Chapter by Chapter synopsis.
Chapter 1: Jo's Journal.
This is the journal of Jo the templar. She is a pivotal character for the struggle in the HoE world. In her journal, she gives the lowdown for all the important events that lead up to the Hell on Earth core setting of 2094. This section updates the stuff in between the end of the Deadlands: the Weird West setting and the start of the Hell on Earth setting. This section also serves as a guide book to all the places that are left in the west. In it, you find places like Movie Town, Junkyard, Las Vegas, and Denver. It also has the who's who section in the west. Learn about the heroic Cole Ballad, the infamous General Throckmorton, the zealot mutant king, Silas Rammunsen and the troubled leader of the Templars, Simon. This is pretty much everything a starting player needs to know about the world.
Chapter 2: Characters.
This chapter covers the eight core classes in the Wasted West: the Doomsayer (Cleric), Junker (Weapon making class), Ravenite (Native American), Scavenger (Treasure Hunter), Syker (Psionist), Tale-Teller (Bard), Templar (Paladin), and Waste Warrior (Fighter). For the most part, these are faithful adaptations of their Wasted West equivalents. The only complaint that I have is in the Waste Warrior. In the classic rules system, there was about fifteen to twenty archetypes. In d20 rules, there is only seven core classes. Most of them have been folded into the Waste Warrior. This is not in and of itself, but it tends to leads toward a bunch cookie cutter clones.
Chapter 3: Skills and Feats Basic things. Skills from the Players Handbook changed to the better fit the Hell on Earth setting. New Skills are, for the most part, exactly like their Deadlands d20 counterparts. There is very little difference in most of them between the two settings. Some skills, however, are unique to this setting. There are four class specific skills in the Wasted West: Blasting (Sykers), Faith (Doomsayers and Templars), Gunplay (Waste Warriors), and Occult Engineering (Junkers). Except for Gunplay, these skills are used to make the various magic powers work. Gunplay is the skill used to perform tricks involving guns, like a border shift, spinning the gun one handed, etc. The Feats are quite different from their Deadlands d20 counterparts. There is 17 of them in this book. Most of them, unfortunately, are combat orientated. Apart from the three weapon proficiencies, there are different combat orientated feats. For example, Berserk throws the character into a rage if he is injured, Don't Get em Riled adds extra points of damage to damage rolls, and Grim Servant of Death allows the player to turn a damage roll into an automatic critical. A few, however, are role playing orientated. Law of the West allows people to think highly of you, Dinero gives your player extra starting cash, and Veteran of the Wasted West gives your player an edge over the competition, for a price. The new edges are good for everyone and they give this d20 product an unique identity.
Chapter 4: Equipment This section is rather skimpy. There is only five pages to this section. It governs all the item rules in the Wasted West. The prices are rather outrageous, but there is a reason for that: there is little in the way of manufactured goods available thirteen years after the end of the world. There are things out there. All you need to do is find it. They are expensive, however.
Chapter 5: Blowing thing all to Hell
All the rule additions for a HoE game. It is almost like the Deadlands d20 rule sets. There is little variations from both sets and there is nothing really new in this section.
Chapter 6: Prestige Classes and Deaders.
This chapter focus on the two archetypes that can be considered Prestige classes, Law Dog and Librarian, as well as a new template, Deaders. There is little to say about the Law Dog or the Librarian other than they are there if the players want to play them. The Law Dog is a glorified Waste Warrior. The Librarian is a person trying to preserve information of the past. She works for a nouveau library of Alexandria in northern California. The last part of this section is devoted to Deaders, the Wasted West's equivalent to Harrowed.
Chapter 7: Powers
All the magic available for the Hell on Earth setting. It has Templars rewards, Doomsayer Miracles, and Sykers Blasting abilities. The last part of the section is devoted to Junker Devices. In d20, any device can imitate a spell. It think Item creation is so much simpler in d20 because there is a whole list of spells that could be used for devices. Because this is written with material published before the Junkman Cometh book, Junker devices are so much simpler to use.
Chapter 8: The Marshal's Handbook The first part of this section is devoted to the story of the Wasted West. It gives information written for the Marshal's perspective. The Next Section is on Fear. If you own the Classic core book, there is nothing new in this part. In fact, most of the information is printed already in Deadlands D20. The only difference is in the time frame. Chapter 9: Secrets of the Wasted West
This the all the Marshal's information for Jo's Journal. It has everything a Marshal needs to keep himself busy for quite some time. There is the lowdown on the original Servitors, as well as the information on new servitors. Following Pinnacle's policy, there is no stats for any of the major players of the HoE line. They are too important for the story line. The rest of the beings, because they are minor players in HoE, are meant to be killed off by the players.
Chapter 10: Horrors of the Wasted West These pages are devoted to the most common types of supernatural horrors in the West. These creatures are the ones that you are most likely to see.
Overall, this is a good book. Although at times the book feels like it has been rushed, there is a lot of useful bits in this book. It is a good d20 product, if you like d20. If not, then this might not be for you.
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