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Marshal Law:  House Rules.

Posted by The MarshalFor group 0
The Marshal
GM, 80 posts
Tue 7 Aug 2012
at 02:47
  • msg #1

Marshal Law:  House Rules

MARSHAL LAW

This thread will serve as an archive and repository of all 'house rules' added by this Marshal for this game presently in effect.  The traditional rules of the Deadlands system and setting (© 1996 Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved) will apply in the conduct of this game, except when they are countermanded here by the Marshal.  This list will be periodically updated based on necessity and circumstance.

Table of Contents

Chapter I.  General Rules

     A.  General Rules of Conduct
     B.  Activity Guidelines
     C.  Posting Rules

Chapter II.  Gameplay Rules

     D.  Character Creation Rules
     E.  Fate & Bounty
     F.  Combat
     G.  Improvin'
     H.  Traits, Aptitudes, Edges, Hindrances and Arcana
     I.  Administration of the Rules


Marshal Law

Chapter I.  General Rules

A. Rules of Conduct
  1. The Marshal's word is law without exception.
    I do my best to fairly administer the game, but I'm busy and don't like to argue over minutia. If ever I make an error that goes against the player, I'll do my best to rectify it.  I'm open to discussion and suggestions, but I am not here to argue.
  2. Roleplaying and character development are the focus of this game.  We're going to have a bunch of heroes adventuring and living in the Weird West.  We'll use the dice, the cards, and the chips just like any other Deadlands game, but I want them to be a means to the storytelling rather than an end in and of themselves.
  3. Have fun and be polite.  We're here to play a game and have a good time.  Our characters may get along fantastically or may have conflicts, and that is fine.  But every player should treat each and every other player (and the Marshal!) with politeness and respect.

B.  Activity Guidelines
  1. This is an active game compared to many other games on RPOL.  The Marshal's expectation is that players will post at least once a day.  This is not a hard and fast rule, as we know life gets busy to time to time.  The idea is that regular and frequent participation helps keep events moving and keeps the game from stagnating.  Let's be honest, if you've been in a few RPOL games you've been in some that linger for months with little story or character progression.  This is not that type of game.
  2. If you're going to be away for an extended period, let us know so we can act appropriately.  One of the Marshal's pet peeves is people who effectively disappear without saying anything about it.
  3. After a brief period of inactivity, determined at the Marshal's discretion and relative to the general pace of the game, your character may be used in an NPC fashion as necessary to keep events moving.  After an extended period of inactivity, your character will be moved to a resting place until you as a player can regularly commence control of the character.
  4. Repeated or extended absences have a detrimental effect on the continuity and cohesiveness of the story and may result in character and/or player removal at the Marshal's discretion.

C.  Posting Rules
  1. Players sometimes may post at the same time, and one post may render another useless or necessitate a change.  Please check for other posts just before you post to avoid an awkward situation.
  2. In situations in which two or more mutually exclusive posts take place within a 15 minute window, order of primacy will be determined by the timestamp on the Dice Roller.  If no rolls are involved, the first post takes primacy.
  3. To the best of your ability, use proper spelling and grammar.
  4. All speech belongs both in the unique speech color for each character and quotation marks.  Use italics to denote your character's thoughts.
  5. Always post in third person, past tense.  The goal is for your posts to read like a typical novel.  Consider yourself an omniscient outsider viewer who is reporting on your character's actions, thoughts, and intentions. (Credit: Whimper3)


Chapter II.  Gameplay Rules

D.  Character Creation
  1. All players must take either the Heroic OR Law o' the West hindrance.
  2. Marshal approval is required prior to taking the Veteran o' the Weird West Edge.
  3. Players will receive 3 extra points to apply to Edges during character creation if they come up with a background that develops a relationship between their own character and another player-character before the game starts.  The spirit of this rule is to encourage the party to have a good reason to link up together, so make it substantial.  "We got drunk once in a bar" ain't gonna cut it.
  4. If a player is rolling a character after a previous character's death and have participated in the game for a substantial period of time, upon that character's death, any new character she creates may take the Veteran o' the Weird West Edge.

E.  Fate & Bounty
  1. In Deadlands, Fate chips are traditionally awarded for each "game session."  Most of the time, each "game" will consist of a time period subjectively determined by the Marshal based on the pace of the game. After awards and improvements, the next game session will begin and players may draw their chips.
  2. Legend Chips: Everything is as stated in the Player's Guide.

F.  Combat
  1. Stun tests will only be made when a character has a Light wound (one wounds level)
  2. When spending Fate chips towards the removal of other people's Wound levels, remember that they spend at a 2 to 1 ratio and that you must use them before your next action as well as within three actions after the wounds are posted.

G.  Improvin'
  1. You may improve anything regardless of success or failure in the previous game session as long as you have the Bounty to pay for it.
  2. To raise an Aptitude to a 6, you must succeed in the face of a difficult situation (Marshal discretion) with two "raises" and pay 12 bounty.
  3. Characters helping Characters:  If your character has an Aptitude at 3 or higher and wishes to instruct another character who is attempting an unskilled check in that Aptitude, the character on the receiving end of the instruction receives a +1 bonus to their unskilled check.  Once they succeed, this bonus no longer applies.

H.  Traits, Aptitudes, Edges, Hindrances, and Arcana
  1. Persuasion and Bluff have no binding effect when used on player characters by other player characters.  If you wish to make an persuasive or dishonest statement, the other character can evaluate the statement on its merits and then choose to accept it or dismiss it as they will.  You may still roll your Persuasion, if you wish to give a sense of how Persuasive your character is, but it is at the receiving player's discretion how he will treat such a roll.  Persuasion and Bluff will continue to operate normally on NPCs.
  2. "All Reds" - My tribute to Ocean's 11, for hucksters & hexslingers & mad scientists.  If you have nothing in your hand, but you have "all reds" it counts as the minimum hand for a hex.
  3. The Scrutinize Aptitude is used to closely examine, whether you are closely examining people to test their reactions or closely examining objects to make out finer details.

I.  Administration
  1. I will not provide a TN before a roll upon request.  If you think you may want to chip a roll, you should do so beforehand.  If you do not and fail the roll, the consequences will be as they should.  Spending chips after obtaining a declaration from the Marshal that the roll failed is not allowed, nor is asking for TNs (unless you have a special ability that allows you to do this).  Sometimes I will provide a TN on something that is very generic or formulaic at my discretion, and if you have a decent mastery of the rule system you can fairly easily predict combat TNs on your own.
  2. As a human being, I make the occasional (albeit rare) mistake, sometimes in favor of the players.  I almost always let those go in favor of the players, however this practice does not create a de facto "but we got to do it last time" rule.  All of us have access to the rulebooks and the House Rules here.  Mistakes are one (or more) time incidents until they are corrected.
  3. A ruling by the Marshal made in any situation for which the standard rules provide little or no guidance is to be interpreted as for that situation only unless it is incorporated into this document.

This message was last edited by the GM at 14:40, Mon 06 Apr 2015.
The Marshal
GM, 81 posts
Tue 7 Aug 2012
at 02:49
  • msg #2

The Black Chip

The Black Chip

Just as fate smiles on those that persevere against the odds and accomplish their goals, fate also frowns upon those that cause trouble and fail their desires. When the posse does something 'evil' or royally screws up an adventure and ends up leaving things worse than when they started, they earn a “Black Chip”. Some examples of screwing things up include raising a fear level, a major public disgrace for the posse, letting tough opponents get away, getting involved in the wrong side of a dispute and gaining major notoriety for their magical or bizarre talents which would draw the attention of the Tombstone Epitaph or government agency.

When a posse member draws a Black Chip from the fate pot, fate frowns upon the group and bad things are soon to come. The posse member who drew the Black Chip does not get to draw a replacement chip. During the session, something bad will happen to the posse and that something will most likely notice the player who drew the Black Chip first if possible. For example, if the posse earned the Black Chip because they angered, attacked and fled from the notorious bandit “Six-gun Sanchez”, then maybe he came looking for the posse for revenge. And Mr. Sanchez most likely walks into the local saloon just as the unfortunate individual who drew the Black Chip was coming down the stairs...alone. Sanchez will most likely take out his pent-up aggression on right then and there, or follow the individual back to the posse before he begins causing trouble (depending how deserving he is and what kind of mood the Marshal is in). Say the posse earned the Black Chip because their huckster gained a reputation as a practitioner of the black arts, then maybe a team of Pinkertons or a posse of bounty killers will be aiming to take him dead or alive. Only the players may draw Black Chips. The possibilities are endless, but any way you look at it, the Black Chip is an omen that something wicked this way comes...
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