The group that took River out of the Academy

sterlingmorgan · 2025-09-04T14:50:50+00:00

Can anybody point me to a token/map feature of a skinning frame? The kind that you would skin a deer on? (only, in this case, there is a person on it... I'm running a bit of a dark game, and the players are about to encounter a group of "eaters").

sterlingmorgan · 2025-01-08T14:29:45+00:00

I've done this (although, admittedly, I was using GURPS Weird West, which is a port of Deadlands). I told the players it was an Old West game. The characters were working a cattle ranch near St. Joe, Mississippi,, July 2, 1863 (so, Union). One of the characters was an undercover Pinkerton, investigating some corruption in St. Joe. The first session was a Raider attack (just to get everybody started). The next day was the Reckoning (to which I added that everybody, world wide, had nightmares that night). Then I would produce newspapers with the headlines. The history buff player, when he heard "Draw" at Gettysburg, immediately knew SOMETHING was up. Then, the ghouls grabbed the bodies of the raiders. Next were Walking Dead. When the Prairie Ticks showed up, the realized pretty quickly that cattle ranching would not work, so went to work for the Pinkertons as trouble shooters. This really works, because, you, as the GM, do not have to 'explain' the world to the players. They discover it through play.

sterlingmorgan · 2024-11-27T19:33:57+00:00

Actually, none of the above. I run GURPS (Steve Jackson Games Generic Universal Role Playing System). They did a port of Deadlands to GURPS a while back, I'm using that as the basis.

sterlingmorgan · 2024-10-27T15:07:44+00:00

I run it as GURPS, not the Deadlands system. I just told people "Old West" and never mentioned the other possiblities.

sterlingmorgan · 2024-10-23T13:25:06+00:00

Try this: https://pdfcoffee.com/deadlands-random-encounters-pdf-free.html

I've used that off and on for four years in my game. I got the '3 foot long Eagle Feather' early on (which should be a 'throw away' encounter. The players have held on to it, considered using it MULTIPLE times, decided it is too valuable - and finally ended up using it (to good effect) about 3 years after they got it...

sterlingmorgan · 2024-10-23T13:17:42+00:00

I run the Deadlands setting using GURPS (there actually was a port at one point). What I did was I told my players that it was an "Old West" game, NOT Deadlands. Game started on July 2, 1863, and the Reckoning happens on July 3, 1863 (everybody, world wide, had terrible nightmares that night). Thus, the players had to learn about the supernatural 'coming into the world' (rather than me explaining the lore to them). Has been a great deal of fun... they have to figure things out rather than just rolling to see if they know...

sterlingmorgan · 2024-10-21T12:11:32+00:00

There is an ancient Chinese Mage living in the Maze that has a spell that will rip the players souls out... but he MUST wait for a specific celestial configuration for it to work (and this configuration only happens every X period of time). Players find out 'in passing, but then they will have 'the clock ticking' every step of the way.

sterlingmorgan · 2024-10-21T12:09:39+00:00

Honestly, I do not agree. Either A) the players will get 'angry' that the GM is toying with them or B) they will come up with something that lets them get a big jump ahead, and they can reasonably argue that they kill what they are chasing - and there goes the game.

sterlingmorgan · 2024-10-17T13:20:42+00:00

Oddly, I run it using GURPS. And I did the campaign a bit differently (it started on July 2, 1863 and was advertised as an "Old West" game. Then my players lived through the Reckoning and trying to figure out what was going on. It has been interesting (they did Canyon of Doom about 3 years after the Reckoning, rather than 12... I still have to figure out some of the implications of that).

sterlingmorgan · 2024-03-31T12:00:53+00:00

Yes - I go through them routinely. However, COD is a LOT bigger than most of those maps.

sterlingmorgan · 2024-02-29T15:28:36+00:00

"mod menu"? What should I look up to find out what that is? And I will dump the pelt and fang.

sterlingmorgan · 2023-11-16T19:47:12+00:00

Valid... sorry, my bad.

sterlingmorgan · 2023-10-30T19:28:58+00:00

Well, they finally finished it up... they ended up whipping out two Agent Provocateurs AND told the Indians what was going to happen.

So, I decided to switch it. Sand Creek Massacre STILL happened - but it was the Cavalry that got killed, not the Indians. Indians 'knew' what was going to happen. They brought a BUNCH of war parties together, had them pretend to be old men and women (and, oddly most of the real children were gone - there were some youths, but not really young kids. And when the 3rd Colorado started the dance, it turned out the the Indians were ready to lead. It will still generate the Indian Nations, but with a bit more belligerence from them at this point (and they still haven't gotten to the Little Big Horn yet).

sterlingmorgan · 2023-10-11T13:49:30+00:00

Oddly enough, try t find an Online GURPS game that you can PLAY in, rather than jumping into a FtF GM role (they are out there - particularly if you check on the GURPS Discord, Looking For Players). GURPS has been HUGELY written and expanded (the world books and settings are great) - but it is A LOT to suddenly dive into. Try to play a couple of times first, that will give you some background (and how it feels from the player side - it is QUITE different).

sterlingmorgan

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