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Tibalt posted:You know, it's funny. As your describing The South, I keep inagining... Haiti. You've got the exact same situations, with the majority black population in many areas, and an rear end in a top hat aristocrat class that has exploited racial tension that they've become complacent with class issues, and lots of guns. *a lot of people wrongly claim that they expelled all white people period, but that's incorrect. In particular there was a large population of white Polish men who were allowed to stay as allies of the revolution.
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Mar 9, 2019 18:19
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So this would be like setting a pulp RPG in an alt history where Nazi Germany survives WWII and can be protagonists, but it's okay because the Holocaust never happened in this alt history for Reasons (even though the change point was, say, 1943), and any reader who's upset by this authorial decision is actually the real racist. Is that too harsh a comparison? SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Mar 9, 2019 |
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Mar 9, 2019 19:49
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SirPhoebos posted:So this would be like setting a pulp RPG in an alt history where Nazi Germany survives WWII and can be protagonists, but it's okay because the Holocaust never happened in this alt history for Reasons (even though the change point was, say, 1943), and any reader who's upset by this authorial decision is actually the real racist. absolutely not. There's a huge cross-pollination between Lost Cause Masturbators, Neo-Nazis, and general White Supremacists.
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Mar 9, 2019 19:54
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Terrible Opinions posted:I assume Jet Alones wouldn't be playable because they are objectively better than Evas if you assume the lance that punches through AT fields is mass producable like it is in the movie. IT's the same reason you don't include tanks in a mech game and GEVs were nerfed in later versions of OGRE. It also goes directly against the goals of the death cult the PCs are working for to have a weapon that works. You're confusing the Jet Alone, which is a goofy, barely-humanoid nuclear power plant on legs, with the snakeheaded Mass-Production Model Evangelion, which were dummy-plugged, i.e. pilotless Berserkers probably according to AdEva. I can see why the confusion, with the wings and if the MPM doesn't open it's mouth, it looks like a jet nosecone.
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Mar 9, 2019 21:05
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Young Freud posted:You're confusing the Jet Alone, which is a goofy, barely-humanoid nuclear power plant on legs, with the snakeheaded Mass-Production Model Evangelion, which were dummy-plugged, i.e. pilotless Berserkers probably according to AdEva. I can see why the confusion, with the wings and if the MPM doesn't open it's mouth, it looks like a jet nosecone. The MPEvas make an appearance as fairly middling elite mooks for an a endgame party except for one thing: They're Fear 4 (so chances are pilots will freak the gently caress out) and are probably the first enemy in a campaign that will outnumber the PCs. Also hit like a truck, and there's a good chance they can burn your reactions and get through to kill you because again, the designers don't actually understand DH's combat engine very well. Being outnumbered is really loving bad because you only have so many active defenses and you cannot tank '2d10+6 Pen2' or 'd10+8 Pen8 Breach 10 Tearing' weapons. Also you have to kill each one twice. Almost everything in the enemy chapter hits like a truck, which is one of the reasons the Pointman doesn't work great at a class; 'I draw agro and tank!' isn't a good idea when a few hits rip your arm off. E: Another 'wonderful' thing: In AdEva, most enemies explicitly CAN Righteous Fury just like PCs. What has traditionally been a huge edge for PCs (We're the ones who can crit) is given to the enemies, too. Enemies also have Fate. If you looked at my OWB review, this system is close enough (even if DH is very different in many ways) that you can probably see how much taking that edge away from PCs matters. It's a big deal. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Mar 9, 2019 |
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Mar 9, 2019 21:24
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Terrible Opinions posted:I'm kinda confused by your Haiti comparisons, because slavery in Haiti didn't really end with a slow gaining of freedoms, but rather from a series of massive revolts that ended with forcing all white Frenchmen* to leave the country on pain of death. The North wants to reabsorb the South, England is planning to make it a colony in all but name, radicals inside are plotting a revolution, and the Confederates are convinced they can still keep it together.
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Mar 9, 2019 21:50
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So if AdEva has ocean intercepts, does that also mean there are overly complex sub-surface combat rules? 
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Mar 9, 2019 21:59
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Tibalt posted:It's possible I might be remembering Haitian history wrong, but didn't a large number of Haitians earn their freedom fighting in various armies? That's more what I was imagining - that in-between time from 1790 to 1805, where the old order (Antebellum Slavery and Plantations) hasn't collapsed yet but it's obvious to everyone that the Confederacy isn't long for the world. No, Haiti's freedom was won in blood. The slave rebellions were, uh, a huge deal.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:01
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PurpleXVI posted:So if AdEva has ocean intercepts, does that also mean there are overly complex sub-surface combat rules? You loving know it! I admit, I skipped them some but they have an entire crush depth table, multiple heavy environment suits for fighting in volcanos and poo poo (because it happened once in the show), and hilariously bad rules for putting the Evas in orbit and trying to fight an orbital angel.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:05
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  2. The Front Line States Although Bleeding Kansas sees heavier fighting, it is already covered in great detail in other Deadlands works, so this chapter covers the ones east of the Mississippi. The following three states see the heaviest fighting with Union soldiers. Virginia, the Old Dominion The Epitaph reader would’ve included West Virginia, regarding it as an occupied territory, but due to said situation is only able to cover its original eastern neighbor. Virginia’s home to the Gosport Navy Yard which is the lifesblood of the Confederate Navy, and recent developments in the CSS Hunley prototype submarine and its swashbuckling gentlemen officers led to popular tales in newspapers and dime novels.  Submarines in the American Civil War Although Deadlands’ ones are ghost rock-powered steampunk ships, the real-world submersibles of this era were small, cramped hand-powered contraptions. As of 1866 only 5 of them existed in the world (mostly in Europe). The CSS Hunley saw practical use in sinking vessels, but met its end in an explosion likely due to a malfunctioning torpedo.Beyond this, other strange events in Virginia include a group of bandits tossing experimental gas weapons into homes to loot the families’ unconscious remains, ships disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle that Northern muckrakers attribute to Confederate witchcraft, colorful UFOs spotted at night near the lead mining town of Wytheville, and a mysterious spate of murders around the town of Saltville. Marshal’s Territory: An ancient portal device beneath the Bermuda Triangle provides a gateway to stars and planets beyond known space, causing all manner of unearthly weather. The “mad gasser” bandits are lead by a mad scientist who created an experimental sleep gas to become the ultimate burglar. The UFO spotted near Wytheville is the result of a dentist-turned-mad-scientist working on an air carriage he stole from his business partner. The culprits behind the Saltville murders are a unique strain of vampires who absorb salt nutrients from their victims.  Kentucky, the Bluegrass State A state of many faces, Kentucky’s western half sees heavy river trade along the Mississippi. Its central portion has been turned into barren wasteland from Union offensives, while its mountainous east is isolated from much of the world. General Sherman razed the city of Louisville and now the ruins act as a Union supply line. The charred remains are still inhabited by some creature feeding off of the burnt corpses. One of the most famous people here is General John Hunt Morgan, who earned a great reputation among Kentuckians for his courage and keen tactical mind. The fact that he narrowly escaped a Union cavalry ambush while being court-martialed by fellow Confederates for “being a loose cannon” only further added to his rebellious mystique. Marshal’s Territory: Unsurprisingly, General Morgan is now a Harrowed, an undead whose body is shared by two souls: an evil spirit known as a manitou and the soul of its original owner. Although he still leads volunteer forces against the Union, he is on a self-imposed exile due to the unpredictable nature of his manitou half. The Louisville Beast is a transformed human by the name of Mark Metzner who creeps among the ruins of his hometown and ambushes Yankee soldiers to kill and eat.  Tennessee, the Volunteer State The book notes that Memphis and western Tennessee have been extensively detailed in another sourcebook, so it’s only covering the east. Specifically Knoxville and Nashville, the latter of which gets the lion’s share of the state’s word count. The city is a major railway in the region, and home to prestigious medical colleges. But unfortunately the presence of Yankee soldiers in the 1860s tarnished the Athens of the South with a new scourge… Prostitutes! Now known as the City of Sin, wiley temptresses in Smokey Row ensnare men and their hard-earned money by the thousands! The spread of STDs manifesting in welts is taken as evidence of God’s divine wrath, and the Epitaph writer is inclined to agree. Legalized Prostitution in Nashville In spite of the Tombstone Epitaph’s moralizing, the temporary legality of prostitution had an overall beneficial effect for both sex workers and clients. Due to a high number of widows and women who overall lost secure financial holdings, the world’s oldest profession grew with the onset of young male soldiers coming into towns. What made Nashville different was that initially the government tried to forcefully expel its sex workers due to the spread of STDs from the occupation which bedridden countless soldiers. When that didn’t work, and the exiled white prostitutes were replaced with black women and thus contributed to the far greater “sin” of race-mixing, the riverboat-bound ladies of the evening were welcomed back into Nashville.Provost Marshal George Spalding decided that if prostitution cannot be rid of, then the next best thing is to ensure that both sex workers and soldiers could satiate their desires in a safe and sanitary manner. Hospitals and free healthcare was set up for the former as long as they submitted to weekly health checks, and those found ill would be treated at said hospitals. Many soldiers felt elated when escorts touted licenses and literal bills of clean health. The other major feature of Nashville is the Cumberland Queen riverboat, home to high-stakes gambling tournaments and a secret organization of Hucksters known as the Court who serve the Reckoners. Nashville’s most prominent attorney is Howell Beasley, whose family made a fortune off of the cotton (slave) trade and hosted an extravagantly wealthy wedding. He’s running for city councilman against a black lawyer James Napier, and his deep pockets are making him well-to-do in the city. Marshal’s Territory: The red welt “STDs” are actually curses from a succubus seeking to spread fear and terror by casting blame on sex workers. Howell Beasley is the leader of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society of Reckoner-supported white supremacists who seek to return to the slave days of yore. Howell’s using his funds to expand the Knight’s influence in Nashville, and views Napier’s candidacy as a threat to the social order. He’ll resort to all manner of dirty political tricks to secure a victory, including assassination if need be. Our last major feature in Nashville, and this chapter, are the city’s famed Machine and Powder Works, known simply as “the Works.” The efficiency of the mostly-black workers is second to none due to their gratefulness to General Cleburne, and the betrayal of the Union: quote:On New Years’ Day 1863, Nashville slaves fled their masters en masse, believing themselves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, but to their anguished surprise, Union authorities forcibly returned them to their owners. African-Americans in Tennessee Let’s get one thing straight first. Andrew Johnson was a huge rear end in a top hat and a significant barrier to social progress during his Presidency. And while Tennessee under his watch did exempt the state, this decision was soon overturned on account that slavery was a clear and present danger to the Union. Additionally, many African-American troops in the state who joined the Union Army at the time gained some increased social standing, although sadly this did not last post-war.Once again an otherwise sorta-progressive action by the real-world Union is erased so that Deadlands’ Confederacy can gain the fictional moral high ground! Thoughts So Far: At a mere 8 pages, this chapter’s surprisingly light on details. Beyond Nashville we only get a skeleton view of said states’ culture, terrain, and historic places. Most of the word-count is devoted to strange events and localized goings-on. While in keeping with the Weird Western flavor does not do a good a job at making the states feeling uniquely different from the West, or the rest of the Confederacy for that matter. Join us next time as we venture to the Carolinas!
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Mar 9, 2019 22:10
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Well that tears it, imma start writing me a Communist States of America weird west setting. I can rest assured that whatever gross misrepresentations of history I write will still be better than this.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:39
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Mors Rattus posted:No, Haiti's freedom was won in blood. The slave rebellions were, uh, a huge deal. Or to be more specific slaves had been promised freedom if they fought for the slave owners a few times during the revolution but after the revolt of the moment was put down they went 'lol no' and kept them enslaved each time.
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Mar 9, 2019 22:51
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wiegieman posted:LANCER does not fall down, but that's because it literally uses a separate tactical combat ruleset when mechs are involved. That wasn't what I said made them fall down? I think most mech rpg go with what is basically two separate games, one for on-foot and one for mech-time and mash them together and a lot of the time only one of them will be good. I'm not commenting specifically about Lancer because I haven't played it or even read the rules since the third ever update and I'm definitely saying such a result is inevitable. My main point was mostly specifically talking about things based on existing properties and trying to translate them into RPG form and deciding the important bit of Gundam is the tech wankery (its not) or that Gurren Lagann really cares about the specific fuel loads of its various robots (it doesn't) being where they gently caress up.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:06
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Young Freud posted:You're confusing the Jet Alone, which is a goofy, barely-humanoid nuclear power plant on legs, with the snakeheaded Mass-Production Model Evangelion, which were dummy-plugged, i.e. pilotless Berserkers probably according to AdEva. I can see why the confusion, with the wings and if the MPM doesn't open it's mouth, it looks like a jet nosecone. Tibalt posted:It's possible I might be remembering Haitian history wrong, but didn't a large number of Haitians earn their freedom fighting in various armies? That's more what I was imagining - that in-between time from 1790 to 1805, where the old order (Antebellum Slavery and Plantations) hasn't collapsed yet but it's obvious to everyone that the Confederacy isn't long for the world.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:35
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I do think this is one place where 'author stance' is really meaningfully different from 'character identification' as a game strategy? If your goal is less 'to recreate Gundam' overall, and more to have players 'experience being a Gundam protagonist at a safe fictional remove' then you do in fact want tactical combat to matter. If the intended purpose of the RPG is to be an experience engine for the desirable parts of Being Amuro (or Char) then the tactical decision-making level being robust matters. This doesn't require anything like the obnoxious simulationism of AdEva, but it does generally point towards the tactical layer being meaningfully robust.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:36
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Tibalt posted:It's possible I might be remembering Haitian history wrong, but didn't a large number of Haitians earn their freedom fighting in various armies? That's more what I was imagining - that in-between time from 1790 to 1805, where the old order (Antebellum Slavery and Plantations) hasn't collapsed yet but it's obvious to everyone that the Confederacy isn't long for the world. The French indeed loved wasting the lives of their colonial troops protecting the Metropole, but not a single colony in history has ever won their freedom fighting for their masters.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:40
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Joe Slowboat posted:I do think this is one place where 'author stance' is really meaningfully different from 'character identification' as a game strategy? I think the main thing is that you really have to be specific because "Gundam" gets used as a shorthand a lot and people have wildly differing opinions and ideas of what it represents; like if I said I wanted to be a Gundam protagonist and my idea is "be in a magical fluffy-winged robot that pirouettes beams everywhere blowing everything up in sight" that's a different expectation and game than tactigrim Robot Vietnam combat
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Mar 9, 2019 23:41
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SirPhoebos posted:So this would be like setting a pulp RPG in an alt history where Nazi Germany survives WWII and can be protagonists, but it's okay because the Holocaust never happened in this alt history for Reasons (even though the change point was, say, 1943), and any reader who's upset by this authorial decision is actually the real racist. Libertad! posted:Marshal’s Territory: The real Jefferson Davis was killed in 1872 by a shapeshifting doppelganger, tasked by the Reckoners with making the war more desperate and bloody while also making the Confederacy a worse place to live. Members of his family, who long suspected the change in his disposition, were placed under house arrest in Mississippi, kept under close watch by Harrowed agents known as the Nightwatchers. Sturmbannführer's Brief: In 1935, on the eve of announcing his plan to peacefully extradite all Jews to Palestine, Adolf Hitler was killed and replaced by a supernatural doppelganger, who instead started ramping up racial confrontations. Eva Braun suspected something about the changes in her Addie's behaviour but was placed under solitary confinement in Dachau. Campaign seed: The players rescue Eva, who reveals the impostor and puts the Reich back on track!
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Mar 9, 2019 23:46
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Unreasonably upset that they didn’t at least put their mad gasser in Illinois where it belongs
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Mar 9, 2019 23:51
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By popular demand posted:Well that tears it, imma start writing me a Communist States of America weird west setting.
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Mar 9, 2019 23:54
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3. The Carolinas Hell yeah, we’re gonna be visiting my home state in this chapter! Covering both North and South Carolina, this chapter’s far larger than the preceding one, and is full of content.  North Carolina, the Tarheel State North Carolina gets the above state nickname from the natural resources of vast pine forests teeming with tar, turpentine, and pitch. There are various stories for who coined the phrase, but during the American Civil War it became associated with bravery and standing firm as though one’s heels were stuck to the ground by tar, or a mocking phrase the North Carolinian troops made in joking about the cowardice of retreating Virginian soldiers. Back East, naturally, sticks with the one coined by Robert E. Lee. The state is divided between the low-lying coastal plains to the east, the Piedmont plateau dominating the center full of rolling hills bursting with fertile clay-like soil, and the Appalachian Mountains in the west. The Cherokee and some small isolated bands of Native Americans still live in the west and central regions, although their numbers were brought low by a mysterious plague known as the Walking Death (which I could not find in a Google search so I presume it’s a Deadlands creation). In fact, North Carolina contains one of the country’s longest-lasting mysteries in the Lost Colony of Roanoke. British colonists made a small village in the sixteenth century here, and it was in fact the first attempt at a permanent English settlement on the continent. Lack of supplies and hostile relations with local indigenous people forced Sir Francis Drake and others to leave. After much delays and government red tape did Sir Drake return, only to find the colony abandoned, the word CROATOAN (the name of a local tribe) carved into a nearby tree as to the only possible clue. To this day there’s many theories as to what happened, but no conclusive evidence. Marshal’s Territory: In the world of Deadlands, the white colonists went inland to live among the Croatoan tribes to survive and intermarried among them. However, their memories of the colonists who left them became bitter: quote:They didn’t go quietly, though; they told their children about how white men “abandoned” them. Today their degenerate, hate-filled ancestors still live there in the deep swamps, eager to capture and kill other whites as a way of getting revenge. Unless there’s some undead chicanery going on, don’t they mean descendants, not ancestors? Also the degenerate swamp-people trope from “going native” isn’t a good look. Cherokee of North Carolina During Andrew Jackson’s Presidency, the Cherokee and other tribes were forcefully driven off their land in a devastating event known as the Trail of Tears. The US military forcefully relocated them to various areas west of the Mississippi onto reservations, the tribe members forced to march without adequate food and supplies which lead to a high death rate. The Cherokee who remained behind in North Carolina managed to do so by assimilating into white society and renouncing tribal citizenship. As of today they live in the western portion of the state in a special reserve of territory which is not a reservation but a land trust. It’s also home to the only non-lottery form of legalized gambling in North Carolina via casinos which help tourism.We get a detailed three-page write-up of North Carolinian history during the Civil War. To summarize it was home to many skilled blockade runners who helped deliver supplies to and from the Caribbean and Europe, and many runners made vast personal fortunes from this. The Union navy built seaside fortresses along the Outer Banks, a long-running chain of barrier islands covering most of the state’s coastline, which in turn made this process very difficult. But the Confederate victory on the Battle of Fort Fisher (the Union won IRL) destroyed one of the North’s most strategically important coastal strongholds in the region. The deployment of mechanized cavalry known as steam behemoths helped the Confederacy win a decisive battle in the capital city of Raleigh, leading to the surrender of a thousand disorganized Yankee soldiers. As of now the Union holds the cities of Washington and Plymouth in the Northeast, and still control most of the Outer Banks. But besides this the rest of the state’s Rebel Country.  A Look at North Carolina: the Coastal Region This is the most developed and populated region of the state*, and is home to many coastal villages and towns. The legendary pirate Blackbeard once prowled these waters, and many folktales and rumors claim that he still sails to this day in a ghost ship! Wilmington is the largest and busiest city in the state,** and its railways are active at all hours shipping supplies to the front lines of Virginia. Unfortunately the wealth flowing in, along with arms and ammo, has attracted many criminals and spies hoping to sabotage and profit by skimming off the top. The humidity of the place along with the high population of cities makes Wilmington vulnerable to epidemic outbreaks, and a nasty case of yellow fever hit the place a few years ago. *but in modern times the Piedmont has the honor of this designation, **while Charlotte would become the state’s most populous city today. Marshal’s Territory: A monster known as a Pox Walker is responsible for the yellow fever outbreak. Its form has been seen creeping about at night by some locals, but as most see it through the windows of shuttered homes precious few know of its true nature.  A Look at North Carolina: the Piedmont The literal heartland of the Tarheel State, the Piedmont boasts the most prosperous farming territory as well as Raleigh, the city’s capital. The latter boasts the proud St. Mary’s College, and the Dorothea Dix Hospital for the insane. Johnston County to the south holds a huge amount of ghosts and spectres due to hosting the most vicious battles in the state. Unable to find closure, uniformed Yanks and Rebs will rise from their shallow graves to play out their deaths again and again, sometimes adding unlucky living souls to the number of casualties. Marshal’s Territory: An insane asylum escapee by the name of Dr. Abbington broke out of Dorothea Dix hospital and is now a serial rapist abusing his authority at St. Mary’s College. He uses social connections to get his victims committed to the asylum. The restless ded in Johnston County have a supernatural pull on living people to commit to the fighting on a failed Spirit roll, where they will join one of the spectral sides. The other notable population centers include the university town of Chapel Hill which draws in a huge amount of students from across the country, and Greensboro which houses the Alspaugh Armory that develops some of the biggest advancements in Confederate military technology. A barren circle of land in a forest known as the Devil’s Tramping Ground is rumored to be the regular vacation spot of Satan himself when he chooses to visit the mortal world. The Uwharrie Mountains are home to culturally isolated villages who set up shop to mine for gold in the 1850s, and later ghost rock during the 1870s. Uwharries inhabitants have a peculiar kind of healers known as thrash doctors. They are children who’ve never seen their father’s face and thus gain supernatural powers as a result. Marshal’s Territory: Most of the ghost rock mines are owned by the Knights of the Golden Circle who use the profits to finance their evil schemes. The Circle’s leader in the region is an Alabama aristocrat well-versed in Appalachian witchcraft. Being a Thrash Doctor is a 3-point Edge where you can spend a fate chip to cure illnesses (with more serious maladies corresponding to higher ranks of said chips), but are slower-acting than typical magic and thus the healing takes place in 24-48 hours. One of the urban legends around Chapel Hill involves a student by the name of Peter Droomgoole, who died in a duel fought over a woman’s hand. He was ironically buried underneath a rock where he and his lover regularly met. In Deadlands this is true, but he did not die; he was left for dead but dug himself out of his grave, becoming a crazed cannibal who hunts people in the nearby woods.  A Look at North Carolina: the Mountains The least-populated region of North Carolina is home to tough, rural mountain folk and the Cherokee tribespeople. The mountain folk are descendants of Scots-Irish immigrants along with people from many other walks of life. They’re more likely to have Union sympathies than the rest of the population, and typically make their living farming, hunting, fishing, and mining where mineral veins are rich. The mountain folk are often ruled over by the richest inhabitant known as a “King,” and the most isolated reaches of the mountains are home to witches who can curse farmland and livestock. But what’s even more monstrous are literal giants, some multi-headed but all standing between 14 to 30 feet tall. Old Fire Dragaman is the largest and angriest of his kind, who lives in a gigantic hole in the ground complete with its own fields and cabin. True to his name, he can also breathe fire if he gets really mad. Although the rest of the population regards such monsters as tall tales by superstitious Appalachians, in the world of Deadlands these beings are all too real. Appalachian Folklore The concept of a “granny witch” dates from Scots-Irish immigrant traditions, of elderly women skilled in herbalism and trial and error home remedies. Due to geographical isolation, poverty, and lack of roads, hospitals were rare and hard to reach. This forced Appalachian people to rely on granny witches for succor. Many of these women were regarded as having magical powers, but this did not necessarily conflict with Christian traditions due to their sheer necessity and they were more akin to “cunning folk healers” of medieval times.Archeological expeditions in the 1700s and 1800s unearthed the bones of very tall humans, creating rumors that a race of giants lived in eastern North America. They ranged from a more realistic 6.5 to 7 feet tall than the towering creatures in Deadlands. Bushwackers and Scalawags The mountainous country of the Appalachian Mountains were ill-suited to the slave economies of the traditional Antebellum, meaning that the Planters more or less let the land be given over to Poor Whites. Although not necessarily abolitionists, the wealth and infrastructural development of state appropriations afforded to their lowland neighbors created no small amount of resentment among the mountain folk. West Virginia was formed in no small part due to this, and the largest amount of native white Southern soldiers serving in the Union army were located in states touching the Mountain range. The partisan warfare in Appalachia was less conventional armies and more scattered groups of guerrilla scouts tracking down or avoiding each other in the wilderness for days and weeks at a time. Pro-Union Appalachians were called Scalawags, and pro-Confederate ones Bushwhackers.Other interesting sights here include the mysteries of Bald Mountains, barren stretches of land where trees do not grow for unknown reasons. A legendary Cherokee monster known as Spearfinger is an old woman perpetually surrounded by flies, and one sharp overgrown nail on her index finger can be used to stab people; Cherokee children are her favorite meal. Less antagonistic creatures known as Nunnehi are invisible spirits which live all over the mountains and sometimes come to the aid of lost travelers. The Yunwi Tsusdi (Little People) bitterly guard their tiny secret dwellings by placing death curses on intruders. Hickory Nut Gorge is a place feared by Cherokee tribes and is filled with the spirits of ghostly mystical warriors of an unknown tribe who attack intruders on sight. Marshal’s Territory: The secrets of Bald Mountain are meant for the GM to develop, although the aforementioned monsters are given stats. Spearfinger is an ambush-oriented shape=changing monster, while Nunnehi and Yunwi Tsusdi can appear and disappear at will although they have their own strengths and weaknesses: Nunnehi can be made visible via a “fairy cross” relic, while the Yunwi Tsusdi can cast a Death Curse which acts as a slow-acting withering malady which can only be lifted by magic.  South Carolina, the Palmetto State In comparison to the rich level of detail in places, folklore, monsters, and adventure hooks of North Carolina, South Carolina is positively lacking by comparison. The lion’s share of words are dedicated to the city of Charleston. Even the in-universe writer admits that he knows less about said state than the preceding one! Overall South Carolina is a lowland country, with difficult-to-traverse marshlands nearer the coasts. The western regions hug the Appalachian Mountains and are the least-populated. The Confederate caste system is strongest here, and the aristocracy pretty much runs the place with the lower social classes having little influence in politics: quote:Below the aristocrats are the small farmers. Some of them make a good living, but they do not own as much land or control as much wealth as the planters. The “brown elite”—the mulatto children of interracial marriages—often belong to this class. Antebellum Black Slave Owners While it is true that there were African-Americans who owned their own kind, this is a case of lying by omission. While there were doubtlessly some who exploited and profited from free labor (particularly light-skinned mixed-race ones who sought to ingratiate themselves into white society), many slaves owned by African-Americans were family members and friends purchased by their freed brethren but could not legally be granted manumission. The next best thing was that if they were legally owned by their parents, sisters, cousins, etc who were freedmen then this will prevent said family and social units from being broken apart. It should be noted that in contemporary times the “black slaver” claims are often misleading propagated by Lost Causer and reactionary types who seek to downplay the racism inherent in American slavery.In addition to its strong caste system, South Carolina is also known as the Cradle of Secession for being the first state to declare its independence from the Union. It is also where the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter when the Union tried to resupply the soldiers there. The heaviest fighting in the battles that followed were around Charleston and across the coastline. Charleston suffered greatly during 1863 during a prolonged siege, where both sides used captured soldiers as human shields (the Epitaph only mentions the Union’s use) to prevent artillery fire from being used on the city or the invading army. Food was short and many starved, although by 1865 the removal of the blockade from Confederate reinforcements resulted in a Union route. Besides from bands of Yankees, Confederate deserters, and bandits in the 1870s, South Carolina has been more or less peaceful. Now we cover Charleston itself, which is large and notable enough that many Confederates count it as the “South’s second capital.” And it certainly has its own culture: many doors from homes and buildings are painted blue from an old folk tradition which claims that the color wards off evil spirits. Like the rest of South Carolina, the Planter class rules the city and has weathered the siege best, and in spite of lean times find many occasions to host cotillions, horse races, and social events although they’re less happy-feeling now given recent grim times. The city is also home to a large amount of black freedmen, although in spite of the claim that “the only color most Confederates perceive in their Army being grey,” they still suffer their share of racism. Over the past half year a serial killer has been preying on the most wealthy of the black community, and the local police and politicians aren’t as concerned about pursuing leads as they ought to. Wow, it’s almost like in spite of the post-racial claims of manumission and the default setting assumption, racism is still systemic and not just the province of individual villains! But what the citizenry of Charleston regards as properly scandalous is some immoral cur who is preying off of the widows of aristocratic women who lost their husbands in war. After manipulating their grief and getting some wealth from their estates by disguising themselves as their miraculous “long-lost lover,” the figure vanishes with newfound wealth in tow. Marshal’s Territory: The racist serial killers are a small group of pro-slavery advocates populated by Planters angry at the increased social welfare. Calling themselves the Guinea Captains after the sailors of old slave ships, they ambush, torture, and kill beloved African-Americans in the city. Charleston’s widows are being preyed on by a monster known as a Grieve, a shape-changing monster which derives sustenance from mortal misery. Our section ends with a one-page description of some other South Carolinian cities, such as Georgetown which sits at the confluence of several rivers by the coast, or the capital of Columbia which holds an extensive prison camp of Union soldiers. The short life expectancies of said prisoners caused the warden to resort to dumping the bodies into mass graves... Marshal’s Territory:...which is contributing to a growing zombie problem, who for now harass and eat farmers outside the city. Thoughts So Far: This may be my personal bias, but this is my favorite chapter of the book. My home state of North Carolina is so far the coolest place in the South to have adventures: you got witches and monsters in the mountains, you got Blackbeard’s ghost menacing the high seas, you have folkloric monsters and ghosts animated by past injustices, you have ghost rock mines to feed your mad science devices and some Cherokee folkloric elements mixed in. But even that cannot save South Carolina’s Charleston-centric write-up, which just doesn’t compare at all to the Tarheel State. Join us next time as we complete our tour with a round trip across Florida and the Deep South!
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Mar 10, 2019 00:04
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Merilan posted:I think the main thing is that you really have to be specific because "Gundam" gets used as a shorthand a lot and people have wildly differing opinions and ideas of what it represents; like if I said I wanted to be a Gundam protagonist and my idea is "be in a magical fluffy-winged robot that pirouettes beams everywhere blowing everything up in sight" that's a different expectation and game than tactigrim Robot Vietnam combat Very fair! Also, regarding Haiti and Revolutionary France, IIRC the governor at the time caught wind of the Revolution and actually preempted the revolutionary leaders in order to prevent things from spiraling out of control, and declared an emancipation. Then he mailed France to say that he'd done it in their name. That was I think during the Security Council's control of Paris, and they decided to go along with it. Napoleon, when he comes into power, is heavily supported by the wealthy - including investors in and owners of plantations. He's also a racist who bans black revolutionary veterans from living in Paris! So it's not just that the Revolutionary government was intransigent, it's that Napoleon specifically had personal and political reasons to betray the revolution in this as well as everything else. God, I loving hate Napoleon.
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Mar 10, 2019 00:05
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Libertad! posted:Join us next time as we venture to the Carolinas!  Edit: Oops, got preempted. Will read it in a minute. Haitichat: Not only did the French kick and scream and die before they accepted Haitian independence, but as one final gently caress you they imposed massive debts on the new government in exchange for not blockading all their trade. (Just a lot of it.) And these debts took ~150 years to finally pay off, during which time they were occupied at least once on the behalf of greedy creditors. So when smug jerks like Trump say or imply that Haiti is a "shithole", I want to wring their necks while shouting that "yes, and people like you are directly responsible for making and keeping it that way to this day".
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Mar 10, 2019 00:16
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Terrible Opinions posted:Well Karl Marx did seriously consider immigrating to Texas back in 1843. Perhaps have the Civil War be over the trade unionist west fighting against moneyed employer classes of the east? KARL MARX is THE RED SHERIFF in THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
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Mar 10, 2019 00:28
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 4. The Deep South Our final regional chapter covers Florida along with a portion of the Southeast United States known as the Bible Belt. Although Louisiana and Texas are part of this region, as they’re west of the Mississippi they’ve been covered in other sourcebooks. So named for the strong bastion of socially conservative politics and a rather zealous interpretation of Christianity, this region is what most foreigners (and quite a few Americans) think of when they think about the South. The text also acknowledges this, in a rather wistful manner: The True South posted:Although Virginians may (or rather, are guaranteed to) boast and bray, the true heart of the Confederacy lies in the row of states from Mississippi to Georgia: the Deep South. In these nearly subtropical climates grow the magnolias and cotton fields that the world thinks of as quintessentially Southern. Barring Atlanta (and the new growth in central Alabama), the Deep South is rural and agricultural. It has the great preponderance of the fine plantations and the scrappily independent yeomen that together set the Southron character apart. I like how the Epitaph writer’s painting a rosy picture, briefly delves into the legacy of human bondage, and then without missing a beat continues on the nostalgia trip.  Mississippi, the Magnolia State So named for the abundant white flowers which bloom on trees, Mississippi is a hot and wet state upon which the river’s mouth of the same name stretches across its western perimeter. Swamplands are common particularly in the Delta and Natchez regions. The capital of Jackson sits in the relative geographical center, and more traffic comes here by riverboat than rail. Northern Mississippi is heavily forested with farmland, and the university of Oxford is the major center of learning. Cotton Kings of the South Cotton and other slave-harvested crops were so profitable in this region that the state was home to the highest number of individual millionaires in the country during the Antebellum period.In southern Mississippi there’s a group of pro-Unionists in Jones County. But another famed resident here is High John the Conqueror, an African-American dashing rogue dubbed the “Black Robin Hood.” His favorite targets include proud and haughty white men in positions of power, usually humiliating them in some non-lethal fashion although he is not averse to violence: quote:Sometimes he just puts the mojo on a traveler or he brings a gang of maroons to whale the tar out of some plantation foreman who’s too handy with the whip and needs to be reminded about Jubilee. Other times, he tricks his mark into a game of cards, some wild gambling scheme, or even more grandiose notions which always turn out to cost a pretty penny. So even though African-Americans are supposedly equal and respected by the text’s author’s assessment, there’s still white supervisors who act like slavery’s never ended. Hmmm, I’m starting to see why the Planter class wasn’t as vicious in curtailing what social progress was supposedly being made. And even though it’s most certainly not because the Confederacy sees any color other than grey, a high bounty is on High John’s head, and the Knights of the Golden Circle have an even higher one! Marshal’s Territory: High John the Conqueror is a supernatural being of justice. He may be an aspect of Anansi, and has been called Br’er Rabbit for his ability to take the form of a large gray hare. High John has the ability to teleport any distance as long as a “child of Africa” is playing drums at his intended destination. He cannot be hurt or killed with mundane weapons, and there’s quite a number of black highwaymen who take up his name. He only intervenes in the latter case if they target innocents or cause collateral damage, seeking to not let wrongdoers exploit his name. Free State of Jones A group of people in Jones County, Mississippi led a guerilla military campaign against the Confederacy. Little is known about the motives and rationale of the rebels besides the fact that they declared their county the Free State of Jones and raided Confederate supply wagons to take back tax money and grain seized from residents. The microstate entered the public conscious when a 2016 period film was released for it.The other two towns of note in Mississippi include Biloxi, which has good food but dangerous swamps where the black people are well-versed in voodoo and thus it’s dangerous to go out alone (yes really the book says this), and Beauvoir which sees high activity from the Nightwatchers due to the fact that President Davis is rumored to use the town as a private retreat. Marshal’s Territory: A group of hucksters use Oxford for magical research studied in secret. The Knights of the Golden Circle are using alchemy to brew a facsimile of President Davis’ doppelganger (the irony is not lost on them) in hopes of installing a sympathetic puppet in the Confederate White House.  Alabama, the Heart of Dixie Alabama is perhaps the most patriotic out of all the states of the Confederacy, and it’s a common joke that residents say that Montgomery’s the true capital and “Richmond’s just holding onto it for a while.” Some people figure that their gungho pro-war attitude is because they’re so far south of the front lines. The town of Mobile has a group of strange bluish-gray standing stones which even the Native Americans know nothing about, and some people claim to spot a literal ghost ship sailing up the Tombigbee River. Tuscaloosa and Moundville are foggy, weatherbeaten settlements where locals believe that European druids or a Lost Tribe of Israel once sailed to in ancient times. The capital city of Montgomery is perhaps the most “Western” of Confederate cities on account that some cattle and saloons with gambling are present. The slave trade made many planters rich here, and an entire street is lined with their mansions. In fact, the most powerful group in the city is not the government, but a secret society pulling strings: the Knights of the Golden Circle. Although mentioned earlier in prior chapters, we get a detailed write-up on this group here. Basically much like in real life they were formed in the 1850s as a reaction to the growing abolitionist sentiment. Looking south across the Gulf of Mexico, they proposed a separate nation of slave-states, encompassing a “golden circle” spanning conquered Central American nations, the US South, and Caribbean Island countries with Havana, Cuba as their capital. Inspired by the Freemasons they created their own members-only chapterhouses, secret symbols and handshakes, and loyalty oaths made by men willing to take up arms to realize this reality. Naturally they were big supporters of the Confederacy, and ingratiated themselves into Davis’ cabinet. Once the war stretched on, the Knights reorganized into a council known as the Kuklos Khrysos: Greek for Golden Circle, and a nod to the real-world KKK’s “Kuklos Kuklos” fraternity motto from which they got their name. They even adopted esoteric titles such as the Imperial Grand Master, which more or less confirms that in Deadlands the Knights of the Golden Circle absorbed what would have become the country’s most notable white supremacist terrorist group. Beyond the Knights “owning Senators like they used to own slaves” and controlling the ghost rock trade in North Carolina, they are regular arms suppliers in Latin America, control most of Haiti’s economy, own many slave plantations in Brazil, and replaced and bought out every port official and provincial governor in the Caribbean that matters. In fact, the Knights still have black slaves right here in the South! Selma, Alabama is one of their strongholds, a polluted industrial hell where the blood and sweat of black laborers work night and day. The workers are fenced in via barbed wire walls manned by gunmen and live in deplorable shacks and shanties. The factory owners who also operate cotton plantations claim that the walls are for their safety, but the rifles point inwards not out. See, it’s a bit hard to swallow the post-racial nature of the Confederacy when a white supremacist organization is secretly dominating economic and social affairs on an international level. One other thing that does get me is that the Knights are willing to ally out of convenience with other evil groups in the setting, such as Baron LaCroix of Bayou Vermillion railroad. The last part makes no sense: LaCroix is a black, well-educated Haitian man of wealthy background and a practitioner of Vodou. Given that Haiti was formed due to a nationwide slave rebellion and Vodou was regarded as a “savage faith” by white slave-owners, LaCroix is literally everything the Knights stand against. Unless Bayou Vermilion is unaware of the Knights’ true nature and have the wool pulled over their eyes, I can’t see the Golden Circle making nice with him. But the “allies of convenience” statement makes it sound like they’re aware of each other’s existence. I also cannot view LaCroix feeling that his aid as something that will help his organization in the long run: other Deadlands sourcebooks note that the rail company has African-Americans in positions of power throughout its administration. The last place of note to cover in Alabama includes the famed Montevallo College where even students from Europe attend, and one of its science professors is delving into the theories of electricity. Too bad for him, for the Mormons of Deseret already have a working electrical grid and tram cars in Salt Lake City. Marshal’s Territory: A mad scientist is creating electric-powered machine-corpse hybrids from the bodies of prisoners of war in Camp Morgan. He currently uses them to rob gin mills and beat up the local loan shark he owes money to rather than practical military applications. Priorities!  Georgia, Empire State of the South The site of Sherman’s March to the Sea, it is a not uncommon sentiment that Georgia has fought and bled more for the Confederacy than any other state. In spite of that they are extremely independent to the point that the government places its state’s matters first at a level that would make its neighbors blush, much to the chagrin of the Davis Administration. The state is also the headquarters of the Confederate States Mint, and the capital of Atlanta is heavily industrialized with ironworks and sawmills galore. In fact, the heavy confluence of rail lines means that there’s a growing number of ghost rock-powered personal vehicles such as steam wagons and velocipedes owned by a growing number of residents. In fact, it’s one of the few cities in North America that’s experiencing the wonder of traffic jams several decades early! Altanta’s bad part of town is Murrel’s Row, where all manner of lowlives ply illegal and semi-legal trades. In fact, the place is named after the bandit John Murell who back in the 1830s sought to start a slave rebellion against the Southern Aristocracy. Marshal’s Territory: Murrel’s son is the most prominent crime boss of Atlanta. He is training a secret army of African-Americans in hidden swamp and coal tunnel hideouts to “liberate” Atlanta by razing the city and killing its Planter class. Along with the “liberate” word in quotes and describing his private army as indoctrinated, I’m getting flashbacks to Bioshock Infinite’s Vox Populi. Said group was made up of oppressed black and Irish laborers who were portrayed as “just as bad” as the white supremacist slavers they sought to overthrow. The fact that Bioshock made them anti-Christian and wanting to rape white women in the “your homes, your lives, your wives are ours!” didn’t do the narrative any favors. While Back East’s black revolutionaries aren’t as gauche as Bioshock’s, the whole black criminal/radical archetype feels downright unpleasant when you consider the fact that the book expects you to thwart their efforts to preserve...the Confederacy. The other character of note in Atlanta is a John Wilkes Booth impersonator, who formed a Knights of the White Camellia chapterhouse in town. The charade did not live on for long, when it turned out that the man was a local reverend. A conspiracy theorist newspaper owner by the name of Yammerin’ Ned has pieced the truth together about the Reckoners, but his sensationalism and paranoia make most not take him seriously.  Marshal’s Territory: This John Wilkes Booth is the real deal. The Reckoners were mighty impressed at his brass balls and the fear he generated from assassinating Lincoln, so they returned him to life as a Harrowed. Now Booth is training a secret order of assassins among the White Camelia Knights to strike up into the North to sow fear and discord among the Union. Our last stop in Georgia is the multicultural town of Savannah, home to many European and Jewish immigrants from various nations. The Tybee Island Amusement Park hosts minstrel shows which the book is quick to point out are “only with real Negroes, for the whole park is run by free blacks.” Minstrel Shows with Actual Black People Although the racist blackface plays were by far the most popular, there was a small amount of African-American performers who sought to popularize on the trend. Although said plays also delved into stereotypes, many of these actors sought to provide a more authentic and less propagandized look into their culture, sort of akin to how some Arab and Muslim actors today take on terrorist roles in Hollywood in the belief that they can mute the damage an outside actor would otherwise do in their role. For example, the common minstrel show trope of the scared, confused former slave happily reuniting with their old master was largely absent among plays with black actors. Florida, the Sunshine State The author’s bias shows through when he talks about Florida. The entire state is on top of a giant limestone cave and tunnel system, but North Florida is described as a veritable paradise of great food and beautiful cities and landscape. South Florida on the other hand is “the section of Hell that Lucifer saves for people who divide Florida wrong,” a reference to the British dividing it by east and west. Florida’s south is full of mosquito-filled swamps and holds the Everglades. St. Augustine is a creepy city which was burned down no less than three times over the course of its history, and every nook and cranny cannot help but give the feel that it once held a hidden body. The town has some of the largest rats, and its sewers go straight into underground limestone caves. Speaking of which, Devil’s Den is an enormous limestone cave under a hot spring, while the Devil’s Millhopper is a gigantic sinkhole 120 feet deep and 500 feet across. It’s not uncommon for shifty land speculators to buy up land around sinkholes for literal pennies, then turn around and sell it as prime real estate to gullible buyers. The Apalachicola Forest is a huge territory of pine, oak, and cypress woods which are mostly untracked. Locales speak of “Apalachicola Smoke” seemingly from natural geysers which confounded Union and Confederate troops alike who believed them to be military smoke signals. A secret base of Confederate aerial soldiers are somewhere near the town of Pensacola, and Tampa-Town is the chief importer of fine Cuban cigars the Southern Aristocracy loves to smoke. Marshal’s Territory: St. Augustine's creepiness is due to a higher than usual number of ghosts. The giant rats are abominations known as ratkin who are conducting a subterranean war against the spiderkin who hunt and feed off of them in the sewers and caverns. The smoke in the Apalachicola Forest are actually secret signals used by moonshiners operating illegal distilleries. A skunk ape addicted to cigars hangs around the outskirts of Tampa-Town to steal its favorite vice.  This is my favorite picture in the entire book. The Union military has a presence on the island of Key West in a veritable naval fortress. The North claimed it near the beginning of the Civil War, recognizing its strategic value in the Gulf of Mexico. But in response, the Confederate war department is working on a Great Gun Project at Cape Canaveral, a gigantic cannon hundreds of feet long. Its ghost-rock powered design is theoretically capable of shooting Key West from 400 miles away, and can be aimed in any direction. The Everglades cover a third of of Florida, a veritable lush expanse of dangerous marshland crawling with all sorts of life with alligators being the most well-known. The ever-changing grass sea makes map-making useless, and the Seminole Indians live here. No stranger to fighting, they still strike out at Confederate fortresses from time to time. Most white people who live in the Everglades are creepy inbred families who teem with physical and mental deformities. Errrrr...wait, are we going to end on that politically incorrect description? Hold on a second- A Fond Farewell to Dixie! Oh God, we are. The Tombstone Epitaph finishes its in-character write-up here, hoping that we as readers enjoyed this little trip through the heart of the Confederacy, and that we use the knowledge provided to keep us safe from the dark forces menacing the South. Marshal’s Territory: The Great Gun Project is being sabotaged by the Reckoners to not only be able to shoot up to 1,500 miles, but will only be effective against devastating civilian population centers and not troop movements. Finally, many of the Seminole Remnant forces have turned to voodoo black magic to better fight the Confederacy. Thoughts So Far: Although thematically appropriate given that the region was a veritable stronghold of white supremacy, the Knights of the Golden Circle and High John the Conqueror show cracks in the foundations of the supposed progressivism of the Confederacy. I do like the idea of a folkloric hero such as High John showing up, but he’s far too good to be in a book such as this. Although Deadlands always had a bit of a steampunk vibe, the traffic jams of Atlanta and the super long range cannon of the Great Gun Project feel a bit too advanced on account that even the steampunk Mormons do not have an equivalent weapon in the latter case. Hellstromme’s ghost rock bombs come the closest, but they have to be dropped via airship rather than a missile which can shoot targets several states away. As a villainous organization, the Knights of the Golden Circle can be a good antagonistic faction in theory, but like High John's existence is odds with the suddenly magnanimous nature of Confederates who “saw the light to manumission.” They are too prominent, too powerful, and embedded power structure cannot result in anything but systemic racism rather than the individualized bigotries Deadlands wishes to promote. You can’t have white supremacists control every Caribbean port and the ghost rock trade in an entire State and somehow be brushed off as “a few bad apples.” Join us next time as we cover new player and GM-specific rules, options and monsters in the Southern Soldier and the True South! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Mar 10, 2019 |
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Mar 10, 2019 00:46
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Ahahahahaha. Florida at this point in time as a paradise. Florida was an utter backwater of cattle ranching, swamps, Seminoles, and slave rebellions - turning Key West into just a Union fort is a weird choice given that the island was one of the richest in the entire country and was starkly divided between pro-Union and pro-Confederate populations. If the author of that section really was a Floridian, they missed a huge opportunity for an early Conch Republic as a hotbed of Union and Confederate spies and intrigue that's also so wealthy neither side wants to actively gently caress with them.
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Mar 10, 2019 00:53
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Joe Slowboat posted:I do think this is one place where 'author stance' is really meaningfully different from 'character identification' as a game strategy? If you just want to be Billy Zaku Ace or Johnny GM Pilot shooting stuff then there are loads of things you can reskin and that still leads directly into my point that the sort of person that tries to directly convert X Mecha Show experience into an RPG usually completely misses the point and thinks its all about the robots and guns and not the character drama and how the robot parts are an expression of that.  08th MS Team is the Gundam example that best fits wanting tactical combat to matter. Narratively Norris wins because his tactics and strategy are superior, he even has an alternate win condition that isn't just "kill the other guys", he'd be a great RPG fight. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is another good example of a thing where the robust tactical and strategic stuff would be super important and the the character drama and Risk map shuffling feed into each other in a way that a lot of Gundam doesn't really have. G Gundam is Exalted.
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Mar 10, 2019 01:09
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i think y'all are selling elaborate combat systems short. it's extremely important to the characters in almost every real robot show and most related genres that they are very good at fighting, even if that is taken for granted by the viewer and isn't especially related to the themes. one of the ways to make combat important to the player in the same way it is important to the character is to make it an elaborate, high-stakes subgame. it's pretty far from the mark for evangelion because it's core to the story that these kids are so unsuited to this, but once you're talking about recreating gundam, shinji is not amuro.
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Mar 10, 2019 01:16
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Cease to Hope posted:i think y'all are selling elaborate combat systems short. Well.... he is the Amuro of the first few episodes, but I get your point! I'm not saying they're unnecessary, but certainly less important than a lot of mech RPGs think they are when they try to recreate the feel of whatever show they're trying to evoke.
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Mar 10, 2019 01:23
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 5. The Southern Soldier & Marshal’s Territory The Southern Soldier is all about player options. It has new Edges, Hindrances, pregenerated PCs, and role-playing notes. We open up with a mention that 1/3rd of the Confederacy’s male population served in the army, and as those 16 long years went on along with the horrors of the Reckoning this has made the South a hardy people. New Edges are specific to those who grew up the South or come from a culturally-similar region, and a lot of them focus around endurance in the face of hardship. Cavalier represents how many rural Southerners are accustomed to riding horses and suffer no penalty on ranged attacks while mounted. Foot Cavalry adds bonuses to Vigor rolls for long marches, Forbearance ignores levels of starvation penalties equal to the Edge’s rank, and Seen the Elephant does the same as the last but for non-supernatural fear-related effects. Gallows Humor and Rebel Yell are social-oriented edges, the former substituting Ridicule rolls for Guts rolls vs. fear, while the latter does an AoE fear-based debuff. There’s only two New Hindrances: Honorable is exclusive to members of the Southern Aristocracy, and is particularly debilitating to women in spite of being priced the same. Both genders must refrain from lying, cheating, stealing, and being rude in social situations. Men must be ready and willing to avenge slights against his own honor or that of his family’s as well as that of any women, while women must stay at home and cannot go off adventuring or working a job unless they’re a widow with no father. Failing to uphold your honorable nature causes social censure, and most Southerners of all social classes will refuse to associate with you. The second Hindrance, Impulsive, is exactly what it says on the tin and encourages your character to act without thinking and unable to effectively formulate plans and long-term ideas. Shootin’ Irons: Our two new guns include the MK I Snider-Enfield and the Martini-Henry Rifles. Both are breech loading mechanisms which are standard units for Confederate soldiers, the latter being of British origin. As the South lacks the industry of its Northern adversaries the arms and ammunition are imported from their British allies. In fact, the Winchester Repeating Rifle is superior to the Martini-Henry, and it’s not uncommon for Confederate soldiers to loot such weapons off of Union soldiers when the opportunity presents itself. Confederate Sniper Rifles It’s strange that the real-world Whitworth Rifle is not included here. I even checked the Deadlands 20th Anniversary Edition book to see if it was already part of the Classic core rules, but it’s not there either. Said weapon is credited as the world’s first sniper rifle, used extensively by Confederate sharpshooters, and was extremely accurate even when compared to guns of Union and European make.Pregenerated PCs: One of the more novel things the Deadlands game line does is create pregenerated PCs in just about every major sourcebook of theirs. They are in line with the book’s themes and culture, and for Back East: the South we have three of them: the Blockade Runner, a charismatic ocean-bound warrior equally skilled with a shootin’ iron or sabre in their hands; a Discharged Veteran who is an honorable one-armed pistoleer; and the War Widow, a soft-spoken woman who is less combat-focused than the first two and is geared more to social and “streetwise” skills.  The True South This final chapter’s going to be rather short. The reason is that the bulk of the GM-facing Marshal’s Territory plot elements and secrets I folded into the prior chapters. Which just leaves us some general mood-setting notes for GMs along with new monsters. We get some brief write-ups particularly useful to the creation of monsters, being in the Southern Gothic tone. Basically the Confederacy, and by extension the Union, are less lawless and more settled than the Western frontier. Abominations such as gargantuan Rattler worms and Texas Tummy Twister giant insects are dismissed as tall tales. Instead, the Reckoners play upon the cultural and religious fears of Southerners, fashioning their monsters out of human folly like Jefferson Davis’ doppelganger. Many Southerners are quick to attribute Divine Intervention for supernatural happenings rather than Weird Science or cryptozoology. But we also get some...gems I have to quote here. Role-Playing the Rebels posted:The Posse Territory is written from decidedly pro-Southern points of view, but this wasn’t done merely to infuriate readers north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Rather, it’s to give the Marshal an idea of how Confederates view themselves, their culture and history. Whistles in Dixie Race & Gender in the New South posted:Except for isolated examples such as the Knights of the Golden Circle, racism is becoming a thing of the past in America. In Deadlands, the Confederacy resembles the United States during World War II: some progress has been made towards equality, and more will come after peace returns and people resume their normal lives. Further integration of Confederate society has yet to become a concern, but when it does, blacks and whites will approach it with a greater sense of community and shared values than in actual history Ah, WW2 America, that bastion of progress, peace, and racial harmony. The Knights of the Golden Circle; so isolated they can control the reigns of Confederate economy and government from behind the scenes. quote:Women have begun breaking out of the Southern Belle mold. Necessity made it socially acceptable for unmarried women to pursue most vocations, so long as they fulfill their class’ other expectations. Only women who openly defy their husbands and fathers, fail to provide for their children or otherwise lack virtue are ostracized. A few women have grown unconcerned with such stigma in any event. Much like the sheltered Victorian housewife trope, the Southern Belle ideal of well-dressed idle ladies untouched by the drudgery of labor is a myth for all but the upper class. American women, particularly the working class, had to work and contribute to feed their families and not just in housework. In the cities they worked in textile factories, and in rural communities they farmed and ranched alongside their husbands, brothers, and fathers. quote:The bottom line is: if you’re portraying all (or even most) Southerners as racist, sexist rednecks, or as minstrel show cast-offs, you’re robbing your posse of the enjoyment of interacting with truly well-rounded characters. If you save the truly bigoted characterizations for abominations and Fearmongers, your posse will derive more enjoyment from defeating them. This is a bit of a false equivalency. I can understand apprehension of some Americans when the South is singled out as some unique bastion of racism, particularly when said Americans then go on to presume their own cultural regions are somehow free of prejudice. But unironic portrayal of minstrel show stereotypes are...well, worse. A lot worse. Heck, Deadlands isn’t exactly innocent in the realm of redneck stereotypes either besides the aforementioned incestuous swamp people: one of the sample villainous groups in Grim Prairie Trails are the Squatpump Gang, a group of inbred rednecks stupid to the point of mental disability, so filthy that their outhouse forces a Fear check on anyone who opens the door, and their kitchen’s stovepipe stops short of the ceiling causing the entire room to fill with choking smoke whenever they cook a meal. And they’re played for comic relief. This may be small potatoes, on account that said books were published over a decade between each other and have different writers, but it feels odd that they can be consistent on one problematic trope (non-racist Confederacy) between different writers and their metaplot, but not this. Abominations of the Confederacy We have seven monsters detailed here. Ghosts are perhaps one of the most well-known monsters, if not directly than by folklore. They are incorporeal beings cursed to remain in the mortal world, immune to most physical attacks, and can appear as a variety of spectral forms from the typical transparent grey to a rotting corpse with blood and guts hanging from their levitating bodies. They have a “chill touch” which can deal damage to a struck target, and we have a detailed list of what spells can effect them normally.  Giants of Appalachia are very rare and typically do not encounter humans save when the latter group goes out searching for them or if some fertile unspoiled territory of the giant’s is ripe for farmland or railroad tracks. The book advises keeping them away from “civilized” areas on account of the more subtle horrors of the South. As you can imagine they are physical powerhouses but not very smart. Old Fire Dragaman is like his brethren, but taller, stronger, and can breath out fire as a breath weapon.  Hangmen are the reanimated corpses of people whose bodies were lynched and left to rot, their eyes bulging and heads lolling off to an unnatural angle. Hangmen are immune to normal damage, and can use their own ropes to strangle targets. The only way of killing one for good is to tie and force its rope-weapon around its neck in a wrestling hand-to-hand combat task. Slave Warders are the Reckoner-created distilled fears of the horrors of chattel slavery, and look like fugitive slave hunters of old but with wild crazed expressions and behaviors. They manifest in plantation houses, slave pens, and other areas filled with the ambient energy of black suffering, and wield lashes and chains as weapons.  Succubi are exactly as you imagine them to be, and a particularly virulent specimen is making the rounds in Nashville’s red light district. She has large bonuses on persuasion rolls where her sex appeal is a factor, can spend fate chips to impose penalties on men who try to resist her charms, and can inflict a deadly melting attack on those who embrace or otherwise become physically intimate with her.  Appalachian Witches can be men, but the overwhelming majority are women who are either young and beautiful or old and ugly. Apparently middle-aged witches lose their powers or something. They usually either live by themselves in cabins or gather in coven witch-gangs of up to 13 members. They hold their rites in abandoned buildings, caves, and other places where they typically won’t be disturbed, and are not above using their magic to make certain areas seem haunted to later turn into a base of operations. They are immune to most forms of damage save for material made out of silver which can also be used to break their spells, and invoking the Lord’s name in their presence makes their magic less effective against the utterer. Statblockwise they are black mages who can have whatever spells make sense but prefer subtle ones. They also have some unique abilities such as the ability to blight acres of crops, cause droughts or storms in a 5 mile radius, and shapechange into one specific type of animal. Thoughts So Far: I’m not really a deep reader of Classic mechanics; I far too much prefer the Savage World rules so I cannot give a truly in-depth read of the rules therein. But the player-facing options felt too sparse and brief for my liking, and the Edges and pregenerated PCs presented did not feel sufficiently unique to the South besides the Blockade Runner that they couldn’t be used elsewhere in the setting. For the GM-facing material, I loved the monsters the most. The Appalachian witch was positively brimming with folkloric mechanics which I liked the touch of. The ghost felt too generic, and the hangmen and slave warders were clear references to the horrors of Southern racism even if the Hangman do not specify the racialized history of lynching in their write-up. I can understand the inclusion of the latter choices, but it feels odd on account that the book tries so hard to make everything seem hunky-dory in regards to race relations. While I can understand a “keep racism confined to the villains” for general RPG advice, the presence of the more human, more prominent Knights of the Golden Circle makes “lynching/slave hunter monsters” feel weak when there are already influential humans doing similar wider-reaching evils. Concluding Thoughts: Back East: the South is all over the place. There’s an uneven level of detail to the various regions and states, and even by the standards of Neo-Confederate propaganda the world-building’s poor enough that any serious examination of the Confederacy’s policies and racial attitudes doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. It is understandable to want to avoid period-era racism, but its systemic institutions are still present. Be it Charleston cops turning a blind eye to hate crimes, the Reckoner-backed Knights who still have slavery in all but name in Selma, or High John the vigilante punishing white overseers whipping black farmers who are supposed to be free. But most notable of all is the seeming assimilation of black Southerners to the point that discussions of their culture and folklore is overall absent besides High John and mentions of voodoo here and there. Compare this to the white Southern fluff like the Honorable hindrance or Appalachia’s rural mages. We hear about a doctor using miracles to bring Robert E. Lee back from the grave, but nothing about African Methodist Episcopal preachers acting as Blessed beacons against the darkness of the Reckoning. We hear about the black Confederate soldiers defying the Planter class by voting against a return to slavery, but nothing about the Underground Railroad network who was bringing their their people out of bondage years before much less where these unsung heroes are now in the Weird West. It is perhaps Back East’s fumbled handling of race that is Deadlands’ greatest fault, which cannot save the rest of the work. Although written in 1999 the sentiments have carried on throughout the game line, and has been the greatest barrier against bringing new players and customers into this great gonzo setting of gunslingers and hexslingers. Much like the real world’s South, the beauty of Deadlands does not need to tie itself to the Confederacy to survive, and we can achieve so much more once we cast down the Stars & Bars. Let us hope that Matthew Cutter’s desire of an inclusive setting, and Kenneth Hite’s willingness to confront the bigotries of Dixieland, carry forth into the new Deadlands to be released in 2019.
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Mar 10, 2019 01:28
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"The feel of the show" is incredibly different from "the feel of being in the show" is what I'm trying to say. They are often aligned, but the experience of Being Amuro is different from the experience of Gundam as a show. And the point of combat simulation is to chase the experience of Being A Pilot, as a way of providing a frame and support structure for the rest of the pilot's experiences. ...in context, this implies Eva piloting tactics should be a baffling and risky-feeling experience, if you wanted to capture that. This is one reason I'd say a narrative, author stance game would be better for Eva: Because the experiences players are going to be having are presumably not keyed to 'being depressed and forced to fight despite not wanting to.'
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Mar 10, 2019 01:28
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SirPhoebos posted:So this would be like setting a pulp RPG in an alt history where Nazi Germany survives WWII and can be protagonists, but it's okay because the Holocaust never happened in this alt history for Reasons (even though the change point was, say, 1943), and any reader who's upset by this authorial decision is actually the real racist. It would be more like the Holocaust was in the process of mass murder but then Hitler did a face heel turn and started courting liberals and leftists to gain the moral high ground against the "more anti-Semitic Allied countries." Then all the concentration camp administrators chose to retire from public life while also secretly dominating political and economic affairs in order to return to the old days. And Berlin's bad section of town has a secret army of Jewish soldiers training to raze the city and kill the Third Reich's government officers but are portrayed as being indoctrinated and misled.
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Mar 10, 2019 01:41
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Libertad! posted:
and the writer's full of bull, not only was segregation at full force, but in England, there were a lot of issues that arose due to British military bases and bars refusing to bow to the American military demands for segregation, to the point some bars put up signs saying 'Black Troops only' to annoy the white soldiers.
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Mar 10, 2019 01:50
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Can't wait to find out what the Deadlands does with John Brown.
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Mar 10, 2019 02:42
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NutritiousSnack posted:Can't wait to find out what the Deadlands does with John Brown. Not a full F&F, but his ghost is detailed in Back East: the North: quote:The mysterious Cloakroom Phantom is indeed in contact with many key congressmen from both houses. They deny that the Phantom exists for several reasons—not the least of which being that the Phantom really is a ghost! The congressmen don’t want to admit that they believe in such things, much less speak with them. Equally important, they have sworn to the Phantom that they won’t reveal his secrets.
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Mar 10, 2019 02:50
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That was supposed to be a joke; gently caress Deadlands
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Mar 10, 2019 02:53
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Jesus gently caress Deadlands.
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Mar 10, 2019 02:57
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Nessus posted:There's a new sheriff in town... and he's the ANTITHESIS of what the bosses are up to! Texas goes Red, a wave of pro-labor sentiment sweeps the North. A trio of Constitutional amendments to implement true Communism in the USA fails in 1855. The 1856 election is bitterly contested, but the Communist candidate wins by a hair. He pursues a very Republican policy of internal improvements with the addition of legislation aimed at improving wages and industrial safety. The Department of Labor is created, initially it's remit is OSHA-like, but it is rightly seen as the thin edge of a wedge aimed at prying the capitalists' hands off of the means of production. And Abolitionist sentiment is on the rise. Lincoln is elected in 1860. Secession proceeds as in our timeline. Immediately upon inauguration he orders Genera of the Army Scott to prepare a plan to enforce abolition with Federal troops. This time it really is the War of Northern Aggression, but Texas is solidly Union. Republican France refuses to assist the Confederacy, but England is torn between anti-Communist and anti-slavery opinions. They decline to intervene, but make strong demonstrations against the Union Navy after the Trent incident, and are much more lax about supplying warships to a belligerent power while neutral. An undeclared naval war smoulders on the Eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean as RN ships "sold" to the CSA attempt to convoy blockade runners in and out of Southern ports (I just want an even more interesting naval war, ok ?). FATE, PbtA, or BiD ? Robindaybird posted:and the writer's full of bull, not only was segregation at full force, but in England, there were a lot of issues that arose due to British military bases and bars refusing to bow to the American military demands for segregation, to the point some bars put up signs saying 'Black Troops only' to annoy the white soldiers. That's loving hilarious.
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Mar 10, 2019 02:58
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Libertad! posted:Not a full F&F, but his ghost is detailed in Back East: the North: Of course the loving adventure seed is 'that villainous, hateful John Brown, can't he let it rest.'
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Mar 10, 2019 03:02
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Night10194 posted:Of course the loving adventure seed is 'that villainous, hateful John Brown, can't he let it rest.' Even then, historical context conspires to make him sound like an awesome PC patron. gently caress the confederacy.
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Mar 10, 2019 03:08
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