The Inside Scoop on Gaming

In Deadlands, hucksters are sorcerers with a difference: they play poker with demons. If they win, they gain control of the demons' power and can cast nifty hexes. If they lose, the price can be high: magical backfire on the huckster or his friends, insanity, even death. Thus hucksters are challenging to play, a challenge only intensified by their existence among folks likely to hang them as witches if their abilities are revealed.

Playing a huckster with original rules was even more challenging. The first I heard about these hex-slingers was when several co-workers started playing. I heard that the guy playing a huckster was constantly whining that his character couldn't do anything. Once I got the game myself, I understood.

Each huckster player has a deck of cards, and to cast a hex must draw a minimum poker hand. If he doesn't get a good enough hand, he fails; if he draws a Joker, he suffers Backlash. The original rules for hucksters (a) set hand minimums too high, making success difficult, and (b) made Backlash perilous, with but a handful of possible results ranging from "Brain Drain" (permanently dropping the hex a skill level) to "Insanity" (permanently loco).

The ideas and mechanics behind hucksters were solid, but odds didn't favor their survival. As a result, many hucksters burned out too easily.

The job of stacking the deck in favor of these hard-luck hexers fell to John Goff, and he excelled.

He gave existing hexes lower minimum hands for at least some effect, making utter failure less likely (e.g., "Soul Blast" required a pair, producing 1d6 Wind damage, with damage increasing for better hands; now it needs only an Ace to do at least 1d4 Wind). Then he ruled that black Jokers always cause Backlash, but red Jokers only do so to hucksters with a level less than 3 in the hex they're attempting. It's a good rule, though 3 seems a bit low -- I'm trying it in my game, but if it makes things too easy, I'll raise it to 4. GMs need to gauge this themselves.

Goff also presents an expanded Backlash table, still threatening the worst, but also offering less damaging results like "Mystic Sputter" or "Mental Static," making it less likely a huckster will destroy himself. The only problem is the table's location: it should be at the back of the book for easy reference, not twenty-eight pages deep.

The book is packed with new hexes. Originally, there were sixteen to choose from, making most hucksters pretty similar. With over one hundred hexes, and rules for creating your own, that's no longer the case.

There's huckster history (like the tale of Edmond Hoyle, author of Hoyle's Book of Games, the huckster's bible), good advice on hucksters for player and gamemaster, new "relics" (a.k.a. magic items), and huckster-centric world background. The latter is tediously similar to earlier products in two ways: first, Pinnacle has fallen into White Wolf's old habit of taking dead historical figures and saying they're alive. That's fine if you don't overdo it; they're overdoing it. Second, we're given more secret societies for the game, also fine up to a point, but the Weird West™ is already so riddled with secret societies it's getting ridiculous and predictable.

Pinnacle is also getting into the habit of putting adventures in books that have little to do with the books' subjects. Smith & Robards, the weird science book, had one, and this has "Abracadabra and an Arab Cadaver," a tale of zombies, magic amulets, and Arabian evil. It's not bad, but puts a lot of faith in players acting in certain ways, and it doesn't capture much Western resonance; it could just as easily be an AD&D adventure. It has nothing to do with hucksters, unless a player is playing one, and the book would have been better with more useful material or an adventure involving an intriguing huckster NPC.

Flaws aside, all Deadlands GMs, and huckster players, need this book. The basic fixes are valuable enough, and the wealth of hexes and ideas will enrich any Deadlands game.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Hucksters & Hexes
Author: John Goff Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Cost: $20 US Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-889546-05-4 Capsule Review by Tim Byrd on 06/24/98. Genre tags: none	In Deadlands, hucksters are sorcerers with a difference: they play poker with demons. If they win, they gain control of the demons' power and can cast nifty hexes. If they lose, the price can be high: magical backfire on the huckster or his friends, insanity, even death. Thus hucksters are challenging to play, a challenge only intensified by their existence among folks likely to hang them as witches if their abilities are revealed. Playing a huckster with original rules was even more challenging. The first I heard about these hex-slingers was when several co-workers started playing. I heard that the guy playing a huckster was constantly whining that his character couldn't do anything. Once I got the game myself, I understood. Each huckster player has a deck of cards, and to cast a hex must draw a minimum poker hand. If he doesn't get a good enough hand, he fails; if he draws a Joker, he suffers Backlash. The original rules for hucksters (a) set hand minimums too high, making success difficult, and (b) made Backlash perilous, with but a handful of possible results ranging from "Brain Drain" (permanently dropping the hex a skill level) to "Insanity" (permanently loco). The ideas and mechanics behind hucksters were solid, but odds didn't favor their survival. As a result, many hucksters burned out too easily. The job of stacking the deck in favor of these hard-luck hexers fell to John Goff, and he excelled. He gave existing hexes lower minimum hands for at least some effect, making utter failure less likely (e.g., "Soul Blast" required a pair, producing 1d6 Wind damage, with damage increasing for better hands; now it needs only an Ace to do at least 1d4 Wind). Then he ruled that black Jokers always cause Backlash, but red Jokers only do so to hucksters with a level less than 3 in the hex they're attempting. It's a good rule, though 3 seems a bit low -- I'm trying it in my game, but if it makes things too easy, I'll raise it to 4. GMs need to gauge this themselves. Goff also presents an expanded Backlash table, still threatening the worst, but also offering less damaging results like "Mystic Sputter" or "Mental Static," making it less likely a huckster will destroy himself. The only problem is the table's location: it should be at the back of the book for easy reference, not twenty-eight pages deep. The book is packed with new hexes. Originally, there were sixteen to choose from, making most hucksters pretty similar. With over one hundred hexes, and rules for creating your own, that's no longer the case. There's huckster history (like the tale of Edmond Hoyle, author of Hoyle's Book of Games, the huckster's bible), good advice on hucksters for player and gamemaster, new "relics" (a.k.a. magic items), and huckster-centric world background. The latter is tediously similar to earlier products in two ways: first, Pinnacle has fallen into White Wolf's old habit of taking dead historical figures and saying they're alive. That's fine if you don't overdo it; they're overdoing it. Second, we're given more secret societies for the game, also fine up to a point, but the Weird West™ is already so riddled with secret societies it's getting ridiculous and predictable. Pinnacle is also getting into the habit of putting adventures in books that have little to do with the books' subjects. Smith & Robards, the weird science book, had one, and this has "Abracadabra and an Arab Cadaver," a tale of zombies, magic amulets, and Arabian evil. It's not bad, but puts a lot of faith in players acting in certain ways, and it doesn't capture much Western resonance; it could just as easily be an AD&D adventure. It has nothing to do with hucksters, unless a player is playing one, and the book would have been better with more useful material or an adventure involving an intriguing huckster NPC. Flaws aside, all Deadlands GMs, and huckster players, need this book. The basic fixes are valuable enough, and the wealth of hexes and ideas will enrich any Deadlands game. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Hucksters & Hexes