OK, after watching True Grit and several old Sergio Leone western movies over the last few days, I'm practically itching to get into Deadlands Reloaded. So, I went on a little shopping spree on DriveThruRPG.com and got myself... everything that has Deadlands Reloaded written on its cover!

I'm now slowly devouring the Player's Guide and the Marshal's Handbook, and I like what I've read so far. Since I'm a veteran of Star Wars D6, concepts like the wild die and the point-buy character creation are easy enough to grasp, but I do have a few questions:

We'll be starting with Novice characters, to keep the number of Edges and Hindrances down to a manageable level. Novice characters appear to be quite competent right from the start, is this correct? How do they "feel" in actual play?

Concerning Edges and Hindrances: Are some of them seriously over- or underpowered? Any other pitfalls to watch out for?

Are maps and miniatures really necessary to play? I'm not against props on principle, but sometimes, it can be annoying to clear the table, and not every encounter can be prepared in advance.

Thanks in advance for your answers / opinions!

We play the 'classic' version of Deadlands... I'm not clear on the differences and I confess to not having thoroughly read the rules in detail.

The characters do feel very competent straight out of the gate... actually, a little too competent for my taste (I prefer something 'grittier').
So far no one in... two years of campaigning has come close to getting killed except for a couple of my characters, who I let die by refusing to spend chips to avoid damage. If I had my way I'd seriously cut back on how many chips a character can hang onto/spend in a session.

I haven't noticed edges/hindrances being overpowering... but I'm thinking they're somewhat open to interpretation by the GM/player.

We use a game mat and miniatures for larger/complicated battles but for stuff with just a few combatants we don't bother. I'm guessing you could totally get by without them.

Again, I'm not sure how the rules differ between classic and Reloaded... and how much of my experience rests on our GM/group's preferences.

When I joined up to play I too was hoping for Sergio Leone, with a bit of horror... instead it plays more like Brisco County Jr./Wild Wild West... crossed with F Troop... but that might just be our group.
In the future, if I ever run a Western game again I'll go with something a LOT less wacky.

Quote from: Todtsteltzer;456733OK, after watching True Grit and several old Sergio Leone western movies over the last few days, I'm practically itching to get into Deadlands Reloaded. So, I went on a little shopping spree on DriveThruRPG.com and got myself... everything that has Deadlands Reloaded written on its cover!

I'm now slowly devouring the Player's Guide and the Marshal's Handbook, and I like what I've read so far. Since I'm a veteran of Star Wars D6, concepts like the wild die and the point-buy character creation are easy enough to grasp, but I do have a few questions:

We'll be starting with Novice characters, to keep the number of Edges and Hindrances down to a manageable level. Novice characters appear to be quite competent right from the start, is this correct? How do they "feel" in actual play?

Concerning Edges and Hindrances: Are some of them seriously over- or underpowered? Any other pitfalls to watch out for?

Are maps and miniatures really necessary to play? I'm not against props on principle, but sometimes, it can be annoying to clear the table, and not every encounter can be prepared in advance.

Thanks in advance for your answers / opinions!

I play (but haven't GMd) savage worlds and think it is great for certain types of games. It definitely has a cinematic/heroic feel, so if you want something more mundane or naturalistic, you;d be better or with a different system or need to make some house rules for savage.

The thing to keep in mind with hindrances and edges is those bonuses are pretty substantial (even though they seem small on paper). This has improved rather than harmed our games. But you do need to keep in mind you aren't really making 1st level d&d characters here.

On that subject, the other thing is characters are meant to be pretty effective from the start. There isn't a 1-20 level scale in savage worlds. There is room for growth, but it the range of power is more narrow. So yes novices are still pretty good.

You don't need maps or miniatures to play, but they do help IMO.

One thing to watch out for is the exploding dice probabilities. I don't really have an issue with this, but some people are bothered by the fact that a d4 has a 1 in 4 chance of exploding (re-roll and add to total). This creates some unusual probabilities when compared with a d6 against certain target numbers. However the wild die is a factor that tends to round this out a bit. Still you can probably google and find a mountain of threads debating this subject.

If you are trying to shoot a bandit jumping from car to car on the top of a speeding train, from the back of your galloping horse, you don't need a map and miniatures. You do need edges, a wild die and bennies.
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Quote from: Greentongue;456741If you are trying to shoot a bandit jumping from car to car on the top of a speeding train, from the back of your galloping horse, you don't need a map and miniatures. You do need edges, a wild die and bennies.
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And a willing suspension of disbelief...

Quote from: Simlasa;456742And a willing suspension of disbelief...

I think that is a given when you accept a setting with walking dead.
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Yeah, much as I like Savage Worlds, if your intent is to do a game in a Sergio Leone style it may well not be the best system for you. Haven't played it but I've always seen this as being the kind of niche that Aces & Eights aims for.

Quote from: Greentongue;456743I think that is a given when you accept a setting with walking dead.
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Sure, but there are degrees... keep adding ridiculous stuff and you're bound to find your limit... or at some point you find yourself playing Toon... which is fine if that's what you want to be playing.

Quote from: Simlasa;456745Sure, but there are degrees... keep adding ridiculous stuff and you're bound to find your limit... or at some point you find yourself playing Toon... which is fine if that's what you want to be playing.

We have no problem with heroic / cinematic games. In fact, we're playing Exalted right now, so Deadlands will probably look and feel rather tame in comparison!

What's the word on the official Plot Point campaign, The Flood? Good, bad, rubbish?

I can only speak for classic Deadlands, and assume its no different with Reloaded, but the edges and hinderances are a mixed bag. I'm happy with that, as I can't stand level playing fields when it comes to characters.

Quote from: Greentongue;456741If you are trying to shoot a bandit jumping from car to car on the top of a speeding train, from the back of your galloping horse, you don't need a map and miniatures. You do need edges, a wild die and bennies.
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I bought Deadlands Reloaded about two years ago and have yet to remove the shrink-wrap. But this totally makes me want to play right now.

Quote from: Grymbok;456744Yeah, much as I like Savage Worlds, if your intent is to do a game in a Sergio Leone style it may well not be the best system for you. Haven't played it but I've always seen this as being the kind of niche that Aces & Eights aims for.

I absolutely concur that SW would do a poor job of capturing the grittiness of spaghetti westerns, or most good westerns for that matter.

Deadlands is more of a gonzo western mashed up with steampunk and horror elements, which is the sort of thing to which SW lends itself particularly well -- freewheeling, over-the-top, physics-be-damned and gonzo.

For a "gritty western" game, I'd do it with BRP, but I keep hearing good things about A&8s.

I quite liked the system of the original deadlands, don't care at all for SW, and if I were to run a western today it would be Aces & Eights.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;456984I quite liked the system of the original deadlands, don't care at all for SW, and if I were to run a western today it would be Aces & Eights.

RPGPundit

Can you tell me a bit about Aces & Eights? How does the system work, what books do you need to play?

Quote from: Todtsteltzer;457060Can you tell me a bit about Aces & Eights? How does the system work, what books do you need to play?

It's D20 based.  The biggest gimmick for combat is that it uses a shot clock.  So essentially you pick a silhouette to match how your target is positioned, standing, ducking, laying flat.  Then you place the clock over them where you are trying to hit them.  Then you use dice and cards to determine where the shot actually lands.  This intern determines damage.  It actually works rather well, especially for shot guns.  It's a little clunky, compared to a simple roll.  But works well.

The other areas where it differentiates itself is that it has many many subsystems for modelling different aspects of western life from gambling, cattle drives, prospecting, etc.... So if you want to more accurately capture the mundane west it has rules to cover it.

Now despite it being D20 based.  It does gritty really well.