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| 18 August 2010 - 29 November 2011 |
The Game
We play the first edition of Deadlands (Pinnacle Entertainment Group, 1996). The game started 18 August 2010, with two players and three characters: "Lucky" Reynard and Mary Murphy with her brother "Big Joe". More players and characters came along later.
Deadlands is set in 1870s Wild West USA, with some notable differences. Someone who can explain the setting better than me ("COWBOYS AND ZOMBIES!") should probably elaborate. It's alternate history, Western, Horror and Steampunk all rolled together.
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| A map of the Weird West |
As the campaign is now finished, here's the cast list at the close of the final session:
The Posse
Jackie Wells
Alpha female Jackie started out as an NPC from the future (hence the nickname "Future Wench") who travelled back in time to save the world. Or rather, recruit people to help her. Not terribly pleased with the crew she found - i.e. us, but in the end, we showed her what we're capable of. Has some pretty awesome stats, and while she wouldn't trust us, at least she and Mary could swap knitting patterns and compare guns. Marked for Death, Jackie almost plunged to her end when Harrowed Slick's Manitou took control over him, but managed to survive the ordeal and make it back to the future relatively unharmed.
Likely to say: "Why haven't you shot each other yet? The future is screwed if YOU'RE its supposed saviours."
”Lucky” Reynard Hackling
A prawn-pukin' Huckster who enjoys dynamite just a tad bit too much. Occasionally brings up the fact that he has a dog, Scraps, who is constantly by his side and that no one ever notices. Seems to come out of the most dangerous situations with hardly a scratch on him - that's why he's called "Lucky". Maybe that's why he became Harrowed when he should have died. On many occasions, he has saved our bacon good and proper with those spells of his. That is, when he's not busy getting gut wounds from the Bodyguard spell backlashin' on him.
Likely to say: "Let's just use dynamite and worry about it later!"
Mary Murphy
A Purty Reporter from the Old Country and a ”good Cath'lic girl” with plenty of Dinero. She’s made her fame primarily as a popular dime novelist and she has ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTIONS TO THE AGENCY WHATSOEVER. She travels the Weird West on the hunt for new stories to write, and has become a deft shooter in the process. Also managed to catch religion rather well, and has since become the party healer, quite by accident. Disappeared suddenly in 1888, and the Agency has been looking for her ever since. (Actually, she re-appeared in the late 1900s, having gone through a time portal.) The only player character to come out of the final adventure alive, not having died even once.
Likely to say: "I'll pray for you, because now, God actually listens to me!" (in a semi-Irish accent)
Scraps
Lucky Reynard's mongrel of a dog, who has followed us around faithfully through many adventures, until he suddenly turned into a player character inside the Devil's Tower. Fitted with a translation device, he could actually talk with everyone else and not just through telepathy with Lucky. The setting was first posh English gentleman, then Japanese, and then it got hit and did a corrupted version of English, which turned out to be Cockney, because the player couldn't do a Scouse accent. Intelligent dog who saved the world in a way Lassie could only ever dream of!
Likely to say: "Cor blimey, guv'na! Woof?"
Notable Friends
Joseph “Big Joe” Murphy
Mary’s Ugly-As-Sin younger brother, who we last saw becoming a marshal in a little town we nearly wrecked fightin’ off some vampires. Is very suspicious of foreign-looking dressmakers, and unlike his older sister, actually speaks with an American accent. Handy with a camera and is a dual-wielding killing machine who got so scared once he started mistaking men for women and women for men … which isn’t a good thing when Randy is one of your Hindrances …
The Kid
It doesn’t matter if he’s only a kid, he is a Huckster in training and occasionally pops up to join the gang and help stirrin’ up some mayhem. The party always get very surprised to see him in all these random locations all over the Weird West and might start believing they have a stalker on their hands. How else would he keep finding them?
The Monk
An Eastern giant who enjoys kickin’ skulls in for a hobby joins us on occasions. He enjoys cooking and eating and has a very strict moral code, although no one can quite figure out how stealing things and almost gettin’ everyone killed is moral, even over there in them foreign lands of his forefathers. When not running off to try becoming Harrowed, that is.
Obituaries
Abel ”Gunney” Gunderson
A geriatric Gunslinger who used to find it was quicker to roll around than walking. Had a vocabulary much sharper than his eye-sight, and a genuinely grumpy disposition. Shared a past with Sam Harrison, involving wife-killing, hairy Cajuns and goodness knows what else. Friendly with the Sioux, seeing as how he used to be married to one. Met his end in a
Likely to have said: "All I wanted was to get to Seattle."
Mr. Snuggles
A guest-starring young gunslinger who we’ll remember for a long time. Not for his skills with a gun, but rather for his brilliant idea of mixing three alchemical potions and downing them in one. He died, but not before causing us much merriment by turning into a radioactive barf zombie. The luminescent corpse goo turned out to be a very efficient solvent. So efficient it burned straight through just about anything down to about thirty feet into the ground.
Rev. Mordecai Smyte
A very zealous preacher refusing to be corrupted by the evils of the Weird West – or his fellow party members. He carried around a great, big cross and was an extremely efficient (and scary) combatant, who could kick the crap out of anything and anyone, praising the Lord while doing so. Unfortunately, we lost him in a cave, kickin’ the crap out of some Cthulian abominations, bashing them with said cross. Ahh, the memories! Is rumoured to be haunting other games, muttering something about being left for dead in a cave ...
Samuel "Sam" Harrison
A Mad Scientist with an antique Gatling gun, and he also happened to be the spitting image of Wyatt Earp (we should know, we've met the real one). Once married to a robot, which he was always quick to deny. Used to cough a lot from prolonged exposure to ghost rock ... until Mary exorcised some Manitous from his lungs a week or so before his death. Passionate about his steam wagon and creating a steam powered Gatling gun, he managed to get a bionic leg as a replacement for one that was blown off in a fight. Inside the Devil's Tower, he picked up an alien glove-looking thing, which connected itself with his central nervous system and turned him into part time Wolverine. Met his end when Gunney's ray gun malfunctioned and blew one of his legs off ... and then his guts ... When Gunney tried reviving him with an unreliable potion, he came back as a living dead, clawed Gunney's guts out and was quickly dispatched again by Slick. And all because he decided to wander off without the rest of the party ...
Likely to have said: "(cough, splutter) Did I tell you I was the silent partner of Smith and Robard?"
”Slick” Jim Swift
Not just a Greedy Miser, he was also
Likely to have said: "Don't suppose you're feelin' a little under the weather? I have a potion for that! Only $2! No, make that $3."
