Messageboard Golem
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Prestige classes, feats and equipment for gunslingers
The Way of the Gun
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trancejeremy
Adventurer
Way of the Gun is the first in a series of class books (or splatbooks) for Deadlands d20. It's 64 pages, $15, and softcover. It's also difficult to find - I saw it in my local game store when it first came out, wanted to get it, but didn't have enough money with me. So I said to myself, I'll get it next week. But alas, next week, I went there, and it was gone. <sniff>.
Anyway, several months later, I managed to track down a used copy. Paid a lot though (more than cover price. Bah.)
So, anyway, this is the splat book for the Gunslinger, more or less. I'm generally not a huge fan of splat books, but I really like Deadlands d20, and gunslingers. This is a somewhat cheaply made book, too. The art is mostly (entirely?) recycled from other Deadlands products, including Deadlands d20. It's fairly small for it's price, though I guess $15 for a 64 page book is now pretty much standard (in fact, some recent 64 page books are even more, pushing $20).
Oddly enough, the introductory story piece doesn't actually feature a gunslinger per se, but a Harrowed (For those not familiar with Deadlands, a character which is dead, but reanimated by an evil spirit, though the original soul can reassert itself). It's also uninspired, featuring the cliche of a young kid wanting to fight an established, named gunman.
The first chapter starts off with some background on gunfighting (as does the intro). Fairly interesting. Then there's an idea to add wound levels to hit points. Essentially, you divide up hitpoints into fifths, and for each fifth taken, you suffer a cumulative -1 penalty. Personally, I think hit points are more like in Die Hard, where you get bloodier and dirtier and tired and start losing your hair, but you don't lose your edge. But it's a nice enough (and easy) optional rule. Then it's back to background material, with some slang (again, most you've likely heard before.
Chapter two is all new rules. Starts out with some new feats suitable for gunslingers, and then some more gun tricks that gunslingers can perform. Then are some prestige classes. The Bounty Hunter, the Card Sharp, the Crusader, the Desperado, the Gunsmith, the Law Dog (woof), the Rifleman, and the Spy. Most are somewhat obvious from their name, but the Crusader is something of a holy gunman.
The regular Deadlands equivalent of this book, Law Dogs (or so I think, I don't have it, but products I do have says it has it in it), introduced a new sort of thing into regular Deadlands - the Hexslinger. This was a combination Gunslinger/Huckster (a huckster being a magician). I was expecting something of that sort in this book. But apparently not. Still, the Prestige Classes seem fairly well enough done.
Chapter Three is all about guns, though it's quite short at 6 pages. Lots and lots and lots of them - the stats listing for the guns takes up two pages. Most of them are real, historical ones. But there are some new, fictional, Deadlands style ones. Also some ways to customize guns. Most just have the stats listed, but there's about 2 pages of 1 or so paragraph descriptions of notable or unusual guns (just like in Deadlands d20).
Chapter Four is tiny (2 pages), and is on gunslinger relics, essentially magic items. Nothing real exciting.
Chapter Five is mostly on NPCs - both famous real life gunslingers and fictional ones from the Deadlands universe. Wes Hardin, Doc Holiday, Clay Allison, are the ones you've likely heard of (Jesse James is in the DL d20 rulebook). Probably the longest is on Wes Hardin, who was probably the deadliest gunfighter in the old west, though is relatively unknown today (sharing a first name with the wussiest character ever on TV is possibly a factor). At least one is fictional - Hank Ketchum, a Texas Ranger (whose name pretty much sums up Pinnacle's idea of humor). There's about 12 pages of them
Lastly, the chapter ends with a bit on trials. Seems like filler.
I like this book for a couple of reasons: It has lots of guns, has tips on gunfighting, and has some stats for historical people (albeit, not very many). But then again, 2 of the 3 DVDs I own are "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" and "A Fistful of Dollars" (the 3rd is a James Bond movie which came with it). Some of it is useful for non-Deadlands campaigns, as the prestige classes in this are fairly non-magical.
Anyway, several months later, I managed to track down a used copy. Paid a lot though (more than cover price. Bah.)
So, anyway, this is the splat book for the Gunslinger, more or less. I'm generally not a huge fan of splat books, but I really like Deadlands d20, and gunslingers. This is a somewhat cheaply made book, too. The art is mostly (entirely?) recycled from other Deadlands products, including Deadlands d20. It's fairly small for it's price, though I guess $15 for a 64 page book is now pretty much standard (in fact, some recent 64 page books are even more, pushing $20).
Oddly enough, the introductory story piece doesn't actually feature a gunslinger per se, but a Harrowed (For those not familiar with Deadlands, a character which is dead, but reanimated by an evil spirit, though the original soul can reassert itself). It's also uninspired, featuring the cliche of a young kid wanting to fight an established, named gunman.
The first chapter starts off with some background on gunfighting (as does the intro). Fairly interesting. Then there's an idea to add wound levels to hit points. Essentially, you divide up hitpoints into fifths, and for each fifth taken, you suffer a cumulative -1 penalty. Personally, I think hit points are more like in Die Hard, where you get bloodier and dirtier and tired and start losing your hair, but you don't lose your edge. But it's a nice enough (and easy) optional rule. Then it's back to background material, with some slang (again, most you've likely heard before.
Chapter two is all new rules. Starts out with some new feats suitable for gunslingers, and then some more gun tricks that gunslingers can perform. Then are some prestige classes. The Bounty Hunter, the Card Sharp, the Crusader, the Desperado, the Gunsmith, the Law Dog (woof), the Rifleman, and the Spy. Most are somewhat obvious from their name, but the Crusader is something of a holy gunman.
The regular Deadlands equivalent of this book, Law Dogs (or so I think, I don't have it, but products I do have says it has it in it), introduced a new sort of thing into regular Deadlands - the Hexslinger. This was a combination Gunslinger/Huckster (a huckster being a magician). I was expecting something of that sort in this book. But apparently not. Still, the Prestige Classes seem fairly well enough done.
Chapter Three is all about guns, though it's quite short at 6 pages. Lots and lots and lots of them - the stats listing for the guns takes up two pages. Most of them are real, historical ones. But there are some new, fictional, Deadlands style ones. Also some ways to customize guns. Most just have the stats listed, but there's about 2 pages of 1 or so paragraph descriptions of notable or unusual guns (just like in Deadlands d20).
Chapter Four is tiny (2 pages), and is on gunslinger relics, essentially magic items. Nothing real exciting.
Chapter Five is mostly on NPCs - both famous real life gunslingers and fictional ones from the Deadlands universe. Wes Hardin, Doc Holiday, Clay Allison, are the ones you've likely heard of (Jesse James is in the DL d20 rulebook). Probably the longest is on Wes Hardin, who was probably the deadliest gunfighter in the old west, though is relatively unknown today (sharing a first name with the wussiest character ever on TV is possibly a factor). At least one is fictional - Hank Ketchum, a Texas Ranger (whose name pretty much sums up Pinnacle's idea of humor). There's about 12 pages of them
Lastly, the chapter ends with a bit on trials. Seems like filler.
I like this book for a couple of reasons: It has lots of guns, has tips on gunfighting, and has some stats for historical people (albeit, not very many). But then again, 2 of the 3 DVDs I own are "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" and "A Fistful of Dollars" (the 3rd is a James Bond movie which came with it). Some of it is useful for non-Deadlands campaigns, as the prestige classes in this are fairly non-magical.
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