The Inside Scoop on Gaming

OVERVIEW OF THE DEADLANDS RPG GAME LINE.

INTRODUCTION

Deadlands was the hit game of 1996/97 as for the first time in a decade or so it presented a viable and fun western gaming experience. Sure TSR had 'Boot Hill' and SJG had 'GURPS Old West' , but by and large the western genre was absent from role-playing. Then came along two games all at once- 'Deadlands' and 'Werewolf the Wild West.' One of these games is now effectively dead and buried, its books bundled off at bargain basement prices, whereas the other has spawned a huge line of supplements, sequel games, wargames, cardgames and a new edition.
I attribute the relative success of Deadlands to several factors. Firstly it was better written, the game mechanics specifically designed to enhance the experience and atmosphere of the game. Secondly there was a greater variety of genres and character classes available which the tribe-bound Werewolf lacked. Finally, Deadlands was more enjoyable and fun to play. It didn't ask people to take it seriously, or expect them to research the period. Instead Western movies came to life, with a fair dose of Hammer Horror thrown in and players got to practice their Clint Eastwood impressions!

But let us address some specific points.

SETTING

Deadlands is set in an alternative old West of 1876 where reality took a sharp right turn at the Battle of Gettysburg 13 years previously. Supernatural forces of apocalyptic power were freed from their spirit world prison and they sent their spirit minions (called manitous) to wreak havoc on the world. The dead came back to life as rotting zombies, monstrous animals roamed the plains, and occultists found that their magic really worked...
So the government took advantage of the populaces inherent reason and immediately did its best to conceal these changes from the people. And the fact that the walking dead of Gettysburg disrupted the last charge means that both North and South are still locked into a stalemated ongoing civil war.
Meanwhile prospectors found a wonder fuel called 'ghost rock' after California is shattered by a fault-line earthquake. This mineral makes possible a range of technological advances, soon exploited by 'mad scientists' whose crazy inventions include steam cars, blimps, submarines and even giant mechanical spiders.
However, both native Indians and Western preachers discover that their beliefs hold water and they gain miraculous powers from the totem spirits and God respectively. This too disrupts the course of events as the Indians take advantage of the American Union and Confederation weakness to carve out homelands for themselves.

So, we end up with one of the weirdest mish mashes of film clichés and alternative-history fiction ever assembled. Gunslinger deserters from the Armies still roam dusty western towns and fight evil rail barons. But these villains might be secret black magicians, or have zombies in their posses. Indians fight the white man but discover steam driven tanks and aeroplanes attacking their wigwams. Charming hucksters tap the power of the devil to cast magic whilst righteous town priests lead pitchfork wielding mobs against Stetson-hatted vampire ranchers. And cowboys singing out on the open plains? They get to look out for the giant sandworms that swallow men whole and the strange metallic bulls stampeding in the herd......

All in all, it just shouldn't work. It looks like a horrible mix of genres that would have Jules Verne, John Wayne and Bram Stoker turning in their graves. Yet, the supernatural elements are never in the forefront. To newbie players they can play in a slightly technologically advanced steampunk old west where the civil war never finished. Yet as the supernatural (the 'weird shit' as my players put it) gradually appears, they know they are in trouble. Then they have two choices, make like Cthulhu investigators and run for it, or act like western heroes and draw!

As mentioned, the merit of the game is its refusal to take itself too seriously. As the back blurb says, its a spaghetti western with meat! Camp comedy mixes with western grit and horror surprisingly well. This is partly due to the western slang used throughout the book, not just the setting section but into the rules....

RULES

Talking of which Deadlands uses a very innovative and sophisticated rules engine that can be somewhat complicated for beginners. Essentially all attributes (things like Strength, Quickness, Cognition or Smarts, ) give a die type from a d4 to a d12. This is drawn randomly by use of a normal set of poker cards. Players then assign die types to attributes as they like and then buy skill points, merits and flaws from a list. Skill checks (for firing a gun or designing a new invention) require the player to roll a number of appropriate sided dice equal to their skill total. (e.g. my Shootin' skill is 3 and my deftness die-type is a d6, so I roll 3d6.) The player then selects the highest single die result and compares it to a difficulty number of between 3-13. Should it exceed the target, then the action was successful. For every multiple of 5 above the target number, the player gains a 'raise'. Each raise increases the success of the action. Of course because the player get to reroll and add their dice result when the highest possible number is rolled on the die (i.e. a 6 on a d6, or a 10 on a d10) then even the worst prospect gets to roll 1d4 and has a (low) chance of passing a target number of 13. One quirk of the system is that with a target number of 6, 1d4 will succeed with an 18.75% probability whilst 1d6 has the lower 16.67% chance!

Combat is even more interesting as it redlines the rule engine. First character roll their Quickness attribute against a target of 5 to gain one action with each raise granting an additional actions. The GM then shuffles a deck of cards and players draw a number of cards equal to their actions to determine order of initiative. This, oddly enough simplifies combat! Because as the marshal counts down from, people hand in their cards to get an action. There is none of the usual problem of the GM writing down a half dozen initiative numbers.
The other nice thing is that cards are also drawn for special powers. Hucksters casting hexes, mad scientists creating inventions and so on require minimum hands to power their effects. Its much more tension-building than merely rolling dice, enhances the western atmosphere and provides players with a chance to shine at their card dealing.
Another nice touch is the use of poker chips as 'Fate Chips' to represent the PC's heroic nature. Players get 3 fate chips at the beginning of a session and may earn more in game with style, success and humour. Fate chips allow people to ignore wounds, increase die totals or even power some special abilities. It allows the PC's to pull off great cinematic stunts, or save their asses in a pinch, but is much more fluid and powerful than comparable Willpower or Fate points in other systems. Not only does it introduce and element of gambling, but also encourages heroics and humour as PC's who make the GM laugh alomsot automatically get a fate chip.

SUPPLEMENTS

PEG have produced an entire shelf of supplements for Deadlands, on par with TSR in their heyday or White Wolf any day. There are additional 'group' sourcebooks (differentiated from WW splatbooks because they provide more rules heavy lists of new magic or items. For example Hucksters and Hexes is closer to Blood Thaumaturgy or the AD&D Tome of Magic than Clanbook Tremere ), boxed settings, Dime Novel adventures, and even a magazine ( the Epitaph ) and a host of lead miniatures and cardstock figures.

Lets look at each in turn.

Group Sourcebooks consist of 'Book o' the Dead' (Harrowed) Hucksters and Hexes, Fire and Brimstone (Blessed), Law Dogs (Texas Rangers and outlaws), Ghost Dancers (Injuns), the Agency (Pinkertons), Smith and Robards (Mad scientists) and the mishmash of magic-users in Hexarcana (Martial artists, voodoun, metal mages and stuff). The first 5 represent some of PEG's earlier work and tend to be uniformly good and useful. The ones I most commonly used in play were H&H, F&B, Law Dogs and occasionally the Book o' the Dead. Indeed Hucksters and Shamans are nearly unplayable without the additional hexes from H&H and Ghost Dancers respectively, at least in the first edition.
Smith and Robards (S&R) is the equivalent of a technological Sears and Roebuck catalogue and PC's can get kitted out with some powerful gear through mail order. Mad scientists tended to irritate me, so this book was banned from my campaign. Law Dogs is incredibly useful, providing a comprehensive list of western fire arms for your gun nuts and also clear guidance on bounties, crimes and sentences for when they misbehave. It also sheds light on the Texas rangers and is a broader read than the Artemis Gordon style Union Men in Black dusters. I don't know, but the Texas Rangers are more cinematic and interesting, rooted as they are in the west, whilst the Agency seem to be an unnecessary X-file reference with wonder toys. Amusingly they started out well in 1st Ed as the Pinkerton detectives, but when PEG realised they could be sued by the contemporary Pinkerton Detective Agency (still around after all these years!) they suddenly became CIA/MiB 'Agency' clones.
'Book O' the Dead' is useful for when your players inevitably become Harrowed, but once you've explained their new powers to them they rarely need it in play. 'Hexarcana' is definitely second rate, being a re-print of some unique character classes from the boxed sets. The new hexes, powers and favours are really not necessary and this book is only useful if you cannot get 'The Great Maze' but want the rules to play Bwuce Lee! and adopt a silly accent.

Boxed Sets and Setting books.

There are a few setting soft back books, usually of 128 pages. They include Back East: the North and BE: the South, Canyon o' Doom, Tales of Terror:1877, South of the Border and Lost Angels . The boxed sets are the out of print 'Great Maze' (California), River of Blood (Mississippi) and City of Gloom (Utah).

They are all setting books and so have the following in common. They have NPC's and locations galore, new monsters, villains and plot hooks abound and they add specific details or expand upon the core books. For example, take the Back East books. They are filled with background details on the history, culture, people and locations of the North and South. Not only is there enough detail for the PC's to adventure there, but plenty of background to hang characters personal history off of.

The best of these are Great Maze (if only for the Chinese martial artists and Shan Fan!) and Tales of Terror: 1877 which updates the setting everywhere by one year. So new people turn up in Tombstone and Dodge, alliances are made and the PC's get some extra bad guys to call out.
The Back Easts and South of the Border are average- interesting but nonessential.

Rascals, Varmints and Critters (I & II) are collections of western monsters. The first was a fan submitted effort (in the manner of the Fiend Folio ) and the quality of entry varies widely. Probably not worth getting. The second concentrates on Undead, werewolves, cryptozoology, and mad science creations and is more useful, though it lacks the 'off the wall' quality of RVC I.

Dime Novels

This was quite an innovation for Deadlands, and its a pity that PEG have moved away from the format. Basically they were small (A5?) 40 odd page booklets with a story in front and the related adventure at the back. They were also pretty cheap originally (about £3.50, later rose to £4.99) and the story basically gave the GM an idea of how to run the adventure, what could help set atmosphere, NPC speech patterns etc. Then the adventure details gave extra information (what exists in the room that the fictional character never got to, etc.), maps, stats, plot hooks etc. All in all it was a very nice package and whilst the fiction was usually poor (as all game related fiction tends to be) that wasn't the point. It was more like one of those character write ups you find on the Net- it was the adventure written from the point of view of your character after he'd gone through the scenario.

It appears that PEG are now producing their adventures in the new (and over-expensive) Epitaph magazine format. Still the dime novels are still lurking around in shops and I recommend you buy them instead.

A brief description of the best, in order of publication.

'Perditions Daughter' -This 'Christmas Special' has the bizarre sight of Santa Claus shooting zombies with his six-guns. Bizarrely this has bugger all to do with the adventure which revolves around the extraction of a rich man's son from a charismatic cult. Suffice to say, the beautiful cult leader is up to no good and the characters must put her down. Relatively fun and imaginative, its a pretty good introduction to Deadlands.

'Independence Day' is a rather nice adventure set in Dodge as the Ripper-like Butcher goes on a serial killing spree. It also sees the introduction of the man's man and Texas Ranger- Hank 'One-Eye' Ketchum. Its here that the fictional section of the Dime Novel comes into itself as his portrayal gives some wonderful role-playing hints for the GM. Excellent, thrilling 'whodunit' adventure that takes advantage of the Dodge setting.

'Night Train' was written by John 'Killer Marshal' Goff and introduces vampires to the West. Big explosions and a nice foreshadowing of events makes this a gem. Something of a PC (and town) killer.

'Adios Amigos' is a crossover with Cthulhu and has Mi-go taking over a weird western town. Good fun, deadly and well written. Must buy for Cthulhu fans.

'Worms' is another John Goff product and concentrates on the 'Tremors'-like Mojave Rattlers and their ungodly wormling offspring. Cool and exciting, but again a PC and town killer.

Briefly the rest- Matt Forbeck's 'Under a Harrowed Moon' trilogy of crossover dime novels with Werewolf the Wild West. PC's must stop the bridging of these two realities and get to kill Black Spiral Dancers!. Not bad, but in a forerunner of his BNW design, the writer fails to tell the GM that the villain is Harrowed until the final book of the trilogy.
'Forbidden God' and 'Skinners' are more investigative, but I found them to be less exciting and worse written. Avoid.

OTHER ADVENTURES

PEG have also brought out their own magazine 'the Epitaph' which has adventures in it. Unfortunately, while the adventures are average, they are not worth the £10 price tag for the magazine. Boycott until they lower the price to something reasonable.

There also exists a 'Devils Tower' trilogy of adventures, 2 are soft back books 'Road to Hell' and 'Heart of Darkness' (which I never read) and the finale is a boxed set 'Fortress of Fear'. Basically the PC's chase after a McGuffin from Prof Hellstroms Salt Lake City, to Reverend Grimes Lost Angels. The McGuffin is then stolen by uber-hard undead killer 'Stone' (the Harrowed from the 1st Ed. cover) who flees to the mysterious Devils Tower where the PC's encounter aliens and dimensional portals! All in all its not bad, but is slightly expensive and primitive compared to the later dime novels. Worth getting if you have a bunch of ex-AD&D players who enjoy quests and dungeon hacks.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, Deadlands is an original and fun game. Its rules are reasonably straightforward and bring new life to the previously under used d12. The use of cards adds to the western atmosphere and simplifies initiative. Even so, combat is quite complicated (though it can be simplified by ignoring wind and stun damage), perhaps more so than that of 'AD&D' , and is probably on par with 'Vampire.'
The setting is reasonably original, but excels in its cinematic mythos. There is something to appeal to everyone (Harry Turtledove fans will enjoy the alternative history, card players will like hucksters etc.) but equally there will be something that people hate. (I really, really dislike mad scientists, whilst my friend found martial artists ruined the western setting).

From the view of the GM, this game has plenty of options. There are sample villains from any western film, evil Voudoun necromancers for fantasy staples, and even monsters, animal and fantastic to test the party. Rewards are equally broad, from mere dollars, to magical items, tomes of power and political favours. Adventures can be anything imaginable, so creating a campaign will never be a problem.

Talking of which, what books are required for a Deadlands game? Well in my opinion both the Players and Marshals handbooks (formerly the 1st Ed rulebook and 'the Quick and the Dead' campaign book) cover the game pretty well. Both players and GMs would probably find 'Hucksters and Hexes' and 'Law Dogs' pretty useful. 'Tales of Terror 1877' and a boxed set are also worth getting if available.
For adventure material, I recommend getting the good Dime novels and stringing them together to create an ongoing epic. Don't get the Devils Tower trilogy unless you are really desperate, and its much cheaper just to watch a few westerns and adapt them to you game.

All in all, Deadlands is a game with plenty of well written material that is useful but nonessential. The www.peginc.com website is a useful resource with a variety of adventure ideas in the library and the Deadlands mailing list is worth joining. (Ooops almost forget. Avoid the 'Weird Wailins' music CD that PEG produced as a waste of money. A 'Good, the Bad and the Ugly' soundtrack is cheaper and more atmospheric!)

Judging the game in respect to other RPG's is slightly difficult. Overall it is a good game, with touches of genius and panache. Unfortunately its slightly limited in its genre, but within that limitation it allows a variety of gaming styles. Compared to AD&D , Deadlands' rules are more complicated, but the setting is better. Next to Vampire it comes out well ruleswise, but lacks the focus and pathos of Vampire. Against Cthulhu it's a lightweight, especially with Chaosium's straightforward rules. You do get more laughs with Deadlands though, even as Lovecraftian horrors eat the cowboys.

Against the Western RPG competition, Deadlands comes out top, easily better than Boot Hill, Werewolf: Wild West and GURPS Old West as it can be played as either a 'straight' western or the 'Weird West' . Its rules enhance and supplement the western atmosphere and experience whilst still being playable.

In conclusion, Deadlands is a good game, with well written supplements and plenty of support. I'd probably put it in the Top 10 of RPG's, at joint 4th with L5R . Who should buy this game? Well western fans certainly should, as should those who enjoy a variety of game styles from camp comedy, to horror, to tense shoot-outs. Deadlands is one of the few games that can handle this variety without resorting to an unfocused generic system.

Style- Deadlands has style coming out of its ears. Writing the entirety of the combat rules is very stylish, drawing poker hands to represent hucksters gambling with spirits is uber-stylish and having a high noon, Clintesque shoot outs along with the cliched phrases 'This town aint big enough for the both of us' is the pinnacle of style. 5 out of 5!

Substance- there is plenty of meat to Deadlands, both with rules and setting. Unfortunately, some of the ideas jar with the western emphasis, and necessary additions are spread across too many supplements whose cost of £12.99 is slightly too high. Therefore a Substance rating of 4.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Deadlands entire RPG Line