The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Authors: Shane Lacy Hensley

Pinnacle Entertainment Group P.O. Box 10908 Blacksburg, VA 24062-0908

http://www.peginc.com

224 pages, perfect bound $30

ISBN: 1-889546-33-X

Reviewed by: Lisa Padol

Playtesters: Joshua Kronengold, who also doubled as Rules GM, and Naomi Rivkis

Grade: C- (would have been a B if I hadn't playtested it)

Many gamers and game designers believe that in an ideal world, reviewers would playtest all products before reviewing them. I believe this as well; however, I would note for the record that this is one of at least two products which would have received a higher grade from me if I had not playtested them.

I love the background, just as I loved the background of Deadlands: The Weird West. Both games have a larger than life setting that does not insult one's intelligence by claiming to be plausible. In both cases, the premise is that angry shamans released demons called manitous on the world in 1863. This led to high supernatural weirdness, some of which masqueraded as technology, or at least, mad science. These changes led to an alternate history where the Civil War dragged on and on, Native American tribes held on to large parts of the west, and magic played a part in the race to complete the first transcontinental rail. Meanwhile, the manitous were trying to help their masters, the malevolent Reckoners, break through into our world. This was something that the heroes of the Weird West fought to prevent.

In Deadlands: Hell on Earth, the Reckoners succeeded in entering the world in 2081. The game is set 13 years after that, and the situation is described by Coot Jenkins, The Prospector, familiar to long-time Deadlands fans as the narrator of the Weird West game.

PC types include Sykers, folks with mental powers who fought a disasterous war on another planet which will be the setting for a new RPG; Doomsayers, mutants with strange powers who search for their messiah while opposing the -other- Doomsayers, who want to kill all non-mutants; Templars, do-gooders armed with physical and magical weapons, who choose their battles carefully; and Junkers, the new mad scientists. There are also less exotic types, such as Road Warriors, Gunslingers, Tale-Tellers, Law Dogs, Old Soldiers, Indians who follow the old ways, and Ravenites, Indians who prefer higher technology.

My playtesters asked why one couldn't create a PC who was two things, for example, a Syker turned Templar. There should be a mechanic for this, or some explanation other than game balance for why this does not happen.

Fans of Deadlands: The Weird West can import most character types to the Wasted West. The big exception is Mad Scientists, as they no longer have ghost rock to play with. As in the Weird West, characters may start as or may become walking dead, otherwise known as "Harrowed." The rules do not say whether characters with special abilities lose these abilities if they become Harrowed. If they do, then if one sticks strictly to the rules as written, a player could create a Templar, only to lose his powers with a bad draw on the Mysterious Past table.

After character creation comes the combat rules, which were to cause such distress, followed by the rules for bounty chips, the equivalent of experience points. The rules read quite well, and they are a streamlined and improved version of the Weird West rules. The bounty chip rules are also better. The first section ends with a 1-page combat summary. The second section has chapters on the exotic character types, Doomsayers, Junkers, Sykers, Templars, and Harrowed. The section ends with a chapter on fear. Fear is the main weapon of the Reckoners, and PCs can reduce the fear in an area by telling stories of their triumph. The final section is for the GM. It includes general advice, lots of charts, and stats for monsters.

Playtesting took three widely spaced evenings. The first, devoted to character creation went well. You create a Deadlands PC by drawing 12 cards from an ordinary deck. These tell you the type and number of dice you get to roll for Traits. From these, you get points for skills and advantages, and you can gain more points by taking disadvantages. Jokers give the highest value, but also mean your PC has a Mysterious Past or a mutation. In theory, the GM is supposed to draw randomly for this, but I found that random draws get results that either make little sense or shorten the PCs' lifespan too drastically. Your mileage may vary, but letting my playtesters choose their PCs' Mysterious Past and mutation worked best for me.

The odds seem to be weighted in favor of PCs with at least one extraordinarily high Traits. One playtester generated a PC with such high Traits that the other playtester expected that her own PC would be far too dull to play. However, when she drew cards, she wound up with even higher numbers. This is as it should be, for Deadlands is a game about larger than life heroes.

My playtesters created a Templar and a pacifist Road Warrior. I tried to create a Junker, but was utterly uninspired by the extremely sketchy guidelines for creating weird devices. Then again, I don't like fussing with points, and a Junker is not the kind of PC I'd usually create. I chose the type specifically to test the system, and I am not the ideal person to run that sort of test.

My playtesters, meanwhile, spent the rest of the evening fleshing out their PCs, describing how the characters met, and what their previous adventures were. If I'd had any doubts about how much fun the world of the Wasted West was, this would have made them vanish.

We then set a date for the actual playtest. Now, Deadlands uses cards, dice, and poker chips, as well as colored paperclips to indicate wound levels on the character sheet. Sane gamers have pointed out to me that this is far too complicated, but it seemed fairly straightforward when I read the book. Also, I had played Deadlands before, and I had an excellent time. So, I was confident that I could handle the system.

I was wrong. I flipped back and forwards, screamed in despair several times, and wondered what had happened to the fun game I remembered playing at Dreamation. I deliberately cut out one ambush because I could not bear to run another combat. We could not find rules for a vehicle hitting a person or a critter, rather than another vehicle, and we never did figure out how one uses Quick Draw with a sword.

I decided that we would run another playtest session and one of my playtesters was appointed rules GM. I described what happened in the scenario, and he dealt with the mechanics. After all, I prefer OTE mechanics, so I am perhaps not the best person to be in charge of playtesting a system as complicated as Deadlands.

The other playtester and I still hated the complicated rules. The rules GM had less trouble, saying that it was all a matter of figuring out which rules to ignore, which the GM who ran the Dreamation game had clearly done. This may true, but in a playtest, one tests the rules as they are written. If the rules as they are written need to be ignored, there is a problem.

I, therefore, find myself in reluctant agreement with the critics of the system. The problems we had were not helped by the lack of index nor by things such as telling players to "add +1" which is redundant, or to "subtract -1", which my players would have been happy to do, as subtracting negative one is the same as adding positive one.

If you are comfortable with complicated systems and know how to tinker with them, or if you are good at converting complicated mechanics to simpler ones, Deadlands has a great background. It does not pretend to be scientifically accurate; it is an unashamed mish-mash of the psuedo-science and magic that the authors considered most cool. I just wish the system were easier to use.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Deadlands: Hell on Earth
Author: Shane Lacy Hensley Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Line: Deadlands Cost: $30 Page count: 224 pages, perfect bound ISBN: 1-889546-33-X Playtest Review by Lisa Padol on 05/18/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Horror Far_Future Post-apocalypse Old_West	Deadlands: Hell on Earth Authors: Shane Lacy Hensley Pinnacle Entertainment Group P.O. Box 10908 Blacksburg, VA 24062-0908 http://www.peginc.com 224 pages, perfect bound $30 ISBN: 1-889546-33-X Reviewed by: Lisa Padol Playtesters: Joshua Kronengold, who also doubled as Rules GM, and Naomi Rivkis Grade: C- (would have been a B if I hadn't playtested it) Many gamers and game designers believe that in an ideal world, reviewers would playtest all products before reviewing them. I believe this as well; however, I would note for the record that this is one of at least two products which would have received a higher grade from me if I had not playtested them. I love the background, just as I loved the background of Deadlands: The Weird West. Both games have a larger than life setting that does not insult one's intelligence by claiming to be plausible. In both cases, the premise is that angry shamans released demons called manitous on the world in 1863. This led to high supernatural weirdness, some of which masqueraded as technology, or at least, mad science. These changes led to an alternate history where the Civil War dragged on and on, Native American tribes held on to large parts of the west, and magic played a part in the race to complete the first transcontinental rail. Meanwhile, the manitous were trying to help their masters, the malevolent Reckoners, break through into our world. This was something that the heroes of the Weird West fought to prevent. In Deadlands: Hell on Earth, the Reckoners succeeded in entering the world in 2081. The game is set 13 years after that, and the situation is described by Coot Jenkins, The Prospector, familiar to long-time Deadlands fans as the narrator of the Weird West game. PC types include Sykers, folks with mental powers who fought a disasterous war on another planet which will be the setting for a new RPG; Doomsayers, mutants with strange powers who search for their messiah while opposing the -other- Doomsayers, who want to kill all non-mutants; Templars, do-gooders armed with physical and magical weapons, who choose their battles carefully; and Junkers, the new mad scientists. There are also less exotic types, such as Road Warriors, Gunslingers, Tale-Tellers, Law Dogs, Old Soldiers, Indians who follow the old ways, and Ravenites, Indians who prefer higher technology. My playtesters asked why one couldn't create a PC who was two things, for example, a Syker turned Templar. There should be a mechanic for this, or some explanation other than game balance for why this does not happen. Fans of Deadlands: The Weird West can import most character types to the Wasted West. The big exception is Mad Scientists, as they no longer have ghost rock to play with. As in the Weird West, characters may start as or may become walking dead, otherwise known as "Harrowed." The rules do not say whether characters with special abilities lose these abilities if they become Harrowed. If they do, then if one sticks strictly to the rules as written, a player could create a Templar, only to lose his powers with a bad draw on the Mysterious Past table. After character creation comes the combat rules, which were to cause such distress, followed by the rules for bounty chips, the equivalent of experience points. The rules read quite well, and they are a streamlined and improved version of the Weird West rules. The bounty chip rules are also better. The first section ends with a 1-page combat summary. The second section has chapters on the exotic character types, Doomsayers, Junkers, Sykers, Templars, and Harrowed. The section ends with a chapter on fear. Fear is the main weapon of the Reckoners, and PCs can reduce the fear in an area by telling stories of their triumph. The final section is for the GM. It includes general advice, lots of charts, and stats for monsters. Playtesting took three widely spaced evenings. The first, devoted to character creation went well. You create a Deadlands PC by drawing 12 cards from an ordinary deck. These tell you the type and number of dice you get to roll for Traits. From these, you get points for skills and advantages, and you can gain more points by taking disadvantages. Jokers give the highest value, but also mean your PC has a Mysterious Past or a mutation. In theory, the GM is supposed to draw randomly for this, but I found that random draws get results that either make little sense or shorten the PCs' lifespan too drastically. Your mileage may vary, but letting my playtesters choose their PCs' Mysterious Past and mutation worked best for me. The odds seem to be weighted in favor of PCs with at least one extraordinarily high Traits. One playtester generated a PC with such high Traits that the other playtester expected that her own PC would be far too dull to play. However, when she drew cards, she wound up with even higher numbers. This is as it should be, for Deadlands is a game about larger than life heroes. My playtesters created a Templar and a pacifist Road Warrior. I tried to create a Junker, but was utterly uninspired by the extremely sketchy guidelines for creating weird devices. Then again, I don't like fussing with points, and a Junker is not the kind of PC I'd usually create. I chose the type specifically to test the system, and I am not the ideal person to run that sort of test. My playtesters, meanwhile, spent the rest of the evening fleshing out their PCs, describing how the characters met, and what their previous adventures were. If I'd had any doubts about how much fun the world of the Wasted West was, this would have made them vanish. We then set a date for the actual playtest. Now, Deadlands uses cards, dice, and poker chips, as well as colored paperclips to indicate wound levels on the character sheet. Sane gamers have pointed out to me that this is far too complicated, but it seemed fairly straightforward when I read the book. Also, I had played Deadlands before, and I had an excellent time. So, I was confident that I could handle the system. I was wrong. I flipped back and forwards, screamed in despair several times, and wondered what had happened to the fun game I remembered playing at Dreamation. I deliberately cut out one ambush because I could not bear to run another combat. We could not find rules for a vehicle hitting a person or a critter, rather than another vehicle, and we never did figure out how one uses Quick Draw with a sword. I decided that we would run another playtest session and one of my playtesters was appointed rules GM. I described what happened in the scenario, and he dealt with the mechanics. After all, I prefer OTE mechanics, so I am perhaps not the best person to be in charge of playtesting a system as complicated as Deadlands. The other playtester and I still hated the complicated rules. The rules GM had less trouble, saying that it was all a matter of figuring out which rules to ignore, which the GM who ran the Dreamation game had clearly done. This may true, but in a playtest, one tests the rules as they are written. If the rules as they are written need to be ignored, there is a problem. I, therefore, find myself in reluctant agreement with the critics of the system. The problems we had were not helped by the lack of index nor by things such as telling players to "add +1" which is redundant, or to "subtract -1", which my players would have been happy to do, as subtracting negative one is the same as adding positive one. If you are comfortable with complicated systems and know how to tinker with them, or if you are good at converting complicated mechanics to simpler ones, Deadlands has a great background. It does not pretend to be scientifically accurate; it is an unashamed mish-mash of the psuedo-science and magic that the authors considered most cool. I just wish the system were easier to use. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)