The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Major Strengths

Law Dogs covers: Rangers, Pinkertons, US Marshals, Secret Service, Military police (Provost Marshal), Local law and the differences in jurisdiction, famous lawmen and judges, the law itself (what is a crime and common punishments), how and who runs the law in the major Weird West cities and famous outlaws all within the first 38 pages. LD then goes on to cover edges and hindrances (both new and how old ones are revised), being an outlaw, underworld slang (thank you Mr. Pinkerton), rumors about the Revenant, new archetypes, combat rules (both new and revised), weapon modifications, a COMPLETE list of all the historical guns of the Old West (with description), a new Huckster subclass with hexes, new relics, the real story behind the law organizations described earlier, stats on the people mentioned earlier, a new method of handling the lesser bad guys (a.k.a. "mooks") in combat AND has a very good adventure for your players.

Major Weaknesses

All of those bits of information is crammed into the standard 128 pages - along with artwork. The closest analogy I can think of is watching the movie Dune (2 hour version) after having read the book. You KNOW there is a lot more going on, but the movie can only cover so much. And, of course, in the movie - several things got cut. Several times the book refers to another part of the book, and that section is not there. Most notably - the edge "Crossdraw", the Secret Service's Browning Pistol and the Shadowin' skill are mentioned but never described. (Steve Long has already provided the missing information on the listserv, and I expect that the errata will appear on the Pinnacle web site - but for the time being I've attached the info to the bottom of this review) Also known to be missing are the descriptions of the Mounties (rumored to appear in a later sourcebook) and the 26 book long bibliography.

There is a general lack of focus feeling to the book.

Strengths

I don't know about you, but I tend to feel that any sourcebook that uses 26 books as reference material is going to be accurate.

The write ups of the various characters was pretty good. I know one of the characters mentioned under famous lawmen is completely fictional (Hank "One Eye" Ketchum) but he was blended in so well with the "historical" figures that I had to wonder about everyone else in the book whose name I didn't recognize. It was also a nice touch to read about some of the figures draw styles and weaknesses. It does not add anything to the game mechanics, but it did add major style points and helped enhance the feeling that you are reading a report about various lawmen working around you. Shame that all of the characters did not get this treatment, otherwise I would have called this a major strength.

I think that Law Dogs struck a great balance between the power of the lawmen and the law versus player freedom. The Law is a competent force in the Weird West. Life is certainly easier if you obey the law, but it's not impossible to be an outlaw if you want to be.

The new combat rules addressed several problems with the way combat worked, fixing some quirks and improving the overall feel. The new rules also allow you to mimic pretty much any aspect of gunfighting that you might see in a movie - sawed of barrels, swivel holster, hair triggers, really long pistol barrels, the road agent spin, etc. etc. What I really like about the combat revisions is that it shows that Pinnacle listens to their customers. At least two rules were changed as a result of player feedback.

Weaknesses

The lawmen in general are cookie cutouts. All the lawmen of all the organizations are described as tough, independent and good guys. While the book mentions that the /occasional/ lawman is bad, it glosses over that aspect to play up the white hats and shiny stars. Aside from John Behan, it does not talk about any of those who wore badges but were worse then the outlaws. And John Behan is merely described as incompetent.

On that note - several of the figures in specific are flat and one dimensional. Roy Bean is a figure of comedy, John Behan is a coward, and Judge Parker is a stern fearsome figure. (Did you know that when he sentenced his first hanging, he cried in the court room? Eat your heart out Alan Alda.)

There is also some contradictory language in the book - the Texas Rangers are described as being tough and independent, well, let me quote the passage "I want men ... who think they can lick the entire Union Army themselves. They got to believe the can get the job done. The Ranger who doesn't learn when to take on something himself and when to call for help is a dead ranger."

Some of the expanded called shot numbers seem wrong - I don't think that it should be that harder to shoot someone's hat as opposed to his head. (-10 vs -6).

All of the weapon upgrades may lead to muchkinism. While the bonuses are relatively minor and are better for character style rather then character power levels, let the marshal beware anyway.

Hexslinger.... A Hexslinger is a specialist huckster. One who combines gunfighting and hex tossing to become a lethal combatant. While I can understand the concept, I don't think it warranted a separate class. It's not really a separate class - a Hexslinger is a huckster that can't gamble. In a book that ended up being too thin, the Hexslinger might have been something to exclude, or at least put out in a dime novel format ala martial artists, hucksters/mad scientists, and steam-tech enhancements.

Other

The initial parts of the books is told from the perspective of the general of the Texas Rangers. While the attitude was a nice touch and eased up on the possibly dry reading, the snobbish superior-to-anyone else attitude did start to grate (I know it was supposed to - but even knowing that, it did bug). Neither a strength nor a detraction from the content of the book - though I noticed that the time that Ben Thompson caught a Texas Ranger completely flat footed was not mentioned in this book.

The Missing Data:

(this can also be found at the accumulated rulings archive at http://www.sonic.net/~dkjedi/deadlands/ ) Rulebooks: Law Dogs, Edges

C) You may notice in some of the character descriptions (such as Hardin's) the mention of a new Edge, *cross draw.* The Edge itself was, however, cut. For those who are interested in using it, it costs 1 point; its purpose is to counteract the standard -1 quick draw penalty (LD, p. 59). [Steve Long, listserv, 7/6/98]

Rulebooks: Law Dogs, Shadowin'

Q) Shadowin' is listed as a Pinkerton skill in Law Dogs. I was wondering where this skill is found. - ?

A) It was in the manuscript, but apparently was cut for space. Had it been left in, it would be on pages 44-45. Here's the text from the manuscript:

Shadowin': This new Aptitude, based on Cognition, is a favorite with detectives and spies. It allows the character to follow and observe someone without being seen -- not very polite, really, but sometimes the Weird West requires a little rudeness. Typically, shadowin' someone requires a Fair (5) roll for every block or so that they walk in a city or town, or every mile or so they ride or walk in the wilderness. The roll is reduced to Foolproof (3) if there are plenty of crowds or other obstacles to cover the character's actions, and increased to Onerous (7) or even Hard (9) if there's nowhere to hide, the subject being followed knows the character on sight, or there are other difficulties (it's mighty hard to shadow someone across the desert when he can see for miles in every direction, after all). Characters being shadowed can make a shadowin' or search roll to figure out that they've picked up a tail; the Target Number for this roll is based on the circumstances, as described above -- the more cover the shadower has, the harder he is to spot. [Steve Long, listserv, 7/25/98]

Rulebooks: Law Dogs, Weapons

Q) Maybe it's a 2am hallucination, but I've coulda sworn that Steve posted the stats to the SS's Browning earlier this month - but I just went over the full listserv archives with a comb and couldn't find them. Anyone happen to have 'em? - Darious

A) Yeah, I might happen to have 'em lying around somewhere. :)

Maxim Semiautomatic Rifle	.44	16	2	2	20	4d8	+0	5	1876	$80
Browning Semi-Auto Pistol	.45	7+1	1	2	10	3d6	-1	2	1876	$100

Maxim Semiautomatic Rifle: This odd rifle, an adaptation of the Winchester "Yellow Boy," uses a unique semiautomatic mechanism which allows for rapid firing. A magazine of 16 rounds is contained in the butt, along with a special lever that uses the force of the gun's recoil against the shooter's shoulder to chamber another round. If the gun is used to hipshoot (see Deadlands, page 93), this mechanism will not work and the gun thereafter has a ROF of 1 until the character uses a single action and makes a Fair (5) trade: gunsmithin' or shootin'/Knowledge roll to get it working again. The Maxim has a Reliability of 19.

Browning Semi-Auto Pistol: Invented by famed scientist/tinkerer/gunsmith John Browning, this is the first truly semi-automatic pistol. It has a "clip" or magazine of 7 shots in the grip (and can carry an additional round in the chamber), and the recoil of each shot chambers the next round, thus allowing for a rapid rate of fire. However, these newfangled weapons are rare and expensive, and the special ammo for them (which is equally hard to come by) costs double what ordinary ammunition costs. The Browning has a Reliability of 18; a malfunction usually indicates a jam, which requires 3 rounds to clear before the gun can be used again. - [Steve Long, listserv, 8/2/98]

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

Deadlands: Law Dogs
Author: Steve Long Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Cost: $20.00 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-889546-26-7 Capsule Review by Allan Seyberth on 08/04/98. Genre tags: none	Major Strengths Law Dogs covers: Rangers, Pinkertons, US Marshals, Secret Service, Military police (Provost Marshal), Local law and the differences in jurisdiction, famous lawmen and judges, the law itself (what is a crime and common punishments), how and who runs the law in the major Weird West cities and famous outlaws all within the first 38 pages. LD then goes on to cover edges and hindrances (both new and how old ones are revised), being an outlaw, underworld slang (thank you Mr. Pinkerton), rumors about the Revenant, new archetypes, combat rules (both new and revised), weapon modifications, a COMPLETE list of all the historical guns of the Old West (with description), a new Huckster subclass with hexes, new relics, the real story behind the law organizations described earlier, stats on the people mentioned earlier, a new method of handling the lesser bad guys (a.k.a. "mooks") in combat AND has a very good adventure for your players. Major Weaknesses All of those bits of information is crammed into the standard 128 pages - along with artwork. The closest analogy I can think of is watching the movie Dune (2 hour version) after having read the book. You KNOW there is a lot more going on, but the movie can only cover so much. And, of course, in the movie - several things got cut. Several times the book refers to another part of the book, and that section is not there. Most notably - the edge "Crossdraw", the Secret Service's Browning Pistol and the Shadowin' skill are mentioned but never described. (Steve Long has already provided the missing information on the listserv, and I expect that the errata will appear on the Pinnacle web site - but for the time being I've attached the info to the bottom of this review) Also known to be missing are the descriptions of the Mounties (rumored to appear in a later sourcebook) and the 26 book long bibliography. There is a general lack of focus feeling to the book. Strengths I don't know about you, but I tend to feel that any sourcebook that uses 26 books as reference material is going to be accurate. The write ups of the various characters was pretty good. I know one of the characters mentioned under famous lawmen is completely fictional (Hank "One Eye" Ketchum) but he was blended in so well with the "historical" figures that I had to wonder about everyone else in the book whose name I didn't recognize. It was also a nice touch to read about some of the figures draw styles and weaknesses. It does not add anything to the game mechanics, but it did add major style points and helped enhance the feeling that you are reading a report about various lawmen working around you. Shame that all of the characters did not get this treatment, otherwise I would have called this a major strength. I think that Law Dogs struck a great balance between the power of the lawmen and the law versus player freedom. The Law is a competent force in the Weird West. Life is certainly easier if you obey the law, but it's not impossible to be an outlaw if you want to be. The new combat rules addressed several problems with the way combat worked, fixing some quirks and improving the overall feel. The new rules also allow you to mimic pretty much any aspect of gunfighting that you might see in a movie - sawed of barrels, swivel holster, hair triggers, really long pistol barrels, the road agent spin, etc. etc. What I really like about the combat revisions is that it shows that Pinnacle listens to their customers. At least two rules were changed as a result of player feedback. Weaknesses The lawmen in general are cookie cutouts. All the lawmen of all the organizations are described as tough, independent and good guys. While the book mentions that the /occasional/ lawman is bad, it glosses over that aspect to play up the white hats and shiny stars. Aside from John Behan, it does not talk about any of those who wore badges but were worse then the outlaws. And John Behan is merely described as incompetent. On that note - several of the figures in specific are flat and one dimensional. Roy Bean is a figure of comedy, John Behan is a coward, and Judge Parker is a stern fearsome figure. (Did you know that when he sentenced his first hanging, he cried in the court room? Eat your heart out Alan Alda.) There is also some contradictory language in the book - the Texas Rangers are described as being tough and independent, well, let me quote the passage "I want men ... who think they can lick the entire Union Army themselves. They got to believe the can get the job done. The Ranger who doesn't learn when to take on something himself and when to call for help is a dead ranger." Some of the expanded called shot numbers seem wrong - I don't think that it should be that harder to shoot someone's hat as opposed to his head. (-10 vs -6). All of the weapon upgrades may lead to muchkinism. While the bonuses are relatively minor and are better for character style rather then character power levels, let the marshal beware anyway. Hexslinger.... A Hexslinger is a specialist huckster. One who combines gunfighting and hex tossing to become a lethal combatant. While I can understand the concept, I don't think it warranted a separate class. It's not really a separate class - a Hexslinger is a huckster that can't gamble. In a book that ended up being too thin, the Hexslinger might have been something to exclude, or at least put out in a dime novel format ala martial artists, hucksters/mad scientists, and steam-tech enhancements. Other The initial parts of the books is told from the perspective of the general of the Texas Rangers. While the attitude was a nice touch and eased up on the possibly dry reading, the snobbish superior-to-anyone else attitude did start to grate (I know it was supposed to - but even knowing that, it did bug). Neither a strength nor a detraction from the content of the book - though I noticed that the time that Ben Thompson caught a Texas Ranger completely flat footed was not mentioned in this book. The Missing Data: (this can also be found at the accumulated rulings archive at http://www.sonic.net/~dkjedi/deadlands/ ) Rulebooks: Law Dogs, Edges C) You may notice in some of the character descriptions (such as Hardin's) the mention of a new Edge, cross draw. The Edge itself was, however, cut. For those who are interested in using it, it costs 1 point; its purpose is to counteract the standard -1 quick draw penalty (LD, p. 59). [Steve Long, listserv, 7/6/98] Rulebooks: Law Dogs, Shadowin' Q) Shadowin' is listed as a Pinkerton skill in Law Dogs. I was wondering where this skill is found. - ? A) It was in the manuscript, but apparently was cut for space. Had it been left in, it would be on pages 44-45. Here's the text from the manuscript: Shadowin': This new Aptitude, based on Cognition, is a favorite with detectives and spies. It allows the character to follow and observe someone without being seen -- not very polite, really, but sometimes the Weird West requires a little rudeness. Typically, shadowin' someone requires a Fair (5) roll for every block or so that they walk in a city or town, or every mile or so they ride or walk in the wilderness. The roll is reduced to Foolproof (3) if there are plenty of crowds or other obstacles to cover the character's actions, and increased to Onerous (7) or even Hard (9) if there's nowhere to hide, the subject being followed knows the character on sight, or there are other difficulties (it's mighty hard to shadow someone across the desert when he can see for miles in every direction, after all). Characters being shadowed can make a shadowin' or search roll to figure out that they've picked up a tail; the Target Number for this roll is based on the circumstances, as described above -- the more cover the shadower has, the harder he is to spot. [Steve Long, listserv, 7/25/98] Rulebooks: Law Dogs, Weapons Q) Maybe it's a 2am hallucination, but I've coulda sworn that Steve posted the stats to the SS's Browning earlier this month - but I just went over the full listserv archives with a comb and couldn't find them. Anyone happen to have 'em? - Darious A) Yeah, I might happen to have 'em lying around somewhere. :) Maxim Semiautomatic Rifle .44 16 2 2 20 4d8 +0 5 1876 $80 Browning Semi-Auto Pistol .45 7+1 1 2 10 3d6 -1 2 1876 $100 Maxim Semiautomatic Rifle: This odd rifle, an adaptation of the Winchester "Yellow Boy," uses a unique semiautomatic mechanism which allows for rapid firing. A magazine of 16 rounds is contained in the butt, along with a special lever that uses the force of the gun's recoil against the shooter's shoulder to chamber another round. If the gun is used to hipshoot (see Deadlands, page 93), this mechanism will not work and the gun thereafter has a ROF of 1 until the character uses a single action and makes a Fair (5) trade: gunsmithin' or shootin'/Knowledge roll to get it working again. The Maxim has a Reliability of 19. Browning Semi-Auto Pistol: Invented by famed scientist/tinkerer/gunsmith John Browning, this is the first truly semi-automatic pistol. It has a "clip" or magazine of 7 shots in the grip (and can carry an additional round in the chamber), and the recoil of each shot chambers the next round, thus allowing for a rapid rate of fire. However, these newfangled weapons are rare and expensive, and the special ammo for them (which is equally hard to come by) costs double what ordinary ammunition costs. The Browning has a Reliability of 18; a malfunction usually indicates a jam, which requires 3 rounds to clear before the gun can be used again. - [Steve Long, listserv, 8/2/98] Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Deadlands: Law Dogs