Sources Say: Dracula's America: Hunting Grounds

Name: Dracula's America: Hunting Grounds
Produced By: Osprey Games
System: Dracula's America
Genre(s): Western, Horror

Hunting Grounds is the first expansion for Dracula's America. And it fixes some of the problems I had with the original game right out of the gate. That's right, we've (finally) got melee weapons! Took long enough! You know what that means, right? Oh, yeah, we're going to have the Ferner Five become a thing in this game... And there's more as to why this will happen coming up.

The book opens with some more detail in the setting, centered around Deadwood and the Black Hills. Apparently, the whole Custer thing happened in this timeline (even if it isn't actually stated) and folks started prospecting around the Black Hills and found Ghost Rock! Oh, I'm sorry, they found Animus, some kind of solidified ecotoplasam. I think, I'm a little confused but we'll move on.
This book introduces two new factions: The Forsaken, who are the remnants of the US Army's 7^th Calvary (you know, Custer's boys) and cursed to be werewolves and The Shadow Dragon Tong, a group of Chinese workers, fighters, and magic users that are challenging the Crossroads Cult. Of the two, I think the Shadow Dragons are the more interesting and more powerful faction. All the Forsaken get is two (random) werewolves that you can't always control. Meanwhile, the Shadow Dragons get two melee combat ghost people and can buy magical tattoos. I have to say, I'm impressed with this, as I fully expected to them to be a bit more stereotypical.

And speaking of being impressed, they fixed the Skinwalker Tribes. Well, they made some good changes. The best thing is now they have variations for the faction based on the regions that tribes would come from. And they put in a note about how different tribes and groups are. If you're playing a Skinwalker posse, I would strongly suggest picking up this book if you haven't already. I have to say that I was impressed that they undid the whole monoculture for the Native Americans, and they even included a note about reading up on them. I always think this is a really good idea when you're dealing with historical stuff, especially when you're talking about people that had acts of government enforced genocide against them.

While this book does add in the close combat weapons, it does give you some other weapons and gear, like muskets and Coup Sticks. There's also some more spells, some of which are for certain groups, like the Skinwalkers, Crossroads Cult, and Vodou stuff. There's also a few more Hired Guns, not all of them are useful and add into some of the new stuff they introduce.

This is very much a book for your Arcanists. Why? Because we're going to deal with the Hunting Grounds or Spirit World! That's right, you can now jump back and forth between reality and the spirit realms. As can equipment and buildings. I have to say, this seems to get messy really, really fast, because you can only effect things in the reality you're currently in. You have to make sure that the guy you're aiming at is this reality and doesn't jump into the Hunting Grounds. And if you didn't see the marker, well, sucks to be you. I don't know how much I'll be using this mechanic in my games, as you can use it in every game from this point on, if both players agree.

One of the new Hired Guns is a Gattling Gun and crew. I'm really happy to see this because people seem to forget about them as A Thing in the Old/Wild West. When it came to the Civil War and afterwards, these things were a game changer. Literally in this case. I don't know where I get a mini of this but I'm looking now.
Speaking of game changers, there's a lot in here for Campaigns. In addition to a new Encounter table for “Indian Territory,” there's also a whole thing for adding in Territories for Campaigns. It's a little fuzzy for me (which is not uncommon for me and this game) but you generate some before you get started, then put them up for ante before a game and the winner gets that one, but everyone gets one but then again you might not be able to have one so you'll have to generate one and... Okay. If you want the details, buy the book. I will say that (even if it's confusing) I do like how it adds some depth to the Campaigns. Plus, you can upgrade a Hideout in your Territory, giving you another way to customize your posse.

Speaking of customizing your posse, you can hire out one of your posse members to another posse if you're not playing the game. It gets even better as you can make a member of your posse a Mercenary Drifter if you have to retire your posse. I haven't read it completely yet but when I do, I'll be dropping stats for the Ferner Five.

The last thing... Okay, there's some stuff I'm glossing over, but I have to say that this book crammed a lot of good stuff between the covers so...

Anyway. The last thing this book has is a narrative campaign. In this campaign, you divide the posses into two groups, Alliance of Order and Alliance of Chaos, with the Crossroads Cult being the driving force behind the Chaos group. Over the course of seven missions, the posses will decide the fate of the world. I like this but I don't know if I'll ever be able to pull it off. If you have a large group of players, this would be a great thing to introduce them to.

All in all, this book is a great source book. It does everything a source book/expansion should do, improve on the original book without being too powerful, as well as filling some gaps. It is by no means perfect but if you're already playing Dracula's America, you'll want this book.