The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I love werewolves. I love Westerns. I love the idea of werewolves in the wild west. As a matter of fact, I once wrote the beginning of a narrative poem about a werewolf terrorizing a remote Texas town. I was about sixteen, and it wasn't very good, but it was one of those ideas I kept filed in my head, waiting to revisit some day.

Well, I did, as it turns out, revisit the idea, but not in an original work. While working at White Wolf, I became one of the writers on the Werewolf: The Wild West book, and elsewhere on this site you can read my thoughts on how it turned out. In short, it's a great idea, and what there is of it is cool...but there's just not enough of it. Much of the main rulebook is a rehash of the contemporary version of the game, and there's been scant supplemental material offered to help flesh it out. That's verrrrryyyyy gradually being fixed, but, at the extremely slow release rate of support products for the game and at the prices supplements are going for these days, that fix could be a prolonged and costly one.

While we were working on W:TWW, though, a new game from a young whippersnapper callin' themselves Pinnacle came out and got a lot of attention. That game was Deadlands, The Weird West Roleplaying Game, and it combined spaghetti western ambiance with Jules Verne-ish steampunk, H.P. Lovecraftian horror, and a Gabby Hayes-cornpone style. Very cool. Very well thought out. And quite elegant in its rules engine, with a consistent and balanced set of mechanics using all the funky dice we roleplayers adore, as well as poker chips and cards (the system takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it's easy and great fun). Deadlands took home an Origins Award for Best New Roleplaying Game, and another for best graphic design.

It was a tough act for the Werewolf game to follow, as it was a solid game with a GOOD rules engine (unlike the statistical monstrosity called the Storyteller System) and matching it became tougher and tougher as the months passed, because, by cracky, Pinnacle was supporting their game like gangbusters. New supplements streaming out at a fast pace. Merchandising: T-shirts, a forthcoming collectible card game, a miniatures game, a game soundtrack on CD, even a nicely-designed Deadlands poker deck (White Wolf had a Werewolf poker deck out, too, but it was...well...crappy). Pinnacle even posts original supplementary material weekly to their web site (http://www.peginc.com), bringing game support to an impressive new level.

Meanwhile, support for Werewolf: The Wild West rushed out of Clarkston like good ideas out of Newt Gingrich. Or molasses at Antarctica. Or fine music out of John Tesh. Or...well, you get the idea.

The guys at Pinnacle started releasing supplements they called Dime Novels, digest-sized pamphlets that were one-half adventure and one-half novella based on the adventure, for right at five bucks. It was a good idea, and the fans snatched 'em up. And, somewhere down the line, the two companies decided it'd be cool to team up, and they were right.

Strange Bedfellows is the first part of the Under a Harrowed Moon trilogy, and it continues the adventures of gunslinger Ronan Lynch, the hero of the previous Dime Novels. It is set in the Weird West of Deadlands, but brings werewolves from the Savage West there through the trope of interdimensional travel, via the spirit realm called the Storm Umbra in W:TWW. The next part, Savage Passage, will take Ronan and his new hirsute allies back through the Umbra to the Savage West. Werewolf fans should know that the allies in question are the signature characters from W: TWW, Isaiah Morningkill, Earl Cotten, Proud Speaker, and Annalee LaBelle (why do I always get cadences of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry in my mind when I read her name?).

The book is written by Matt Forbeck, gentleman and scholar, who is not only an employee of Pinnacle and frequent contributor to Deadlands, but also wrote Hero Game's excellent Western Hero a few years back. The fiction at the front is cheesy and pulpish and makes a few leaps that don't quite make sense, which means that it's very true to the spirit of a true dime novel. I read it in a sitting. The adventure is nicely done and blissfully non-linear, giving enough background and detail to allow a GM to flesh out a satisfying tale without having to really work too hard at it. At the back are rules for converting Werewolf characters into Deadlands (with conversion rules going the other way to follow in the next book).

Wrapped in a wonderfully garish Ron Spencer cover (with the nice touch of having the fiery Deadlands cover background fade into the rough wooden background of the Werewolf book), it's a nifty little package, especially for five bucks, and should be useful to players of both games. It was sporting of the two companies to team up like this, to the advantage of all their fans.

White Wolf, though, may have made a slight error. At the very least they have exposed the players of Werewolf: The Wild West to a western-horror setting that is far better developed and supported than theirs, and thus a potential goldmine of new ideas for werewolf games. In some cases, though, they may have opened that interdimensional doorway into the Weird West which will allow Werewolf players to see the better game on the other side. As a long-time Werewolf fan and player, and as one of the folks who helped write Werewolf: The Wild West, I can only say "Go for it!" Deadlands eclipsed W:TWW for me, and I've never looked back (though I still do buy Werewolf stuff for sentimental reasons), and if this brings more players and funds to Pinnacle that will keep 'em supporting this game, I reckon that can't be at all a bad thing.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Under a Harrowed Moon, Part 1: Strange Bedfellows (Deadlands Dime Novel)
Author: Matt Forbeck Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Cost: $4.95 US Page count: 64 ISBN: 1-889546-16-X Capsule Review by Tim Byrd on 03/12/98. Genre tags: none	I love werewolves. I love Westerns. I love the idea of werewolves in the wild west. As a matter of fact, I once wrote the beginning of a narrative poem about a werewolf terrorizing a remote Texas town. I was about sixteen, and it wasn't very good, but it was one of those ideas I kept filed in my head, waiting to revisit some day. Well, I did, as it turns out, revisit the idea, but not in an original work. While working at White Wolf, I became one of the writers on the Werewolf: The Wild West book, and elsewhere on this site you can read my thoughts on how it turned out. In short, it's a great idea, and what there is of it is cool...but there's just not enough of it. Much of the main rulebook is a rehash of the contemporary version of the game, and there's been scant supplemental material offered to help flesh it out. That's verrrrryyyyy gradually being fixed, but, at the extremely slow release rate of support products for the game and at the prices supplements are going for these days, that fix could be a prolonged and costly one. While we were working on W:TWW, though, a new game from a young whippersnapper callin' themselves Pinnacle came out and got a lot of attention. That game was Deadlands, The Weird West Roleplaying Game, and it combined spaghetti western ambiance with Jules Verne-ish steampunk, H.P. Lovecraftian horror, and a Gabby Hayes-cornpone style. Very cool. Very well thought out. And quite elegant in its rules engine, with a consistent and balanced set of mechanics using all the funky dice we roleplayers adore, as well as poker chips and cards (the system takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it's easy and great fun). Deadlands took home an Origins Award for Best New Roleplaying Game, and another for best graphic design. It was a tough act for the Werewolf game to follow, as it was a solid game with a GOOD rules engine (unlike the statistical monstrosity called the Storyteller System) and matching it became tougher and tougher as the months passed, because, by cracky, Pinnacle was supporting their game like gangbusters. New supplements streaming out at a fast pace. Merchandising: T-shirts, a forthcoming collectible card game, a miniatures game, a game soundtrack on CD, even a nicely-designed Deadlands poker deck (White Wolf had a Werewolf poker deck out, too, but it was...well...crappy). Pinnacle even posts original supplementary material weekly to their web site (http://www.peginc.com), bringing game support to an impressive new level. Meanwhile, support for Werewolf: The Wild West rushed out of Clarkston like good ideas out of Newt Gingrich. Or molasses at Antarctica. Or fine music out of John Tesh. Or...well, you get the idea. The guys at Pinnacle started releasing supplements they called Dime Novels, digest-sized pamphlets that were one-half adventure and one-half novella based on the adventure, for right at five bucks. It was a good idea, and the fans snatched 'em up. And, somewhere down the line, the two companies decided it'd be cool to team up, and they were right. Strange Bedfellows is the first part of the Under a Harrowed Moon trilogy, and it continues the adventures of gunslinger Ronan Lynch, the hero of the previous Dime Novels. It is set in the Weird West of Deadlands, but brings werewolves from the Savage West there through the trope of interdimensional travel, via the spirit realm called the Storm Umbra in W:TWW. The next part, Savage Passage, will take Ronan and his new hirsute allies back through the Umbra to the Savage West. Werewolf fans should know that the allies in question are the signature characters from W: TWW, Isaiah Morningkill, Earl Cotten, Proud Speaker, and Annalee LaBelle (why do I always get cadences of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry in my mind when I read her name?). The book is written by Matt Forbeck, gentleman and scholar, who is not only an employee of Pinnacle and frequent contributor to Deadlands, but also wrote Hero Game's excellent Western Hero a few years back. The fiction at the front is cheesy and pulpish and makes a few leaps that don't quite make sense, which means that it's very true to the spirit of a true dime novel. I read it in a sitting. The adventure is nicely done and blissfully non-linear, giving enough background and detail to allow a GM to flesh out a satisfying tale without having to really work too hard at it. At the back are rules for converting Werewolf characters into Deadlands (with conversion rules going the other way to follow in the next book). Wrapped in a wonderfully garish Ron Spencer cover (with the nice touch of having the fiery Deadlands cover background fade into the rough wooden background of the Werewolf book), it's a nifty little package, especially for five bucks, and should be useful to players of both games. It was sporting of the two companies to team up like this, to the advantage of all their fans. White Wolf, though, may have made a slight error. At the very least they have exposed the players of Werewolf: The Wild West to a western-horror setting that is far better developed and supported than theirs, and thus a potential goldmine of new ideas for werewolf games. In some cases, though, they may have opened that interdimensional doorway into the Weird West which will allow Werewolf players to see the better game on the other side. As a long-time Werewolf fan and player, and as one of the folks who helped write Werewolf: The Wild West, I can only say "Go for it!" Deadlands eclipsed W:TWW for me, and I've never looked back (though I still do buy Werewolf stuff for sentimental reasons), and if this brings more players and funds to Pinnacle that will keep 'em supporting this game, I reckon that can't be at all a bad thing. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Under a Harrowed Moon, Part 1: Strange Bedfellows (Deadlands Dime Novel)