Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[otherdoc]

So, I'm planning to do something slightly obsessive: start running a second Deadlands campaign while I'm still running another one (though the existing campaign is something I only run for my D&D/Pathfinder group for a few sessions every few months).

Folks who'd played in a previous Deadlands campaign a few years back have asked if I can run something new for them, and I decided I'd have enough time if I just run a plot-point campaign. I decided to do The Flood because the campaign I ran them through previously had them end up in the Maze and had hinted at a number of things involving Grimme and Santa Anna, so I thought it might make a nice continuation.

Now, I only want to run it for a set time, like six to nine months maybe. The way I tend to run these things (if my Necessary Evil game was any indication), I'll probably be chopping up pieces of the plot points, Savage Tales and other disparate materials and tossing them together like a half-crazed salad, so it may not play out quite as written (though of course, what game does?). The players and I have also been discussing the option to pick up the same characters from the previous campaign, which I'm seriously considering simply because the campaign happened to end in a way that could very easily flow into the events of the Flood (both technically and thematically - it was a coincidence, but a nice one).

So, here's where things get a wee bit dicey and I need to make a decision. The group will likely be made up half of players from that previous campaign and half of new players. I'm thinking that both due to the (hopefully) shorter campaign timeframe and because of the potential returning characters, I'd like to start them out at Veteran Rank. In the last campaign the PCs mostly made it to Legendary, so I'd be talking to those characters' players about remaking their heroes to start at a lower power level - so I don't have to tinker too much with the monsters and NPCs except maybe a bit at first - but with the same histories. But I don't want to make them knock their PCs all the way back down to Novice. So if we go do it this way, everyone would be building their characters at the start of Veteran. Which, in this case, means that to simplify things I'd just tell them that when building (or re-building) PCs they get eight Attribute points, 17 Skill points and five Edges (up to 3 of which may be Seasoned-level Edges; or they can trade one Attribute point - and one only - for a Veteran-level Edge). Obviously, if everyone decides to just make new PCs instead then this won't be a problem - I'll just start everyone out at Novice and give them more XP per session than I ordinarily would - but I don't want to take the option of continuing the old characters off the table because narratively it could work quite nicely.

So, what might be good ways of handling this? Are there options I'm missing here? What do you think?
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My Blog: Jim - Yes, THAT Jim
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[catalac]

personally i wouldn't start them so high but thats just me so your idea might work but i'd give less exp then normal. another idea is maybe that the party is sidekicks to the old party and to have the old characters show up as guest npcs.

personally when i want to start a party off advanced i give them 21 points for skills 2 of which can only be used for knowledge skills and their free edge for being human can be a edge of any rank but the ones they get for hindrances have to be novice.

[ValhallaGH]

I'm running the Flood, but I took the time to get the posse out to the Maze. By the time they arrived for the first Plot Point, they were all about Veteran. They've just started hunting for Glyphs, the posse is right at Legendary - and everyone is having a blast.

The Ranger with Improved Hip Shooting and Right Hand of the Devil is the current death machine. His trademark pistol (The Law) is more dangerous than a Gatling gun (basically ROF 6, 3d6+1, AP 1) - and his d10 shooting regularly hits 5 of his 6 shots.
The Huckster with blast and bolt is cool. His new epithet, Shipbreaker, tells you all you need to know about his effectiveness.
The Harrowed with a shotgun was practically unstoppable, until he got his head kung-fued into a mud hole. But that d12 vigor let him stay up, despite his Parry of 2.
The Voodoo man would seem to be outclassed in this company. He's not. His flock of Indian converts is getting to be a bit of a nuisance for the player, but that's one of the big limits upon the edge. (Although, all of us are amazed at the wild successes and continued survival of Wears Red Shirt, the "enforcer" for the flock.) His powerful blessings and clever tongue have done as much for the posse as all their firepower combined.
High-ranked posses can be a lot of fun. It's just a matter of adapting to the players and their characters. Which, you'd have to do anyway.


The only real problem with compressing the Flood is that the plot point is a lot longer than the listed Eight listed plot point adventures. It's really more like 11 - points 1-3 are really just one long adventure, 5-7 are an extended information-dump, and the seven glyphs are each unlisted plot points (which makes sense, since they can happen in any order). My advice to shortening the thing for a six-to-nine month campaign is to compress plot points 4 through 7 into one or two adventures, to get to the major plot points of tracking the glyphs (and maybe require fewer glyphs). If you want to throw in some of the savage tales, especially the Santa Anna stuff, you can work that in during the glyph quests.

Good luck!
_________________
"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher."
"Not against a Servitor."
"... We're all gonna die."

[Cutter XXIII]

One good way to compress the Plot Point is to change the number of glyphs from seven to, say, three. Either some other group prepared four of them already and your heroes need to finish the job, or it's a matter of only three glyphs being needed. Either way, makes the length more manageable and leaves the overall story largely unaltered.
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Matthew Cutter
Deadlands Big Bug (Brand Manager)
Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc.

[PlatinumWarlock]

For what it's worth, my home group has been running The Flood for just over a year.

We've played through each of the major Plot Points, dealt with the Shan Fan Triad sub-plot, had side excursions to Virginia City, Fort 51, and Baja California, and they've activated 5 glyphs. They'll activate their final glyph and take the fight to Grimme in our final session in two weeks.

I would recommend reducing the overall number of glyphs. 6 did us pretty easily, but 4-5 seem to be a good number.

Another good way to keep the speed up is to reduce travel time. After the first few plot points, Hellstrome gave the posse an armored steam wagon. This served as a pretty nice cash dump for them--they shelled out for upgrades and for additional fuel cores--as well as a way for them to cover lots of ground really quickly.
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[Slugsabi]

Interesting, I've just given my posse a Maze Runner to play with as a Money sink whilst getting them out into the Maze (seems it was ordered by a certain santiorium doctor for gathering... patients).

I concur, don't sweat out the travelling, blip it forward through narration and drop in 'random encounters' if it feels right. I tend to find out where they want to go and take a 'Supernatural' episodic approach to getting them there, cutting out the chaff.

I have learned from my posse that they like about a 1/3 ratio with regards to rp/combat sessions and The Flood offers that to be fair.

Enjoy

[otherdoc]

Thanks very much for your insights on this, folks! It'll be of great help, believe me.

We're kicking off with character generation this Wednesday.

Today I was listening to my co-workers sharing recipes and got the idea that it might be amusing for me to find a bunch of delicious-sounding meat-based recipes and read one aloud to the players at the beginning of each session. The purpose of course would be to get the players in a nice, hungry frame of mind as they navigate the Maze. I wouldn't explain why I was reading recipes to them at first (making excuses if need be, like, "Oh! Before we get started I came across this recipe and thought it sounded interesting. Here, let me know what you think...") but I expect it would all become crystal clear as we progress. Might be a bit cruel, but I thought perhaps it would be appropriate for the campaign.
_________________
My Blog: Jim - Yes, THAT Jim
My Setting Creation Podcast: Crucible of Realms
My RPG Podcast: The Great Debate!