Doomtown isn't a place for the faint of heart. A lot of tough hombres are walking around out there, and they'd most often kill you just to watch your body twitch. But even in the roughest areas, a few stand above the rest. Whether by reputation, experience, or just the way they squint at you, they've got something that makes strong men quiver in their wake. They're the Alpha predators in a town full of wolves. When we say "dangerous," we're not necessarily talking TCG stats here; as anyone who's played the game can tell you, there's a fair amount of chance involved in Gomorra's shootouts and even the toughest gunfighter can get a bad break every now and then. With other elements like Huckster skills and special abilities, it's tough to make a totally objective call. (Besides, we can't very well list the Maze Dragon or the Werewolf, now can we?) So we went back to our character notes, did some comparisons and came up with a list of people who we felt had the potential to cause the most mayhem. Some of our thoughts are based on character traits that haven't come to light yet. Others come from players' ideas about who the really scary characters are. And some of them we just plain dig. It's not the end all and be all, and there's plenty of tough guys out there who might belong among their ranks. But for our money, these are the folk we least want to cross. Here then, is a slightly opinionated list of the baddest, toughest, and nastiest dudes to walk Gomorra's streets: HONORABLE MENTION: J.P. COLEMAN The man is dead, so he doesn't cut quite the imposing figure that he used to. But before his untimely demise, he was keeping a half-decent lid on the entire town. Anybody charged with policing a place like Gomorra - and more importantly, anybody who could live long enough to rr. it stick - was a force to be reckoned with. 10. JOHN BLOODY Knife Joseph Eyes-Like-Rain's son is very quiet for a Sioux. Threaten his father, however, and you'll find out just h( well he can work that tomahawk. A few Indian- haters took potshots at the Sioux Union when they first encamped. John made them all apologize before feeding them their extremities one by one. 9. CAPTAIN SIM YUT- SAN The man who's got every miner in the Maze afraid to look outside. Not only does he have the combat skills to chicken-fry your liver while you stand and watch, but he commands a crew full of maniacs who will do the same thing at his command. All that, and he keeps the maze dragons away, too; even the sharks seem to respect him. 8. RACHEL SUMNER Most of Black Jack's men are tough fighters, but a little short in the brains department. Not Rachel. She spent her pre-Gomorra days robbing banks - alone - and was smart enough to pick when where the best time to strike would be. Add that to a pair of guns and a hair- trigger temper, and you've got woman who could bring any man to his knees - begging for mercy. 7. ERIK ZARKOV The Collegium's hit man, and the vanguard in their battle against the Maze Rats. Zarkov looks like a befuddled chemistry professor, but his detractors all fall silent when he straps on that ray gun. There's something about the ability to reduce you to ashes that makes people tread carefully around him. He's gone up alone against the Maze Rats and lived to tell the tale, and doesn't even seem bothered by the notion that they almost killed him. With the risks he takes, his number's bound to come up, but until then, he I s got the entire town diving for cover. 6. NATE HUNTER The soft-spoken sheriff's deputy has been working non-stop to keep a lid on the chaos, and it's starting to harden him up. He can fire a gun faster than anyone except maybe Black Jack and has cleared barrooms full of thugs just by showing up. His lack of killer instinct and willingness to arrest before shooting is only thing that keeps him this far down on the list. 5. THE GHOST Not only did he claw himself out of the sucking pit of his own grave, but he decided to spend that second chance at precious, precious life hunting down the scariest beings in existence. The head of the Agency's Western Division hasn't come to Gomorra to kill any gunfighters; he's come to kill the things that use gunfighters for dental floss. When you've been doing that for as long as he has, your "hands off" factor goes up every time you step outside. Emancipate this. 4. JIM MACNEIL Jim's a tough customer to begin with, but he's got the resources of an entire company backing him up. If Sweetrock wants to know something, they send him out to clock some skulls, and man does he love his job. He walks into a room and suddenly everyone's got meetings out of town. The Blackjacks have strung most of Sweetrock's muscle up for the vultures by now, but somehow, they've never found the time to deal with Jim. It makes you wonder... 3. NICODEMUS WHATELEY The Whateley's public relations man and possible Satan worshipper, Nic's reputation in Gomorra is untouchable. He flashes those huckster cards like a man possessed and hurls black magic as if he were the devil himself. If what people say is true, he's got horrors from beyond space and time in his corner. Few gunfighters are scared of dying, but Nic makes them worry about their eternal souls, and that's a different ballgame entirely. Go ahead - you make him mad. 2. BLACK JACK The fastest hands, the fastest guns, and a chip on his shoulder the size of Canada. Black Jack's a hero to some, but more than a few people want to see his head on a plate. For all their bile, however, he has yet to take a scratch. If unparalleled gunfighter' instincts aren't enough, he's as cunning as a tiger and willing to commit any act to further his own ends. He's got enough felonies on his resume to choke Jesse James, he openly antagonizes the the most powerful company in central California, and he still walks around unmolested by the cold light of day. Ask anybody who the toughest gunfighter in Gomorra is, and he's the only name they'll ever mention. 1. AUSTIN STOKER Who is he? What is he? What does he want? No one knows, and fewer still are willing to ask. Any way you slice it, this ex-cavalry officer is forty miles of bad road. Gunfighters won't touch him. The Whateleys steer clear of him. The CSA has a $10,000 bounty on his head, and still no one wants to tangle with him. He once killed three Texas Rangers just by puffing on his cigar. Whatever lies behind his steel grey eyes doesn't want to be bothered and the wildest boomtown in California is somehow okay with that. In a place where people are killing each other on an hourly basis, look to the man who never has to draw his guns - that's the one you have to be afraid of. Back to The DoomTown Epitath Issue 2 Table of Contents Back to The DoomTown Epitath List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com