A well-dressed card sharp riffles a deck of cards and vanishes in a wisp of smoke. A man wearing a bowler with a mechanical monocle raises his hand and fires a smoke-belching contraption that blankets the street with beetles. A dour-faced preacher–bible in one hand, Colt Navy in the other–delivers a fiery sermon and the posse feels the hand of the Almighty reach down and straighten their aim, steel their resolve. An iconic gunslinger saunters into a saloon and orders a whisky, the smell of death lingers on him; not because of the men he’s killed, but because he has died himself, and has returned to wreak vengeance on his murderers.

This is the Weird West: where the civil war was fought to an uneasy truce, California is a shattered maze of islands and marshes, and the monsters of myth and legend stalk the land.

Deadlands: Reloaded is a restart of the RPG hit from the mid 1990s, Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game. It uses a new rule-set and the history has been slightly advanced.

If Deadlands is completely unfamiliar to you, there’s a large metaphysical backstory explaining the whys, but the bottom line is nasty monsters and real magic are enjoying a resurgence, centered on the Western U.S.

Character types fall into a few broad categories: Gunmen, Religious types, card-dealing magicians, steam-punk mad scientists, and Natives. However, as Deadlands: Reloaded uses the Savage Worlds rules, there are no strict character classes found in some RPGs and characters can be highly customized.

The heroes can fight against the tide of evil that forms the back-story and reason for the recent disturbances out west, or, as I do when I run Deadlands, you can largely ignore the metaplot and simply run the game as zombie gunslingers versus werewolves, witches and el Chupacabra.

Classic Deadlands (as the original version is called) had it’s own system that some players prefer to the new version. It used chips and cards in ways that some felt was very “in genre.” Others found the old system “clunky” and burdensome in combat. Deadlands: Reloaded uses the Savage Worlds rules with a few setting-specific tweaks. Savage Worlds is a system that encourages cinematic, even pulpy, gameplay, without leaving realism fully behind. I’ve often described it as the “John McLain” setting on the action/realism dial.

Pinnacle Entertainment provides Savage Worlds Test Drive rules (PDF), along with some Deadlands sample adventures and characters, if you want to try before you buy.

One more thing, if you are interested at all in Deadlands, or any other Pinnacle product (and I highly recommend them) the Pinnacle Forum is an excellent resource. The writers and designers are usually around, along with long-time fans and players. The atmosphere is friendly, helpful, and welcoming.

Previous post in this series include game prep: brainstorming, game prep: npc creation, AP 1st session, AP 2nd session.

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Dust Devils Revenged. Chimera Creative. Matt Snyder. 2007.
116 pages. Digest sized.
Get it while the getting is still good. Below is an email I received from IPR.

There will be no further printings of Dust Devils. You’d need to contact the publisher himself to get an answer about the PDF.

—————-
Brennan Taylor
Indie Press Revolution
Galileo Games

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Very simply Dust Devils Revenged is a game about dark western stories and flawed characters. Matt Snyder made it very clear that Unforgiven is the perfect example of a Dust Devils type story. Mechanically the game is very simple. When conflicts arise, the GM (called the Dealer in the game text) deals a hand of poker to the players. The number of cards dealt and number of cards available for the draw are determined by the characters stats. High hand wins the conflict, but high card wins narration. What kind of back-east flim flam is this? you say? That’s right, the GM only gets to narrate things between conflicts. In a conflict the only authority the GM has is to determine if the various stats are applicable. Beyond that, he’s just another player.

So how’s it work?
Very well. I had characters willing to give up the conflict goals in order to win narration. I had players initiating conflicts because they want to narrate something cool. (In fact he whole climactic showdown happened because the Doc’s player narrated it in when he had a conflict to sneak after Levi Oden.)

It is flexible in defining conflicts, so we could drill down to a shot by shot resolution (although this is time consuming) when dramatically appropriate. A word of caution, conflict can be devastating. If you go for a finer grained scene resolution, be forewarned. While the shot by shot scene did take some time, because we were playing a hand of poker to resolve things, it didn’t distract from the game.

One more word specifically about conflicts. They quickly get complicated if the Gm has more than one or two participants. Mr. Snyder’s intent, I believe, was to break larger conflicts into more discreet units. We discussed this after the game and saw that each method has it’s uses. In our final conflict, by having everyone as part of the same conflict, The Reverend’s Player, got to narrate a nice end for his character that wrapped up the whole scene. If we had resolved every thing as seperate conflicts it would have bogged us down, and likely lessened the impact the The Reverand’s final scene.

Ah yes, The End.
When a character takes enough Harm The End happens. Perhaps he gives in entirely to his Devil, maybe he has an epiphany or catharitic moment. regardless, he gets to narrate the result of the conflict and is then promptly removed from play. In my AP, The Reverend had The End during the shoot-out. There are a couple more things you can do at The End. You can offer succor through redemption (basically healing) someone else. You can also inflict additional Harm on your opponent.

Character Generation
In my opinion Character Generation is where Dust Devils shines like a newly minted tin star. A character is defined by 9 items. 4 scores, two traits, a past, a present, and a Devil. The scores are similar to attributes and correspond to the card suits. They are the basic building blocks for your deals in a conflict. The traits are best expressed, in my opinion, as a simile and can add to the deal. Your past and present are rated 1-3 and give you cards in the draw. Your devil is also rated 1-3 and can give you extra cards, take cards away, or neither. [See one of the characters as an example.]

But here’s where something mystical and magical happens. As you pick your traits and past and present, you are forming a back story for your character. By picking a devil you put a nasty twist in the back story that must be dealt with. I was amazed at how strong and interesting every character was. I made 8 NPCs in about 30 minutes and would gladly play any one of them.

For example let’s look at someone who didn’t see too much screen time. Marshal Abernathy.
I knew I wanted him to be a do nothing Marshal, letting his lackey brother-in-law and his idiot flunky do the work. But I also didn’t want a rube. He was a competent man if pushed. By giving him the “Seen it all before” trait I have both a mechanical reflection of his competence and a flag about how to play him. Being a former riverboat gambler I thought he would be “Sly as a Fox.” His past as a Riverboat Gambler is pretty far in his past, so I rated it at 1. Again, this is a mechanical reflection and a numerical indication of how much this past is still with him. Same for his present as a Town Marshal. I decided he may not be the best town marshal, but if pushed, he could rise to the occasion. Finally, looking over the list of sample Devils in the book, I had to choose lazy. It just fit perfectly. Very quickly I had created a man with a complicated story.

Dust Devils is not for every style of Western game. It is intentionally built to play haunted, flawed characters. the only way you could play a long term campaign would be to simply replace characters as they died.

For more reviews check here.

The player for Andrew Wagner (now a Deputy Marshal) couldn’t join us as he was a one-night guest, but one of our regulars joined us and created a character.

Jess Warner

In a freak twist of fate, a stray bullet from Levi Oden’s gun killed Jess’s mother. Though just 16, he swore revenge and set out after the outlaw.
Hand 4
Eye 3
Guts 4
Heart 2
Traits: Quick as Lightning, Innocent as the Day is Long
Past: Farm Boy(3)
Present: Tough for Hire(1)
Devil (2): Loner. That sumabitch killed his momma and it’s up to him to make amends.

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Jess rode into town almost exactly 24 hours after Doc, the Reverand, and Andy Wagner. He could tell it was a rough town, but that didn’t deter him.

He entered the Star Saloon and asked for a cup of coffee and some breakfast.
“Son,” said the Barkeep, “I got whisky and cheaper whisky.”

They struck up a conversation and Jess asked about Levi. The bartender, thinking he was some kin because of the kid’s innocence. Told him what he knew. Jess asked if there was any work he could do and the barkeep told him there was a pile of scrap lumber, bucket of nails, and a hammer out back. He’d give two bits per chair and four per table the Kid cared to make.

Still hungry, Jess “The Kid” headed to the Dixie Pig, a diner. While there now Deputy Marshal Andy made his acquaintance and gave him some paternal advice.
“Son,” said Andy, “sometimes a fellow straps a gun to his belt and it makes him feel real big. It’s a lie. Likely as not the fellow you aim to shoot is feeling just as big and probably a better shot. All’s I’m saying is be careful. Make a plan.”

Back in the German House (a high roller saloon/brothel) The Reverend struck up a conversation with El Padre of Los Caballeros. Finally they left and the Reverand trailed them. Los Caballeros went from business to business, spending money and spreading good will. Finally they came to the Dixie Pig.

El Padre chatted with The Kid, then had a private word with Dutch, the Dixie Pig proprietor. The Kid overheard Dutch tell El Padre where Oden was. Ending the whispered conversation, El Padre told Dutch that the kid’s meal was on him.

The Kid got his bile up and shouted as he stormed out the door, “I’m not a kid…and he’s mine!”

Meanwhile the Doc poked around the Undertakers place and talked him up a bit. He determined that Pete Holden didn’t die from any wound he or the Reverend gave him. As they talked he saw Levi Oden walking down a back street toward the Marshal’s house and stole out and followed him.

Meanwhile, one street over, the Kid led a comical parade, loading his gun and looking wildly about for Levi Oden. Los Caballeros followed a few paces behind and The Reverend had all but joined their ranks.

Time stood still as The Kid and Levi Oden came face to face. Marshal Andy stepped out from the Marshal’s HQ as the two parties looked each other over.

“Levi Oden, why don’t you come into the office with me for a spell.” Said the Deputy Marshal as he drew his gun and cocked it.

Not still entirely sure what was going on, Levi walked toward Marshal Andy. Levi’s path and the Kid’s intersected and for a moment it looked like the everything was going to calm down.

Just as he stepped past Levi, the Kid turned and clubbed him with his pistol. Levi staggered to his knees and the Marshal fired, winging The Kid.

Doc dove for Levi, aiming to drag him inside a building, but failed and found himself exposed in the center of a lead maelstrom.

The Reverend leaned in to El Padre and said, “The lawman aims to stop you. I’ll take him and you can get Oden.”

The Kid swung his pistol like an Apache War club. And Levi fell prone. The Doc scrambled for cover but not before Pollock winged him. Before the Marshal could shoot the kid again, The Reverend hit him square with a shot. El Padre and Poncho both fired at the defensless Levi Oden and killed him.

As the dust settled and the wounded moaned for succor, The Reverand turned to El Padre and said, “If you’ll have me, I’d like to ride with your outfit.”

“I knew you were one of us when I first met you,” replied El Padre. He reached into his coat and shook out a blue sash with an intricately embroidered cross and placed it over the reverand’s head and shoulder.

And they rode off into the sunset.