Deadlands is a fairly popular game combining the horror and western genres. The closest comparison would be to Shadowrun, only set in the old west, the cyber-gizmos replaced with steam gizmos, minus the fantasy races & and with bits from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. & The Wild Wild West thrown in.
It's set in 1877 or so, in North America. While it's 1877, it's not our 1877. Thanks to "The Reckoning", essentially a magic ritual done by Native Americans, magic has come back into the world, bringing with it evil critters. The US Civil War still rages on. Much of California has fallen into the ocean, creating a series of islands called the Maze. A magical fuel source found there, "Ghost Rock" allows wild, steampunkish technology to be created, making the Civil War even more hellish. Against this backdrop, it's up to the PCs to fight the evil critters and foil plots of the Reckoners, evil beings who live off of fear.
Besides a somewhat similar background to Shadowrun, the original version of Deadlands also uses mechanics similar to Shadowrun, only more complex and using all sorts of dice, poker chips, and decks of cards. While the original game has lots of flavor, it was a giant pain to actually play, at least in my experience, and many others. Which is part of the reason Pinnacle came out with Deadlands d20 - to allow more people to actually play the game.
The Deadlands d20 rulebook is softcover, fairly good sized (200 pages), and fairly reasonably priced at $25. The physical quality is perhaps a bit poor, and the margins are gigantic, but the book is packed with lots of content, and is fairly hefty (always a good thing in a RPG book). The artwork is mostly recycled from other Deadlands products, and is often printed rather darkly, but more than adequate.
The first chapter of the books is an introduction to the setting. It's less dramatic than in the original game, in which the reader took the point of a view of a corpse that was just dug up. But it covers more ground, since it covers events that took place after the original game came out. It's about 20 pages.
Chapter two is on classes. There are 9 new core classes: Blessed (sort of like a Cleric), Brave, Gunslinger (sort of like a fighter, only with guns), Huckster (sort of like a wizard or sorcerer), Mad Scientist, Maverick (sort of like a Rogue), Rowdy (sort of like a fighter, but with melee weapons), Scout, and Shaman (sort of like a Druid).
Now while I say that a certain class is sort of like a regular d20/D&D class, mechanically they are not. But the archetypes are similar. For instance, the Gunslinger. While it's a combat orientated class like D&D's Fighter, it's geared towards using guns. As such, while it has the best attack progression, it has different hit dice, saves, class skills, and special powers.
For the most part, each new class fits a common Western style archetype. For instance, the Gunslinger would work for Clint Eastwood's character in most movies. Particularly the Dollars trilogy. It also fits legendary gunfighters such as Wes Hardin and Wild Bill Hickok. The Maverick is more fitting to the character on the old James Gardner, or someone like Doc Holiday (though he'd be a Maverick/Gunslinger, most likely).
Some, like the Blessed, Huckster, Mad Scientist, and to a lesser extent, the Shaman, are direct from the Deadlands universe. The Blessed is a holy person, able to work miracles. While there is a thematic to D&D's Cleric, again, mechanically they are quite different. The Blessed has the worst attack progression and fewer hit points, as well as having divine gifts (basically straight from regular Deadlands) and other special powers.
The Shaman is similar to the Blessed, only they use nature magic. Instead of divine gifts, they get totemic gifts. The Huckster is the Deadlands version of a magic user. Again, mechanically, they are quite different than D&Ds, though their ultimate purpose is the same - they cast magical spells. The Mad Scientist has no D&D analog, at least in 3e, they are sort of like the old Tinker class of Dragonlance and Mystara (but again, mechanically quite different). If you've seen the Doc in Back to the Future 3, then you have a good idea what the class is.
Chapter 3 is on skills and feats. It discusses how existing skills and feats are altered, and introduces several new ones. There are many new class skills. For instance, the Gunslinger gets a 'gunplay' skill, which lets him perform amazing things with a gun, from trick shooting to gun handling. Each spell casting class has it's own relevent skill, used when spells are cast.
There are also several new feats, many of which are actually converted from the original Deadlands.
Chapter 4 is on equipment. There are descriptions of a whole bunch of guns, always a good thing, though it's not a gigantic list. Seems like a few more than in the original Deadlands game, though not as much as in the companion book to it, The Quick and the Dead.
The damage value of firearms has been increased over regular d20. Most pistols do around 2d6 of damage, while rifles do from 2d8 to 2d12. Shotguns do from 4d6 to 1d6, depending on range.
There's also a brief selection of other stuff, including some Mad Scientist gizmos. Not many, much like the original Deadlands book. (Pinnacle likes to sell splatbooks for character types)
Chapter 5 is on combat. It introduces several new rules, which when coupled with the high damage values of firearms, makes firearm combat in Deadlands d20 relatively lethal. While it's generally not possible for high level characters to do from a single shot outside of a duel, it is quite lethal to low to mid level characters. There's also some brief rules for vehicle combat.
Chapter 6 is on prestige classes and the Harrowed. There are only 2 prestige classes, the Agency Operative (works for the North as a spy and investigator of the supernatural) and the Texas Ranger. Both make a lot of sense, in both terms of game mechanics and in terms of setting. The original edition of Deadlands let starting characters be Texas Rangers. That never set right with me. Texas Rangers should be elite, and more experienced than the average person.
Harrowed are basically dead characters who have been reanimated through the help of a demon. The demon possesses the bodies in order to wreak havok on the world, but sometimes the original owner can regain control over the demon. They should really be a template, but the way they work here also works pretty well.
Chapter 7 is on magic. There are basically 3 spell casting classes in Deadlands d20, but all the magic works the same way. Each class gets a certain amount of spells points, and a certain amount is spent to cast a spell (it uses spell levels, just like regular d20). After the spell points are spent, a casting roll is made. If the roll succeeds, then the spell is cast. If not, it's not. Simple enough, and more importantly, it's much quicker than the original Deadlands (that required Hucksters to basically play out a hand of poker with the GM).
While several new spells are introduced, some regular d20/D&D spells are used. This can be a irritating thing to some people, but really, how many ways can a cure wounds spell be rewritten? Might as well just use Cure Light Wounds, etc, than come up with completely new versions.
Lastly come the explanations of the various Totemic powers (which can be gained by Shamans or Braves) and Divine Gifts. Also some barebones rules for making Mad Scientist gizmos are provided.
Chapter 8 is for the GM (as are all later chapters). Basically it tells the GM some basic things they should know about the Deadlands setting. Also introduced is an NPC Class, the Black Magician. Since it's powers come from the Reckoners, it's basically completely off-limits to PCs, at least if you want to run the normal Deadlands style game. And there's a rather small random treasure table.
Chapter 9 is additional setting info. Basically, it gives the secrets alluded to in the first chapter of the book, as well as a general overview of the Weird West. Dodge City is also given a fairly decent look at. This is a big chapter, at around 40 pages. Stats for 2 famous people, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp are given. Both are mid level gunslingers, which is actually fairly accurate (from what I've read of them, anyway).
Chapter 10 is on Horrors of the Old West. Basically it's on monsters. While not a huge amount, they do give you a decent number, 15. Most are fairly big name ones from the original Deadlands game (the ones found in the original book). They do want to sell a monster book, after all.
Chapter 11 is on Relics. Basically, they are magic items. They're actually pretty much exactly like how they worked in the original Deadlands, but altered to fit d20 mechanics.
So, to sum up, Pinnacle has done an excellent job. Rather than doing a slapdash conversion to d20, or simply using a word processor to search and replace, Pinnacle has seemingly created a d20 game from the ground up that fits the Deadlands universe, and yet is still fairly compatible with the most common version of the d20 rules. (Though admittedly, they did recycle almost all of the art. I think the cover is new*).
I've had Deadlands d20 for several months now, and have had a chance to run it and play it. I've also used stuff from it in other d20 games, specifically a very odd D&D game. I've used D&D modules for Deadlands. I've adapted some of the Deadlands stuff for Dragonstar**. I think it works great.
But to address several common complaints:
It's lethal. No, maybe not as lethal as the original Deadlands. But lethal enough. For instance, take Wyatt Earp. He has 81 hp. That's pretty good, actually, but he still can be killed in a sneak attack (since that would be a coup de grace), or a duel (since there are rules for them). But even in a regular fight, he can only be hit 10 or so times from a pistol and live. If you take that literally, as in bullets actually hitting him, that's a lot, but not out of the realm of possibilty, at least in fiction. (See Lethal Weapon 2)
But in an abstract sort of way, that is actually not a very long combat. He would only last a few rounds versus a group of opponents, because targets in Deadlands d20 are easy to hit (low ACs). Most of the monsters in the book would eat him for lunch in a few rounds. No, it's not insanely deadly, but other than that one adventure, Deadlands is not meant to be Call of Cthulhu in the old West. And most normal people don't like making up new characters every session.
It's not D&D with guns. Sure, some of the archetypes are the same. But a Gunslinger, game mechanically, is not very close to a D&D Fighter. A D&D Fighter would eat a Gunslinger for lunch in melee combat, while a Gunslinger would blow a Fighter to shreds in a gunfight. Give the Fighter a bow, and it would be closer, but the Gunsligher would still win. And that makes sense, IMHO.
The magic system is not straight D&D magic. Yes, it recycles some of the spells. But only some, and it uses spell points, uses a skill roll, and generally makes magic less powerful and certain than in D&D.
It's not a slapdash job. While I don't have second edition Deadlands, I do have a lot of original Deadlands stuff, including the first two rulebooks. I can't find any text that was reused from the products I own. Even the background material seems completely new. Only the art is redone. And if so, so what. Some text, like for the background or a description of a critter, the text probably didn't need to be changed. There are a couple editing errors, but nothing too bad.
Quite frankly, I can't understand why people don't like this, or say it's a bad conversion. I don't see how Pinnacle could have done a better job. The classes are all balanced towards each other and regular 20 classes. Combat is deadlier, but not insane. Several new rules have been added, based on the core d20 mechanic (like the ones for automatic fire).
If you want to convert it to the d20 modern rules, specifically the VP/WP system (which Pinnacle couldn't do at the time), it would take you all of 10 seconds to implement. If that.
So again, I feel this is a great book. If you don't like it, I think you haven't played it, or you just don't like d20. (I am not usually confrontational in reviews I write, but in this case, it seems necessary.)
* Note to Avalanche Press. This is how you do a cover. While it features a stunningly attractive woman, she's plausibly and sensibly dressed, and is actually doing something constructive, not posing for a porno mag like on most of your covers.
** Much of the book is open content. The classes, equipment, spells, feats, etc, are all open content. The only complication is that some names are considered to be 'Product Identity", but thankfully, not many. But some of the rules were actually used in Dragonstar.
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