Deadlands

[LiquidAtom]

I posted this over in Talking the Talk by accident.



Hello everyone. Does anyone here still play Deadlands or Deadlands d20? I used to be pretty into it, but it seems like it has kind of died out. There used to be several active fansites, but it doesn't look like they've been upated in several years. Do you all know of any active DL d20 fansites?

 

[Gothmog]

I still play Classic Deadlands 5-6 times a year, but I'm not aware of any active fansites at this time. That should change soon though when Great White Games releases Deadlands Reloaded for their Savage Worlds system (a simplified Deadlands system). Here is some info:

http://www.greatwhitegames.com/

 

[Thanee]

Does anyone here still play Deadlands or Deadlands d20? I used to be pretty into it, but it seems like it has kind of died out.

Get the real Deadlands... it's like 10 times better than the d20ified version!

Bye
Thanee

 

[tf360]

I worked in the Studio 2 booth at GenCon, which distributes Deadlands. Deadlands Reloaded is scheduled to come out in October or November this year. I sold quite a lot of Deadlands material, albeit at 50% off, so there's still a strong market for it.

 

[Thanee]

Nice, I'm really curious how the new Deadlands will turn out to be.

Hope the binding is more like the (really good) 1st edition and not the (pretty crappy) revised edition.

Bye
Thanee

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi-

The old 1st edition deadlands is awesome and easy to run compared to the d20 version. I really liked the idea of using poker chips and cards to determine spell's and some actions. Alas, there are no deadlands players in chicago, just D&D, so I am parting with my collection which I placed on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5233173869&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MESE:IT&rd=1


Scott

 

[LiquidAtom]

Yes I definatley prefered the "classic" Deadlands over the d20 version. I think they only mention Stone one time in the d20 version. No background, motivations or nothing just his name mentioned. Nothing of the Revenant, who was super awesome. It was the d20 system however, so most RPers new how to play. I hope the new set coming out is good. At least as good as the classic. I have nver played the Savage Worlds rpg so I have no idea what that system is like. If it is a simpler version of the classic Deadlands it should be pretty darn good.

 

[scourger]

Savage Worlds is a darn good system. I'm running it now with Tour of Darkness. I played original Deadlands & Hell on Earth and enjoyed both (I wish I could get the HOE GM to run it again as he is still among us). I even bought the Deadlands d20 and Horrors o' the Weird West books. DL d20 just didn't do either DL or d20 "right" enough for me to get a game in play. Incidentally, if you're looking for a d20/D&D western game, I recommend Spellslinger. Anyway, the whole DL line to me seemed too overdeveloped. It hit in about 1998 and by the time it went inactive around 2003, there were a total of about 100 books. 20 books per year is too many. Not all were classic DL--some were HOE, Lost Colony, Great Rail Wars, etc. But, it seemed like DL was crushed by its own weight. Add to that the fact that Shane Hensley was disappointed by the conversion to d20 (along with the lack of success for the Weird Wars d20 stuff), and a retooling was in order.

Shane's goals were to make a game that is fast, furious & fun. I find that he hit the mark. SW is simple enough to be easy to run but complicated enough to be interesting to play. It marries the best of RPGs and minis games. His design journal for SW was very interesting to read when it was online. The new style is the core SW book plus one campaign setting book--both hardcover. Additional materials are to be pdf for those who want more. If this design & development style continues for SW DL, then it should be a very successful relaunch. I hope there will be a SW DL pdf player's guide and adventures as I have found those particualrly useful for running other SW games.

So, in reply to the original post, I don't know of any DL d20 resources. My plan is to get it Reloaded, and I think you'll enjoy the same since it will surely have much new interest.

 

[wingsandsword]

Even on a d20 fan board like this, I think the sentiment carries: Get the original DeadLands. d20 Deadlands proved that not everything d20 turns to gold, and converting an existing game isn't guaranteed success (also, the conversion was pretty bad).

I know some gamers who still consider it their favorite game, and still know the system by heart. They might not run it too often, but it's certainly not forgotten.

The CCG, DoomTown, was also really popular around here with my gaming friends when it was in production, but when cancelled, it also faded out.

The problem is, like any discontinued game, it has problems attracting new players since the books are harder to get. At Gen Con they had lots of DL books, I tried to find the core book but it looks like that was the only thing they didn't have.