Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The Trials of a Gamblin' Man

I've been playing in a Deadlands:Reloaded game, and having a ball.

Run by my friend Craig, who introduced me to the game some years ago when I needed to get up to speed on the Savage Worlds rules engine and hooked me on the setting quite unexpectedly, this game is one of four world-changing "quests" pitting player characters against elemental forces of nature personified.

I started out with a gunslinger character, one quite badly hampered with the sorts of "realistic" hindrances Craig had moaned about never seeing - one eye, abrasive personality and so forth. I was up to the challenge. My friend Jeff wanted in and made a Texas Ranger character. Jeff is an accountant by career, a very successful one, and an Alpha Character (in spades).

Jeff did his usual min-maxing thing (which took forever because he was unfamiliar with the rules) including taking an "edge" that gave him a free experience level, making him Big Man At The Table. I was a bit nonplussed that the numbers on the page dominated things to the point that he refused outright to name the character, making it awkward to interact with him. He eventually stated his character would be called "Tex", but we pointed out that a character in the Texas Rangers who was currently operating entirely in the heart of Texas calling himself "Tex" was likely to cause NPC hilarity and/or distrust. We just called him Ranger Jeff and moved on.

My Gunslinger (John Dray) was then involved in a number of firefights in which he saved the miserable hide of Ranger Jeff, despite being hampered with one eye and the depth perception issues that involved any time there was need for extreme measures. Ranger Jeff was tending to face encounters "D&D style" in frontal assault mode, which made for simple if bloody lead-filled conversations with the enemy. Don't get me wrong; the game favors that approach early on and I participate readily in such stuff when the odds are right, but this campaign was likely to get too damned dangerous too damned fast for it to be a modus operandi for every confrontation.

It was shortly after one such battle that Player Jeff interrupted a spate of role-playing between me and a third player (a lady joined only for that one session to see how it all worked) and opined that I (as John Dray) was lying to her. This was an unkind way to put matters, to say the least, and Ranger Jeff had no knowledge of the events I was discussing (how John lost his eye; something I was toying with making a "running gag" by telling it different every time I was asked).

Now Savage Worlds is not like D&D or Pathfinder, the games Jeff had played before, in that there is provision in the character build system to saddle the characters with hindrances. I, as I have already said, chose to saddle John Dray with "one eye", and also "quirk" and "vengeful". Among the raft of stuff Jeff had opted for was "loyal".

So I was a bit put out that this bastion of Law'n'Order would call John's word into question so casually, but went with it and demanded an apology. Jeff refused to back down and so things escalated into a "high noon" style gunfight (a feature of the Deadlands:Reloaded game setting).

And it ended badly for John, as I knew it would, because of all those negative die modifiers to his shooting roll due to the "realistic" build and my legendary skill at rolling low when the chips are down. The only fun part was pointing out to Jeff that Ranger Jeff had drawn first in the duel, which made him - according to the Code o' the West - a murderer. Jeff the player was pissed and tried to talk his way out of things but the witness was laughing her head off and confirming the situation as was the GM.

I spent the rest of that session doing some thinking and making a new character, but I was mildly pissed because if Jeff had played the character he had built the situation should never have arisen, since his own hindrances would have required him to either not make the unfounded remark that set matters in motion or to take back the slur when given the opportunity to do so. I think Player Jeff's alpha personality just wouldn't let Ranger Jeff back down even in the world of make believe.

Later I quietly advised Craig in a private conference that if the GM wasn't going to step in and "remind" Jeff that his own character limitations - starting with "Loyal(!)" - were true limitations on his player actions in that sort of situation then I wasn't going to attempt to play the sorts of character he, Craig, was complaining never saw the light of day in his Savage Worlds games.

I decided that my next character would be a "huckster", a magic using gambler by the name of Beauregard Tucks. I almost never play these magical characters as they require too much complex rules uptake, but the challenge of using magic under the nose of a Texas Ranger (an organization dedicated in part to stamping out such abominations) was too good to miss. Plus, I already had a pretty good grasp of the magic system of the Savage Worlds engine and the refit to Deadlands:Reloaded is no big deal.

And while Ranger Jeff was alive I had a ball. Jeff's Character (who Jeff eventually gave a name which I can no longer remember) would be looking the wrong way each time Beauregard used magic to save Ranger Jeff's miserable life. I made up a code sheet so I could tell the GM what I was doing magic-wise without telling Player Jeff. It drove him nuts, but he couldn't come up with an excuse to have Ranger Jeff discover Beauregard's shenanigans.

Best of all I gave Beauregard a magical birth "knack" that enables him to "lay on hands" and by using up a mulligan chip cure one wound automatically, including any permanent injuries arising from said wound. So when Ranger Jeff had each arm smashed beyond use in two separate encounters, each time Beauregard would put a poultice on his injured arm, get him soused until he fell asleep, then lay on hands and fix him up good as new.

Jeff the Player was going nuts. He couldn't do what he wanted to do and inconvenience Beauregard at noose-point because Ranger Jeff literally owed him his life and both arms - and was now properly Loyal to boot.

And then Beauregard learned how to fly, which I disguised as "sneaking" through long grass (i.e. hovering three inches above the ground) or "climbing" sheer rock faces with ease. It was just great, until Ranger Jeff, in a move so suicidal it beggars the imagination, went toe-to-toe with a hugely powerful undead character, armed only with a rifle and posse of five NPC buddies, rolled several bad rolls and died while Mr Tucks was taking position on top of a cliff to give supporting fire.

Jeff then announced to the world that it was obvious a person could not succeed at this game on his own, so the secret was obviously to make a character that could persuade others to act in his stead. I kept my mouth firmly shut as he built a new character, "Jim Dandy", with a staggering level of Charisma (normal characters usually have a Charisma modifier of 0, Jim's is 4). It was a Knights of the Dinner Table sketch made manifest.

Long story mildly shorter, Jim and Beau ended up in Tombstone when the Earps were assassinated and a new marshal was required - a job no-one in their right mind would want. Jim decided to advocate for Beauregard Tucks as Marshal, but I had gotten the jump on things by having Beau spend a fortune on sketches of Jim that became fly-posters (Jim Dandy for Mayor of Tombstone, Jim's just the Dandy choice for Mayor etc), people to stick same up all over town, performances by marching bands and temperance ladies' choirs, rallies, banners and all manner of nonsense.

Jeff loudly protested that Jim Dandy was going to spend an equal amount on the same tactics, but I countered with two telling blows: first, I got in first and should be considered to have a considerable advantage in the promo war, and second, Beau was currently disfigured after the aforementioned run-in with undead that killed Ranger Jeff. When it came to interacting with people, Beau was taking a -1 Charisma modifier whereas Jim Dandy, The Dandy Choice for Mayor was charming the very planks out of the boardwalk with his +4 Charisma modifier.

At this point the GM got fed up with things and made us move on, which was a shame since I was about to have Jeff/Jim hoist on his own cheesy Charisma petard.

Which I think would have been hysterically funny.