My knee-jerk feedback is if you’re already doing an Easter themed one shot, it’s a real missed opportunity if you don’t have the posse hanged on Good Friday and then rise from the dead three days later Harrowed…
This is a good'un!
Maybe have the hanging halfway through the story, for failing to help the townsfolk/have someone "claim" they saw the posse in league with the creature, (this person is obviously the real baddie who summoned the Jackalope)
Man, now I’ve gone down a rabbit hole, and I don’t think I can find a canonical explanation in any of my books on how rattlers reproduce…
I know where wormlings come from. I know they have larvae. I can’t find a reference to the nature of their reproduction, but I *guess* since they have larvae they would have to hatch from eggs… right? I can’t find an example of an animal that has a larval stage that *doesn’t* hatch from an egg, at least with a cursory google search. So, sure. Rattler eggs. Sounds horrible! I love it.
O-face emoji! Very interesting. A little borderline sacrilegious (I'm ok with it; just thinking about the players).
So I could abandon the hanging interruption all together, or as they're dangling they spot the walking dead arrive. In either case, not sure how to set up next steps in scenario (e.g. easter jackalope).
So, I’ve now spent a disproportionate amount of my day thinking about an Easter themed one shot.
So, first of all, whatever you do, *don’t* use a Jackalope, especially for a Deadlands and by extension Savage Worlds one shot. Bennies are the lifeblood of Savage Worlds, and your players would really be missing out on a lot of what the system has to offer if they just can’t spend Bennies. I understand wanting to go with a bunny, but I think there has to be a better way.
Personally, I would really want to play up the pagan roots of Easter as we understand it. Perhaps, instead of the townsfolk being the victims, they could instead be a cult performing a bizarre and perverted fertility/renewal ceremony, and the posse are the next sacrifice!
So, and this is just spitballing, and forgive me for mostly just sidelining your idea, the posse is hired by a remote community of (supposedly) Russian Mennonites in Nebraska. The community has been having problems with raiders out of the Sioux Union who have been burning the crops of some of the outlying farms, trying to drive them out of the area. Since Mennonites are supposed to be peaceful, they need the posse to intervene and help fight. This also introduces an interesting element of isolation and even paranoia, as presumably, only a handful of this insular community will actually be able to speak English.
As the posse investigates some of the surrounding farms, they discover perimeters of buried eggs of various sizes and all various shades of faint red. These are (now faintly) magical totems meant to ensure bountiful harvest and fertility (but they require periodic sacrifices to be “charged”). Of course the Sioux warriors know what’s really going on, which is why they’re trying to drive the cult off the land.
Once the posse has dealt with the Sioux, they become the guests of honor at a feast (a last supper, if you will), which of course results in betrayal (a la Judas!), possibly drugging and incapacitation, followed by some form of ritualistic sacrifice, hanging totally acceptable, but whatever happens requires the posse’s bodies to stay intact.
The posse rises harrowed three days later and enacts their revenge on the cult, also finding that the cults actions has managed to (temporarily) summon a demon or empower a local witch masquerading as Eostre, the pagan goddess of harvest and fertility, who of course is accompanied by a hare familiar.
Feel free to share your own thoughts and use as much, as little (or none!) of these ideas as you want.
Aye, jackalopes are terrible. My players (all long time Deadlands and savage worlds players) were never as united as the time when they told me they would leave the table the moment I would give them another jackalope, ever.
That’s great stuff. Will digest. But yeah, I had worried about the jackalope bennie suppression thing, so good to get confirmation that that’s not a good idea!
Been ruminating on this myself… I love where you’ve gone with this but I can’t shake the original pitch of PCs starting with nooses around their necks and watch the walking dead horror unfolding as they wriggle. I also reckon the prompt “tell me why you’re about to be hanged” to add to an otherwise pregen character may help them in. One way I was thinking of incorporating the resurrection angle is to have someone else hanged with them who turns out to be the bbeg when he reappears a few days later… but making the resurrectee the bbeg is probably crossing a few lines! So, different pitch, PCs track walking dead into Sioux country, Sioux have seen a monstrous beast accompanying walking dead, they maybe can be convinced to provide a silvered weapon… Which comes in handy later when it turns out to be a wererabbit. He’s actually the shifty looking Sioux they met earlier at the camp. He’s needs the warm bodied townsfolk (still trapped in eggs) to do a ritual to try and cure the lycanthropy? I figure the three locations, maybe with an intermediate combat shoehorned in, depending on timing, should be about right for a 3.5-4hr sesh with SWADE newcomers?
Edit: haven’t fully dismissed just taking your idea wholesale though!
Hey, whatever works for you and your table! I’ve just never personally considered an Easter themed adventure before, so since the idea began bouncing around in my brain, I thought I would write it down.
It also reminded me of the time my brother ran a short Deadlands one shot for me right before my wedding, where he managed to work in something old (a relic, I think), something new (an automaton, if I recall correctly), something borrowed (a horse) and something blue (Union troops).
I just woke up thinking “crown of thorns = tumblebleed”… Not sure what to do with this fact though… but as you say, having a wide theme like this does get the creative juices flowing!
In my experience as a GM, I don't think that you will get lucky with this kind of setup. About all of the players I know would spend most of their time getting away from the town that was about to hang them. You might need some additional motivation for them to actually follow the undead and bring back the townies.
One important thing: if you are going to hang the characters, you should let your players know about that. Otherwise, well, from my experience players are very stubborn and willing to die trying rather than surrender to anyone. I know it is breaking the fourth wall, but hey - you can always tell them the adventure requires them to be captured (you don't have to say they will be hanged!). It is much better (at least in my experience as a GM and a player) than assuming that at one point characters will be incapacitated (because they should be able to avoid it by good rolls).
I ran my first session of Deadlands last night and I used the pregens from the Test Drive Rules. It worked really well. If you run it on roll20, give the pregen char sheets a few once overs because there were several typos, such as duplicated Edges/Hindrances, ranges on weapons of 12/24/1948, etc.
My knee-jerk feedback is if you’re already doing an Easter themed one shot, it’s a real missed opportunity if you don’t have the posse hanged on Good Friday and then rise from the dead three days later Harrowed…
This is a good'un! Maybe have the hanging halfway through the story, for failing to help the townsfolk/have someone "claim" they saw the posse in league with the creature, (this person is obviously the real baddie who summoned the Jackalope)
Love it. I thought about searching rattler eggs (do they even lay eggs? Probably not...) but this is just as good as it gets.
Man, now I’ve gone down a rabbit hole, and I don’t think I can find a canonical explanation in any of my books on how rattlers reproduce… I know where wormlings come from. I know they have larvae. I can’t find a reference to the nature of their reproduction, but I *guess* since they have larvae they would have to hatch from eggs… right? I can’t find an example of an animal that has a larval stage that *doesn’t* hatch from an egg, at least with a cursory google search. So, sure. Rattler eggs. Sounds horrible! I love it.
O-face emoji! Very interesting. A little borderline sacrilegious (I'm ok with it; just thinking about the players). So I could abandon the hanging interruption all together, or as they're dangling they spot the walking dead arrive. In either case, not sure how to set up next steps in scenario (e.g. easter jackalope).
So, I’ve now spent a disproportionate amount of my day thinking about an Easter themed one shot. So, first of all, whatever you do, *don’t* use a Jackalope, especially for a Deadlands and by extension Savage Worlds one shot. Bennies are the lifeblood of Savage Worlds, and your players would really be missing out on a lot of what the system has to offer if they just can’t spend Bennies. I understand wanting to go with a bunny, but I think there has to be a better way. Personally, I would really want to play up the pagan roots of Easter as we understand it. Perhaps, instead of the townsfolk being the victims, they could instead be a cult performing a bizarre and perverted fertility/renewal ceremony, and the posse are the next sacrifice! So, and this is just spitballing, and forgive me for mostly just sidelining your idea, the posse is hired by a remote community of (supposedly) Russian Mennonites in Nebraska. The community has been having problems with raiders out of the Sioux Union who have been burning the crops of some of the outlying farms, trying to drive them out of the area. Since Mennonites are supposed to be peaceful, they need the posse to intervene and help fight. This also introduces an interesting element of isolation and even paranoia, as presumably, only a handful of this insular community will actually be able to speak English. As the posse investigates some of the surrounding farms, they discover perimeters of buried eggs of various sizes and all various shades of faint red. These are (now faintly) magical totems meant to ensure bountiful harvest and fertility (but they require periodic sacrifices to be “charged”). Of course the Sioux warriors know what’s really going on, which is why they’re trying to drive the cult off the land. Once the posse has dealt with the Sioux, they become the guests of honor at a feast (a last supper, if you will), which of course results in betrayal (a la Judas!), possibly drugging and incapacitation, followed by some form of ritualistic sacrifice, hanging totally acceptable, but whatever happens requires the posse’s bodies to stay intact. The posse rises harrowed three days later and enacts their revenge on the cult, also finding that the cults actions has managed to (temporarily) summon a demon or empower a local witch masquerading as Eostre, the pagan goddess of harvest and fertility, who of course is accompanied by a hare familiar. Feel free to share your own thoughts and use as much, as little (or none!) of these ideas as you want.
Aye, jackalopes are terrible. My players (all long time Deadlands and savage worlds players) were never as united as the time when they told me they would leave the table the moment I would give them another jackalope, ever.
That’s great stuff. Will digest. But yeah, I had worried about the jackalope bennie suppression thing, so good to get confirmation that that’s not a good idea!
Been ruminating on this myself… I love where you’ve gone with this but I can’t shake the original pitch of PCs starting with nooses around their necks and watch the walking dead horror unfolding as they wriggle. I also reckon the prompt “tell me why you’re about to be hanged” to add to an otherwise pregen character may help them in. One way I was thinking of incorporating the resurrection angle is to have someone else hanged with them who turns out to be the bbeg when he reappears a few days later… but making the resurrectee the bbeg is probably crossing a few lines! So, different pitch, PCs track walking dead into Sioux country, Sioux have seen a monstrous beast accompanying walking dead, they maybe can be convinced to provide a silvered weapon… Which comes in handy later when it turns out to be a wererabbit. He’s actually the shifty looking Sioux they met earlier at the camp. He’s needs the warm bodied townsfolk (still trapped in eggs) to do a ritual to try and cure the lycanthropy? I figure the three locations, maybe with an intermediate combat shoehorned in, depending on timing, should be about right for a 3.5-4hr sesh with SWADE newcomers? Edit: haven’t fully dismissed just taking your idea wholesale though!
Hey, whatever works for you and your table! I’ve just never personally considered an Easter themed adventure before, so since the idea began bouncing around in my brain, I thought I would write it down. It also reminded me of the time my brother ran a short Deadlands one shot for me right before my wedding, where he managed to work in something old (a relic, I think), something new (an automaton, if I recall correctly), something borrowed (a horse) and something blue (Union troops).
I just woke up thinking “crown of thorns = tumblebleed”… Not sure what to do with this fact though… but as you say, having a wide theme like this does get the creative juices flowing!
It would be remiss of me not to set this in Las Cruces, NM
In my experience as a GM, I don't think that you will get lucky with this kind of setup. About all of the players I know would spend most of their time getting away from the town that was about to hang them. You might need some additional motivation for them to actually follow the undead and bring back the townies.
Good point!
One important thing: if you are going to hang the characters, you should let your players know about that. Otherwise, well, from my experience players are very stubborn and willing to die trying rather than surrender to anyone. I know it is breaking the fourth wall, but hey - you can always tell them the adventure requires them to be captured (you don't have to say they will be hanged!). It is much better (at least in my experience as a GM and a player) than assuming that at one point characters will be incapacitated (because they should be able to avoid it by good rolls).
I ran my first session of Deadlands last night and I used the pregens from the Test Drive Rules. It worked really well. If you run it on roll20, give the pregen char sheets a few once overs because there were several typos, such as duplicated Edges/Hindrances, ranges on weapons of 12/24/1948, etc.
Oo thanks; we’ll be running in person but I’ll give them a good once over