My players will be on the trail of Levi Oden, a fugitive from Justice. I haven’t decided if they are all working together, probably not.
Here are the important supporting characters.

Horace Abernathy, Marshal of Redding

Mid-thirites. believes he’s found the perfect set-up as a do-nothing lawman. Hell, so long as she doesn’t find out about Dora, he doesn’t even mind his wife cheating on him…too much.
Hand 3
Eye 4
Guts 4
Heart 2
Traits: Seen It All Before, Sly as a Fox
Past: Gambler (1)
Present: Town Marshal (3)
Devil (3): Lazy. Horace is happiest sitting on the porch of his HQ, feet propped on the rail, with a cup of coffee and a cigarillo.

Lily Abernathy

Mid-twenties. Wife of Horace, sister of Pete Holden, lover of Levi Oden. She married Horace when he was a well-dressed, smooth-talking riverboat gambler, but now she loathes the West and will do anything to get back East. Women want to be her, and men want to be with her.
Hand 2
Eye 4
Guts 2
Heart 5
Traits: Pretty as a Picture, Smooth as Sillk
Past: Lady from Back East (1)
Present: Lady Behind the Power (3)
Devil (2): Manipulator. Lily knows what she wants and to get others to do it for her.

Levi Oden, fugitive, Lily’s lover

Levi was a hired gun for various outfits, but whisky always got him fired. Now his past is catching up with him, no matter how much he wants to change.
Hand 5
Eye 4
Guts 3
Heart 4
Traits: Quick as a Rattlesnake, Good old boy.
Past: Gunman (3)
Present: Fugitive (1)
Devil (2): Drunkard. Levi is a pretty good guy…when he’s sober. When he’s knocked back a few he is cruel and unpredictable.

Pete Holden, Dep. Marshal, Lily’s Brother

Pete learned cruelty in the Army as an Indian Fighter. Now he puts the lessons to use on the citizenry of Redding.
Hand 4
Eye 3
Guts 4
Heart 2
Traits: Mean as a bleeding bear, Steady as a boulder
Past: Indian Fighter(3)
Present: Lawman(1)
Devil (3): Bully. While cruelty and violence are Pete’s right and left hands, they serve his need to boss people around.

Tom Deggs, Dep. marshal

Tom hitched up with Pete in the Army and quickly became his enforcer and yes-man. Pete like having the dumb brute around to back his plays.
Hand 5
Eye 1
Guts 4
Heart 3
Traits: Strong as an Ox, Loyal as a Dog
Past: Prize Fighter (2)
Present: Lawman (2)
Devil (1): Killer. When push comes to shove, violence is the only tool in Tom’s belt.

Juan Gomez “El Padre”, Los Caballeros leader

Gomez is El Jefe of Los Caballeros, a group of vigilante gunmen, who usually fight for the weak, downtrodden, and helpless.
Hand 3
Eye 3
Guts 4
Heart 3
Traits: Hunts Like a Wolf, Everybody’s Friend
Past: Priest (2)
Present: Vigilante (2)
Devil (2):Wrath. El Padre is easy to talk to and generous to a fault, but when wronged (or sees others being wronged) he delivers the Wrath of god.

Pancho Mejia, Los Caballeros

The youngest member of Los Caballeros, Pancho is Gomez’s cousin.
Hand 4
Eye 4
Guts 4
Heart 4
Traits: Lady Killer, Cool as a Mountain Spring
Past: Vaquero (1)
Present: Vigilante (3)
Devil (1): Reckless. Pancho is prone to get in over his head whether by wooing the “wrong” lady, outright bragging, or simply taking unnecessary risks.

Jarogniew Leczinsky “Pollock”, Los Caballeros

Quiet and strong, Pollock joined Los Caballeros when his family was killed by outlaws in a bungled train robbery. El Padre is slowly turning his anger into a thirst for justice
Hand 4
Eye 3
Guts 3
Heart 3
Traits: Tough as Nails, Inscrutable as a moonless night
Past: Farmer(1)
Present: Vigilante(3)
Devil (3): Anger. Jarogniew (Polish from roots for anger) is a seething cauldron of hate and anger barely contained by El Padre’s whispered admonitions.

So there we go. I’d love to play any one of these characters as a PC, so I should have a blast running the game.

Here’s some relationship stuff I’m using that may not be obvious from the Character write-ups:
Marshal Abernathy is having an affair with Dora Parker, daughter of the Town Doctor. As far as they know, this is a very well-kept secret.
Dora Parker accidentally shot and killed Rev Finch when he confronted her and said he was going to tell her father.
Lily sees Levi as a means to get rid of her husband and her brother as a tool top get rid of Levi. Then she can take Abernathy’s substantial savings and remake herself back East.
Levi is in love with Lily and thinks she loves him too.
Levi, while not a deputy, has been able to reign in the worst of Pete’s abuses. This is only because Pete is utterly devoted to his sister and doesn’t want to upset her lover. He also the knowledge of their affair gives him a feeling of superiority over Marshal Abernathy.

What’s Going on Here
I am running a two-session game of Dust Devils Revenged starting Saturday. I haven’t really done any prep and I’m not using pregens, so I thought it might be interesting to blog the whole experience from Game Prep through AP to a review of Dust Devils Revenged. It’s much more ambitious than I planned for post on The Depot, but I b’lieve I’ll give it a shot.

Game Prep
First off, a couple of tools.
The Adventure Funnel from Dr. Rotwang’s Blog.
A western name generator I made using The Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator.

While the Adventure Funnel is great for traditional RPG adventures, Dust Devils is much more about emergent story than achieving a goal. With this in mind I used the funnel to help flesh out the supporting characters and their relationship.

Using the Adventure Funnel I came up with this:
Goal: Capture Levi Oden, wanted for murder, horse thievery, and violence a sundry.

Obstacles:

1. Levi Oden under Marshal’s protection (maybe even a deputy or Lily’s lover, or both).
2. Deputies make sport of newcomers
3. Town generally lawless
4. Terrifying Storm, flash floods,
5. Parson gets killed standing up to someone
6. Town Doctor’s daughter
7. Levi Oden has an upstanding reputation–he keeps the deputies in check.
8. Levi Oden is expecting to be followed and has a cache of travelling gear in a cave outside of town.
9. Los Caballeros - A gang of Mexican bandits? Zorro-esque? Wandering Freelance Lawmen? Rustlers?

Details:

• Flies on a bloated dog’s corpse (Blame Blood Meridian for that one.
• Lily Abernathy and Oden Levi are lovers. She is just using him, he is genuinely in love.
• Marshal Abernathy knows about his cheatin’ wife and aims to do something about it.
• Marshal Abernathy is having his own affair with Doc Parker’s daughter, Dora.
• Deputy Pete Holden is Lily Abernathy’s brother
• Deputy Tom Deggs is almost a “slow wit.” He follows Dep. Holden like a loyal dog.
• Parson Finch was killed accidentally by Dora Parker when he threatened to tell Doc Parker about her affair with Marshal Abernathy.
• Pete Holden will do damn near anything that his sister, Lily, asks.
• Saloon Owner, Jed Nuttal, is sweet on Lily and wants Levi out of the way.
• What does Lily want out of the situation? What does she gain by her affair with Levi?
• Los Cabelleros are hunting Deputy Holden. If a PC is possibly wanted they may recognize him as well.