A Look Inside the New Deadlands Kickstarter

This isn't a normal "Tommy's Take", because I don't have a full book in front of me, but a review copy of the new Deadlands book on Kickstarter right now. It's still incomplete - it was noted to me that it's missing a bestiary still - so rather than do a full review of the book, I'm putting it side by side with the Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook to get an idea of just what has changed and what's staying the same in this new edition.

Disclaimer: I'm not telling you to pledge. I just didn't have a cover image for this article.

Deadlands: Love on the Mountain is now available for free!

Hey guys, for a limited time (I think, maybe not), Pinnacle is giving away Deadlands: Love on the Mountain from Savage Tales of Horror Vol. 2 for free!



From the page:
True love is hard to find, and a father’s love can be a difficult obstacle for a wellmeaning young suitor to contend with. The suitor, heir to a fortune, employs the posse in rescuing his love from her father’s farm on the mountain. Sounds simple enough, right? But strange things happen on that mountain, and they just get stranger the higher you go… Check it out, then go buy the Savage Tales of Horror books!

Tommy's Take on The Sixth Gun RPG

Last year, Pinnacle announced that they were releasing an RPG based on The Sixth Gun, by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt. On the surface, this seems like both a brilliant, and potentially puzzling, move as Pinnacle's flagship setting, Deadlands, occupies very similar genre real estate as The Sixth Gun: Weird Western. Well, The Sixth Gun RPG is now being Kickstarted, but the big questions are "How is it different than Deadlands and do you need it if you already have Deadlands?"

AMP: Year One Giveaway and Year Two Kickstarter plus Fabled Environments and Connect Dice!

Todays blog post is about three Kickstarters and a sweet (if I do say so myself) giveaway.

Last year, Third Eye Games released AMP: Year One, their supers game set at the dawn of the rise of people with powers, called AMPs. The inspirations draw heavily from shows like Heroes, movies like Push and, of course, The X-Men (which heroes borrowed liberally from, so that makes sense). This is a setting in which powers are new and different and scary, and some people are embracing the change and others are looking out for themselves. The book, in addition to all the core rules, contained the Year One (2015) timeline for the setting.

Deadlands: "The Devil's Own" Post Mortem (Part 1)

I like doing actual plays, but I don't actually have the time to do them, so he's a long overdue post mortem recap of my Deadlands: The Devil's Own campaign, the one in which we playtested the Hexslinger and new Harrowed rules from Stone and a Hard Place.

Tommy's Take on Stone & A Hard Place

This one is kind of a special treat: A plot point campaign focusing on Stone, major antagonist of the Deadlands setting (he was the guy on the original Deadlands book), reintroducing elements that were streamlined elements out of Reloaded...and my group and I actually playtested some of the mechanics in this book!

Plot Armor: Off...take your shot!

#RPGaDay Day 26: Coolest Character Sheet

The Deadlands character journal (Twisted Tales) is the only character journal that I remember actually spending real money on...that's how much I loved Deadlands. It was worth dropping $5 or whatever for a book that could not only hold your character sheet, but your backstory, powers and so on, at least for a game as cool as Deadlands.

A Reloaded update of this, even in PDF form, would be very welcome.

#RPGaDay Day 20: Will Still Play In 20 Year's Time...

Safe bet?

In some incarnation or another.

#RPGaDay Day 13: Most Memorable Character Death

Not Marshal Kidd

United States Marshal (and Blessed) "Ugly" Joe Kidd (I swear, I somehow did not know about the Clint Eastwood movie at the time) was one of my few forays into being a full on player (Deadlands Classic), and one of my favorites. His death was actually pretty ambiguous, as he was attempting to stop a Ravenite from opening up a scary portal leading to The Hunting Grounds and unleashing scary, scary stuff. He tackled the Ravenite through the portal and found the talisman keeping the portal open. He made a snap decision to destroy the talisman and prevent something huge and scary from getting through, but not before having a manly, yet touching, "goodbye" moment with his deputy on the other side, a Cherokee tracker and Shaman named Tontchay.

Such was Kidd's death that when the GM moved away and we opted to resume the game with the Savage Worlds rules and me in the GM chair, Tontchay was dead set on finding Marshal Kidd, convinced that Kidd had to still be alive.

Tommy's Take on The Firefly Roleplaying Game

And so the Firefly theme continues with the Firefly RPG by Margaret Weis Productions, not to be confused with the Serenity RPG they released a few years ago.

Tommy's Take on Firefly: The Game

Apparently it's Firefly Week on the blog, as I now tackle the board game by Gale Force Nine.

Tommy's Take on Firefly: Out to the Black

You’re probably heard of Firefly. Cult classic show on Fox, cancelled without airing all of the episodes, made by Joss Whedon, had a follow-up movie called Serenity? It now has a couple of tabletop games available: A board game by Gale Force Nine and this game, a card game by Toy Vault.

DISCLAIMER: I received no compensation for this review in any way. This is based off of playing a store copy of the Firefly card game, via Kryptic Comics & Games.

Tommy's Take on Castle, Baronica & Murder on the Hellstromme Express

Castle: The Detective Card Game

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Published by Cryptozoic Entertainment, Castle: The Detective Card Game is a fast-playing card game designed for more casual gamers looking to dabble in some good, card gaming fun. Retailing for $30, Castle is a whodunit card game, in which everyone selects an investigator from the show (Castle, Beckett, Det. Ryan, Det. Esposito, Capt. Gates or Dr. Parish). Each investigator has a special ability, like Beckett being able to discard two cards of the same name and drawing five more, or Capt. Gates being able to take the top card from the Discard pile into her hand. Once everyone has a character, five suspects are dealt, and poker chips dealt out onto them. One chip says Guilty, the rest are Not Guilty and have a special effect (like forcing you to pass a card to the person on the right, or picking a player and allowing them to draw two cards). If at any point in the game you get the three cards listed on each suspect, you can Confront them, flipping over their poker chip. If they are guilty, you win! If not, follow the text on the chip. The gameplay is fast (each person only has one of five actions each turn) and simple (you are trying to find the three cards listed on the suspect cards to confront them), but has some nice trappings. For instance, the suspects are the murder mystery archetypes, like The Ignored Mistress, The Spiteful Sister and The Vengeful Spouse. In order to confront, say, The Loyal Brother, you need to Search the Victim's Home, have a Poker Game Consult (a Castle tradition) and perform an Autopsy. Other cards have special effects, like Killing By The Book, which has the killer following the MO of a killer from Castle's book (and letting you draw three cards and keep one), while another allows you to add an additional suspect (and maybe even changing up who the guilty party actually is). Some variants include using more suspects, as well as a "Season Mode", which ends when one player has three Solved Tokens.

WHAT WORKS: Good production values, especially the box, oversized character cards and poker chips (which are a thing of beauty indeed). Gameplay is fast and fun for a casual setting, and all of the major Detective Show tropes are in full effect with the suspects. Surprisingly, for a licensed product, the price isn't overly inflated.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Not a very deep game, if that's what you're looking for.

CONCLUSION: My wife is a casual gamer who is a fan of Castle, and when I read that this was basically a light, casual card game, I decided to pick it up for her for Christmas. Not a surprise at all, she really likes it. There's nothing deep or in-depth here, and there is a decent sized luck factor, but there's enough gameplay to keep me happy and fast enough play to keep my wife happy. It may not be what some were hoping for from a Castle card game, but it's pretty much exactly what Cryptozoic was actually trying for.

BARONICA: A Dungeon World Campaign Front

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Released by Three Sages Games, Baronica is a campaign front for Dungeon World, which I reviewed recently. Baronica is based on the author's old fantasy campaign, with some details left out. In keeping with the Dungeon World mindset, Baronica is left pretty open for the GMs and players to fill in, maps included. It's a fairly typical fantasy setting, in which the High King has fallen and the people are trying to determine who can take the crown. In the meanwhile, goblins are getting violent, and a dark force is rising to consume everyone (because that's what dark forces DO). A number of important NPCs are provided, as well as questions relevant to the campaign for the players to answer, and Special Moves for certain parts of the setting (my favorite being the move that details what happens when the PCs encounter The Azure Unicorn). Of course, Dangers are present, and a few Fronts are provided to help you guide the escalation of the threat level (such as the Rise of the Dark Lord).

WHAT WORKS: If you read the advice on creating Campaign Fronts and Dangers in the Dungeon World book, and it didn't quite click, then this might well be worth reading. I liked that the maps are left open enough for you to add your own elements and features that appear in gameplay, and I particularly enjoyed the encounter with the Azure Unicorn.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: If you already have a sense of what you are doing with Dungeon World, world-building-wise, then there's not enough new and unique stuff here to make it worthwhile. The author admits that it's going to feel a little familiar to some people, so if you're already on that path, you are probably better served to keep going in that direction.

CONCLUSION: Recommended for people who are pretty sure they have the mechanics of Dungeon World down, but are not sure just how they are actually going to get the game going (the front suggests that the PCs begin in media res), but folks who have already started to work on their own Dungeon World setting aren't going to find a lot here to compel them to scrap their work and introduce Baronica in its stead.

MURDER ON THE HELLSTROMME EXPRESS

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Murder on the Hellstromme Express is packed in with the Deadlands Reloaded GM screen, but is also available separately in PDF. It is perfectly suitable for use as an introductory adventure, but can also be dropped into any campaign in which the posse has a need to take jobs for money. The adventure is designed to run from Chicago to Dodge City, with the PCs serving as escorts for a Mad Scientist on a train full of 'em, each trying to impress a Hellstromme Industries auditor and earn points for the big Kansas Scientific Symposium. Wackiness ensues as the agendas of the various scientists bubble to the forefront, intersecting with a raid by a vicious Indian War Party. Assuming everyone makes it to the Symposium itself intact, one of the scientists has a final surprise for the posse...and the amount of help they have in that final battle relates directly to how well they managed the personalities on the train.

WHAT WORKS: All of the scientists on the train are interesting and were a blast to play as GM. Having the posse's interaction with them factor into the end game was a great touch. It makes for a good introductory adventure due to the mundane beginnings that help introduce more arcane elements of the setting.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Might not be enough action for some posse members in the early going. When I ran it, I did have one player get very restless waiting on a fight. It is, literally, a railroady adventure, what with most of it taking place on a train.

CONCLUSION: I wouldn't recommend buying the PDF unless you are completely unable to find the GM screen. Buy that and take this as the extra included with it instead. When I ran the adventure, the mad scientists thoroughly exhausted my players, and - as noted above - one of them got really restless with the lack of action, though that was due in part to the posse averting one issue with intimidation, and another through the well timed use of explosives. Definitely recommended if you need an excuse to get your PCs to Dodge City, or if you just want to show off the mad science in the setting.

Tommy's Take on Deadlands Dime Novels 1, 2 & 3

Having actually ran the first three Deadlands Dime Novels, I thought I would do some Fast Takes on them for this blog post. One of them was ran in its native Classic rules, while the other two were converted to Deadlands Reloaded.

PERDITION'S DAUGHTER

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: First off, there's two versions of this Dime Novel out there in PDF format, one that includes the adventure and one that doesn't. This review is off the print version that includes the adventure. The novel introduces Ronan Lynch (who, I'm guessing, Shane Hensley has a big fondness for), with the novel part written by Hensley and the adventure written by Hal Mangold. The whole gist of the dime novels is that it's a piece of Deadlands fiction combined with an adventure that roughly walks you through the events of the dime novel. In this case, Lynch and crew take a job rescuing a rich man's son from a cult, and the events of the story result in one of the crew becoming Harrowed - Deadlands' own undead gunslingers.

The adventure is very roleplay heavy, actually, (a lot of Deadlands adventures are, though some folks don't seem to think that's the case), setting the posse against an evil cult at Christmas time. This adventure made a huge mark on my early Deadlands campaign, when one of the PCs - ostensibly a pacifist - killed the cult leader's bodyguard with a deadly weapon in the first round of combat. This led to the gunman inhabiting the weapon and killing people on the PC's trail, framing him for murder. Spoiler warning: The Big Bad is female (look at the title).

WHAT WORKS: The fiction is fun, making for an entertaining afternoon of reading. The Christmas setting is an interesting tidbit as well, especially for launching the line. It's not a bad adventure to use as an opening adventure for a Deadlands campaign, especially if you are wanting to ease the group into weirdness.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: May not be enough action for some groups (until the end of the adventure, anyway). The cover promises a fairly awesome Santa Claus and Rudolph battle versus zombies, but that's not anything we ever get to see, unfortunately.

CONCLUSION: Useful for far more than just Deadlands completists, and official conversions for the adventure are available at the Pinnacle site for folks that want to use this in their Reloaded game. It is worth noting, for canon sticklers, that the setting is Christmas 1875, but there is very little preventing you from using it in whatever year you want (though you are going to want to leave it in winter time due to the endgame, or get very creative). Personally, I'll buy and read gaming fiction all day if it's in short bits with an adventure on the back end of it, like this, so long as there's at least a sense of fun (which this definitely has).

INDEPENDENCE DAY

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Another holiday themed Dime Novel, this time set in the summer of 1876 (and the centennial of the Union), in Bloody Kansas, in which Our Heroes are drafted into helping Wyatt Earp keep the peace during the big Independence Day celebration. The novel section again features Ronan Lynch, this time teaming with Texas Ranger Hank "One Eye" Ketchum against a sadistic creature known as the Butcher, all while Yankees and Rebels are threatening war in Dodge City.

The adventure part of the novel again casts the PCs in Ronan's shoes, arriving in Dodge City and being pressed into Wyatt's service (though not without pay, for the more mercenary types). This adventure plays to an unheralded strength of Deadlands - investigation - as the PCs quickly find themselves dealing with a brutal serial killer in the middle of the Yankee-Rebel tensions and enough red herrings to drive a man insane. Earp is, at best, available in the background, as he's handed over part of Dodge City to the posse (coincidentally being the one that needs the most looking after, of course), while he and his men are trying to hold down the rest of it. This Dime Novel has opportunity for more action than Perdition's Daughter, especially in the climax, which can easily turn into a running battle in the streets of Dodge City in the middle of the Fourth of July Celebration...

The fiction was written by Matt Forbeck, and the adventure co-written by Mr. Forbeck and Chris Snyder.

WHAT WORKS: Plenty of roleplaying, investigation and action, as well as pure, visceral horror and spotlight on both western life and the continuing tensions between the North and South. A nice cameo from a western legend, with a believable excuse for keeping him from stealing the spotlight out from under the PCs...and a nice, sweet nod to another legendary figure in the final battle.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Maybe my biggest complaint about Deadlands, as a player and a GM, is that many of the enemies (and this includes The Butcher) have some fairly rough weaknesses, and it can be hard even providing the opportunity for the PCs to find out what those weaknesses are, artificially inflating the difficulty of some encounters. When I ran this adventure, this very nearly meant The Butcher cake walked over the opposition.

CONCLUSION: One of my favorite compositions of adventure elements for Deadlands. This was a very fun romp with a lot of variety in the elements, and I was running it for one PC at the time (which nearly got him massacred against The Butcher). A very, very good entry (with Deadlands Reloaded conversions) that tends to get overlooked by the next novel in the series...

NIGHT TRAIN

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The most infamous entry in the Dime Novels series. So infamous, in fact, that the author is commonly referred to as John "Night Train" Goff. Yeah. The story sees Ronan Lynch and Hank Ketchum running into a very foul train carrying a cartload of undead bloodsuckers. It's completely horrific, bordering on over the top, and thus another good indicator of the Deadlands "feel".

In the adventure, the PCs get to do a little investigation at Barlowe Station before arriving at Varney Flats and getting the MAIN action going. (And points to you if you get the references. I did.) This one does have noticeably less plot than a lot of Deadlands adventures, ultimately coming down to the PCs versus an evil Force of Nature. Most Deadlands groups now have THEIR "Night Train story", and it's become a popular convention adventure. Warning: The body count for this adventure is HIGH.

There is a Night Train scenario for The Great Rail Wars included in the back of the book.

WHAT WORKS: Arguably the most iconic Deadlands adventure. There's a reason for that.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Might be a rough fit for an ongoing campaign, what with the chance of Total Party Kills. I used it in mine, but Adventure Cards, Fate Chips and the Wild Card/Extra divide went a long way towards giving the group a leg up.

CONCLUSION: Arguably the most iconic Deadlands adventure. There's a reason for that. Heck, my group came out of it a lot better than most did, and they're still paranoid about trains, especially ones that show up in the middle of the night.

Tommy's Take on Revolver 1.1, 1.2 and By The Gun They Died

So I recently reviewed the card game Revolver...so now I thought I'd shed a little light on three of the expansions for the game!

Revolver 1.1: Ambush on Gunshot Trail

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Ambush on Gunshot Trail is not required to play Revolver...however, Revolver 1.2 and By The Gun They Died both assume that you are also using Ambush on Gunshot Trail. This small card expansion runs for about $15 retail, and includes cards for both Colonel McReady and Jack Colty, as well as introducing 2 new bandits for Colty (one being Sister Sarah and her Mule), as well as a new mechanic: Ambushes. With Ambushes, McReady was planning ahead, and an Ambush is dealt to each battlefield, sometimes giving McReady more firepower, sometimes killing one of Colty's men, but occasionally it's a false alarm and the Colty gang beats them to the punch. Other new Colty cards include the Cherokee Freedmen and Dragged Behind The Horse (which forcibly moves a Law Dog back one battlefield), while McReady gains Pinkerton Agents, a new Bounty Hunter and even a card that can derail (pun intended) Colty's desperation tactic aboard the train. The new cards are intended to be swapped out of the existing decks, providing a deck tuning mechanic.

WHAT WORKS: More backstory for the new characters (including two that are actually in the promo pack). The Ambush Mechanic adds a new dimension to gameplay without speeding up gameplay, and Colty gains more cannon fodder.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The price might be a tad high if you can't get a discount somewhere. The gratuitous cleavage from the bounty hunter is, well, gratuitous. I'm not a fan of the deck tuning mechanic, as it slows down an otherwise quick set-up and quick moving game.

CONCLUSION: My son and I have just been integrating the cards into the decks, as all it does is increase the random element, which proves to be more of an equalizer for the two of us. The set exudes a ton of personality, with unique, named characters who are all heroes of their own story. Strong recommendation for this expansion if you're digging Revolver.

Revolver 1.2: Hunt the Man Down

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This expansion follows on the back of 1.1, going so far as to include an additional ambush card (and a violent one), as well as a new, optional battlefield holding the sadistic Santiago, a prisoner with a mad-on for Colonel McReady. It also introduces a new winning condition for McReady, in the form of bullet tokens Colty can gain over the course of the game. McReady gains more Pinkertons (who now actually draw the fire when on the field), while Colty gains more cards that can circumvent the 3 row limit, if only temporarily. More references to classic westerns abound, and an undertaker is added who can put the newly deceases to rest AND score you more cards.

WHAT WORKS: Impressively, the prison raid adds almost no time to the game, even with Ambushes from 1.1 in full effect, while also adding an additional strategic element, as the Colty player decides if Santiago is worth risking his men over.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Price is still going to be an issue for some, and 1.1 being required for fans wanting to pick this up is going to be annoying for some.

CONCLUSION: So far, so good. The truth about McReady gets a little seedier with each set, while the lines just get greyer and greyer. Major props to the designers for creating a whole new battlefield that adds to the game, but never really slows it down. The continued shout outs to classic westerns is also cool, going above and beyond just abusing common western tropes.

REVOLVER: BY THE GUN THEY DIED

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This one is completely playable without 1.1 or 1.2, though there are some icons you aren't going to understand at first. Also, this set includes Elias Hooker and Brady Logan, two promo characters released for the game. Again, this set assumes you are going to be deck building/tuning, giving McReady options like Apache Warriors, a Pinkerton Sharpshooter who is made for Whiskey Canyon (the nastiest battlefield for the Colty gang to hide in) and the very thuggish Wriggler Hooley and the Swain Boys. Colty isn't left short handed, adding in the multiplying Bandidos, as well as an alternate version of Bullet (much meaner, as he will take someone with him now), and Turkey Joe (who also pops up in Revolve 2), as well as a card that implies a much deeper relationship was going on between Poppy McReady and Colty.

WHAT WORKS: No new mechanics to learn (aside from the deck tuning), and more cards with personality, both people and events.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The price, again, seems high, especially since it's not wrapped in any kind of real packaging, either. That said, there are some viable options in this set for fans of the game who like to build decks, as well as some cool cards for guys like me who don't mind piling them all on. Get 1.1 if you can only get one expansion, but the others are worth it if you like the game.

Tommy's Take on Revolver 2

So....yesterday, I reviewed Revolver. Today, I review its completely standalone sister (not really sequel) game, Revolver 2.

DISCLAIMER: This review does contain an affiliate link to Amazon.com. Purchasing the game through that link may provide me with referral credit to Amazon. No review copy was provided by the publisher. I acquired this game on my own.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Revolver 2 has the same mechanical base as Revolver, and includes a number of references to the characters in Revolver, but is designed to be completely standalone, from both a a story and a gameplay perspective. Revolver 2 comes in an impressive green tin, setting it apart from Revolver's red tin. The game retails for $30, though Amazon has it deeply discounted as of the time of this review.

The story is the first major change in Revolver 2: Instead of a gang on the run from a Colonel's posse, one player plays a Padre who is hiring gunslingers to defend a Mexican town sitting near a silver mine as a corrupt Mexican warlord is trying to take it over. Yeah, it's got a little bit of Magnificent Seven to it...and if you're a fan of westerns, that's probably a good thing. The winning conditions are similar to Revolver: General Mapache wins if he guns down all of the town's defenders, for instance, and the Padre's men can win if the Padre survives the battle in the silver mine, or if the Mexican army arrives to put an end to the General (mechanically functioning the same as removing the Mexican border tokens in Revolver).

Thematically, the "surviving four rounds in the Silver Mine" doesn't work as well as Jack Colty's "survive four rounds on the 3:15" from Revolver, but it is what it is.

With that base in place, however, we get a number of changes: First, the two players play a poker minigame, three hands worth, and the side that wins 2 out of 3 gets to set a more favorable battlefield layout for the game. In addition, some of the poker hands have over benefits, independent of winning or losing, such as extra Firepower tokens on battlefield spaces, adding or subtracting tokens from the Mexican Army card, or adding cards to your starting hand when the game begins.

The next big change comes at the beginning of the Padre's turn. See, the Padre starts off with seven guardians (counting himself), and can recruit another guardian or two on each turn (an icon on the battlefield tells you how many guardians you can recruit). Well, the Padre has the choice on some battlefields to forgo recruitment and instead skip turns there, moving the clock up faster at the expense of recruiting more people. This can be beneficial at times, because the General has a very powerful secret weapon at the silver mine, but it requires stockpiling cards in order to use properly, and if you can catch him flat footed at the mine, it can make the Padre's endgame easier. Of course, if you miscalculate, it can lead to you just being outgunned in the endgame.

One of the battlefields is called The Los Quantos Bridge, and it brings up another tactic for the Padre: If he has enough cards with TNT icons on them, he can blow the bridge, wiping out anyone or anything that the General has placed on the bridge to stop him. He can use a similar tactic in the Silver Mine, to counter the General's use of the Gatling Gun.

That's where another layer of complexity and strategy comes in: Every card has an effect in its own right, but many of the General's cards include ammo icons, to be used with the Gatling Gun in the endgame, while many of the Padre's cards have TNT icons, to be used at the Bridge or Silver Mine...so a card may be worth more to you in your hand, using it at the right battlefield, rather than just dumping it off in play.

The Padre has two decks of cards to draw from, the first being his regular card deck and the second being his Guardians. The Guardians have a survival rating, like Colty's men in the first game do, indicating just how important they are to the plot and what order they'll die in. Padre Estaban is the hero of this story, and will either see it through, or be the last one gunned down. Some Guardians let you draw a card when they come into play, some force you to discard when they die, some hasten the arrival of the Mexican Army and some stymy it. Zachary McReady, kin to the Colonel from the first game, makes an appearance here as a recruitable gunslinger. There's also a mysterious man named Jim Colt who carries a crow on his shoulder, and who may or may not resemble a certain gang leader from Revolver. There's also Kid Lightning, who has a Survival Rating of 0, but also has TWO Grit Tokens, meaning he can take a licking before he goes down.

As for the Padre's card deck itself, he has cards like Telegrams which remove tokens from the Mexican Army card, speeding their arrival along. Of course, he has different weapons he can drop on the battlefield for his men, as well as cards like "Get Ready For War!" that cause him to sacrifice two of his men in order to take out everyone the General has at a given battlefield. There's also a Kiowa Guide who will help the Mexican Army make better time to the town, bags of rattlesnakes that can take out one of the General's men and even a Stove Plate Jacket (ala Eastwood) that saves one of the Guardians from death.

The General is not without resources, using Swift Horses to move his men from battlefield to battlefield, Sodden Terrain to slow down the approach of the Mexican Army, Alligator Attacks to kill Guardians, powerful gunfighters like Gian Volonte (who is so powerful that the Padre gets to draw a card in order to balance out how scary he is) and Pancho Flores (who also forces the opponent to discard a card when he comes into play). The Las Cuchillos are also frightening, giving the General the option of discarding a card when they come into play and destroying one of the Padre's assets.

Like with Revolver, Revolver 2 will be bloody, with casualties mounting on both sides, and not even killing the General will be enough to stop his men.

WHAT WORKS: The Magnificent Seven with a dash of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in a card game? Yes, please. The extra bits of strategy are a nice touch without over complicating anything. The connections to the first set are also nice, as easter eggs for players of both sets, without forcing continuity lockout.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The creeping complexity may bode ill for those that love the simplicity of the first game. The backstory isn't quite as thrilling in this one, being painted as more of a straight, black and white, Good vs Evil tale...though, your mileage may certainly vary on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. The win condition of waiting out the general in the Silver Mine doesn't work as well, thematically.

CONCLUSION: The backstories and the characters "pop" better in Revolver, but Magnificent Seven is my favorite western of all time, so essentially putting that in card game format is just AWESOME to me. The two Revolver games are just both so very cool to me, impulse purchases that I'm glad I indulged in. Absolutely worth it if you love westerns and you're cool with a 2 player only game. Highly recommended.

Tommy's Take on Revolver

I do primarily review RPGs around here, but I also occasionally venture into other areas, like board and card games. Well, A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a couple of western-themed card games called Revolver and Revolver 2, which I've since played a few times with my kid.

DISCLAIMER: This review does include an affiliate link to Amazon.com. Purchasing this title from Amazon may result in me receiving a referral credit. A review copy was not provided to me by the publisher, however. I acquired this game on my own.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Revolver is a card based by White Goblin Games & Stronghold Games, featuring a fairly standard western theme: Jack "The Crow" Colty and his gang robbed a bank and are on the run from Col. Ned McReady's posse, trying desperately to make it to the 3:15 Express from Rattlesnake Station, or cross the Mexican border, before Colty and his right hand man Cortez are gunned down.

Retailing for $30, Revolver comes in a sweet, sweet metal tin, with two included card decks (one for each side of the conflict) and a number of extra cards which serve as the battlefields for the conflict (beginning at the bank and running to the train). A bag of wooden pieces are included to count down the Mexican border, as well as a piece to serve as the time tracker in each battlefield.

The Colty gang begins with all of their people on the playing field, rushing together from the bank to the train station. The McReady player will unleash assets at each field, from deputies and bounty hunters to named characters like Deputy Weathers and McReady himself. Characters can get Grit tokens, which can allow them to survive the first attempt at killing them, and Firepower tokens, which boosts their effectiveness in combat.

If the Colty gang loses a fight on the McReady player's turn, one of The Crow's men dies, selected by the Colty player based on his men's Survival Rating (some guys are doomed to die before the others). Some folks just die, others cause different effects. For instance, killing Bruno "Hen House" Caple cuts off Colty's access to Peacemaker .45s. If Manolito dies, The Crow finds out Manolito was a traitor and this cuts off two of the tokens blocking access to the Mexican border. If you kill Kittens McKenzie before the gang reaches the 3:15, it gives the posse more time to hunt the gang through Rattlesnake Creek as Kittens presumably knows that area better than the rest.

Stronger cards, on both sides, are played by discarding other cards...and some cards get cheaper to play as the game goes on. For instance, Col. McReady is expensive to deploy at the bank, but he won't miss the gunfight at the train for anything. The McReady player can play as many cards to a battlefield as he likes, but the Colty gang can only play three cards per battlefield...and McReady can drop cards like Narrow Bridge and Cactus Field which cuts those available slots down further.

Colty's deck also includes cards that move up the clock, putting the gang on the road in order to keep from getting trapped, cards like "Fire At Will" that lets his men gun down some of McReady's men, Sandstorm (which imposes a two card limit on McReady's side of the field) and Saddlebags (which let you snap up a card from a battlefield to take to another, as cards normally stay behind as the gang runs).

McReady's deck also has time management cards which force the Colty gang to stay on the battlefield an extra turn, "Get The Rope, Boys" (which lets you lynch a Colty gang member), Rattlesnake Bite (which will kill a gang member if they don't discard a card), a card indicating the gang has been betrayed (which kills two people unless the Colty player discards two cards), a Buffalo Stampede which inflicts a ton of damage and more.

Each battlefield has a defensive modifier for the Colty gang, ranging from +0 to +3, as they use the terrain for natural defense. The Colty player also has one more, last ditch tactic they can use at the train, derailing it in order to inflict death and chaos. This will kill every one of Colty's remaining men, but the player can discard cards in order to keep his men alive.

As swell as all this sounds, it's the little things that really sell the game: The book includes character bios for every character in the game, unveiling layers to the backstory that twist it on its ear. Is Crow a criminal? Well, yeah...but he's also been wronged, as his father had his farm stolen out from under him. One of his gang members is Poppy McReady...daughter of the Colonel...and all kinds of hints and outright statements in the backstory that the Colonel is one shady bastard. None of it DIRECTLY affects gameplay, especially in this first set, but the attention to story is very admirable.

There is a fair bit of strategy to the game, as the McReady side has to recognize which battles to fight and which to let go of, while the Colty player can focus on either surviving the full gauntlet and escaping on the train or focusing on running out the Mexican border (a token comes off of the Mexican border card for each turn McReady has in which he fails to kill a Colty member).

No matter what, the game WILL be very bloody, with a lot of casualties. This isn't a Roy Rogers western.

WHAT WORKS: The production values are excellent. The gameplay is fun and simple, and feels very "western". The gameplay is surprisingly deep in the core set, while still playing quickly. Despite the recommended age of 12+, my 10 year old both enjoys and understands the game perfectly fine.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The fact that a lot of the cards on both sides are either re-skinned, or merely opposite numbers of a card on the other side. Some complaints have been made about the art, as some of the women are fairly scantily clad and some parents may not be suitable with 12 year olds (the recommended age) playing it.

CONCLUSION: A very awesome two player card game that I've already played a fair bit and plan on playing more of. The expansions are largely designed to swap in and out with the existing card decks, rather than adding to them, so the game should avoid a lot of bloat that games with expansions tend to have. As mentioned above, the game is awesome and thematic out of the box, but adding in the backstory makes it doubly cool. Very highly recommended if you are a fan of westerns and card games, especially if you're not so much into the Deadlands or Shadows of Brimstone style of supernatural western.

Deadlands Reloaded Actual Play: For The Grace of God Volume 5

Previous Sessions:
Volume 1
Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Picking up where we left off last week, I decided to run the "Devil's Night" adventure, but I scrubbed the "Devil's Night" references, since we were pretty solidly established as being in July, 1876 (It's been a few weeks since the Independence Day dime novel and all).

We picked up almost immediately after the close of "Night Train", with Deputy Parrish dead and Tontchay badly wounded. Lana quickly moved to provide him aid, but failed...so Jim Travis, somewhat surprisingly, tried to help him out with some success. (He managed to drop Tontchay from 3 wounds to 2.)

Travis and Lana each discretely reported back to their superiors, with Travis receiving word that he needed to check on a disturbance in Witchita, KS...but Lana not receiving anything back from her superiors. Travis told Tontchay he was heading to Witchita and the Deputy decided to go with him...Lana decided to tag along because she's becoming fond of Tontchay.

(Travis also played the Enemy Adventure Deck card at this point, setting himself up for some kind of rival later on, but getting him another card to work with.)

As the posse was riding along, Travis and Lana caught wind of something moving in the prairie...when they were attacked by fist-sized Prairie Ticks! Four of the little buggers attacked them, with one scurrying down the gullet of Travis' horse and another latching onto his mouth! Tontchay lined up his shot...and blew the tick apart on Travis' face! Lana managed to stab down at another tick and killed it, while Tontchay blasted the remaining exposed tick. The posse all looked nervous at Travis' horse, which he fought to get under control.

Later, as they were riding on, the horse clearly seemed to wear down and Tontchay saw movement in its belly. Travis dismounted, sighed, and shot the horse in the head. He and Tontchay immediately went to work setting a fire to cook the horse, in hopes of preventing the tick (or more ticks, as Lana feared) escaping the horse.

(Lana's player was REALLY creeped out by the Prairie Ticks, especially the one exploding on Travis' face, and was absolutely convinced that it had began replicating inside of the horse and another slew of ticks were coming.)

The next morning Travis, being a douche, stole Tontchay's horse as they rode out, leaving Tontchay on foot, walking along injured, next to Travis and Lana. As they entered a small settlement outside of Witchita, the town Doc told them he had three boys in comas here, and he asked them if they could maybe investigate. Travis agreed on the condition that the Doc take a look at Tontchay. Doc felt compelled to give Tontchay his cross, which he had taken from a departed friend. Tontchay seemed nervous at this, but remember Marshal Kidd's faith, agreed.

(The upside of having two of the posse members clearly displaying badges.)

After hearing that they were found unconscious and cold by the Hanging Tree, Lana immediately set out to investigate the boys while Tontchay and Travis set course for the Hanging Tree.

Lana went to see the first boy, "Little" Jimmy Peck, and spoke with his daddy, "Big" Jim Peck, who stood nearly 7 foot tall. Lana became convinced that the boy was a vampire of some sort, and asked Big Jim if they'd had any vampires around. Jim scoffed and said that his boy had clearly been cursed by a witch that Big Jim used to date. Lana said she might come back by, and Big Jim said he would be glad to have her come back. (Wink, wink.)

Tontchay and Travis went to the Hanging Tree and were unsettled by the complete, eerie silence at the tree. Travis investigated the markings on the tree to determine that it looked like it had maybe been used as target practice for knife throwers, while Tontchay found wagon tracks and hoof prints, as well as the impressions made by the boys when they hit the ground.

As Tontchay and Travis headed back to the settlement, they spotted a fancy, red wagon by the pond. As they approached it, they noted that it had "Professor Mathias' Old Time Elixers" painted on the side...and so they moved closer. Travis poked his head in to see the good Professor digging around in the wagon and spooked him. They asked the Professor if he had seen or heard anything from the night before, but he implied that he had been heavily inebriated. He did offer his miracle elixer to cure the boys, but was charing $50 for it. Noting Tontchay's injuries, he offered him a potion to heal him right up, for only $5, but when the guys suspected he was up to no good, they threatened him into backing down. (To save face, he just said that sometimes Indians and his potions don't agree). After coercion from Travis and Tontchay, he decided to head on for Witchita, but Travis strongly suggested that he should stay there until the posse left town, and they would accompany him.

(I still have no idea what game they are playing with "recruiting" Professor Mathias.)

Lana had little extra luck investigating the two other boys, though both of their families were convinced there was a rational explanation, but one of them thought Professor Mathias might have a cure.

Lana bumped into Tontchay, Travis and Mathias, who offered to sell her the cure for the boys for $100. The Posse headed into the Dead Horse Road House (noticing the irony after the events of last evening) and decided to partake of food and drink. Travis lost his butt playing Faro with a junk trader in town, but the trader did note that there was a mansion in the woods near an old Black River junkyard. The posse pressed the bartender on the matter, and he told them that a fella from Back East lived there, but he didn't know much else. He redirected them to Doc, who should know more. The gambler told Travis to pay up, but Travis threw the weight of his badge around to back him off.

Lana and Tontchay went to talk to the Doc, while Travis headed straight for the house in the woods.

Lana and Tontchay discovered that the house used to belong to a Whateley (Shudder), but that Herbert Langston from Back East had taken it over, bringing an invention with him and his daughter. However, his daughter had left about a year ago and Langston had gone into seclusion.

Travis examined the house and found it locked, so he busted in the back door. Looking around the house, he found that it only parts of it had been lived in, and he found a room that seemed like it had belonged to a girl, and a master bedroom that had personal effects belonging to Herbert Langston, including a patent on a clockwork man! Travis also found a series of child's drawings and a lock of hair. Pretty much running out of useful stuff, he prepared to leave the house when he saw movement down the hill from the house, at a junkyard.

As he headed to the junkyard, a coach came rolling up, as Professor Mathias brought him Lana and Tontchay (at Tontchay's request/demand). The three posse members headed into the junkyard. There, they spotted a large, hulking, mechanical man! Travis yelled out that he was a Texas Ranger and told it to halt, but it instead turned and charged him, smacking the Ranger, but the burly Travis held firm. However, the posse saw a body slumped in a chair, and Lana bolted to it, her curiosity getting the better of her. Tontchay rotated back and used his wolf spirit's aid to assist him as he opened fire on the mechanical man, while Travis (aided by the Payback adventure card) unloaded with both pistols in hopes of stopping it. Lana found a crushed man and pried a book out of his hands, which enraged the mechanical man! As the mechanical man charged at Lana, it left itself open to Travis (who had already damaged it), and Travis managed to gun it down! (Travis was running off a Joker and the Payback card, which essentially give him +4 on his attacks and +4 to his damage, allowing him to get past the armor of the clockwork man pretty easily).

As the clockwork man dropped to its knees in front of Lana, it pushed her aside and laid its head on its "father's" lap, "dying" with him.

Lana discovered that the book was a German grimoire designed to summon an entity called The Black Coachman, who takes the souls of those it encounters. Lana figured out right away that this is what happened to the boys. It also had instructions on how to stop the Coachman...and so the posse gathered up the necessary ingredients to make the Coachman whole and summon it to them!

Once they had done their work and got their ingredients in place, they went to the junkyard and Lana began casting the spell! Travis stood in the middle of the junkyard and began to turn in a circle, listening for the Black Coachman. Tontchay mounted a junkpile and prepared his Spencer.

They heard hooves.

They heard the wagon wheels bounce on the ground.

Tontchay saw fiery lights flickering in the distance.

Hellhounds began to bay in the night!

The Black Coachman erupted into the junkyard, pulled by nightmarish black horses and surrounded by hellhounds! Travis yelled for the Coachman to "come and get me!" as Lana completed the ritual and made it whole...and Tontchay opened fire, exploding the Coachman's head!!

(Tontchay used an Adventure Deck card to double his damage, and the Coachman was incapable of Soaking the damage done by the attack.)

The fiery ground opened up and claws pulled the Coachman screaming back to Hell! Three ethereal forms escaped the coach and the hounds followed the Coachman into Hell before the ground closed up. Travis told Tontchay that they were even now (for...something...Travis is kind of arrogant).

Returning to town proper, the posse found out that the boys had recovered, and now Little Jimmy was willing to talk, telling them about how he and his cronies had vandalized Langston's machine when a Dixie Rails rep was supposed to arrive, and basically ruined his life and opportunity. From there, Lana pieced together that he had come into possession of the grimoire and used it to summon the Black Coachman to get revenge.

Notes: This was a free Deadlands adventure released for Halloween...last year? I think. It was great. It was also designed to use the Horror Companion, which was already my favorite companion before I used it in play, and I dig it even more now. The posse is gelling nicely, with Travis' player playing an antagonistic jerk, but doing it in such a way that it's not disrupting the forward progress of the group. The Adventure Deck came up big time again (and I am totally okay with it, as are the players). I am absolutely at a loss as to why they recruited Professor Mathias, though...but whatever...we'll roll with it!

No game next week for sure, as I'm in Tulsa for a convention, and we may be down two the following week...but Regular Deadlands is certainly in the offing, given player reactions.

Deadlands Reloaded Actual Play: Night Train

Previous Sessions:
Volume 1
Volume 2

Volume 3

So with new additions to our gaming group, Tommy and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play Deadlands Reloaded, so I decided to run - for the first time - Night Train! We picked up after the events of Independence Day, with Tontchay on board a train back to Oklahoma, in hopes of finding someone in the Coyote Federation that could help him enter the Deadlands and find Marshal Kidd.

So last week I floated character concepts by the newbies and this week they came back with character ideas that make for an...interesting...party make-up: A Texas Ranger, and the grandson of William B. Travis, hunting for Jim Bowie's knife, for he is named James Bowie Travis. He's a Brawny Texan who believes that Texas borders extend to wherever he walks. His father was a worthless alcoholic, a trait that James picked up, and he's hoping to restore his family's good name. The other character is known only as Lana, and she's an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. She's a bastard (in the Deadlands sense, this means she can see the invisible) who has been handed down a sword said to belong to her MIA father, which she keeps as her prized possession. She also has a Big Mouth, making her a HORRIBLE spy. She had been tracking mysterious disappearances at rail stations, placing the three of them on the train together.

Travis noticed Tontchay was wearing a Marshal's tin star on his chest and began questioning it, not being used to see an Indian wearing a badge before. He asked where the owner of the badge was and Tontchay, quite paranoid due to previous experiences in a train, was looking for safe places to hole up, just in case. Once Tontchay was satisfied, he told the Ranger that the Marshal that owned the badge was a friend, and that he was in a place that white people called "Hell". Travis was confused and commented about the Marshal being dead, but Tontchay replied that the Marshal wasn't dead...just trapped in Hell. Lana overheard this with interest, but quickly got into a shouting match with Travis (who thought she was a traveling whore, which WAS actually her cover). The train came to a stop around twilight at a station known as Barlowe Station.

Lana and Tontchay decided to stretch their legs at this remote little station, and looking around inside the station house, they discovered that there were a set of glasses on the counter but no one around. Looking closer, Lana discovered that the ink was still fresh and the logs had been filled out as of the day before. As Tontchay and Lana explored the area, Travis got curious and started looking for himself, following Tontchay to the nearby shack, while Lana headed to the outhouse.

As Tontchay knocked on the door, he saw grooves on the door. Looking around, he discovered that the ground had been trampled, including a garden right under a side window, which was busted in...and there were bulletholes in the wall under the window. The Ranger gave him a boost into the window and followed, and the two lawmen found that the bedroom was a mess. They did find a puddle of blood and a pistol that had discharged four shots (they did the math and realized that a target was probably hit), and looked outside to find tracks leading to the outhouse...

Meanwhile, Lana was peering into the outhouse and discovering that the boards were loose and the outhouse smelled atrocious...and that was before she caught a whiff of a dead body. She quickly beat feet to the shack.

Lana told Travis and Tontchay what she found and they compared notes. As Tontchay and Travis examined the outhouse closer, deciding something most be UNDER the outhouse, they lit a match and threw it in, before striking another to try to get a better look, with no success. The three of them headed to a nearby barn, finding a spooked mare and some happy pigs, and came away with a pitchfork and some rope. They managed to poke around, finding a body under the outhouse, and got a slipknot around the corpse, hefting it out. The posse then dragged the body to a watertower where the Ranger washed it off, allowing Lana to examine it closer, finding rat-like bites on corpse. (Incidentally, Tontchay lost his lunch at the smell during this, gaining a point of Fatigue.)

Once the posse told the conductor what had happened, he suggested they head to the next town, known as Varney Flats. There was a debate about what to do with the body, with Travis saying he had done enough and Tontchay ultimately told the Conductor that it would be his decision, being "one of your folk". The Conductor said he would take the body to Varney Flats if Tontchay would help him wrap the body up. Tontchay agreed, but asked the Conductor to make sure the car was secured in such a way that nothing could get out. The Conductor thought he misheard and asked Tontchay if he meant "get in", and Tontchay shrugged and said "That too."

That night, Tontchay woke up to something banging on a train car and made his way down to it, realizing it was coming from the car with the corpse. The banging got louder and louder and Tontchay reluctantly opened his car and moved to the other...when Marshal Kidd, eyes blazing red and teeth glistening, ripped through the door and grabbed Tontchay! Tontchay sat up in a sweat...and heard something banging. He crept to the car...and realized that part of the awning over the train car had come loose and was flapping. Travis offered a smart aleck remark to the startled Indian.

The train rolled into Varney Flats early in the morning and everyone - okay, Lana and Tontchay - agreed to tell the town Marshal what had happened, and Travis reluctantly went along with it (preferring instead to head to the saloon). There they met a bookish Deputy named Nathan Parrish who told them that Marshal McBride was away from town. Then Parrish got a bright idea, seeing as how Travis was a Texas Ranger and Tontchay has a badge: He asked them to help him guard his prisoner, Abner Knapp, who McBride had captured...because he's afraid that Mayor Varney is going to lead a lynching in order to show Knapp's people - a camp of buffalo hunters - that they couldn't just run wild in Varney Flats. Parrish knew that McBride wanted Knapp to swing at the Judge's orders, not Varney's. He offered to deputize Lana and give the posse the $100 bounty on Knapp's head if they would agree, which they did. Abner launched in, taunting and tormenting the posse, to little effect.

The posse became concerned that the missing Marshal might have been their dead guy, so Parrish and Lana went to examine the body while Tontchay checked out Varney Flats and Travis hung out, keeping an eye on Abner.

Parrish quickly confirmed that the body was not Marshall McBride.

Tontchay found out that the general store was in the process of becoming a a gunstore thanks to most of the real money coming from the buffalo hunters.

Abner failed to convince Travis to let him go.

Tontchay, nervous about his dreams, got a room to get some sleep, while Lana took over babysitting Abner and Travis decided to get a few drinks at the saloon.

As Travis was taking in his drinks, the saloon began to fill up with townsfolk...including the town's mayor, Sam Varney. Varney was trying to rile up the crowd to hunt down Knapp, but Travis moved to talk him down. Tontchay came downstairs as Travis and Varney were having a stand off...so Tontchay, who has quelled a few crowds, decided to head off Varney's accusations that the Deputy and the Ranger had been bought and paid for by somebody, and tried to scare him into backing off. To his complete surprise, it failed. (Tontchay is Strong Willed and his a good Intimidation, but Varney outrolled him by five points and surprised Tontchay's player). This got pretty intense, with Varney painting the posse as outsiders placing the interests of a murderer over the interests of Varney Flats.

Varney offered to back off, buy the posse's rooms and their food and drink during their stay, sarcastically noting that the Indian that probably killed the man that originally owned that badge and the big mouthed Texas Ranger clearly know what's best for Varney Flats.

Of course, this set the posse on edge and while Tontchay was milling about, he saw an angry mob heading towards the Marshal's office. Tontchay warned the group and they tried to work out a plan, including holing up inside the office (with Knapp asking for a gun of his own, but he was denied). Parrish tried to confront the mob, but was too quiet to be heard over them, and Lana tried to talk some sense into them...but that didn't work, so Travis stepped out of the office to confront them. A stand-off was brewing and the tension was rising...so Travis shot the out of Varney's mouth, stunning everyone! (Using an Adventure Card, "Shaking in Thar Boots")! Tontchay once more unleashed his force of will, asking the townsfolk if they were going to let everyone be lynched without due process, and forcing the town to back down!

Lana decided to wait up with Abner and Parrish, while Travis headed to bed after the mob dispersed, and Tontchay decided to ride out to find McBride. A few hours later, a scream pierced the night, and after a moment, Tontchay realized it was actually a train whistle. He rode hard back to Varney Flats.

Parrish was the one that heard the train roll into town and he pulled Lana to the door just in time for the demonic train to come to a stop, the whistle to blow (waking Travis up in his bed) and the terror to wash over the town. The doors slide open and the crazed, animalistic nosferatu burst forth. Lana panicked and ran, but one of them ran her down, forcing her to draw her sword and fight...and a brutal swing took its head off! She looked around to see dozens of nosferatu flooding out of the train.

Travis was more rattled than he would admit, sitting in bed as a nosferatu clawed at his door, eventually busting in. Travis fought with the nosferatu on his bed, trying to get shots off at at and having his face clawed up by it. With his guns having no effect, as soon as he got free, Travis dove from the second story window and to the street below!

Lana saw nosferatu dragging townsfolk to the train, so she tried to intervene, only to be rushed by other vampires (though she did successfully take another couple down).

Travis opened fire on the nosferatu trying to drag people away, but didn't even slow them down. The sounds of people fighting back began to fill up the town, and the vampires piled onto the train, which fired up and began to roll away!

The townsfolk gathered 'round, with Parrish screaming that he nosferatu managed to get Abner Knapp out of his cage! He asked Travis and Lana if they would retrieve him...and Varney even offered a bounty on the heads of his missing townsfolk. Parrish brought up horses and said they could cut across the prairie in order to run the train down...and he hoped they were going with him.

As they chased the train from the rear and tried to pin it down, Tontchay raced it head on. He could see the ghost rock steam rising out of the engine and the demonic appearance of the train...so he tried to ride alongside and fired off a shot at the conductor, who was clearly among the undead! This attempt failed, so Tontchay rode close to jump aboard the train! Parrish, Lana and Travis closed in, as Tontchay stomped across the train and tried to shoot the conductor again! This time, he got its attention, and the conductor blew the whistle, causing nosferatu to climb up on the train! As Tontchay tried to make his stand against the rising tide of nosferatu, Lana jumped aboard the train!

One of the nosferatu tumbled to its doom, trying to get to Tontchay, and Lana helped get the attention of some of the others. Parrish and Travis managed to jump aboard as well, and the heroes got a break when the engine car snapped free (Lana's player played the Malfunction car), and the engine rolled screaming away. The cars came to a slow halt, but more and more nosferatu kept pouring out of the car, shrugging off the bullets, though a few more got cut down by Lana's sword. Parrish managed to obliterate the upper half of one's body with his shotgun, but nearly got his throat ripped out with another. Even more nosferatu poured out of the cabins while Travis finally figured out what he needed to do, blasting nosferatu in the hearts. When he realized the odds were overwhelming, he dove from the train, and Lana joined him...grabbing Parrish and jumping with him! Tontchay dove as well...as he fired into the store of ghost rock, igniting it and causing the train to explode!  Lana and Travis managed to scurry free, but Parrish was killed by the explosion, and Tontchay was hurled end over end, very nearly killed. (I gave him a chip for his effort, which he used to soak, only soaking a single wound, enough to only hit three wounds instead of pushing death.)

In the aftermath, Mayor Varney (who seemed genuinely shaken at the loss of his deputy and the townsfolk) thanked the posse for their efforts, and offered to allow them to remain in town for as long as they liked...which Tontchay desperately needed.

NOTES: Night Train really is a vicious bugger, and the posse does a great job of constantly getting separated. This party make-up could be a disaster, but the entire group is aware of the dynamic they have created and are playing up the "antagonistic team" feel...fighting before coming together in the end, that kind of thing, so I don't mind.

Adventure decks can make all the difference in the world, and I am probably a bit loose with the definitions of the cards...that said, I wasn't pulling any punches on the attacks. The main reason Travis held up as well as he did is because he's Brawny, while Lana is the melee monster on this squad. The new players enjoyed themselves, so I think we have more Deadlands this weekend, though I'm not planning on a canned adventure, if I can avoid it.

Deadlands Reloaded: Independence Day Actual Play

Previous Sessions:
Volume 1
Volume 2

With two of the players from the previous sessions no longer with us, and years having passed since those games, Tommy (my sole player, as some of you know) and I decided we would take his character Tontchay solo.

Putting our heads together, we decided that the nightmares from the previous two sessions, combined with the lack of concrete evidence as to Marshal Kidd’s whereabouts led to Tontchay and Tinhorn breaking off for good, with Tinhorn ultimately deciding to head Back East.

(WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE DAY DIME NOVEL – which IS 16 years old at this point – FOLLOW.)