Deadlands THE FLOOD Concluding

[Topdecker]

I've GMed Deadlands THE FLOOD since March, 2017 on a weekly basis (around 16 sessions missed) with 3 to 4 hours long sessions and the campaign will be concluding on the 31st of July. We touched on about 75% of the material in the book and brought in plenty of stuff from Grim Prairie Tales. The posse experienced one casualtie as well as numerous near-death experiences along the way.

Anyhow, I mention this because potential Marshal's should be aware of how big a commitment THE FLOOD can be - optionally, they should know how good a value it is because you get a lot of sandbox gaming between the covers. While it could be better setup for VTT (more maps, please), it is a well constructed, fun romp through the dark domain of famine. I am pretty sure that my players will have 5 to 7 moments of game play that they probably will never forget and I am really happy that THE FLOOD helped us have those memorable role playing moments.

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[Sgain]

I'm about 20 sessions in (my games usually run 2-3 hours per session) and we've only scraped the actual plot points. My posse likes to take off after things and get in more trouble. Map wise it does suck, which sadly, is a problem with SW products. You have to spend a lot of time hunting down good VTT material which can be a pain. But the end result it worth it as its a great adventure.

[Topdecker]

SPOILERS IN HERE - you might want to stop reading if you are a player in THE FLOOD.

Yeah, the campaign is a lot of fun and the slow way the plot spins out is nice. I don't believe that my players felt rail-roaded or manipulated much beyond the first train ride in with Hellstromme. (Funny that the introduction piece was the most contrived - and literally on a railroad.)

Here is some friendly advice...

There are a couple of smaller adventures that have symbols revealed without really explaining what they are. I would suggest that you run each of them. I say this because the need to locate 7 symbols near the end of the adventure is a bit on the redundant side - I found that reducing it to 5 was helpful.

I would also suggest that a couple of the symbol locations be unoccupied - just hidden - or held by neutral or friendly forces. This will speed things up a bit and make it less predictable. (My guys are down to 2 locations, but one is in friendly hands and the other is just hidden - they don't know that the final encounter is next gaming session, and hopefully this helps with making it feel more exciting and a bit less plodding in nature.)

I also have been harrassing the posse with a long-term villain that was unrelated to The Flood. The villain learned of the symbols and was able to lay in wait so the party could have a final battle. (The villain sealed them in a cave with TNT and then taunted them safely via an air duct. I left the pieces for a weird-science dramatic task to allow them to escape after 3 or 4 days of very hard work and preparation.) Anyhow - message here is that the party has to go to these locations and that might be able to be used that to resolve any on-going threads in a semi-logical fashion.

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[goodmanje]

Yea, the Savage Worlds map issue is ridiculous. Seven Worlds is the only setting I've seen that has anything usable.

[Topdecker]

Yes, that is a good product! I Kickstarted it.

I also Kickstarted Sector Asgard Kappa. It is more focused on providing a setting - gobs of planetary maps and a complete sector for Sci-Fi games. I'd recommend it as well - combo it up with Book of Maps 2 for generic high-quality sci-fi maps.

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