Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Doc Hercules]

Greetings fellow savages.
Well, i'm putting my Savage Hyboria campaign for my 15 year old son on hold because he says he really wants to play Deadlands. Which is even better, because, frankly, I was having some writers block for Hyboria. Now its like a flood gate has opened up, ideas are coming quicker than i can write 'em down.

Anyway, since this will be a campaign with only one player I thought i would just share my thoughts, his character, and such.

First off the archetype he wants to play will be a Lone Ranger inspired character called The Masked Stranger. He even came up with a quote for him: " No one is a stranger to Justice." I thought that was pretty clever.

This makes it easy to give him some "allies" as companions, I.E. indian brave, Wild Card horse, wandering chinese immigrant, etc.
This will probably be very episodic and have more of a pulp western feel mixed in with elements of the Wild, Wild West and touching on the horror elements.
The trick will be to scale the more challenging encounters of the Weird West so that he isn't killed right out the gate. But this should be fun.

I'll post his character here in a minute, but feel free to comment or give any suggestions.
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"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman

[Doc Hercules]

Okay here is my son's character.
A couple of quick notes: I let him have 6pts of Hindrances in any combination and let him advance up to Vetran, to give him a fighting chance.
I've also given him the legendary edge Behold a Pale Horse for free.
He also has (unbeknownst to him) a relic in the form of his mask which is really the mask of Zorro (got the idea from the Evil zorro thread). I don't have the rules for relics yet, so right now I will (secretly) just give him a +2 on Agility Tricks.
Did I mention that Santa Anna is searching for the mask?

The Masked Stranger (real name unknown, for now)
Agility d8, Smarts d6 , Spirit d10, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d8, Riding d6, Shooting d8, Throwing d4, Notice d6, Survival d4, Guts d6, Intimidation d6
Chr: --- Grit: 4 Pace: 6 Parry: 6 Toughness: 6
Hindrances: Heroic (major), Loyal (minor) Pacifist (minor),
Vow (major): will wear a mask till justice is brought to the west
Edges: Quick, Hip-Shooting, True Grit, Duelist, Marksman
Equipment: White shirt, Black vest/trousers/boots/duster/mask, Red bandanna, Black gunslingers hat with silver-disc hat band, Single-action Colt .45 Peacemaker, Bowie Knife, Lariat

Background: The man that became The Masked Stranger was once a young town marshal of as yet unnamed Kansas town. There he lived with his wife and kids, and was well liked in the town. Then one night trouble came.
They came out of nowhere, Bloody Duke Slocum and his gang of twelve. They terrorized, looted, and murdered all through the town. The young marshal tried to stand up to the outlaws but he was unprepared for their savagery.
He lost.
The Outlaws beat him and made him watch as they tortured his family and other towns folk. Then, after Bloody Duke oredered the town set ablaze, they tied the marshal's arms and legs to two seprate horses. They meant to spook the horses and watch as they tore the marshal apart. Luckily, when the horses bolted the rope around his legs broke and he was dragged off into the night, the outlaws laughter following him all the way.

He was found by a young indian brave named Little Two-Hawks. She had been sent to find him by her shaman grandfather, Running Moon. He had had a vision quest that told him this man would be needed and were to find him. Little Two-Hawks brought the marshal back to her grandfather who healed him. After he was better, Running Moon told the marshal that he had been chosen by the spirits to help fight against a great evil. Of course, Running Moon was very cryptic about this "great" evil, as well about the black mask which he had given to the marshal. He would only say that it would be a great help in his struggles.

The young marshal decided that, as far as the world was concerned, he died in that massacre in his hometown. He would don the mask Running Moon gave him, and wear it until justice is finally brought to the west.
Starting with Bloody Duke and the twelve members of his gang.
_________________
"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman

[doomblade403x]

First of all it's important for me to note that my game is Deadlands Classic. I have little or no experience with reloaded.

When I scale an adventure I look at the audience and try to gauge my baddies in that vein. I want them to be challenged, but I want THEM to be the heros of the campaign. In your case the problem will be scaling the encounters for one player and an NPC. Not too hard honestly, but it could indeed become a challenge.

My advice is to play a few runs with smaller adventures.

"Hey Stranger...somethin's spookin my cattle!"

"Hey Stranger Arkansas Jack Allison and his gang just robbed the railroad stage!"

"Hey Stranger...the injuns are gettin restless and talkin strange bout some manitubes..."

Each leading into into a one shot adventure to not only give him some experience, but to gauge how powerful he is, and what he can do. From there it's simply a matter of uping the ante each adventure.

I was thinking when my son was ready to get his game on...I would have him write about his characters adventures. A supplemental bounty point maybe, and a way for him to bond with the character.

[Doc Hercules]

Hey, thanks for the advice doomblade.
what you described for adventures is just what i was thinking. In fact, i might swipe all those for future adventures.
We will be playing tomorrow for the first adventure were he will have to rescue a rancher's daughter from some bad varmits. Nothing supernatural yet. just some standard badguys.

Having your son write out his characters adventures is a cool idea. I'll have to see if my son would be interested in doing something like that.
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"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman

[DeMyztikX]

I'd take a peak at All Star Western a bit if you need some ideas. There's a trade paper back coming out sometime later this year of like the first 6 or so issues (issue #7 just came out this month). It's mostly about one man and his battles, but he has an almost companion in Dr. Arkham.
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Blog about and gaming journals from my gaming group:
Eventyr Gaming

[doomblade403x]

[VonDan]

You called Little Two Hawks both a Brave and a She, will two hawks be a warrior woman in training with two beast friend hawks or a typo
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http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/Vondan/

[Doc Hercules]

Yep, Von Dan, she is a female indian warrior. She has the Two-Fisted edge and carries two tomahawks. Running Moon has sent her with the stranger to help him out, and keep an eye on him. She is not so sure about trusting white men in general but she is commited to fighting the evil, and her grandfather has placed his trust in this one.
Kind of my twist on Tonto.

Demytz: Picking up All-Star Western is a good idea. I've even thought of picking up back issues of DC Weird Western Tales for inspiration also.
_________________
"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman

[Snate56]

It may be too late to get this before you play, but I'd still throw something 'awfly durned peculiar' in at the end, just to show off the world.
Something like all the carcasses of the critters turn up missing after just a few moments. Just sayin'


SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

[Doc Hercules]

Well we played tonight, and it was one big combat that lasted most of an hour. I think part of that was we've only played a few times in the past so were still trying to get the hang of things. At least we got that whole wounded shaken thing down
Another seemed to be that my son could shake the bad guys fine but he coiuldn't follow up with his dice again, either succeed or raise. so then on their turn the bad guys would recover from being shaken and we were back to square one. It probably didn't help that i had 7 extras and one wild card. But i expected half the guys to flee with the kidnapped girl and the other half to engage my son and the NPC, so later my son could give chase. He suprised me by having Two Hawks run off the coralled horses so the bad guys couldn't run off. Then it just became a big shootout. Two Hawks was almost killed by the WC on his first shot, so I ruled that she just took two wounds. Three jokers showed up during this fight also, two with the bad guys.

Some cool stuff:
*When the heroes are riding up the ridge they get ambushed by a sniper, my son makes a notice roll to see the sunlight glint off the rifle, shoots once and aces with 5 raises.
*With two wounds and no more bennies my son steps out from his cover, and with the last two bullets in his gun, fans the hammer and Aces high enough to disarm the last two standing extras.
*With my son out of bullets and the wild card also out of bullets, they engage in melee. The dastadly villian pulls a knife hits, and gets three raises on his damage dice. At just that moment, I rule my sons trusted steed, Hercules, shows up behind the villian, rears up and srikes. My son rolls Hercules damage and gets.....Three raises! Thus I rule that this threw off the villians aim and my son is only shaken.
* The villian soaks 1 wound and tries to flee. My son now on Hecules, knocks him down. The Villian rolls on his back, pointing a deringer at my son. But, Ah ha, Two Hawks had drew the joker this round (the third in this battle) and interupts by throwing her tomahawk at his hand. My son rolls the dice, aces again and gets like three raises, so of course she cut off the villians hand.
Pretty sweet stuff.
_________________
"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman

[Snate56]

[doomblade403x]

Sounds like an awesome time had by all! I grew up watching westerns and for a long time I just didn't have any hunger for them. Past year or two though...the love came back and I love me some westerns. I remember watching the lone ranger when i was a kid.

For your son i say this...carry a holdout!

[Doc Hercules]

Well, we finally got to play our second game tonight. Ironically, it has been hard to schedule the game with boy scouts, easter holiday and such.
Tonight I was loosely using an old 1981 module for a western rpg called Trouble on Widow's Peak. I found it for free online and printed it off. I would leave a link but I can't seem to find it again.

Anyway, my 13 yr old daughter wanted to play too, so she ran Little Two Hawks (which is why I made that character a female in the first place).
Unfortunatly, it was hard to keep her focused on the game, and well in all honesty, i didn't do a good job on my part roleplaying the NPCs and stuff.
Just had an off night i guess.

The plot is a casino/saloon owner, for monetary gain, is trying to stir up tensions between the white folk and the local indians that live on the mountain. He's hired some gunman to masqurade as indians and make raids on the gold mine, lumber company, and the local ranchers.

I started off the adventure with our two heroes staying on with the rancher they helped last time. To kind of get my daughter into things, I had some riders from another ranch come riding in accusing her of killing and rustling some of their cattle. See, they found some dead cows with arrows sticking out of them, and they heard there was an injun staying at that other ranch so they assumed......

Well, the Masked Stranger gets everybody calmed down and agree to all go out and look at the dead cows. While there I let my daughter make a couple of notice rolls and tracking rolls (Two Hawks has a d10 in tracking)
and she was able to determine that the arrows were not made by indians, and that the tracks didn't jive with cut of the mosaccans from the local tribe.
So my son decides to go check on the mine, since somone mentioned they heard the indians had been harassing the miners. On the way up the mountain trail i rolled an encounter with 4 outlaws, so i figure they are waiting to ambush and rob people using the trail. I let my kids make notice checks and my son makes it so he knows something is up. He sends his sister into the brush with her stealth and he continues on.
Sure enough the bandits step out and try and hold him up. they tell him to get off his horse and to slowly toss his gun to them.

My son decides to slowly draw his gun and then ......
Throws his gun into the leader's face while he dives for cover
Luckily, his sister was able to kill one from her concealed location and Hercules was able to wound another.
My son then jumped out of the bushes and grappled the shaken leader to the ground and knock him unconscious. They ended up cpturing two of the bandits and tying them to a tree to pick up later on there way back down the mountain.
But when they came back down the mountain they found the two bandits were torn to pieces, with guts hanging from trees and such. They both made guts checks. The Masked Stranger made his with an ace. Two Hawks rolled a critical failure and had to roll on the fear table. She now has a silver streak running down her black hair.
And that's were we stopped for the night.
_________________
"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman

[doomblade403x]

Age is one of those factors in keeping kids interested in the game. It's hard to keep them locked on with all the distractions present these days. Sounds like your having a pretty good time though...and would love that link if you could send it to me via PM.

[Fenderstat]

[Doc Hercules]

Well, as you can see i almsot killed him the first game
I'll probably fudge any random rolls to keep them alive or come up with a story reason to save thier bacon, unless it is dramatically appropiate or a boneheaded move on their part.
I tend to veiw these things as the PCs are the stars of the show, and any deaths should be done by red shirts. Of course they don't have to know that

After all, this is the story of the Masked Stranger, not the guy who came after
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"The only thing left to do----tangle with Kar on Thunder Island."---Doc Savage
"Well that’s just a humdinger then isn’t it?"---The Middleman