Game: Frag Deadlands

Thread: An interesting but flawed adaption of Frag

wjohnd — 2007-02-12T23:59:41+00:00

Frag is a board game simulation of a 3-d, 1st person computer-game shootem up like Unreal Tournament or Quake: Arena.
Frag Deadlands adapts the Frag game system into the Deadlands Weird wild-west setting.

I guess I have two problems with this version of the game.
It doesn't work for me conceptually nor is it as well balanced as the original.

Unlike the vanilla Frag where each player is basically the same (or has variations decided by the player chosing how to spend his/her 7 attribute points), Deadlands introducs the concept of fixed character types.
These are
The Harrowed Gunslinger
The Huckster
The Agency Operative
The Mad Scientist
The Soiled Dove

Each has its strengths and weaknesses but overall the balance is wrong.
The specific problems come from the Huckster having access to a spell book rather than automatically having a gun and the Mad Scientist having near limitless access to the gadget stack.
The Huckster's spells vary from the fantastic to the banal meaning that winning or losing as the Huckster is much more down to luck than good judgement, even in a game with as many random elements as Frag.

There are also rules for misfires (activated when a 1 is rolled) and again these are so potentially devastating that players are as much a danger to themselves as to to others. They are also rather poorly explained meaning that a house rule which clarifies or amends them is almost inevitable.

Despite liking the idea behind the premise (Cowboys, Magic, Zombies and Victorian weird science) this game ends up being as much of a mess as Will Smith's Wild Wild West and as often as not it stays in the box.

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:23:17+00:00

The 12 different types of Weapon Cards

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:22:36+00:00

Unpunched Player Tokens

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:22:06+00:00

The 14 different types of Hex Cards

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:21:33+00:00

The 20 different types of Gadget Cards

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:20:57+00:00

The Counter Sheet

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:20:24+00:00

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:19:56+00:00

The Four Decks of Cards

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:19:02+00:00

The Box Back

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:18:26+00:00

The Board - Side B

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simonh — 2007-02-10T23:17:55+00:00

The Board - Side A

Thread: Re: Character Balance?

Gusse — 2005-10-24T08:32:53+00:00

We´ve been playing Deadlands for quite a while and we love it although we´ve been forced to change it.

Malfunction house rule - Every 1 that comes up is re-rolled and have a 50% chans of failiure...
The mad scientist - His initial power up is granted on a 5 or 6 only, the "gadgets" at 3-6 and weps at 4-6... Scales him down a little. (worked out fine...)
The Huxter - Gets his initial huxter card at 4-6. But otherwise he is the same 5-6.
Harrowed gunslinger - Cannot be hanged...
Indian brave - has +2 movment on total movement. So if he rolls 3 dice with total score of six he moves eight...
Saloon girl - Has an aluring smile, gets +2 to the total score on the to hit roll.

Thread: Re:Character Balance?

wolver — 2005-05-02T14:50:22+00:00

AEFGIRT wrote:
Every turn he can fire the gatling pistol on full-auto for 8d damage, re-rolling any ones, with no risk of malfunction.

Where does it say you can fire the gun on full auto? On the character sheet it only says 3d damage. Or do you use the rules from the weapon cards? Then why don't you use the rule for malfunction?

Thread: Re:Character Balance?

AEFGIRT — 2005-02-13T17:50:53+00:00

Joe Dizzy (#35154),
I haven't tested the other characters yet, but the Agency Operative seems pretty harsh as well.

Harsh? I'll say! Every turn he can fire the gatling pistol on full-auto for 8d damage, re-rolling any ones, with no risk of malfunction. Another character must have 4 health (the maximum) or serious armor to have a 50% chance of surviving one shot.

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

SkookumPete — 2004-10-05T17:22:06+00:00

scribidinus (#58026),

You are quite right, and I have learned something. This is what Encarta says:

frag [frag]
n (plural frags)
grenade: a fragmentation grenade (slang)

vt (past fragged, past participle fragged, present participle frag·ging, 3rd person present singular frags)
kill somebody with explosive: to kill or wound a soldier on your own side with a fragmentation grenade or other explosive device (slang)

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

scribidinus — 2004-10-05T17:06:10+00:00

manolovila (#57875),

I thought the term FRAG came from Fragmentation Grenade, the preferred means by which soldiers unofficially but permanently relieved a superior officer from command.

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

manolovila — 2004-10-05T16:54:38+00:00

bengkohn (#57918),

Thank you very much Bradley

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

manolovila — 2004-10-05T16:53:52+00:00

SkookumPete (#58004),

Thank you very much Bradley and Peter

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

manolovila — 2004-10-05T16:53:11+00:00

SkookumPete (#58004),

Now I can FRAG everybody!!!

Thank you very much Bradley

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

manolovila — 2004-10-05T16:52:12+00:00

manolovila (#57875),

Now I can FRAG everybody!!!

Thank you very much Bradley and Peter

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

SkookumPete — 2004-10-05T14:35:58+00:00

manolovila (#57875),

It probably comes from the word "fragment", suggesting that you are blowing the opponent into little pieces.

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

bengkohn — 2004-10-05T01:06:46+00:00

Hmm, that didn't come out right. You need to kill characters other than yourself three times. So You could frag one other character three times, three others one time each, or anything inbetween.

Thread: Re:What exactly Frag mean?

bengkohn — 2004-10-05T01:05:18+00:00

manolovila (#57875),

It means a kill. You need to kill three other characters to win.

Thread: What exactly Frag mean?

manolovila — 2004-10-04T21:04:08+00:00

I'm from Spain

Please, could anyone tell me what exactly Frag mean? And what mean “The first player to score three frags wins”?

Thank you in advance

Thread: Character Balance?

Joe Dizzy — 2004-05-04T16:48:32+00:00

We played a game of Frag Deadlands yesterday, which while quite fun pointed out to me that some of the characters seem unbalanced.

The Mad Scientist for example seems overpowered, as he is able to go through the Gadget (and other) Cards in an incredible pace (roll to get a gadget at the start of the turn and get a power-up when rolling a 3-6). This not only allows him to boost his stats and abilities faster than the rest, but he's also most likely to get Hoyle's Book.

As opposed to the Huckster who, once he's fragged has to run and hide for the rest of the game until he gets a gun, which is likely to take some time (as he doesn't get a power-up unless he rolls a 5 or 6).

I haven't tested the other characters yet, but the Agency Operative seems pretty harsh as well.

Has anybody tried any house-rules? Or did we just misread the rules?