Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Templar · Seasoned Joined: 10 Mar 2010 Posts: 264

I was reading through my HoE stuff recently and I noticed that there are a fair number of references to Ballard, but not a whole lot of real information on him. I mean for as important as he's supposed to be there isn't a whole lot of info on him? Was there more stuff in the d20 products or am I forgetting stuff?

SlasherEpoch · Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:21 am Post subject:

I think he's statted up in Wasted West, and he has a role to play in The Unity adventure. He's also got a lot of information on Throckmorton and the West in general, so he makes a valuable ally when needed - he's there for you to include as you see fit.
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ValhallaGH · Legendary Joined: 25 Apr 2010 Posts: 4453

He's got depth, influence, and history. But he's also a big damn hero in his own right, and a loner, so his story (while interesting) is probably a bunch of useless information for a Marshal and the pages spent on it are better spent on things you can use (like Wizard's Tower).

Take a look at his stat block (Wasted West, as Slasher said). He's got reasons to work alone most of the time.
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WilyQuixote · Novice Joined: 07 Feb 2009 Posts: 93

Yeah I always liked Cole Ballad. One of the first things I noticed when I read Wasted West was that he had a 5d12 STR. This meant that he drew a Joker (twice) obviously and when I heard about Ballad's role in The Unity I was kinda impressed. I took it as Ballad's player (if Ballad ever was a PC) must have drawn the Black Joker when determining his Mysterious Past and we get to see how that resolved in The Unity. Granted I might be reading too much into it and it was all nothing more then a happy coincidence (unless your Cole Ballad) but I really like when an RPG plays by its own rules that it wants its fans to play by. A lot of other RPGs make rules for the PCs but then proceed to create NPCs that you can't make legally in the game if you're a player. Ever hear of Elmister or Drizzt? Anyways that was why I liked Cole Ballad. That and if you look at most of the art work depicting him he has his Law Dog badge pinned to his chest. Not his shirt or coat but his chest! Thats how tough he is (he does have the thick skinned edge after all)! The only thing I would have liked to have seen is an updated version of Cole Ballad after the Waste Warriors book came out. Otherwise there never was much mention of him, bits and pieces really, about what he had done, and a very few "updates" on his current activities in the Epitaphs (I think) or the Needful Things sections of the books.

Teller · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 6:49 pm Post subject:

Actually, Cole Ballad was a character of one of the PEG guys in the original campaign used to playtest the game. And good eye on the badge--he was such a meat head that he did pin his badge to the skin of his chest.
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WilyQuixote · Novice Joined: 07 Feb 2009 Posts: 93

And thank you for the little nugget of gaming history Teller. I suspected he was a PC at some point in his gaming life as it were. As for the good eye... well I'm a hobby artist myself and so I tend to pay more attention to other people's artwork (admiring it) then some might.