The backstory of the art and this dude's origin are covered in this article at Pinebox's website in the article below. She and Dr Delphi Wallis are RPG characters given life in the card game, with art supplied by one of their players.
The flavor text implies that Virgil Earp witnessed Doc Holliday firing more than 6 bullets through the use of hexslinging.
The legend Doc Holliday locks a dude to 4 bullets, meaning that Doc Holliday cannot allow a dude to fan the hammer and fire more than 6 shots.
Complete flavor fail. smh.
Since I've seen quite a few people asking about it now, if you're wondering about the background behind the art on this card, check out this article: pineboxentertainment.com
with Secret Paths, you can take a whole posse of dudes from home over to a contentious deed without having to stroll casually through a Murder Blender in town square. Sure, the deed in question might become the site of a fire fight, but at least your dudes will be there unbooted. Great when there are things that you want to boot for. Or if you have a Totem that you want to drop on their deed.
Sure, it is expensive, but the effect makes you into the king of movement.
And if you can entice a fool hardy claim jumper to boot on out to one of your out of town deeds, then all of your dudes get to attend their upcoming funeral.
our old west version of suppressing fire. For times when your are not using Fives for Pistol Whip, or facing down a mess of 0 Stud dudes. Or, if you are trying to set up a bigger Nightmare at Noon. Or refining the target field for a Point Blank.
Also ruins Raven's day. Or helps secure the benefit, depending on who has pledged their oath to War.
and the dude you boot could be a temporary Bounty Hunter or Shane & Graves Security guard.
for the first part, I wanted some way, outside of Unprepared to impact opposing spells. Like a spell targeting version of Phantom Fingers.
Then there is part 2
another element of the influence denial suite alongside Blood Curse - but only useful against dudes with greater than 1 influence.
or ... Use Mind Twist on your own Zero Influence dude(s) to take control of deeds, or just to stay in the game.
This was conceived as another element in the Control Hex toolbox. A spiritual successor to the old Paralysis Mark, only with decision points for the opponent. Keep a Ghost Rock in reserve to unboot your dude or make deliberate movement decisions to keep the dude from getting booted. Scatter a few castings on different dudes and then they will think twice before bringing a whole passel of dudes into a shootout or Job.
or add in a forced booting effect like Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo, and you can be very effective turn after turn.
Depending on the huckster that is casting this, the bullet penalty can get up to 3, or more with an Attire boost. Or Lillian Morgan to drop a 5 point hammer.
of course the potential bullet bonus is best with a stud huckster, like Dave "Slim" Gorman, or Nicodemus Whateley, or even Auntie Sinister.
for extra dirty tricks, you could tag team this with Nightmare at Noon to render the opposing posse into a field of brass.
Improvised Weapon - thy name is Battered Banjo. This submission was a bit of a weird one, but I ran with it. A melee weapon to support that theme, and a bonus when applying musical accompaniment for a Hymn. add in a Sword of the Spirit and you can turn the banjo into an "axe"
And, YOU CAN SMASH IT ON A DUDE'S HEAD
We do not have a ton of options for hitting a dude with a bullet penalty as a noon action. Great is they are the lowball winner and your are trying to dodge a shotgun.
or this CAN lower the bullets of a dude with a Peacemaker.
Safety note on the influence bonus, reacting to Amazing Grace is great, since the influence boost will last until the end of the turn, but reacting to Onward Christian Soldiers will only endure to the end of the shootout.
I know that the world is pretty broadly divided into cat people and dog people. And we already have three hounds as sidekicks in Doomtown. People know that a dog would take a Bullet for them. And the indifference of cats is well documented (meme'd) on the internet.
Scratch here, can go both ways. If her "owner" is in a shootout that she has no interest in, she can promote a nearby dude as her new caretaker. Or Scratch can see a fight breaking out and decide to wander into the middle of it.
The card cycle is to represent a luck aspect. Possibly even a deliberate sacrifice play to get better cards into hand (and recycle a 5 of hearts).
Playtesters pushed back hard on my idea for a gadget weapon that removes Stud. Even though it discards itself when used. All of that concern really was hinged upon the scrounging scientist Janosz Pratt.
But this is a 4. and the ability requires a pull. And needs to be used by a mad scientist. How is this going to be useful Rich?
1) splash this in a higher value pulling deck so that you can neutralize bigger shooters more reliably.
2) run in a more mid range value gadget weapon deck, as there is usually a solid back up stud to wreck with a net gun. Heck, Barton Everest should already be in range.
3) use Prof. Aloysius Roe to pump the skill check.
4) look into some value lowering tricks like Stone Idol to bring that target down
yes, this is best in a situation where putting the 4 back into the rotation is not going to cause problems. Of course a savvy player could focus on the 4 value and capitalize on what going back into the deck does for the draw structure.
I have the Deadlands roleplaying game, all the editions, and when it come to Kung Fu, this is one of the maneuvers that just has the coolest name.
So then, how to incorporate it into the Doomtown mechanics???
The Bull Demon techniques already gave us kung fu tricks for casualty mitigation, so I didn't want to crowd that design space.
But the Kung Fu bag of tricks did not yet have a Cheatin' Resolution in their arsenal, so I thought I would try that.
... But we also knew we were aiming for a high value kung Fu technique, and that can really be a hard sell if a card cannot pass its own check. So this needed to be magically powerful.
Seizing the Pearl of Death is a spectacle to behold. It replaces itself, it dazzles and confounds a nearby onlooker. AND it causes a 2 casualty swing in the shootout, as you return the leaden pearl to sender. And if you can do all of this and stay legal, the legend of your kung fu master sticks with her for the rest of the day. (alas Doomtown memories are short, and tomorrow only the opposing player will remember what you did to them)
my initial playtest name for this idea was "Table Flip". Both for the gamer reference and for the trope of flipping a table to use as cover.
this can be a great way to survive a round when a dude is in way over their head. Or even, if you are feeling dirty, to Behold White Bull and live to tell about it.
I believe that there is a full blown article on the development of the second wave of Heroic Legends.
Honest Andrew Lane here went through a ton of changes, with my play test team telling me the number of different ways that I was letting the manitou take control.
The Ghost provides a degree of action economy. If you have the money for a weapon, but are not sure if your opponent is going to oblige you with a fight, you can try, and if they back down you can play that deed you were considering.
if facing off against a melee weapon deck, you can sand bag your weapon and get them to commit to a fight that you can turn favorable.
if you are using weapons that turn your dudes into studs, you can wait out their Sun in Yer Eyes and use a weapon to restore a semblance of studdage.
this card feels like it was made to shut down people who want to camp out in the town square. just make sure she has backup or an exit plan if they want to get into the fight. a personal ornithopter or make the smart choice is a way to get out of a tight spot with the damage already done.
Tumblebleeds is another card where the art came first. Our resident Marshal Artist, David Hammond, had this piece done up, and I had to design how in the nine hells Tumblebleeds from the RPG would take form in Doomtown.
The weeds don’t make it indoors, but they can certainly enhance plans for a town square murder blender. And while you can send intrepid heroes to dispatch the infernal thistles, the removal job happens in town square, and Tumblebleeds make that a dangerous place.
Safety tip, in tie hands their is still a loser. Try not to be that player.
Another of the aspects that more than one playtester submitted ideas for was a way to mitigate the frequent and heavy handed Boot costing of some of the early Miracles. Design was swinging the pendulum hard back from the raw strength of Hexes, and early miracles showcased a comparative weakness
Enter Babble On. On 9, solid value for passing whatever Miracles you might be running. Conditional use for shootout control. Makes spells like Soothe more better.
But for all that, you do need to pay a ghost rock for it. No free rides.
Sometimes on the design side of things you get yourself in a spot. "I want another gadget horse, but what can it DO that is different than what we already have?"
Enter the Iron Mole.
While not much mining is going on these days around Gomorra, or Tombstone, or Deadwood, the advantages of mechanology can still pay off to increase production.
And while the dude running the drill cannot contest in town locations with ease, should a ruckus break out, she can goose enough speed out of the Iron Mole to come to the rescue.
Classic Doomtown had a number of cards with the bullet trait. Most were some sort of silver bullet solution to dudes with certain traits. Including them was a question of risk of a wasted card in some matchups vs an auto kill of, say, an Abomination.
The Magnum Bullets in classic inspired these. As did the myriad ways we have these days of pumping up hand ranks. These babies make short work of Force Fields.
And, for those interested in reliable value structures, this is a playable 3❤️ that you can easily roll back into the deck (for free even).
Akin to a Pearl-Handled Revolver, but more expensive. But it does trigger Mystical interactions.
And, if you are a shooting huckster, this can add up the bullets.
Mind you, I am fully aware this is a 2, which is a rare breed of value for a huckster deck. So this doesn’t carry the same nuclear deterrence as a Soul Blast in a high pulling deck. But what happens when your noon hex control lock down has a surprise slip through the net? Or a first action job before you can begin choking their position?
Or Blue Lightnin’ makes use of more conditional spells. Or to get that huckster skill boost needed to make a spell reliable. Or a sneaky way to ramp up the bullets of Bobo.
and allows José Morales to lock in the stud without giving up a slot that could be used for Corporeal Twist
More than one contributor submitted ideas involving influence fights, or “rap battles” as some call them.
In retrospect, after our Tombstone visit, this should probably has the Government trait. Oops.
Makes some of those zero stud dudes look pretty spiffy though, if you can force the fight to be here.
Also really hamstrings shooter tactics relying on bullet boosts (Faster on the Draw, Thunder Boy, Zach Deloria)
Trying to come up with cards to support Abominations is a balancing act, so easy to go too strong (when Abominations already have strong tactics), or so weak as to make a card be a waste of our limited production.
And what do abomination tactics usually complain about? Influence. So here is a little saloon that caters to a rather “odd” clientele.
Feel free to use those extra bullets to start a commotion. Or Rope and Ride someone into the slavering jaws of your unnatural death trap.
Or just be happy for a private saloon on seven.
A 2/1 CP deed on 8’s?? The ability to scout extra cards from your opponent while fishing for their jokers? Kills a Heretic Joker? Rewards you against stacked decks?
What is not to love?
I like information about opponents decks, even if my veteran inertia still doesn’t think to look at either of our discard piles.
Probably says something that this sweet lady made appearances in a number of decks the first event that this set was allowed for.
Another piece for those of you looking for safe out of town production. Although less safe.
Competition on the 10 spot is pretty fierce though.
Of course this could also be a great lure in a jobs based deck looking to generate isolated marks.
Or another deed for Arnold Stewart to go looking for.
Nothing too tricky
An eleventh hour add in to answer the question, “when are the first peoples getting a Core Deed?”
The challenge was how do you do a core deed for FP that fits their themes and doesn’t become the next Spirit Fortress?
Lots of my bad ideas got smashed by my playtesters, thank goodness.
So here we support Holy Grounds and Town Square dominance.
The timing was courtesy of Chief Stephen Seven-Eagles.
Makes sure you have someone in town square to start next turn. As long as you are not worried about blocking / protecting income, you can recover a dude who would be “stranded” on a deed next turn.
And you can still throw some Silver Pheasant's Bounty on it to turn it into a money maker. Or hit it with some CP from the Office of Ancestral Affairs.
have you ever drawn up your shootout hand and wondered "what the &^$? How did all my off value cards find their way into this draw hand?" Or the flip side, faced a straight flush from a deck with exactly one way to do all that? Or the cursed double joker legal five of a kind?
Enter Red River Roulette.
as long as you can spare a dude to sit at the table and call out "double or nothing!", you can make some magic happen.
if you can bait someone into a big Siege Of The Orphanage, so much the better.
also spicy if you can inflict a non-casualty removal effect at the same time (Jael's Guile, Coachwhip!, Ricochet, etc)
with art from our in house artist of death, David Hammond, and bearing a distinct likeness of the PT designer, my best friend, Laura Scott, Nicole is full of tricks.
For the old school players, the idea is that she is a third Sumner sister, after the Classic Rachael and Jewel.
Nicole offer 2 influence at 5 cost / 1 upkeep, like Dr. Dawn Edwards. But Nicole has a shiny silver bullet over Dawn's brass. Also, like Dawn, Nicole can transform into a dangerous terror.
Once Nicole transgresses, in for a penny, in for a pound - she sacrifices the influence that controls locations or keeps you in the game for a hefty +3 bullets in order to get some right proper killin' done.
You can take advantage of this and have an innocent looking 0 stud call out a dude on their turf, transforming once the call out is accepted. Or participate in a Kidnappin'.
And, if/when you win lowball, you can calm her fiery nature and reclaim your ability to exert control over deeds.
(and she is an 8 of spades, stud, with upkeep - a magical combination for Dead Man's Hand decks)
Winona is intended to fit the no upkeep skilled drifter slot, like Theo Whateley-Boyer, Wilber Crowley, or Roderick Byre. This should help open up Spirits for factions other than the First Peoples.
And she is relatively cheap, no upkeep influence.
And she brings a meta-ability to discard sidekicks, freeing donkeys, owls, dogs, hares, and photographers from their servitude - which translates into an automatic extra casualty.
This one was a challenge. Step one - "Charles Urbach is doing art for an Experienced Quaterman" Step two - bump a card idea we were already looking at Step three - stare at QUATERMAN and think "what would an expererienced one Do?" Step four - read the Quaterman fiction piece and get inspired.
of course I had to keep the original's bullet protection and relentless boot resistance.
Now powered by the Essence of Armitage, Q-Prime has the durability of being Harrowed.
in a mental nod to ED-209 form Robocop, this gadget dude has a single minded pursuit of the law - in this case, legal hands. And he will turn on his master (controller) if he senses such a transgression.
Camillus S. Fly, intrepid photographer to the stars.
And just the guy you need to pump up a dude from a robust draw into a studly stud.
and, as a transient, he is happy to dive back into the deck to come around again, maybe as part of a Dead Man's Hand?
or just use his cheap 2 draw bullets to go looking for a fight, everyone likes to take a shot at the paparazzi.
