Dust Devils review is up

[Clinton R. Nixon]

In addition to the Dust Devils review, you'll notice a first glimpse of me using our new content management system to organize things. Check it out and make sure and comment on Dust Devils.

[James]

I'm not entirely sure what sort of HTML formatting is used for that review, as well as the review page itself, but it's all but unreadable using IE 5 for OS X.  The text runs off the right side of the browser window in one, unbroken string until it's brought back with a paragraph break.  Makes for some darned frustrating reading.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

James,

Let me know if you have further problems reading the review. I have changed the stylesheet.

In the future, if you have a technical difficultly, send me a private message or e-mail me at webmaster@indie-rpgs.com.

[James]

Let me know if you have further problems reading the review. I have changed the stylesheet.

In the future, if you have a technical difficultly, send me a private message or e-mail me at webmaster@indie-rpgs.com.

Will do.  And thanks for addressing the issue so quickly.

Now, on the subject at hand: I have to agree that what the game needs to be really complete is some GM material that goes beyond the core mechanics and gets into the meat of the gaming side of the equation.  Otherwise, as I've mentioned elsewhere, one is stuck with a cool game that one doesn't do much with.

Having read through the whole cards-in-play description, I have to ask: how similar is all of this to Deadlands, with its much-vaunted cards-and-chips play mechanic?  I'll confess I've never even cracked the spine on a copy of those rules.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi James,

Deadlands runs mainly on a dice system, composed of size (faces) of die as well as number of dice. It uses a very standard target-number resolution.

The chips are the metagame - different colors represent different privileges, such as re-rolls.

Cards are used in three ways: (1) character generation, ie, the deck's probabilities are used to generate attribute values; (2) setting the order in combat, including the possibility of "interrupting" the initiative order; and (3) as a sub-system for the Huckster character class, whose magical power is determined by the worth of the poker hands. There are at least three other sub-systems, including shamanic magic, holy magic, and technomagic.

I have played Deadlands pretty extensively and I find it to be something of a kitchen-sink in terms of system. In addition to the above, there's also a Call of Cthulhu like Fear system and a lot of variables to keep track of in combat.

Dust Devils has one resolution system that frankly does a lot more than any (or all) of the Deadlands system, especially in terms of the degree of violence and the rights to narration. To address the poker issue specifically, its use of poker is a lot more straightforward than the Huckster-magic in Deadlands, in which every spell has a minimum hand to be drawn.

Best,
Ron