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Trekkin
2010-11-27, 01:34 AM
So some of my friends and I are looking at Deadlands classic with an eye towards putting a game together, and being the creative fellow I am, I rather like the idea of playing a mad scientist, although I'm wondering about a few things:

1. is there any system out there that allows the products of mad science to be encoded into the rules more systematically than by the comparison to existing devices suggested in the rulebook? The Junker rules from Hell on Earth look promising, particularly for fuel consumption, but if there exists come kind of homebrew scale for determining required hands/damage rolls/anything else, it would be handy to have something of the sort to suggest to the GM should the question arise.

2. what does the mad scientist usually do in the party? it sounds like his/her talents are more suited to an NPC, given the time they usually take to do anything special(and how exactly one is supposed to pack a lab that normally takes the space of a barn loft into anything adventurer-portable is beyond me) ; is there a role loosely defined for the scientist to fall into as there is for the Blessed, shaman, and huckster?

3. any recommendations on how to set up and play a particularly enjoyable mad scientist, as well as anecdotes involving the same, would be most appreciated.

Darrin
2010-11-27, 09:47 AM
1. is there any system out there that allows the products of mad science to be encoded into the rules more systematically than by the comparison to existing devices suggested in the rulebook? The Junker rules from Hell on Earth look promising, particularly for fuel consumption, but if there exists come kind of homebrew scale for determining required hands/damage rolls/anything else, it would be handy to have something of the sort to suggest to the GM should the question arise.


The "compare and eyeball" method is the best to determine the relative difficulty of a particular gadget. It helps if you have Smiths & Robards (more examples to compare against, or just recreate an existing gadget), but there's a few things in there the Marshall might want to ignore (the rocket boots are a bit too silly).



2. what does the mad scientist usually do in the party? it sounds like his/her talents are more suited to an NPC, given the time they usually take to do anything special(and how exactly one is supposed to pack a lab that normally takes the space of a barn loft into anything adventurer-portable is beyond me) ; is there a role loosely defined for the scientist to fall into as there is for the Blessed, shaman, and huckster?


Usually, the Mad Scientist purchases or builds some sort of offensive weapon to start with. If you just want something off the shelf, the flamethrower in the main rulebook works just fine (but there's a better version in Smiths & Robards that's a little easier to control). In our games, we had one Mad Scientist create a "Steam Cannon" that worked pretty much like a flamethrower, and another one that designed a pneumatic "Dynamite Chucker". If you look at some of the spin-off materials (Great Rail Wars, card game, etc.), the Mad Scientists are usually heavy weapons & artillery experts. They've got the big area-effect weapons. You also don't want to stand too close to them when they start making malfunction rolls. If they don't take any type of flamethrower or heavy weapon, then suggest they carry a gatling pistol "just in case certain varmints need a little discouragement".

If your Mad Scientist deliberately does not take on some sort of combat role, then they may have some difficulties getting involved with the action once the cards/dice/chips hit the table. They may feel left out and get bored. Most of the design/building of gadgets takes place "off-screen" and takes up considerable downtime. Many Marshall's handwave this or tweak the plot so that the Mad Scientist gets time to build their gadgets (or wait for the delivery from the Smiths & Robards ornithopter).



3. any recommendations on how to set up and play a particularly enjoyable mad scientist, as well as anecdotes involving the same, would be most appreciated.

The quirks they pick up are what I remember most... we had one mad scientist with severe facial ticks, deep hatred of certain minorities, *had* to wear a sombrero, often refused to leave her steam wagon, was afraid of the dark, always getting kicked/bitten by animals, half a dozen severe phobias I can't remember, and just by the quirks was almost unplayable towards the end of the campaign.

Because it takes so many resources to design/build gadgets, it can be really frustrating to try and integrate a Mad Scientist into the party unless he's already built himself something the party can immediately use (flamethrower, steam wagon, etc.). The best way to make them feel useful is to insert some gadgets into the story that aren't currently functioning but can be "repaired" by the Mad Scientist. For example:

"Hey, Doc... that steamwagon the bandits drove over the cliff... think you could fix it? Could be mighty handy when we storm the cultists' compound."

"Well, that cave-in blocks the only way out of these tunnels, it'll take days to dig it out... hey, that steam-powered freight elevator that broke down back there, maybe we could fix it and turn it into a drilling machine?"

"Dagnabbit! We're trapped in the belly of this ironclad steamship, and all we got are a few dozen kooky bottles labeled with all sorts of strange words like 'ghostrock powder', 'potassium nitrate', 'elemental sulfur', 'hydrochloric acetate'... how the heck is that supposed to help us?"

Also, keep in mind, the backstory for the gameworld has the Reckoners *using* Mad Scientists for their nefarious purposes. It stands to reason they might arrange things so that the Mad Scientists encounter some plans or a device that will eventually aid their efforts sometime down the road. So yes, that ghostrock-powered cropduster or revivification elixir may get the PCs out of a tough scrape now... but what did the Mad Scientist unwittingly do by letting that djinni out of the bottle that could come back later to haunt them?