So, it looks like I'm not going to get a chance to run this before I move, so I might as well do somethign with it. As such:

The Badlands
Ghost Hunting Cowboys for the Paladin System.

Backdrop
The Badlands are every legend of the old west rolled together and sprawled back out. Small towns dot a barren landscape where only the most determined farmers and ranchers can eke out a living. Every year is a bad one, but never quite bad enough. Most folks in the badlands stay out of sheer stubborness, but every year some move on out. Some go west to the land of promise, where it's said the land is good if a man is willing to work it hard. Others go east, to the city, where work is plentiful, pay is good and life is cheap. Other fall victims to the critters and ghosts that haunt the wilds of the badlands.

Still, no matter how many leave, there are always independant minded folks who are looking to carve out a home for themselves.

What law there is in the Badlands is enforced by the Rangers, gunslingers from the west whose silver sixguns are the only protection against the things that haunt the wilderness of the badlands. Sometimes protection can be had from the Marshalls of the city, but they've been known to charge a steep price.

Organization, Faith and Charter
The Rangers are good men who have been condemned, but have been offered a last chance. Their sentence is commuted so long as they protect the badlands. Most consider it better than the alternative, though occaisionally a Ranger ends up on the city's payroll, for the Mayor tends to actively attempt to recruit from their number. The relationship between the Marshals and the Rangers is strained - neither is supposed to initiate hostilities with the other, but definitions of "initatiting" and "hostilites" are sometimes flexible.

Rangers get their orders from the Governor in the capitol, usually via rider but sometimes by telegraph, bird or other messanger. The Governor's order's tend to be specific, but lacking in clarity, a fact that is a constant source of irritation

Code

Minor Laws

Never back down from a legitimate challenge
Never take from those in need unless freely given



Major Laws

Never turn down a plea for help
Never take a man's guns or his horse.
Always help a fellow ranger in need


Unbreakable Laws

Obey the Governor's orders
Never go to the West



Arms
Rangers carry a pair of silver revolvers that are recognized throughout the badlands. They grow tarnished and black in the hands of a non-ranger so they serve as their own means of identification.

Power
The Rangers are capable of a number of incredible feats. They can:


Perform amazing feats of strength, agility and endurance
Follow a track or trail from the minutest of evidence
Shoot anything, including things which would normally require somethign special (like silver bullets) to hit, or even things that shouldn't be able to be hit at all (like ghosts).
Ride any distance in the time it takes the sun to cross the sky.



Special Rules
Marks only seem to be apparent to Rangers and Marshalls, most citizens (with a few peculiar exceptions) do not seem to notice them.

Cool Setting!

Do Rangers become Outlaws if they go to the BlackHat-side?

Totally rad setting. Why'd you tone down Marks, though?

To answer both questions:

Rangers can become Marshals, and they are despised and disdained, but they are also sponsored by The Mayor, and thus still subject to the sort of cold-war level tension between the Marshals and Rangers (i.e. they may be called out with cause, but shooting them on sight is a no-no).

Getting rid of the marks was partly of a flavor thing - I'm notthat taken by the visuals of Deadlands, which is where I would go with Marks in this setting.

More importantly, one of the underlying themes of the setting is which direction inhabitants of the Badlands go when they leave - while we may know the Rangers are the good guys of the piece, for joe farmer in the badlands, having a Marshal take over a town and make it his own domain isn't entirely a bad thing - sure he may be a nasty despot, but he also keeps it safe from the other dangers of the badlands.

Thinking about this makes me realize I may have spun off on an odd assumption - Most of the Paladin settings seem to consider the bulk of the populace to be aligned with one side or the other. In the absence of that, the removing visible marks make sense - to those in the middle, both sides really should look equally appealing.

Anyway, that's how it skitters around in my mind.

-Rob D.

What does "Never go to the West" mean?

Exactly that. There is the East (where the city and mayor are), The Badlands, and the West, a land of promise where the Governor's orders come from.


To take a moment to talk bluntly about subtext, that's the part that says "You will never live happily ever after. Is it still worth it to fight the good fight?"

Very interesting!

Is this at all inspired by Stephen King's gunslinger character? I can't remember the exact names of the books - it might be a called the Dark Tower series. There seem to be a lot of similarities.

jdagna wrote: Very interesting!

Is this at all inspired by Stephen King's gunslinger character? I can't remember the exact names of the books - it might be a called the Dark Tower series. There seem to be a lot of similarities.

Working on my own Paladin setting right now, I've hit a bit of a wall (I've still got a couple of hours left in the night, plus some of tomorrow, thankfully) in that defining the nature of Animus is giving me fits. And even more than that, its source.

I'm assuming you've come up with something to explain yours, but since you didn't mention it, I thought I'd see if maybe you'd catch this message in the next day or so and give some insight. ;)

Looking at it, it seems exactly where my problem is: where's the duality in the Animus? What makes what the Rangers use "Light", and what the Marshalls use "Dark"? With Paladin, the Animus itself seems very much a two-sided coin; the fact that they're connected is less important than the fact that there are two distinct sides, two seperate entities.

Because it's not intent that's making Animus either Light or Dark; the character is specifically drawing on one or the other (he's calling Heads or he's calling Tails before he makes that Animus roll; you don't get to call Edge, and take whatever lands).

So with your Old West.. where is the Animus coming from? What is its nature? (I think this question should be included in the rewrite in the 'Creating the Setting' chapter, with some nice happy examples given ;).

[edit] Some example-thoughts to back up my reasoning, drawn from the book:
* Star Wars/Voidknights: easy, you've got the Force (the coin), which has the Light Side (Heads) and the Dark Side (Tails).
* Sword of Heaven: Ai is the source of Light Animus; a human soul is the source of Dark Animus. This seems to fit thematically: Witches kill others for more Dark Animus, which means the victim must have some power to begin with.. and if they're not paladins, and they're not touching the Light, well then.. In any case, you've still got your duality. Seperate sources, actually, in this case (using standard fantasy-world declaration between God and Mortal).

perhaps "Authority" ?
which could have a positive (protective) and negative (oppressive) flow

Also, The Path between Ranger and Marshall isn't too clear by the Code.
The very fastest way to go from being a Ranger to a Marshall would be to "disobey the Governor" or "go into the West".
Neither of these paths seem to fit with the Marshall lifestyle, unless you write in tensions between the Mayors control of Towns versus the Governor control of the Territories. The other thing would be to provide a temptation to go West and return to the Towns.

Oo! Oo!

I'm really not sure how well 'Authority' would work as the Animus source in a Wild West game, but..

It would kick -all- kinds of butt in an Ancient China setting; it's the Mandate of Heaven. Those who act in accord with it draw on Light Animus, and those who disobey the law (it doesn't matter if the law might be 'wrong' - the law is the law) draw on Dark Animus.

I was going to run a game in that kind of setting with Donjon at some point (Juuni Kokki, if anyone's familiar with that), but damn, Paladin would rock with that kind of spiritual element tying it together.

Sorry for the delay in response - Been moving cross country.

The Rangers and Marshalls are intentionally pretty close to one another - the true extremes are in the East and West. I suppose it all has to do with subtext that May not come across clearly - The Badlands are Purgatory, and with that in mind, you may be able to guess who the Mayor and Governor are.

-Rob D.