Deadlands is a genre-mixingalternate historyrole-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres,[1] with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1996.
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The eight-times Origins Award-winning setting has been converted to many other systems over the years and is available in the original Classic Rules, the revised Classic Rules, d20 System, GURPS, as well as a Savage Worlds version called Deadlands: Reloaded.
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Development[edit]
Shane Lacy Hensley had the idea for a new game centering on cowboys and zombies as he was setting up Pinnacle Entertainment Group, when he saw the Brom painting of a Confederate vampire on the cover of White Wolf's then-unreleased Necropolis: Atlanta; he thus began writing what would eventually become Deadlands. After completing a first draft, Hensley flew in two friends and game designers, Greg Gorden and Matt Forbeck; they both liked what they saw and asked to buy into Pinnacle.[2]:325
Setting[edit]
The game is set in the United States in the last quarter of the 19th century. The canonical year for the first edition of Deadlands is 1876. A later supplement, Tales o' Terror, advances the game's backstory and metaplot ahead one year, to 1877. The second edition of Deadlands uses the updated backstory of 1877 as the canonical starting point. Deadlands: Reloaded further updates the backstory and advances the canonical starting point to 1879.
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The basic rules provide for characters and settings that could be expected to appear in the 'Wild West' genre of movies and pulp fiction, and most of the in-game action is presumed to occur in the wild frontiers of the American West, or in barely tamed frontier towns like Tombstone, Arizona or Dodge City, Kansas. However, later supplements expanded the in-game adventuring area to include places such as the Deep South, the Mississippi River, Mexico, and the Northeastern United States. These supplements often provide for adventures set in urban areas such as New Orleans, New York City, or Boston.
The canonical, basic setting is referred to as the 'Weird West' due to the juxtaposition of the Western setting with the horrific and fantastical elements of the game. The history of the Weird West is identical to real-world history, up until July 3, 1863. On this date in the game, a group of American Indians from various tribes, led by a Siouxshaman known as 'Raven,' performed a ritual in an effort to drive out the European settlers. This ritual created a conduit to a spiritual realm populated by powerful malicious entities known as the 'Reckoners.' The events surrounding and immediately subsequent to Raven's ritual is known as 'The Reckoning.'
The Reckoners feed on negative emotions, particularly fear. Sufficient levels of fear in the population of a given location allow the Reckoners to begin subtly altering the environment of that location: the sun shines a little less brightly, trees become stunted and 'evil' looking, rock formations take on the appearance of corpses or monsters, and so on. The more powerful the fear, the greater the environmental changes.
The ultimate goal of the Reckoners is to turn the entire Earth into an evil, haunted wasteland â literally a Hell on Earth. However, the Reckoners cannot directly enter Earth's realm unless the overall fear level of the entire planet becomes sufficiently high. To this end, they use their powers to create monsters, madmen, zombies, and other creatures and villains that will sow fear and terror throughout the land.
The first instance of this occurred on July 4, 1863, at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg that had just ended; dead soldiers from both sides of the conflict rose from the battlefield and began indiscriminately attacking the surviving soldiers and civilians. Since then, undead gunslingers, hostile Indian spirits, strange cults, and deadly creatures have begun terrorizing the world. The American Civil War drags on thanks to the machinations of the Reckoners, and the country remains divided into U.S. and Confederate sections along with 'disputed territories.' Federal agents and Texas Rangers struggle to deal with the eldritch menaces while hiding the awful truth from the general public. Seismic upheavals have pushed much of California into the ocean, creating a badlands area known as 'the Great Maze.' In the Great Maze, miners discover 'ghost rock,' a mineral that burns hotter and longer than coal and is used as the basis for most Deadlands technology as well as alchemical potions and semi-magical materials.
The unleashing of the Reckoners has had a number of important side effects. Magic was revealed to be real, although it involves challenging otherworldly spirits, 'manitous', in contests that are either viewed as a negotiation or a test of will. These same manitous can possess a recently deceased body and reanimate it, creating a 'Harrowed'. Harrowed beings are sometimes under the control of the spirit (which uses the opportunity to spread fear) and sometimes under the control of the deceased being. Scientific progress rapidly advances as the Reckoners support experimental designs that normally would not work. This progress drives the technological level of Deadlands from historical levels to a 'steampunk' setting.
Players take on the role of various mundane or arcane character types, including Gunfighters, Lawmen (such as U.S. Marshals or local sheriffs), Hucksters (magic users), Shamans, Blessed (those of faith), and Mad Scientists in an attempt to learn about the Reckoning and the mysterious beings behind it.
System[edit]
Deadlands features a unique way of creating playing characters for the game. Instead of spending character points, or randomly rolling dice, a character's abilities are determined by drawing cards from a standard 54-card poker deck (jokers included), which determine the character's Traits (their basic attributes). The game also uses polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20) which are referred to as the 'Bones', and a set of white, red, and blue poker chips called 'Fate Chips'[3].
In a Deadlands game, the Game Master is called The Marshal, and the players are called The Posse.
To perform an action a player rolls for successes with a handful of dice and hopes that at least one of the dice rolls the Target Number or higher. Rolling the highest possible number on any of the dice is known as 'rolling an ace', and that die may be re-rolled, with the total being added to the initial roll value. In most cases only the highest single die's value (with 'aces' added) is compared to a target number. For each five points over the target number the character is considered to have a 'raise' which typically makes the character's action more effective. When attacking someone, raises give the attacker more control over where on the victim's body the blow or bullet strikes. When attempting to quickly reload a gun, each raise allows another round of ammunition to be loaded in a single action.[4]
Spell Casting[edit]
Players with huckster characters use a deck of playing cards in addition to dice to cast their spells (hexes). A successful skill check allows the player to draw five or more cards and makes the best possible poker hand with those cards. The strength of the hand determines not only whether the hex was successfully cast, but also the strength of its effects. In the game world, this mechanic is explained as the huckster literally gambling with a magical spirit in order to get it to do his or her bidding â a high ranking poker hand means the huckster has won, and the spirit casts the hex as desired; a low ranking poker hand results in failure. Both jokers are present and wild, increasing the chance of a good hand, but the black joker means that the spirit does something harmful to the huckster.
Blessed characters can use their faith to invoke miraclesâthey pray for their patron to grant their request. The miracles are usually protective or restorative in nature, although there are some for attack. The difficulty of a given miracle (the amount of faith required by the patron for their assistance) can vary. For example, a priest seeking to heal a gunshot to the stomach would require more faith than if he were trying to mend a broken arm. Although the basic miracle set is predominantly Christian in nature, one of the extension sourcebooks includes miracles from other religions, and some of those are not permitted to Christian player characters.
Native American shamans cast spells by making deals with spirits. This happens in three stages: the shaman asks for a favor, performs the ritual that tradition demands for that favor, and then his skill is tested by the spirit. If he succeeds all three, he earns 'appeasement points' according to how well he succeeded. If he earned enough points for the favor, it is granted. If not, his work was in vain.
Action Decks[edit]
Instead of rolling for Initiative as in most other RPGs, the players make a 'speed' roll on the bones â the exact number and type being rolled determined by each character's stats â and then draw a number of cards from a community playing card deck based on the results of that roll. The Marshal then calls out card values, starting from Aces and going all the way down to Deuces. The card's suit (in reverse alphabetical order) indicates who goes first if the same value of card is drawn.
Fate Chips[edit]
Along with Bones and Cards, characters get Fate Chips which are typically poker chips, although colored stones or coins can also be used. These are drawn from a hat or some other container that the player blindly chooses at the beginning of play. Each player draws a certain number of Fate Chips at the beginning of the game from the Fate Pot, modified according to player actions and Marshal preference. Fate chips can be spent for in-game bonuses such as bonus dice to use during certain rolls, or the prevention of physical damage. The Marshal can draw chips as well for enemies to use.
Bounties[edit]
At the end of a gaming session, players can cash in unused Fate Chips for Bounty Points. These are like Experience Points in other systems and are used to improve Traits and Aptitudes. The Marshal may also award additional Bounty Points at the end of the session for completing the mission objectives and any exceptional role-playing by players.
Instant rewards for roleplaying[edit]
Marshals are also encouraged to reward players with instantaneous rewards for good role-playing. During character creation players can choose 'Hindrances' (disadvantages) such as Big Britches, Bloodthirsty, or Big Mouth. When a player role-plays this Hindrance well, the Marshal can reward them instantly with a Fate Chip. This has the effect of promoting and encouraging role-playing.
Spinoff games[edit]
The 'Weird West' mark is used to distinguish the primary game setting from the various other settings:
Doomtown:Reloaded - The classic CCG is back in a non-collectible boxed set. Released at GenCon in August 2014 by Alderac Entertainment Group, the game (in September 2014) was already in its THIRD printing. Doomtown: Reloaded is basically the same game as the older version, (now referred to as Classic) with a number of rule revisions that have streamlined and simplified the game. The basics are the same, with minor differences. The four factions released initially were the Law Dogs, The Sloan Gang (similar to the Blackjacks), The Fourth Ring (a circus that is similar to The Whatleys) and the Morgan Cattle Company (which appears to be similar to a SweetrockCollegium blend).
Deadlands: Reloaded[edit]
In May 2006, Great White Games published a new edition of Deadlands under the company's Pinnacle Entertainment Group label. This new edition, written by Shane Lacy Hensley and B.D. Flory and entitled Deadlands: Reloaded, used Great White Games' Savage Worlds generic role-playing system. The 256-page setting book updates the canonical setting to 1879 and includes information on the events of the past year, as well as new rules. Among the most drastic changes to the basic Savage Worlds rules was 'The Way of the Brave' rule, which revamped the way combat works in the system, making it more dangerous and deadly for characters and increasing the effectiveness of melee combat. This book also updated Fate Chips to work with the Savage Worlds system. This book marked a first for Great White Games in that it is the first setting book published without a scripted or plot point campaign.
The publisher has hinted that four complete plot point campaign books will be released for Deadlands: Reloaded, each focusing on certain regions and events in the metaplot of the game. In 2009 the first of these campaigns, The Flood, was released. In 2012, the second of these campaigns, The Last Sons, was released. Matthew Cutter of Pinnacle has also stated that updated Hell on Earth and Lost Colony books will be published for the Savage Worlds system. The Hell on Earth update was released in 2012. Additionally, an equipment guide 'The Smith & Robards Catalog', was published in 2011. A successfully funded Kickstarter for a new spin-off setting, Deadlands Noir, was conducted from May to June 2012, with the product's release expected in 2013.[6] Reaper miniatures has, as of August 2012, solicited two white-metal miniatures for the Deadlands Noire setting to distributors: 'Stone' and 'Femme Fatal'
Release history[edit]
Reception[edit]
In the December 1996 edition of Dragon (Issue 236), Rick Swan liked the energy of the Western/horror mash-up, calling it 'a revolutionary mix of fantasy and cyberpunk.' However, Swan criticized the lack of setting details: 'What weâre given is little more than an overview.. there are no interesting personalities to speak of. Thereâs next to nothing about geography, politics, or culture. Cities, villages, places to explore â practically none. And thereâs not a single ready-to-play adventure.' He concluded by giving the game an average rating of 4 out of 6, saying, 'Deadlands is by no means bad. Itâs beautifully written and bursting with nifty ideas. It strikes a masterful balance between high camp and high adventure. It has a great cover. But itâs incomplete; with a setting this skeletal and the absence of adventures, howâs a newcomer supposed to cobble together a campaign?'[8]
Awards[edit]
Deadlands, its supplements and spin-offs have won nine Origins Awards:
Reviews[edit]
Television series[edit]
In 2014, Microsoft announced that it was developing an original television series for the Xbox based on Deadlands.[13]
Deadlands Rpg Pdf DownloadSee also[edit]Notes[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deadlands&oldid=909560828'
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I was going to run a Deadlands Classic game, which I've never done before but the system intrigued me. However, I also picked up a pdf of Savage Worlds, and reading through it, it sounds a lot like the Deadlands Classic. Googling tells me there's a Deadlands setting for Savage Worlds as well. What's the difference? How should I decide which edition to run?
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There is some pedigree between Deadlands (commonly called Deadlands Classic) and Savage Worlds. Deadlands Classic was a standalone roleplaying game with its own setting. A simplified, stripped down version of of Classic was created as a minis game called The Great Rail Wars. The simplified rules were then expanded into a genreless roleplaying game called Savage Worlds and Deadlands Reloaded was created as a supplementary setting for that system. Pinnacle has talked a great deal about this process and the reasons behind it in The Making of Savage Worlds.
It's worth noting that there were two versions of Deadlands Classic. First was an all-in-one version released in 1997 simply called 'Deadlands: The Weird West' that contained stuff for both players and for Marshals. There was also a book called The Quick and the Dead that expanded some character options for players and had a whole ton of expanded setting information for Marshals. In 1999, these two books were replaced by the 'Revised & Expanded' versions, which were released as Deadlands: Player's Guide and Deadlands: Marshal's Handbook, which combined the material from the core and The Quick and the Dead and changed a few rules, but were largely the same. The all-in-one book and The Quick and the Dead were not sold in any form since they were replaced.
Reloaded has had different versions as well, with an all-in-one book, a hardbound Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook, and a softcover Explorer's Edition Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook. Aside from some errata and changes to the Shaman mechanics between the all-in-one and the split books, there really aren't any changes to them.
All that said, here are the big differences between Deadlands Classic and Savage Worlds with the Deadlands Reloaded supplement:
Character Generation
In Classic, characters are generated randomly using playing cards to determine a character's abilities. In Savage Worlds, characters are built using a point buy system. That said, Pinnacle has released a one sheet addon allowing you to use cards to randomly generate Savage Worlds characters like in Classic. I've never seen anybody actually use it, but it's there for curiosity sake.
Basic Roll Mechanics
In Classic you roll dice pools and take the highest result of a single die (dice can explode). Sort of like the original Shadowrun, but with multiple die types. In Savage Worlds, player characters roll a single die (that can explode). Main characters called 'Wild Cards' roll a d6 along with it (that can explode) and takes the best result of the two. Similar to Cortex (i.e. the Serenity and Buffy RPGs), but with more consistent die types.
Target Numbers
As described above, Classic players wanting to make a skill check roll a die pool and the result is the highest die in the pool. The Marshal (i.e. the gamemaster) picks a target number with 5 being normal difficulty, which can be increased or decreased by a value of 2 due to modifiers (e.g. a difficult task might be a 7 TN). Every 5 above counts as a 'Raise', providing extra bonuses.
In Savage Worlds the target number is almost always 4 and instead the Marshal assigns penalties to the player's roll, generally in steps of 2 (e.g. a difficult task might be a roll at â2). It's a subtle change, but it basically means the player keeps track of the difficulty modifier, rather than the GM. Every 4 above counts as a 'Raise' and as before provides extra bonuses.
Characteristics
There are a number of comparable characteristics for a character.
There is a definite difference in the number of characteristics between Classic and Reloaded, which either makes Classic more detailed or Reloaded more streamlined, depending on how you look at it.
Note that in Savage Worlds, the term 'Trait' is used to refer collectively to an Attribute or Skill. Fortunately, this is the only real overlap in terminology.
Hindrances & EdgesDeadlands Reloaded Torrent
In both systems, characters have drawbacks (called Hindrances) and talents (called Edges). They function more or less the same. However, Classic Hindrances had a point value from 1 to 5 whereas Savage Worlds Hindrances have two levels: Major or Minor. Classic Edges also have a point value from 1 to 5 while Savage Worlds Edges do not have point values (they are all the same 'value'), but require the character to have certain trait levels or have other restrictions before a character can take them.
Advancement![]()
The first printing of Deadlands Classic said that the Marshal should award 'Bounty' to the PCs (essentially, XP) based on how well they accomplished the objectives. The Revised & Expanded version rolled Bounty into Fate Chips (which allow players to improve their roll or soak wounds), where a player can cash in unspent Fate Chips for XP.
Early versions of Savage Worlds continued the tradition Bennies (or Fate Chips, as Deadlands Reloaded exclusively calls them) cashing in for XP. However, later versions reverted to the GM awarding XP at the end of the session based on the PCs fulfilling their objectives.
Magic
It's worth noting that the magic systems in Savage Worlds are modified pretty heavily in Deadlands Reloaded, so that's what I'm going off of. As for the differences with Classic, I could write a whole bunch on this, but here's the short summary:
Metaplot
The metaplot for Classic began in 1876 and got to 1878 by the end of its run. Reloaded begins in 1879 and has recently gone to 1881 in recent supplements. The only major difference in status quo between 1876 and 1879 is that the Civil War has officially come to a stalemate and the fighting has ceased. Also, the Pinkertons formed into The Agency in 1877.
It's also worth noting about the changing role of the metaplot. In the original version of Classic (the one that was all-in-one with player and Marshal stuff in the same book), the metaplot was front and center. The book began with 'The Prospector's Tale' that explained several things about what is really going on, giving metaplot info to both players and Marshals. Pinnacle thought that Deadlands would be a relatively short run, so they intended to make the metaplot the focus of the story (and have the metaplot conclude with the sequel setting Deadlands: Hell on Earth).
As Deadlands became more popular and Pinnacle decided to continue the line, they shifted the metaplot from player and Marshal knowledge to Marshal knowledge only. In the Revised & Expanded version of Classic (which split the player's section and the marshal's section into two books, with added information from The Quick and the Dead), the previous introduction was replaced with a more generic description of what most people understood about what was going on (i.e. nothing supernatural) and the metaplot stuff was moved to be Marshal only. Still, most supplements had a Marshal's section that progressed the metaplot in some way (almost always minor and off-camera), with some books like Black Circle being almost exclusively metaplot.
Pinnacle has done more or less a 180 on this with Deadlands Reloaded. While they have not disregarded any of the metaplot that has been established, they've made it take a back seat, some of it having faded into obscurity to never be mentioned again. I think they realized that most of the metaplot had a lot of cool stuff happen off-screen, but didn't really work into a campaign with a posse of six adventurers. So they basically made it a 'take it or leave it' approach.
The Reloaded Marshal's Handbook has less metaplot in it than the Classic, Revised & Expanded Marshal's Handbook and the real struggle of what's going on is far less detailed. Also, the Weird West is a bit more static than it used to be: as I understand it, only the four Plot Point Campaigns, which are mega-campaigns for a posse of 4-6, are going to affect the metaplot. Two out of four of these Plot Point Campaigns have been released and right now it seems they are releasing one every 2-3 years.
So which is better?
First off, the Revised & Expanded Deadlands Classic player's guide came out in 1999 (15 years ago as of this writing). All of the Classic books (except for the first printing all-in-one core book and The Quick and the Dead since they were replaced by the Revised & Expanded edition) are still available in PDF form on DriveThruRPG and in both print and PDF form on Pinnacle's web store. But if you want a system that will have new content coming out or you want to purchase exclusively from your FLGS, Classic won't be a good choice.
It's also worth noting that it will be much more difficult to find players who have played Classic before and learning a new system may be a barrier to some players. Since Deadlands Reloaded is just an addon to Savage Worlds, any player of Savage Worlds will be comfortable playing Deadlands Reloaded, so you'll have a much easier time finding players (and if they do need to learn the system, knowing that they can use it for other settings may interest them). Note that Deadlands Reloaded came out before Savage Worlds Deluxe, the most recent version of Savage Worlds, so print out the free Deadlands Deluxe-ified for rules updates (mostly just adding a bunch of new powers).
Assuming you have access to both, the general consensus I've heard with both is the following:
The Creator's Description of Which is Better
As a parting thought, here's what Shane Lacy Hensley, creator of both Deadlands and Savage Worlds, has said about the biggest difference between the two (taken from The Making of Savage Worlds):
On Deadlands
The original Deadlands was built from the beginning to simulate âThe Outlaw Josey Walesâ type action. A few rounds of gunfire takes big chunks out of people and ends up with someone in Boot Hill. But a big fight with 20 Black Hats, 5 player characters, and a couple of NPCs we talked into soaking up bullets for us can take a while. If you know what youâre doing you mark wounds with chips, count down the cards fast and donât let people take too long, but youâre still looking at about two hours for a fight the size described above.
On Savage Worlds
At the end of the night [of one of the first Savage Worlds games], when we were all kibitzing about how cool the game was, the comment everyone kept making was how awesome it was that the game handled a huge firefight with 20 combatants with machine guns blazing and explosives flyingâand at the same time handling a very detailed scuffle between two individual combatants (the fight between the medic and Doc Bronx).
We started about 7PM, made characters, had two big fights, took our time doing some awesome roleplaying with the NPCs of the villages and between our own characters, and chatted for at least an hour about the last of a few cool GM rules weâd been playing with. All by midnight.
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