So, thinking about the latest fictions and the current situation with Law Dogs/Sloane and Morgan/4th Ring duking it out, it got me wondering. We’re aware both Sloane and the 4th Ring have unknown benefactors working behind the scenes, for Sloane to stir up trouble and show who is ‘boss’ in town, while the Fourth Ring are hunting for Stoker’s Sabre (at the least).
So. What if they’re being bankrolled by the same individual? Sloane’s gang is just working as a distraction to keep the Law Dogs even more distracted from the 4th Ring’s activities?
I may need to go dive in and read the fictions more, I’ve probably missed some details, but just some food for thought. Really looking forward to seeing how the fights turn out, Sloane seems like it won’t be in very good condition afterward >>
Jonah is an interesting character. He seems to be quite influential in the gang, possibly moreso than Sloane. Going by the events currently unfolding in the story, he seems to have his own agenda and is using the gang to help further his goals. While I don’t see a Sloane/Circus alliance, I agree that Jonah might work with them.
I don’t think we’d see Jonah kill Sloane to take over the gang, not directly.
Remember, he gives her that warning. They follow her because she’s Sloane, but she’s Sloane because they follow her. To me that says there could be a new ‘Sloane’ if the need should arise. Really, we don’t even know if the current Sloane is the original or real one either, we know next to nothing about her aside from the recent revelation there’s apparently something screaming nasty things in her head (the spirit of the original Sloane perhaps?)
Definitely a lot of seeds in the story, some of them more subtle than others, which makes me happy ^^ Lot of room for them to grow.
For all we know, Jonah could even be a creature of Ivor’s.
I wouldn’t doubt seeing an (uneasy) alliance form between Sloane and Fourth Ring, though I definitely see at least a big chunk of Sloaners as not outright evil, just some dudes unhappy with the rule of law. They’ve got a lot of moral flexibility storywise.
Those, and fiction posted to the Doomtown website, flavour text on the cards, experience and familiarity with the Classic game, or the Deadlands Universe.
This site has a great collection of the released fictions for DTR:
Yeah, there’s all kinds of resources for the Story And it doesn’t hurt to have a general knowledge of the Deadlands setting too.
I’m still chewing through the current DTR stuff actually!
Edit: And I just finished the Ballad of Mario Crane Part 2. So. ‘Sloane’ killed him, but the question is, was the dude just claiming to be Sloane (as the one we know was present too) or did she inherit the name at some point afterward?
I think Mario assumed Sloane was telling the truth. She’s just herself though: “Though the smallest of the three, she was the one that transfixed me; her cold blue eyes seemed to take me apart, slice me open to appraise any sort of threat I posed and how quickly it could be neutralized. She seemed neither excited nor irate. If “deadly” was an emotion, she expressed it.”
Then she nods and proclaims the big guy to be Sloane. Classic misdirection.
Yeah, I agree, that’s my thought, but we also haven’t seen this big man either, not anyone that dual wields lever actions anyway and we haven’t seen her bother to misdirect anyone else, plus there’s that big angry voice in her head.
Based on the severity of Dave when Whateley was sworn in as Mayor, I kind of assumed that Whateley is behind Sloane’s erratic behavior and voices in her head. Possible being Puppetted to sew chaos?
The election was such a big deal, but since his election he’s practically been invisible.
The thing about Puppet is the victim isn’t aware they’re being puppeted. And act as a literal puppet. Then typically have no memory of the effect. It also doesn’t usually have a long lasting effect. However Nico is a pretty powerful warlock, as mentioned before in the story.
I actually think it’s some kind of cursed item or weapon that Essex placed on something she carries regularly. I get the vibe that he’s aiming to become “Sloane”, as he seems to point out that it’s more a title than a name.
I’m going to expand on at things on a larger scale here. Some of this stuff might be slightly spoiler-tastic from a Deadlands point of view.
Judging by the voice in Sloane’s head and the actions that the gang have taken so far I’d suggest that whatever they’re being manipulated by is linked in some way to War.
What happens at the end of the story ‘Circus Games’ makes me think Ivor and the circus are linked to Pestilence. We’ve had several cards recently that have been referencing that particular horseman, like Under the Weather, Incubation and Mark of Pestilence.
The Reckoners generally don’t co-operate on plots, and don’t micro-manage their servitors and fearmongers, so they often end up acting at odds to one another.
I didn’t play classic, but from what I’ve gathered from the bits of fiction I’ve read, the Fear Level in Gomorra has raised it to the point of being a Deadland twice in recent history. I might be wrong about this, but some of the artefacts gathered by the Fourth Ring - the Holy Wheel Gun and Stoker’s Sabre - were wielded by Austin Stoker when he went to confront the demon Knicknevin during one of these periods when the hunting grounds and the physical world collided, and were mysteriously left behind after things calmed down again. These items are clearly full of powerful magic - could Ivor’s shadowy master be gathering these items to perform a ritual to reopen a ‘portal to hell’? What other items have the Circus gathered? Doyle’s Hoyle is one of them, the Stone Idol another. Are there any more things I can’t remember, and does anyone who knows classic Doomtown better than I do know of any significance of these items?
Deadlands generally doesn’t feature loads of magic weapons and enchanted orbs and that kind of stuff. Your ‘magic items’ found in a fantasy RPG are usually covered by mad science inventions that are mass produced by Hellstromme Industries and Smith & Robards.
There are ‘Relics’, which are rare items usually associated with a historical event or figure that retain some power related to what made them famous, however these items often also have downsides to using them. There’s also the occasional plot hook macguffin like the Heart of Darkness, a massive ghost rock diamond.
Austin Stoker was rare as he was a non-shaman character who had been into the Hunting Grounds (spirit world) and escaped again. He had a certain amount of magical weirdness surrounding him because of that (his soul got mixed with a demon that tried to eat him, or something like that).
Nearly every single mover and shaker in the Deadlands universe has magical powers in some way. Magic is a huge part of the metaplot. As is high weirdness and lovecraft country ephemera.
I have said it before, this isn’t the Wild West. This is the Weird West.
There are shamans mixing with gunfighters dueling with martial artists that can pluck bullets out of the air and throw them back with the same accuracy and deadliness they were fired with.
Everything that has been put in this game is in flavor with things that exist in the role playing game that came before it and is still seeing play and new books put out for it.
The people in this world are currently experiencing the end times. Literally the Reckoning. The dead are walking, magic is real, faith is power. It’ll just take about 200 or so years for the actual end to come.
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are exerting their influence on the Earth. Each is getting their turn.
I just can’t wait for Aliens to show up. Because, by the way, Aliens are a cannonical thing in this world. They exist not just on another planet, they also exist on earth. Ancient aliens type stuff.
And it doesn’t hurt to have a general knowledge of the Deadlands setting too.
