Serve Cold is the thematic sequel to the Shadowrun game of the same name which ran at Gaelcon 2001 and was a bucket of fun. The objective in this game, as in that, is to be the table that gets the "best" revenge on the Bad Guy - in this case, Colonel Clayton McFarland, an ex-Army officer turned businessman-mayor. The player characters are four real badasses, but that in itself isn't enough to get the best revenge - they're gonna have to be clever and imaginative. Of course, they'll also have to be stylish - the style to keep in mind here is that of, happily enough, those westerns where people come back from the dead to get revenge. Think of High Plains Drifter and Django the Bastard. Think also of the overtones in Pale Rider and Hang 'em High (ahh, good old Clint). Of course, the poker tournament is heavily inspired by the quickdraw tournament in The Quick & the Dead.

There's an in-game time limit of about three days once they arrive in the town of Ressurection, and a real-life time limit of three hours. There's a poker tournament going on in town, which you need a special golden card to enter, and after the Friday night's festivities the hotel will be closed off, so only the entrants and their retinues can be in the hotel (alongside the band and the staff), and many of the entrants don't leave until they're ejected or the tournament is over. So the players will probably want to enter, probably by stealing a golden card. They certainly don't have to, but it's likely to be for the best unless they have a really good plan.

Try to keep things moving along at a good pace, because time is short. Don't give the players hints, because that's not really fair for the competition. And don't be afraid to kill them if the situation calls for it - although they're powerful, in a straight fight against everybody, they are outclassed. In order to do well, they'll need to do some exploring of the town, and get to know some of the NPCs, or things could end up very bad indeed.

Stuff you need is: more dice than you can shake a shakin' iron at, scribble paper and a pencil, coloured paperclips, a hat, two decks of poker cards

Fate chips aren't used - fate chips are for heroes.

THE PLAYERS

The four soldiers out for vengeance have a few things going for them. They're Harrowed, but because this is a special, planned event for the manitous some of the regular rules don't apply. They all have rope scars around their necks, which are pretty obvious. They smell a touch of decomposition - Cognition TN 5 for someone right next to them to notice it, but a decent supply of alcohol will pickle them, raising the TN to 11. Horse ridin', animal wranglin' and teamster rolls are at -2. They can't be get poisoned, diseased, drunk or drugged. They don't need water, but do need meat - they can't heal without a supply of meat to replace what's missing. They don't really feel pain, and hence ignore the first two levels of wound modifiers per area. They don't take Wind from getting wounded, and don't have to make Stun checks. They don't bleed or drown (their blood is thick and black and tarry, and weird-lookin'). They get to roll once per day to heal, rather than once every five days (except for Kills Alone, whose Mysterious Past causes him to be able to make a healing roll every 12 hours). They don't need to sleep. They can only be killed by Maiming the head - any other wound can be healed eventually, given enough meat. And when it comes to the ladies, they can't get their shootin' irons out of their holsters, if you catch my drift. All the player characters have the Death Mask ability at level 4 - they can change their entire bodies to look alive, and can even change their appearance to look like somebody other than themselves. It takes about three or four seconds to change (Speed: 2 if it's happening in combat) and provokes a Guts check in anybody who sees it happening - especially Colonel "No... no, it can't be you! You're dead! DEAD!" McFarland.

THE NON-PLAYERS

Some notable folks in town are: Agent Jonathan Hyland, the undercover Secret Service agent. He's very interested in finding out if there's any cheating going on, and what form it takes so he can prove it. Nick, the the-devil-went-down-to-Georgia type. He'll go around during the evenings and ask people if there's any help they need, eventually agreeing upon the price of their soul for whatever help they need (he can offer a +6 to a Gamblin' roll if they go for that option). The signee does need to consent to it though - no "Can we have your autograph, Colonel McFarland?". Lenore is a huckster, but suspects that there's Pinkertons about somewhere and won't use hexes unless absolutely necessary. The Colonel is cheating - he has people looking through knot-holes in the ceiling and sometimes through the eyes in the paintings, and his right boot has a plug in the heel that fits into a knothole in the floor next to his seat, which allows a guy operating a mechanism to tap out morse code on his leg. The band, Hanky Kelly and Friends, are a Pinkerton Detective Agency undercover team sent in to keep an eye on any supernatural happenings (apparently there's a big poker tournament on that'll attract card players and gamblers and card players. Hmmmmm.). They'll know Harrowed by scent, and they're familiar with the Death Mask power and will know what they're up against if somebody drops their facade. They have their weapons in their music cases.

THE BEGINNING

There's a sliver of moon showing when they push their way out of their graves and sit up - low in the sky and with an eerie red colour. It's nighttime. The PCs are wearing the Confederate uniforms they were buried in five years ago, which are pretty much the worse for wear, although the PCs themselves seem okay - a little off-colour, certainly, but nothing like what you'd expect five years to do to you. They've still got the ropes around their necks, cut off at one end where they were cut down from the tree. They're very dirty and somewhat maggoty, and don't have any equipment - just their clothes and their nooses, except for Kills Alone who has his tomahawk (the Confederates who buried them had no use for it).

A decent Cognition check will hear the sound of a harmonica drifting mournfully on the wind. About 500 yards away in a slight depression just off the road is a small Confederate cavalry unit on long-range patrol, camped for the night around a campfire. They're finishing their patrol and are on their way back to Santa Fe, a few days ride east. There's six of them, with horses and equipment. They're eating dinner at the moment - there's one lookout and the rest are sitting around the fire. They're armed with Spencer carbines, Colt Army pistols and sabres. There's enough ammo for four full loads for each weapon. They also have food, bedrolls, a harmonica, the odd hip flask etc. and 50 dollars (Confederate) between them. Don't spend too long on this bit, it's basically just to give the players equipment and transportation, however they decide to procure it.

Then they're gonna want to light out northward next. Don't spend any time on the travel, but do let them stop in a town on the way to pick up some new clothes and equipment on the way. They arrive in Ressurection in the late afternoon of Friday 27th October, 1876.

THE TOURNAMENT

The tournament is a three-day elimination event, which kicks off with card registration on Friday 27th October, 1876. Merrill Partridge, the proprietor of the Full House Saloon, quiets everybody down (and there's a lot of people crammed into the fairly large saloon at this point) at about 8 p.m. and announces that the registration is open, and runs over the rules of the tournament. There'll be three rounds, happening on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The top two from each table of four on Saturday go through to the second round on Sunday, and the top two from the tables there go to the final on Monday. No money is used, just chips, and whoever has the most chips at the end of three hours of play is the winner. Anybody may be substituted for a registered player - if you have the card, you're allowed in. The prize is fifteen thousand dollars, courtesy of Colonel McFarland. There's a large blackboard behind the bar (usually used for keeping tabs on) with sixteen spaces marked out. Partridge poises himself beside this and calls out "Card number one!", at which point Jonathan Hyland introduces himself with the line beside Acceptance speech in his character section. Show the players the card with him on it, and Partridge writes the name under the picture on the blackboard. This continues along until all the entrants are on the blackboard. Partridge announces that the draw for who's on what table will happen at midday tomorrow, so all players must be present, and the games will kick off at one o'clock. Now everybody starts (or continues) drinking for the night. The tournament entrants and their retinues are all housed in the large rooms upstairs in the Full House, and meals are laid on for them.

The players might want to see about getting a card off somebody at this point. It'll be very tough to talk somebody into gambling with their golden card as the stake - make a Persuasion roll against the target's Spirit, with the target getting a +4 modifier. They could always bring somebody outside, club him and steal his card, that's fine as far as entering the tournament is concerned, although they'll still be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if found out, and there will be a full investigation immediately. This is where player ingenuity comes into its own, so go with the flow.

Come midday the next day, all the entrants assemble in the Full House. Put the cards representing the sixteen different entrants in your hat, and draw out four for the first table, four for the second and so forth (you can get one of your players to keep notes). People take their places coming up to one o'clock, and the games begin.

During the games, nobody is allowed in or out of the saloon. The only people present are the players, their retinues, six enforcers, the bar staff, the band (not playing, but ready to play as soon as the games are over) and Frank Lesley, the journalist from the Ressurection Enquirer.

For each table, roll the Gambling of the folks at it, and the two highest win. For any tables with PCs at them, roll once each hour against a target number of 5. A success gets five cards, and each raise gets an extra card. If they don't make 5, they just get as many cards as their die roll comes up with. Jokers are wild. Make the best poker hand possible out of what they get, and rank them - four points for the highest, three for the second-highest, two for the third-highest and one for the lowest. Do this three times, once for each hour. Total the scores, and do a quick tie-breaker between anyone tied for first or second place.

Make notes of who goes through to the next round, and much the same happens tomorrow (draw from the hat, gamble again).

Colonel McFarland doesn't cheat in any obvious way - no sleight-o'-hand or barmaids putting drinks down on a pre-determined side of him or anything - but he does sit in the same chair every day. Unless the players specifically ask about this, they won't notice it unless somebody watching the proceedings rolls a goodly amount on a Scrutinise check.

At the end of the tournament, Merrill Partridge presents the money to the winner, unless it's Colonel McFarland (if it isn't, the Colonel is going to look rather agitated indeed).

ENFORCER

Cognition 3d8, Knowledge 2d6, Mien 2d8, Smarts 2d6, Spirit 3d6
Area Knowledge: Home County 2d6, Language: English 2d6, Overawe 3d8, Scrutinise 3d8, Search 2d8

Deftness 2d8, Nimbleness 2d8, Quickness 3d8, Strength 3d8, Vigour 3d6
Climbin' 1d8, Fightin': Brawlin' 4d8, Quickdraw: Pistol 2d8, Shootin': Rifle 4d8, Shootin': Pistol 4d8

Equipment: Long black duster, Winchester '73, single-action Colt Peacemaker