Western homebrew undead question

[GM DeathbySuburbs]

I built a western home brew campaign with an undead element that I wanted to surprise them with, but disclosed it in recruitment anyway, because I didn't want them to build PCs unable to handle undead.
What would you have done?

[Jesse Heinig]

Generalize and say "While this is a Western, there may be some supernatural elements and you should build your characters to deal with them just like you would any Pathfinder game."

Or just say "I'm basically running Deadlands." ;)

I built a character who can't handle undead anyway! :D

[GhostPepper]

Given the characters a one-pager explaining the world, with the fact that undead are present in the world listed in one of the paragraphs alongside a whole heap of other world-related information. This way smart characters can make a note of that and come prepared, yet it isn't telegraphed as being the focus of the campaign (preserving the narrative surprise).

Robert Jordan was well known for this in his Wheel of Time series, he'd have the characters mention something seemingly insignificant while discussing something important, then later on have the insignificant thing turn out to be crucial.

It was still surprising, but with that element of foreshadowing you got an "Oh wow" moment from the reader as it all comes together in their mind.

[ShroudedInLight]

Hey Death,

my suggestion would have been to make a few specific mentions like "Don't build a character based on mind affecting effects", make sure you can handle elemental defenses and DR...that sort of thing

Address the weaknesses of undead without getting too specific so that people can identify what you are prepping them for.

[SmiloDan]

We did something similar for a d20 Modern campaign that happened after a zombie apocalypse. We were asked to make a character whose first two levels were pre-ZA, and 1 or 2 levels that were post-ZA.

So I made a Tough Hero firefighter (emergency services background, EMT). My initial feats were Great Fortitude and Endurance (for holding my breath in smoky buildings), and Heavy Vehicle Driving (for firetrucks). My post-ZA feats were Firearms proficiency and Power Attack (I had GM-fiat proficiency in firemen's axes!). My skills were Climb, Craft mechanical (my character was classic car hobbyist), Drive, Spot, and Treat Injury.

It turned out pretty well. Great Fortitude helped with resisting zombie infections, Heavy Vehicle Driving was useful when running over hordes of zombies with cement mixers and 18 wheelers and snow plows.

[GM DeathbySuburbs]

ShroudedInLight wrote:

Hey Death,

my suggestion would have been to make a few specific mentions like "Don't build a character based on mind affecting effects", make sure you can handle elemental defenses and DR...that sort of thing

Address the weaknesses of undead without getting too specific so that people can identify what you are prepping them for.

Great advice.

[GM DeathbySuburbs]

Next time, I will have to ask questions here before I post recruitment.