the South. Unfortunately he became obsessed by the tales of weird happenings and creatures coming out of the West and the newspaper recalled him. Realising he was going to be fired as soon as he got back home he decided to prove that the stories were true and using the last of the petty cash, bought some equipment and a ticket on the first train headed west.

[Dewbakuk]

The game started in Chicago at the Iron Dragon rail station. Mei'lin was currently in the employ of Iron Dragon, Bessy and Barty were both paying passengers, Kato had stowed away in some boxes and Rachel and Castor had been taken on as rail guards. Really they were only interested in Rachel but they came as a package deal.

As the passengers were getting ready to board the train and the luggage was being loaded by porters, a scuffle starts at one end of the platform. A snake oil salesman is knocked from his feet and a rough looking character grabs his briefcase and bag and runs for the exit. A couple of guards give chase but it looks like he's going to get away until Rachel steps out in front of him and knocks him down. The man goes for a gun but Rachel calmly runs a knife into his chest. The man dies quietly but his acomplice on the other side of the exit swears revenge for the death of his brother before running. (Rachel has the 'Minor Enemy' Hindrance, she's also a 'Veteran of the West' so a level higher than the others but with some major baggage that she only finds out about later).

Kato is discovered by the guards but the train master's servant intercedes and offers him the choice of being thrown from the moving train or signing on as an extra guard as they're a few short.

The train then pulls into the town of Dry Creek.



Please feel free to ask questions of bits that don't make sense. For example the train master bit. Iron Dragon is a chinese owned and run Railroad Company and follows many traditions you wouldn't see on another train company. A single person of influence within the company sits on each train and they're word is law with regards to the train, kind of like the captain of a ship.

[Dewbakuk]

At Dry Creek a business (hats) man is having trouble with the local Iron Dragon branch. The man in charge (lets call him Chang) is holding the hat man's latest stock deliveries as some 'taxes' haven't been paid. The man approaches the Train Master imploring him to intervene as he won't be able to pay any taxes if he doesn't have any stock to sell. The four posse members working for the train are approached by the Train Masters servant and asked to watch the business man. The train master is forbidden from interfering in local matters officially but fears Chang may make a move on the business, just in case.

As night falls, the train masters fears are confirmed as a group of Tong are spotted sneaking up on the building with bottles and rags. Mei'lin goes in through the back to warn the hat man while the others lie in wait. Two of the Tong break in through the front door and move into the shop while the other five slip around the sides. The two inside start a fire and then make their way upstairs where Mei-lin is trying to get the hat man to get out.

The two paying passenger posse members pass by at this point, spot the fire and move to investigate. A fight then breaks out amongst the posse and the Tong which sees the Tong all killed and the hat man saved. The fire damages the shop but not too badly. The greatfull hat man lets them all have a free hat of their choice as the stock arrives in the morning.

[Dewbakuk]

When they all return to the train, the posse is met by the servant who leads them to the back of the caboose car which turns out to be the Train Masters quarters. They meet him for the first time and discover he is Japanese and not Chinese. It turns out he is a dispossesed Samurai who would have become Ronin had he remained in Japan however he was approached by an agent of Warlord Kang and offered a place in his growing empire in the West. Inspired by Kangs dream of creating an 'Asian' empire in the New World, the Train Master and many other samurai travelled East on Kang's ships and took up positions in his organisation. The train master is an honourable man and dislikes working with the Tong which make up much of Kang's people, however he believes it is worth while. He had watched the fight the previous night from an alley, ready to stepin if neccesary and after the posse dealt with the Tong, he had paid a visit to Chang and 'arranged' for the hat stock to be delivered. The posse now have a new contact and the train continues on it's way.

[Dewbakuk]

After a few more minor stops the train reaches Minneapolis where it stayed for a few days due to a carriage problem. Now this was a rather involved 'encounter' that lasted many weeks and had lots of investigative stuff as there were two 'investigator' type characters in the group that probably wouldn't use that skill set all that often once they reached the West. I'll bullet point it to give as much information as possible while not taking up two pages of posts.

[oldskoolrebel]

I'm enjoying your write up. Have you ever considered using obsidian portal?
it's pretty good for keeping a campaign log... its a pity i don't update my more frequently...


Never played or read much about deadlands, although I do know it's supported by savageworld? It seems quite a cool setting.

Cheers
Andy

[Dewbakuk]

Have you ever considered using obsidian portal?

Nope, never heard of it, I shall go take a look cheers.

Never played or read much about deadlands, although I do know it's supported by savageworld? It seems quite a cool setting.

It is a cool setting, supernatural cowboy games, gotta love it, even though that hasn't really entered the game yet in my write up. It will though

It's now a Savage Worlds game yeah. Pinnacle, who do Savage Worlds (and Deadlands) wrote the original Deadlands game which is now really in it's 4th edition, but spiritually only 2nd. The first, now referred to as Deadlands Classic was updated after a few years (2nd) to speed up certain rules but wasn't really changed very much, they progressed the time line slightly though which was cool. The 3rd edition was a D20 liscensed set which I choose to believe never happened... Deadlands: Reloaded, the current edition, has progressed the time line a little further again and now uses the Savage Worlds rules, which are in turn based off some spin off's from the Deadlands Classic rules. It's all very silly but does make sense honest

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm trying to write it up between prepping for the next session. As we haven't played for a while I've gone to some effort to make this session fairly memorable with set up etc, while still keeping it easy to run. We'll see how it goes tomorrow I suppose.

[oldskoolrebel]

I bought the savage rules set a short while ago and had a good read of it. It seems to be exactly what my group needs, very fast and fun.

I've passed the book to Colin, G Mac, who I believe is using them to run a Victorian steampunk/martian game which I'm looking forward to playing in  . We've rolled up characters and IIRC I've either rolled up the explorer or the Scientist. 

Personally I love the look of Sundered Skies... pure high fantasy with flying ships and such like, but quite a nice wee story line to it. I'd love to run it. But probably never will due to time etc.

Currently I'm running a WFRP v2 game. Hmm. I'm not sure about the system. I'm really not sure. It's gt the most god awful parrying rules in the world that just slows the combats down. IMHO the system is just open to a lot of abuse. Still regardless of the serious flaws of the system I am enjoying it.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes tomorrow night.

Cheers
Andy