Learning Curve...

We started the Last Sons Deadlands: Reloaded campaign last night. Things went a touch slower than I had planned due to having a group of brand-new-to-the-system players and a touch of unpreparedness on my part. Still, things seemed to go well as people picked up the system.

Like any good campaign, things got off with a bang and what was supposed to be a simple stagecoach robbery turned into broo-haa-haa of bullets, lightning, spin kicks, and blood. One character almost died as his player did not full heed the warning that Savage Worlds is a MUCH deadlier game for player characters than D&D/Pathfinder is. Coolest moment of the night has to go to the Chinese martial artist who killed a mook with their own bullet via Deflection.

The heroes won in the end, though one was badly wounded and ended up (after all available Healing checks could be made) still sucking on one wound. Every PC got to do something cool, and it is always fun diving in with a new group. The highlight of the night for me, though, was when the youngest (15) and most inexperienced player looked at me and said something to the effect of "I like this a lot. It's easier, and the system makes more sense to me than Pathfinder. I had a great time!". That right there counts to me as a win.

I did have a couple of quibbles about Sam Bass, the main NPC-bad guy, though. For being such a seasoned outlaw, the guy had no Notice or Fighting skill at all. He could shoot (D10 Shooting skill), but apparently whatever he was shooting at had to be obvious and the easiest way to bring him down was to engage him in a fist fight. Checking his Parry attribute to make certain it wasn't just a typo/misprint revealed the *incredibly* large number of... 2. Oh, and did I mention this was night time ambush?

So, the PCs saved the stagecoach (and themselves) from being robbed by the notorious outlaw "Oblivious" Sam Bass, and his gang (who all had the Notice skill at a rating of D6, go figure). Now, they are roughly 4 days walk from Deadwood in Sioux Nation territory, waiting on a stagecoach repair that will take 12 hours to accomplish. That's plenty of time for something else to happen, amigos...

-- GopherDave