Deadlands: D20

[Horacio]

Deadlands d20

To make a fair review, I must begin saying I'm a longtime Weird West fan. I bought Deadlands (the non d20 version) when it was published, in 1996/97. I have searched a wertern game for years, but I didn't like the two I had found (Boot Hill by TSR and Outlaws, for Rolemaster). I loved Deadlands. I found their vision of the Wild West new and well thought. To me, it was like crossing and old John Wayne movie with a Call of Cthulhu tale. So I loved that old game...

But I couldn't ever find enough people to play a good campaign with it. Maybe in the US it was easy, but here in Europe... So I had my deadlands books, sometimes I played an adventure or two but never arrived to DM a good campaign with it.

Some months ago, Pinacle Entertainment announced the Deadlands d20 project. They were highly criticized by the Deadlands 'purists', it was seem almost like if they were selling themselves for a few bucks... But for me it was a great idea, merging one wonderful setting with the most popular ruleset, so I pre-ordered it, and I received it two weeks after GenCon. And since then, I have began a campaign. I have found many players willing to try it, because they musn't learn a new set of rules, and those who try it, repeat...

So, let's start with the serious review:

Setting

Well, the Deadlands d20 world was alike our world until something went horribly wrong at Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Supernatural evil forces were freed with an urge for chaos and revenge and their minions, demons and spirits called 'manitous' by the Indians, spread on the world. From that day everything changed. Monsters from nightmares become real, occultists and shamans find their magic boosted, and dead that come back form their graves, with a hunger for living flesh and tentacular horrors roam out there.

The Battle of Gettysburg ended when the thousands of deads rose up and began to kill both North and South soldiers, so the Civil War never ended. Governements, fearing the public reaction to this occult uprising, tryied to hide it, and created two special Secret Services to study supernatural facts and hiding them, the North created the Agence (aka Men in Black) and the South put there their Texas Rangers.

The Indians shamans took advantage of their new spiritual powers, so the Indian Wars never were won by the White Men, and neither the Union nor the Confederation could take Indian holy lands from the tribes.

And what about gold fever ? Well, California got half sunk in the sea after a earthquake, and in the shattered remainings, the Maze, a new mineral was found, the Ghost Rock. A mineral with an energetic potential thousands of times stronger than coal. Using it, a new breed of (mad) scientists, have begun to build crazy gozmos as steam cars, steam robots or even flying machines.

I know what you're thinking, such a mixture couldn't work... It's like a bad series B movie, a pastiche of Cthulhu Mithus, Jules Verne tales and John Wayne movies. But it works! And it works great! You can play investigation type adventures (I've played some with more investigation than a Call of Cthulhu game) or classic western adventures, from Zorro to The Night of the Living Dead.

In my oppinion, one of the secrets of the succes of Deadlands is their refusal to take themselves seriously. Their game is meant to be gritty, and horror is omnipresent, but there are a comedy vein that mix very well. Even the rules are written using a fresh western slang, and form the first page to the last one, reading the rules is an funny experience.

Chapter by Chapter

>Chapter 1: The Tombstone Epitaph

As most of Deadlands classic books, the first chapter of Deadlands d20 is an 'in character' introduction. The Tombstone Epitaph is the most know tabloid in the Weird West, and here we have a special edition of the Newcomer's Guide to the West. When you read it, you will have a basic perspective of the life in the west, as people see it. You will find they think there're something bizarre, but they don't know what. It's a nice introduction, an it's the only material a new player needs to know.

Classes

Deadlands d20 don't use any of the d20 standard classes, they have a whole new classes set:

Brave: A bit like d20 Barbarian, the Brave is the ideal class for an Indian warrior.
Blessed: Cleric equivalent class, this faithful man (Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddist...) is the moral core of a party. And its healing center too, with his clerical spells.
Gunslinger: the most typical western character, from the white hatted sheriff to the black hatted bandit. Fast and deadly...
Huckster: The sorcerer like character, the hucksters get their spells winning intelligence contests with the evil manitous. They learn his powers from a old book of card gambling, so they use cards as spell components.
Mad Scientists: They use Ghost Rock and occult power to build bizarre gizmos. The 'mad' of mad scientist is the consecuence of dealing with this occult forces.
Maverick: They are rogues, gamblers, spies and scoundrels. They know a cunning will or a beautiful face can arrive further than a revolver... but they have a revolver too if more subtle methods fail.
Rowdy: Tough as nails. They are the true cowboys. Now as deadly with a revolver as a gunslinger, but tougher and stronger, you will want a Rowdys on your side in a bar fight or when trying to stake a vampire. They can use almost every existent weapon , not only these firearms.
Scout: From the indian scout to Grizzly Adams, scouts are people used to live in the wilderness. They can follow trails, they can hunt, they can sneak behind you without you ever notice.
Shaman: White men ways have corrupted Indian spirit, but these Shamans, with their refusal to White Men life and their taking of the Old Ways, are in contact with spirits and can ask them for help.


To be continued... Soon. Very soon

 

[trancejeremy]

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, 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.

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, minus the fantasy races and with bits from The Adventures of Brico 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.

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, a pain to actually play. Which is part of the reason Pinnacle came out with Deadlands d20 - to allow more people to actually play the game.

Getting to the game itself, there are 9 new basic 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). As mentioned, many of the classes resemble D&D classes, but have been altered to fit a Western (or Horror) style flavor. There's also an NPC class, the "Black Magician", and 3 prestige classes, the Texas Ranger, the Agency Operative , and the Harrowed. The first two are basically government investigators of evil, while the last is essentially an undead character. The classes seem to be very well thought out and well balanced. A few npc classes stay in the game, but otherwise all the other classes from D&D are replaced.

Also replaced is the old magic system. A new magic system, involving spell points, is also included, and uses regular D&D spells (with some additions and subtractions from the spell lists). While not perfect, it seems to fit the nature of the game much better than the regular D&D spell system. There are also a number of new feats, new skills, and many mid to late 19th century firearms.

Some of the new skills are perhaps unnecessary, especially since some of the classes in the book don't have all that many skill points. Some of the feats are perhaps a bit overpowered.

Combat in Deadlands d20 is actually quite deadly. Pinnacle has increased the damage rating of firearms over what is found in the DMG. Most guns do two dice of damage, typically 2d6+2 or so for pistols, 2d8 or more for rifles. Some feats can increase that damage, as can the special abilities of some classes.

Besides the new rules, the book also contains an extensive amount of background, including fairly indepth coverage of Dodge City. The background text lacks the flavor of the background presented in the original Deadlands books (portrayed there as articles in a newspaper) but there is nothing wrong with it. And there is more than enough background in it to start a Deadlands game.

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. Bravo! Buy this book if you have any interest in Deadlands itself (it is a pretty cool universe), or even just running a Western game using the d20 rules.

Let's hope Pinnacle puts out more d20 Deadlands books. In the future, all products will be dual statted, but I would like to see a book with more character classes (for instance, for martial artists, more guns, more powers for the Blessed, more totems for the Shaman and Brave, etc)

As a note, 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.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The year is 1877, but the history is not our own. The Civil War drags on, stalled by some horrific occurrences neither the United States nor The Confederacy want the public to know about. The Indians have reclaimed their tribal lands, claiming spirits have granted them amazing powers.

California was shattered by a massive earthquake back in 68, leaving a "Great Maze" of labyrinthine sea-canyons and exposing an amazing new superfuel known as ghost rock! It is a boom-town like no other, with fortunes to be made for those bold enough to make their way West!

But there be something going on in the American West. Something sinister. Something Weird. The shadows are deeper, the nights longer - fear stalks the land like a hungry beast. Abominations from legends and nightmares lurk in the shadows, and strange cults flourish in isolated places on the high planes.

Some tell of mysterious and terrifying beings called the Reckoners. They say these otherworldly horrors are seeding the entire world with fear, cultivating terrors. Someday, should they create enough, they could even walk the Earth - and destroy it utterly!

Arrayed against the darkness are the heroes of the Weird West(TM). Grim gunslingers ride the trails, armed only with their six-guns and their wits. Cardslinging hucksters gamble with dark forces to cast arcane hexes. Scientists teetering on the edge of madness create infernal devices of piston-pumping steam and steel. Wise shamans call upon long-forgotten, nature spirits for powerful favors. Agents and Texas Rangers try to protect the public from the most dangerous of all things - the truth.

And death - well, death is not necessarily as final as it should be.

Welcome to the world of Deadlands: the Weird West! So, have you got what it takes partner? Are you ready to face the worst horrors the Reckoners have to throw at you? Are you ready to stare Death in the face and spit in his eye-socket?

Well, then saddle up, hombre. The Weird West awaits!