The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Marshal Law is the appropriately-named gamemaster's (Marshal's) screen for Deadlands. Unlike many such screens I've purchased, this tri-fold screen is VERY sturdy and should easily stand up to common gametime abuses.

The player's side is laminated and is in full color. The center panel features a wonderfully gaudy image of an undead Gatling pistol-wielding lawman and an Indian woman dukin' it out with a Badlands Devil Bat. The left outer panel features tables regarding healing, general target numbers, tests of will, movement, and shamanic rituals. The right includes a list of firearms and hand weapons, as well as a hit location table and common modifiers to combat.

The Marshal's side of the screen is very generous in content. The left inner panel duplicates the information on the right outer panel, the middle panel displays tables regarding fear and hex backlash (now out of date with the release of Hucksters & Hexes), and the right duplicates much of the left outer panel, replacing the shamanic rituals table with information on poker hands, gizmo malfunctions, concealment , and damage reduction with Fate Chips. The latter table has a minor typo – the Red and Blue chips are reversed – but this may have been corrected in the second printing. The biggest gripe I have with Marshal Law is that this side of the screen is done entirely in sepia tone, black, and tan, with a background meant to simulate crumbled paper nailed to a wall. This is VERY difficult to read, especially if you don't have plenty of bright light shining on it. I found myself having to pull down the screen several times in order to allow enough light for legibility.

The book included with the screen contains two outstanding adventures, both of which involve small towns with dark stains on their recent pasts. Both would make fine introductions to the game for groups of any size, offering great roleplaying and investigative opportunities and combats that are only as tough as the PCs want to make them. The descriptions of all buildings in both towns include what occupants might be found there at certain times of day (with cross-referencing to other possible locations), what these occupants know, and what other clues might be found there. This is a godsend in mystery-oriented adventures such as these. One word of warning, though: a strong posse of the old-fashioned dungeon-clearing mentality may become more powerful than you'd like with all the nifty spoils to be had from the second adventure. (A weak posse following this path will probably just get wiped out.)

Rounding out the booklet are the errata from the first printing of the main rulebook and a new character sheet. Like the interior of the screen, the character sheet's crumpled-paper background is a bit too dark. The Tinkerin' aptitude erroneously appears under Quickness as well as Smarts, but this, too, may have been changed in the second printing. At any rate, the corrected character sheet may be downloaded from Pinnacle's web page at http://www.peginc.com/, as can the errata.

All-in-all, this is one of the most useful GM screens I've purchased, and the adventures alone are worth the price. The only thing that prevents me from giving it an even higher score for "Style" is the difficulty of reading the useful information on the Marshal's side of the screen.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Marshal Law
Author: Adventures: John R. Hopler & Angel Leigh McCoy Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Cost: $15.00 Page count: 47 ISBN: DL1009 Playtest Review by Dan Davenport on 07/22/98. Genre tags: none	Marshal Law is the appropriately-named gamemaster's (Marshal's) screen for Deadlands. Unlike many such screens I've purchased, this tri-fold screen is VERY sturdy and should easily stand up to common gametime abuses. The player's side is laminated and is in full color. The center panel features a wonderfully gaudy image of an undead Gatling pistol-wielding lawman and an Indian woman dukin' it out with a Badlands Devil Bat. The left outer panel features tables regarding healing, general target numbers, tests of will, movement, and shamanic rituals. The right includes a list of firearms and hand weapons, as well as a hit location table and common modifiers to combat. The Marshal's side of the screen is very generous in content. The left inner panel duplicates the information on the right outer panel, the middle panel displays tables regarding fear and hex backlash (now out of date with the release of Hucksters & Hexes), and the right duplicates much of the left outer panel, replacing the shamanic rituals table with information on poker hands, gizmo malfunctions, concealment , and damage reduction with Fate Chips. The latter table has a minor typo – the Red and Blue chips are reversed – but this may have been corrected in the second printing. The biggest gripe I have with Marshal Law is that this side of the screen is done entirely in sepia tone, black, and tan, with a background meant to simulate crumbled paper nailed to a wall. This is VERY difficult to read, especially if you don't have plenty of bright light shining on it. I found myself having to pull down the screen several times in order to allow enough light for legibility. The book included with the screen contains two outstanding adventures, both of which involve small towns with dark stains on their recent pasts. Both would make fine introductions to the game for groups of any size, offering great roleplaying and investigative opportunities and combats that are only as tough as the PCs want to make them. The descriptions of all buildings in both towns include what occupants might be found there at certain times of day (with cross-referencing to other possible locations), what these occupants know, and what other clues might be found there. This is a godsend in mystery-oriented adventures such as these. One word of warning, though: a strong posse of the old-fashioned dungeon-clearing mentality may become more powerful than you'd like with all the nifty spoils to be had from the second adventure. (A weak posse following this path will probably just get wiped out.) Rounding out the booklet are the errata from the first printing of the main rulebook and a new character sheet. Like the interior of the screen, the character sheet's crumpled-paper background is a bit too dark. The Tinkerin' aptitude erroneously appears under Quickness as well as Smarts, but this, too, may have been changed in the second printing. At any rate, the corrected character sheet may be downloaded from Pinnacle's web page at http://www.peginc.com/, as can the errata. All-in-all, this is one of the most useful GM screens I've purchased, and the adventures alone are worth the price. The only thing that prevents me from giving it an even higher score for "Style" is the difficulty of reading the useful information on the Marshal's side of the screen. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)