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Minor spoilers in this review!

Well, this is the third of Pinnacle's Dime Novels, short adventures originally designed to hook new players. Pinnacle sells these for "little or no profit" (their words), and I think it's a good move. After all, almost anyone can blow five bucks on a quick scenario, right? I admit, the ecomonics make sense.

To date, the Dime Novels open with a short story, some game fiction to help set the mood. As much as I welcome this insight into the designers' thoughts on style (in essence, "we play like this"), this fiction leaves a little to be desired. Nothing major, but I feel it could have used another draft and editor. Also, it takes up about half of the supplement; I'd rather see more game material in that space.

Those of you familiar with the Deadlands adventure format already know that each comes with a 'Setup' section, a way to get your group into this adventure. In this one, the setup (read: hook) can easily fit into any group, and has the potential to work into your game much more smoothly than most others. None of the same old "You're in a bar, when this guy shows up and hires you to do X." Properly built up, the Night Train could keep a group on its toes for weeks.

The story centers in a town called Varney Flats, with two main plotlines- a mundane and a supernatural. The mundane runns a little weak, though it makes for some interesting scenes between the PCs and the townsfolk. For my group, I had to give them a better stake in the events than the given one, but that's expected in any module.

The supernatural events, however, don't push my buttons. The Night Train hosts thirty Nosferatu for you to throw at your posse, a new abomination that can easily eat inexperienced posses for breakfast. I won't go into their full implementaion here, but suffice it to say that they are designed to be much nastier than regular vampires. If you don't feel like running lots of combat, lots of long messy bloody combat, especialy in a system that can bog down with large groups, you'll need to modify this. To counter that, you have the opportunity to have combat on a moving train, a scene that our group really had fun with.

After all, Deadlands is equal parts camp, horror, and western. You'll definitely need to adjust this mix for your group- as written, new characters don't stand much of a chance.

One final note on the Great Rail Wars scenario included; it's a nice touch, especially with the massive combat more suited to a miniatures game, but I haven't had players to try it with.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Night Train (Deadlands Dime Novel #3)
Author: John Goff Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Inc. Cost: 4.95 Page count: 64 ISBN: 1889546070 Playtest Review by Mischa Krilov on 02/06/98. Genre tags: none	Minor spoilers in this review! Well, this is the third of Pinnacle's Dime Novels, short adventures originally designed to hook new players. Pinnacle sells these for "little or no profit" (their words), and I think it's a good move. After all, almost anyone can blow five bucks on a quick scenario, right? I admit, the ecomonics make sense. To date, the Dime Novels open with a short story, some game fiction to help set the mood. As much as I welcome this insight into the designers' thoughts on style (in essence, "we play like this"), this fiction leaves a little to be desired. Nothing major, but I feel it could have used another draft and editor. Also, it takes up about half of the supplement; I'd rather see more game material in that space. Those of you familiar with the Deadlands adventure format already know that each comes with a 'Setup' section, a way to get your group into this adventure. In this one, the setup (read: hook) can easily fit into any group, and has the potential to work into your game much more smoothly than most others. None of the same old "You're in a bar, when this guy shows up and hires you to do X." Properly built up, the Night Train could keep a group on its toes for weeks. The story centers in a town called Varney Flats, with two main plotlines- a mundane and a supernatural. The mundane runns a little weak, though it makes for some interesting scenes between the PCs and the townsfolk. For my group, I had to give them a better stake in the events than the given one, but that's expected in any module. The supernatural events, however, don't push my buttons. The Night Train hosts thirty Nosferatu for you to throw at your posse, a new abomination that can easily eat inexperienced posses for breakfast. I won't go into their full implementaion here, but suffice it to say that they are designed to be much nastier than regular vampires. If you don't feel like running lots of combat, lots of long messy bloody combat, especialy in a system that can bog down with large groups, you'll need to modify this. To counter that, you have the opportunity to have combat on a moving train, a scene that our group really had fun with. After all, Deadlands is equal parts camp, horror, and western. You'll definitely need to adjust this mix for your group- as written, new characters don't stand much of a chance. One final note on the Great Rail Wars scenario included; it's a nice touch, especially with the massive combat more suited to a miniatures game, but I haven't had players to try it with. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Night Train (Deadlands Dime Novel #3)