The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I feel very weird in writing this review about Law Dogs. First of all, Law Dogs was the only Deadlands book that was not carried by the local stores that sell Pinnacle products, and after spending many months looking for it I was overjoyed when I found it in a newly-opened gaming store. To have that feeling of joy replaced with the disappointment I have after reading it is very odd. Secondly, this is the first time in my eighteen years of gaming that my major complaint about a book was not about poor writing, but rather the poor direction of the book's writing.

The first sixteen pages of the book were perfect, with excellent descriptions of the law enforcement agencies to be found in the West. Then we get nine pages of lawmen bios (with ten pages of stats for them in the back) and seven pages of how the law works in the West. After this we get six pages of outlaw profiles, with an equal number of pages devoted to their stats in the Marshal's section. It's the pages of background and stats on the heroes and villains of the West that I have problems with.

First I will admit that the histories of the characters were well-written, but having nearly a quarter of the book being devoted to pre-generated characters is unacceptible! In the case of the outlaws I feel only three to four of them should have been covered, with mini-adventures for them, giving maps of their hideouts and more details of their careers, so a Marshal could play them with more of a personality if they decide to use them. As it was I ran the capture and/or killing of the profiled criminals as little more than "put-em-up, shoot-em-down" adventures, not having the time to write out the full scenarios for the outlaws.

Then there are the lawmen profiled. First of all, on pages 45+46 Pinnacle attempts to discourage players from playing truly evil outlaws, suggesting reformed criminals and Robin Hood types, so why is there a need for so many lawmen and their stats? I won't get into the whole "Don't force morally good characters on players, especially when bloddthirsty, mean as a rattler, and vengeful are acceptible character traits" argument, as I'll save that for my review of Fortress O' Fear. Second, several of the lawmen profiled (Alexander Graves, Hank "Pokemon" Ketchum, Bear River Tom Smith) show up in other products, so if I want to use them and keep with official Deadlands continuity I have to rig things so they stay alive. This is especially annoying, as previously when Pinnacle had characers that they didn't want to die they just wouldn't give stats for them, so Marshals would know not to include them in their campaign. I ended up using the profiled lawmen as mooks to take hits for my posse in their adventuring.

I don't see the point of the character templates included in most Deadlands products, and Law Dogs was no exception. The expanded weapon list seemed pointless, since there's little variety in damage or Speed of the various weapons. I first saw the new rules on pages 63, 64, 102 and 103 in Tales O Terror: 1877, and I must ask why if they were first published in Law Dogs why they showed up in ToT:1877. I hate buying reprinted material; heck, I stopped buying all White Wolf stuff after they institued their massive reprints at superdiscount prices, such is my dislike of them. Also, why was it decided that Doc Holliday was the father of Hexslinging, after stats for him were published in Quick and the Dead? And why does Belle Starr, master seductress, have no persuasion skill?

The adventure included in Law Dogs was OK until the posse gets to Skull Hill, where it becomes "Here's stats for the characters, an outline of what might happen, and some really bad maps with no identification on the rooms shown" syndrome. Idiots call this "Non-linear gaming which allows players full freedom of choice in the adventure they play, making the game more enjoyable for all." I call it "Lazy writer." A good Marshall should be able to keep the adventure enjoyable when the players diverge from what the writer of the adventure intended; the opposite, that a writer can write poorly and expect the Marshal to make a good adventure out of whatever was put down on paper is an insult to the person who purchased the book. What makes it worse is that Deadlands characters have many stats to keep track of, and between the posse and Skull Hill's ELEVEN characters it's a pain to keep track of everyone. As I said, the portion of the adventure before the posse got to Skull Hill was well-written, as was the portion after Skull Hill, but the auto-pilot style writing about Skull Hill makes me feel I wasted my money on Law Dogs. I'm sorry if I offend anyone with my opinions, but I'm so tired of seeing substandard products on the market that I feel I must speak my honest opinion, and after reading Steven Long's work on Brainburners I know he can do a hundred times than what he did on the adventure.

Finally there's the book's art. The cover art was atrocious (bring back Dan Frazier!) as was the interior work of J. Rozen. I see some reprinted Allen Nunis artwork in Law Dogs, and I recommend Pinnacle brings him back to work on Deadlands. I only bought Deadlands because of Mr. Nunis's artwork, and I think he is the best black and white artist ever!

Style: 1 (Unintelligible)
Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

Law Dogs
Author: Steve Long Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Line: Deadlands Cost: 20.00 Page count: 128 Playtest Review by Ralph Dula on 06/21/00. Genre tags: Historical Horror Old West	I feel very weird in writing this review about Law Dogs. First of all, Law Dogs was the only Deadlands book that was not carried by the local stores that sell Pinnacle products, and after spending many months looking for it I was overjoyed when I found it in a newly-opened gaming store. To have that feeling of joy replaced with the disappointment I have after reading it is very odd. Secondly, this is the first time in my eighteen years of gaming that my major complaint about a book was not about poor writing, but rather the poor direction of the book's writing. The first sixteen pages of the book were perfect, with excellent descriptions of the law enforcement agencies to be found in the West. Then we get nine pages of lawmen bios (with ten pages of stats for them in the back) and seven pages of how the law works in the West. After this we get six pages of outlaw profiles, with an equal number of pages devoted to their stats in the Marshal's section. It's the pages of background and stats on the heroes and villains of the West that I have problems with. First I will admit that the histories of the characters were well-written, but having nearly a quarter of the book being devoted to pre-generated characters is unacceptible! In the case of the outlaws I feel only three to four of them should have been covered, with mini-adventures for them, giving maps of their hideouts and more details of their careers, so a Marshal could play them with more of a personality if they decide to use them. As it was I ran the capture and/or killing of the profiled criminals as little more than "put-em-up, shoot-em-down" adventures, not having the time to write out the full scenarios for the outlaws. Then there are the lawmen profiled. First of all, on pages 45+46 Pinnacle attempts to discourage players from playing truly evil outlaws, suggesting reformed criminals and Robin Hood types, so why is there a need for so many lawmen and their stats? I won't get into the whole "Don't force morally good characters on players, especially when bloddthirsty, mean as a rattler, and vengeful are acceptible character traits" argument, as I'll save that for my review of Fortress O' Fear. Second, several of the lawmen profiled (Alexander Graves, Hank "Pokemon" Ketchum, Bear River Tom Smith) show up in other products, so if I want to use them and keep with official Deadlands continuity I have to rig things so they stay alive. This is especially annoying, as previously when Pinnacle had characers that they didn't want to die they just wouldn't give stats for them, so Marshals would know not to include them in their campaign. I ended up using the profiled lawmen as mooks to take hits for my posse in their adventuring. I don't see the point of the character templates included in most Deadlands products, and Law Dogs was no exception. The expanded weapon list seemed pointless, since there's little variety in damage or Speed of the various weapons. I first saw the new rules on pages 63, 64, 102 and 103 in Tales O Terror: 1877, and I must ask why if they were first published in Law Dogs why they showed up in ToT:1877. I hate buying reprinted material; heck, I stopped buying all White Wolf stuff after they institued their massive reprints at superdiscount prices, such is my dislike of them. Also, why was it decided that Doc Holliday was the father of Hexslinging, after stats for him were published in Quick and the Dead? And why does Belle Starr, master seductress, have no persuasion skill? The adventure included in Law Dogs was OK until the posse gets to Skull Hill, where it becomes "Here's stats for the characters, an outline of what might happen, and some really bad maps with no identification on the rooms shown" syndrome. Idiots call this "Non-linear gaming which allows players full freedom of choice in the adventure they play, making the game more enjoyable for all." I call it "Lazy writer." A good Marshall should be able to keep the adventure enjoyable when the players diverge from what the writer of the adventure intended; the opposite, that a writer can write poorly and expect the Marshal to make a good adventure out of whatever was put down on paper is an insult to the person who purchased the book. What makes it worse is that Deadlands characters have many stats to keep track of, and between the posse and Skull Hill's ELEVEN characters it's a pain to keep track of everyone. As I said, the portion of the adventure before the posse got to Skull Hill was well-written, as was the portion after Skull Hill, but the auto-pilot style writing about Skull Hill makes me feel I wasted my money on Law Dogs. I'm sorry if I offend anyone with my opinions, but I'm so tired of seeing substandard products on the market that I feel I must speak my honest opinion, and after reading Steven Long's work on Brainburners I know he can do a hundred times than what he did on the adventure. Finally there's the book's art. The cover art was atrocious (bring back Dan Frazier!) as was the interior work of J. Rozen. I see some reprinted Allen Nunis artwork in Law Dogs, and I recommend Pinnacle brings him back to work on Deadlands. I only bought Deadlands because of Mr. Nunis's artwork, and I think he is the best black and white artist ever! Style: 1 (Unintelligible) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)