In which I am a fan.
May. 23rd, 2012 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
green_dreamsSomeone (quite reasonably!) asked if the new Deadlands Noir wasn't just going to be a Call of Cthulhu game set in the '30s. And I ended up trying to articulate the differences between the two. I think I may have gotten giddily idealistic (which is a weird thing to be when discussing a horror game, one which initially billed itself as "The Spaghetti Western... with meat!"); I also think it's worth saying.
See, in Deadlands, the enemies can know what they're doing and still be sane, and that makes a huge difference. You can be sane. The horror is a lot closer to the surface.
You can fight. You can, sometimes, win[1]. And that you did, that someone did, that can literally change the damn world. Might not make it a happy place, but you can at least keep it a human one.
I call Deadlands "Cthulhu and Six-guns", sometimes--a term fromtheweaselking--but that's not "unbeatable eldritch horror and pop-guns". That's "in the bloody sneaking teeth of inhuman horror, among the crooked or the corrupt or the afraid, you may look into the darkness (or the pitiless glare of high noon) and pick up your weapon and stand your ground."
You may lose. Or you may die. But by god you can do it with grit or compassion or knowledge aforethought, flawed and human though you be, and that--that is where the game shines.
(Also? Zombies. Possibly even you.)
Deadlands is awesome. How they are going to mesh this with the mean streets of Chandler (down which a man may go who is neither tarnished nor afraid; I love that line), I don't know. I've seen what a good Deadlands game can be, though, and given the products to date I figure it's worth my time to see.
It may not be your thing (and that is more than fine!). But hey, they've gotten the second installment of the video story up, and if you are interested in the setting the first and cheapest thing they're offering is an illustrated story, no gaming required. Could do worse than check it out, you know?
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[1] Even if the Reckoners cheat. They cheat, the bastards, and I still get a pang in my heart when I think of Coot Jenkins. He came so damn close.
See, in Deadlands, the enemies can know what they're doing and still be sane, and that makes a huge difference. You can be sane. The horror is a lot closer to the surface.
You can fight. You can, sometimes, win[1]. And that you did, that someone did, that can literally change the damn world. Might not make it a happy place, but you can at least keep it a human one.
I call Deadlands "Cthulhu and Six-guns", sometimes--a term from
theweaselking--but that's not "unbeatable eldritch horror and pop-guns". That's "in the bloody sneaking teeth of inhuman horror, among the crooked or the corrupt or the afraid, you may look into the darkness (or the pitiless glare of high noon) and pick up your weapon and stand your ground."You may lose. Or you may die. But by god you can do it with grit or compassion or knowledge aforethought, flawed and human though you be, and that--that is where the game shines.
(Also? Zombies. Possibly even you.)
Deadlands is awesome. How they are going to mesh this with the mean streets of Chandler (down which a man may go who is neither tarnished nor afraid; I love that line), I don't know. I've seen what a good Deadlands game can be, though, and given the products to date I figure it's worth my time to see.
It may not be your thing (and that is more than fine!). But hey, they've gotten the second installment of the video story up, and if you are interested in the setting the first and cheapest thing they're offering is an illustrated story, no gaming required. Could do worse than check it out, you know?
---
[1] Even if the Reckoners cheat. They cheat, the bastards, and I still get a pang in my heart when I think of Coot Jenkins. He came so damn close.
