Before diving into the individual class Edges, which is the real meat and potatoes of this project, I’ll first do some Foci. I’m not listing all of them, because most of them are unchanged from other XWN sources.
I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but there’s no Impervious Defense. With guns around, getting such a big Armor Class boost just doesn’t fit. It’s a really strong focus as is, but I think I would turn it into an Edge (with a small power boost) before making it a foci.
One of the more interesting things I’ve found when making foci is just how they different from XWN book to book. There are some that accomplish the same thing, like learning about new cultures or obtaining minions, but have somewhat different rules to fit the different genres. This gives me a lot of room to modify similar foci to suit my own vision. Sure you can do that anyways, but it’s nice to have examples.
For example, here’s the Diplomat focus from Stars Without Number
Diplomat
Level 1: Gain Talk as a bonus skill. You speak all the languages common to the sector and can learn new ones to a workable level in a week, becoming fluent in a month. Reroll 1s on any skill check dice
related to negotiation or diplomacy.
Level 2: Once per game session, shift an intelligent NPC’s reaction roll one step closer to friendly if you can talk to them for at least thirty seconds.
And here’s the same focus from Worlds Without Number
Diplomatic Grace
Level 1: Gain Convince as a bonus skill. You speak all the languages common to your region of the world and can learn new ones to a workable level in a week, becoming fluent in a month. Reroll 1s on any skill check dice related to negotiation or diplomacy.
Level 2: Once per day, silently consecrate a bargain; the target must make a Mental save to break the deal unless their life or something they love as much is imperiled by it. Most NPCs won’t even try to
break it. The deal must be for something specific and time-limited, and not an open-ended bargain.
You can see the Level 1 feature is exactly the same, but the Level 2 is completely different. At minimum, it gives me a lot of options to pull from, to mix and match, even if I don’t create anything unique.
Entertainer
Level 1: Gain a Contact in your entertainment field of choice. Whenever you are in front of at least a dozen bystanders paying attention to you, you gain a +1 on all skill checks, combat rolls, and saves. When acting in front of at least 50 bystanders, that increases to +2, and +3 when in front of 200 or more bystanders. The crowd has to be watching the entire time.
Level 2: Once a week, you can take advantage of the crowd watching you in one of the following ways: You can earn donations and favors totalling $1 per crowd member; you can rally them into a mob to do something immediate for you no more than moderately dangerous or illegal; you can sway and influence their way of thinking about something, making their reactions one step friendlier to your cause.
This was inspired by the Pop Idol foci from Cities Without Number. Thinking about how such a thing might apply in a western setting, I settled on someone who works best in front of a crowd. It’s tied to the Crowd Pleaser Edge, and like that Edge I’m not too sure how balanced it actually is. We’ll see if anyone plays it and runs it through the grinder.
Tinker:
Level 1: Gain Craft as a bonus skill. When crafting items, you can reduce the time or cost in half. Gain a Contact in a crafting or science guild or society. Once per day, you can declare you have a standard item of 2 encumbrance or less and worth $50 or less on your person that you crafted in your spare time. Its makeshift nature is obvious and it lasts for one scene.
Level 2: When crafting gear, you can reduce the cost and the time in half. You can now use your Tinker ability to create any equipment, including New Science devices, but all other restrictions apply.
Crafting has been one of the bigger headaches to mess with in the rules department. Partly because it’s not something I have a lot of interest in. Tinker is kind of fun though, I think the scavenger/pack rat archetype is a lot more useful than just excelling at a downtime activity.
Next are what I call Special Foci, which have some sort of unique caveat to them.
Faction Agent: You’ve joined a Faction
Level 1: Gain a Contact with that faction. You are considered a good-standing member of that faction, and gain minor benefits depending on the faction.
Level 2: You become a member of the faction’s inner circle, and have access to their secrets.
Restrictions: Different factions may have different restrictions about who they allow in. Characters must prove their complete loyalty to the faction to take level 2.
There are lots of factions and secret societies in the Deadlands setting. This is a less intensive version of the Organization Asset Edge, which can be applied to nearly any group. It’s mechanical benefits are ambiguous, because detailing every faction possibility would be too much work. I really see this being something that can be earned as a quest reward or the like instead of taking it with a precious foci pick, but if someone wanted to start as a member of a secret society, the option is here.
Old Ways Vow (Caster): You’ve taken an oath to avoid modern technology, including guns, money, trains, anything mass-produced, or anything related to ghost rock. In return, you gain 1 maximum Effort. Your maximum Effort is lowered by 1 for 24 hours if you break your oath, or by 2 if you use anything powered by ghost rock. If this sets your maximum Effort below what you currently have Committed, you must cancel some effects to get to your new maximum.
Restrictions: Cannot have the Huckster, Mad Scientist, or Mad Tinkerer Edge.
Old Ways Vow (Martial): You’ve taken an oath to avoid modern technology, including guns, money, trains, anything mass-produced, or anything related to ghost rock. In return, you gain a +1 bonus to attacks and +2 bonus to all damage. You lose this bonus if you break your oath, and take a -1 penalty to all attacks and skill checks if you use anything powered by ghost rock.
Restrictions: Cannot have the Huckster, Mad Scientist, or Mad Tinkerer Edge.
The Old Ways is a major part of the Native American lore in Deadlands, and needed to be represented somehow. I went back and forth a lot on how to include it. I decided on foci so it wasn’t as much as a meta commitment as a more limited Edge, and also allows people to take the Vow later in their career. One thing I did decide early is not to have character options limited to races and ethnicity. In theory, an isolated monk or anti-social wilderness survival could take the Vow, or at least something that approximates it.
War Veteran: You’re a veteran of war, probably the Civil War though other conflicts exist. Gain a Contact in your military unit of choice. You have a heirloom weapon from your service that you gain a +1 bonus when attacking with, either a revolver, rifle, sword (calvary sabre), knife, or large knife. If lost or stolen, the weapon finds its way back to you after a week. Modifying the weapon takes only half the resources.
Restrictions: Can only be taken at character creation.
I went back and forth on character history foci. On one hand I really want them. But on the other hand, coming up with a bunch of background benefits was difficult. In particular because of the time period, where the Civil War and slavery is only a few years ago. One of my early commitments was that I did not want any mechanical benefit to being formerly enslaved, because under no circumstances did I want someone to feel like they had to take that to get some bonus. It’s also why there’s no slave background. If someone wants to have a formerly enslaved character for whatever reason, that’s fine, but I didn’t want people to pick that because of it’s skill array.
That does limit the scope of such background foci though, especially since you’re also trying to avoid overlap with the background selection. In the end, this has been the only one to be kept, though I will consider adding more if inspiration strikes me. I think this one because everyone likely had some sort of war service, no matter the race or background.