Deadlands first debuted back in 1996 as a Western-Horror-Steampunk mash-up (before the term was as ubiquitous as it is today), a setting billed as the Weird West. The rules would eventually evolve into the current Savage Worlds roleplaying game (along with the Deadlands miniature battle spin-off rules, The Great Rail Wars). Deadlands is why Savage Worlds uses poker chips, playing cards, and exploding dice mechanics (referred to as “Aces” and “Raises”) as those items helped give DL its Western flavor.
A Reckoning
Nov 19, 2017 Deadlands; Official Answers on Deadlands Rules; If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the. Inverted in Reloaded. Grimme is fully statted in the Marshal's Handbook, and the Plot Point Campaign The Flood ends with his ultimate destruction at the hands of the posse. Every other Plot Point Campaign for the setting follows on after this with the assumption that Grimme is indeed dead - so, in fact, he has the opposite of Plot Armor here. Deadlands: Reloaded. 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. This section covers the “Top Secret” player’s information. The whole section is just one big chapter that discusses the different Arcane Backgrounds and Harrowed. Arcane Backgrounds are special edges that give the players access to special powers. In Deadlands you have a. System: Savage Worlds, particularly using elements from the Deadlands Reloaded, Deadlands Noir, and Rippers Resurrected setting books. That said, I own a number of sourcebooks for the system, so if there's something of interest from another book that you'd like to use, let me know what it is, where it is, and what it does.
The setting for Deadlands is an alt-history North America that begins in 1879. As with the Shattered Frontier setting of Aces & Eights, you will find a country divided where the Confederacy retained their independence after the Civil War. Also like A&8, the Mormons actually founded their nation of Deseret and the native population have not one, but two territories they control. Unlike A&8, the Republic of Texas is not a separate entity, though their famed Texas Rangers have become a federal level secret service for the Confederate States of America.
A lack of coal and iron led to the stalemate in the War Between States, which allowed the Mormons, the native Sioux Nations in the Dakotas, and the Coyote Confederation in the Southwest to found their own independent states. Though the Union and the Confederates still consider much of the west theirs, the current halt of the warmachine keeps them from doing anything about it.
But what puts the Weird into Deadlands’ West is the Reckoning. See, a long time ago a cadre of Native American shamans, called the Old Ones, fought the evil spirits, known as manitous, in the spirit lands, named the Hunting Grounds, in order to protect our reality from their influence. A deal was brokered, and as long as the Old Ones remained in the Hunting Grounds the manitous could not gain a foothold in our world.
Well, that is, until the Reckoning, when a rebel Sioux shaman committed some atrocities in order to drive the white man out of America. See, he completes a nasty ritual that culminated in the murders of the Old Ones, thus releasing the bindings keeping the manitous in the Hunting Grounds. With the deal broken, the most powerful of the manitous, the Reckoners were able to directly influence the world.
And so all the monsters, magic, and generally Weird stuff is usually created by the manitous in order to spread fear throughout the land. Median xl class charm. The Reckoners, who have assumed the mantles of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, feed off of fear and once terror reaches a certain limit, the Reckoners can enter the world, making it their own. By the way, their domain in the Hunting Grounds is called the Deadlands, now you know how the setting gets its name.
Make Yer Dudes
So, in a roundabout way, heroes of Deadlands are trying to save the world by reducing the level of fear via daring do and recounting their legendary tales. The type of characters you can play in Deadlands is pretty open, since Savage Worlds doesn’t have classes, per se. However, depending on your Edges and Skills, various themes rise to the top.
DL characters are only allowed to take a single Arcane Background, which defines whether or not you’re a Blessed/Voodooist, a Huckster, a Shaman, a Chi-channeling Martial Artist, or Mad Scientist. Everything is pretty self-explanatory except for the Huckster. Hucksters enter a test of wills with the manitous to channel magic from the Hunting Grounds. Since the progenitor of Hucksters is Hoyle (like the cards), this battle of will takes on the form of a poker game, and when Huckster cast their spells, spiritual cards appear in their hand.
Of course, this review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Harrowed. These bad hombres are sentient walking dead. Harrowed are reborn, or at least reanimated, when one of the manitous takes up residence in a corpse. The Harrowed retain their personalities and memories, to begin with at least. The dark spirit within will try to take over the host at the worst times, to wreak havoc all while wearing your face. Players can have Harrowed characters, but it’s rare to begin play as one.
Ante Up
Deadlands Reloaded uses the Savage Worlds core rules which are spawned. The basics of Savage Worlds is a character has five Attributes (Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, & Vigor) and a range of Skills, all of which have a die rating ranging from d4 to d12 (well, actually d12+2, but that’s with Edges). Skills have linked Attributes, and it’s more costly to purchase a Skill with a greater rating than it’s linked Attribute.
There are several derived stats (Pace, Parry, Charisma, & Toughness), which are calculated from Attributes or Skills and modified by Race and Edges. Edges are similar to Feats or Merits from the d20 and Storytelling Systems, respectively. The opposite of Edges are Hindrances, which are similar to Flaws or Drawbacks.
For resolution, a player rolls either the Attribute or Skill that’s related to the action along with their Wild Die (a d6 by default, but can be modified by Edges or Hindrances) against the Target Number of 4. Then take the better result between the Trait and Wild dice and add any circumstance modifiers. If it beats the TN, it’s a success.
What more, Savage Worlds incorporate exploding dice, called Aces, which are open-ended rolls. So, every time the maximum value of the die is rolled, you roll it again and add the result. This continues until a result lower than the maximum value is rolled. Both Trait and Wild dice are subject to Aces.
For every 4 points you exceed the Target Number, you get a Raise. Raises are critical successes and can influence the final result of an action. However, on the flip side, if both the Trait and Wild dice roll ones, that’s Snake Eyes and is considered a critical failure.
Savage Worlds also have Bennies, which are similar to Fate or Action Points. Bennies can be spent to re-roll any Trait Test and you can spend as many as you wish and take the best result. They may also be used to keep your character from dying. Settings usually modify these rules, and Deadlands is a prime example. In Deadlands, there are three types, and when some of them are spent, it actually puts a Bennie in the hands of the Marshal (the Deadland’s name for GameMaster), to be spent against the players.
Initiative is handled with playing cards. At the beginning of an encounter, the deck is shuffled and each round the player draws a card. Then a countdown from Ace to Deuce is made with ties resolved in reverse alphabetical suit order (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs). So an Ace of Spades trumps an Ace of Diamonds. Jokers are wild and mean that character can choose whenever they want to act, even interrupting another character’s action. Oh, and they get a +2 bonus to damage rolls too! Whenever a Joker is dealt, the deck is shuffled.
Wounds are handled by comparing the damage rolled versus the target’s Toughness. If the damage is less than his Toughness, there is no game affect (read: glancing blow). If it meets or exceeds Toughness, the target is Shaken (can move half speed, but do no other actions). Each Raise above Toughness on the damage roll causes a wound. Each character has three wound levels and for each wound the character takes a cumulative -1 to Pace and Trait Tests.
If a character receives another Shaken result while still Shaken, it is instead a wound (and a wounded character becomes Shaken if not already). A character can recover from being Shaken on his turn with a Spirit Test.
If a character with three wounds is wounded again, or if the wounds received exceed three, then a Knockout Blow has been received and the players must consult a table to see what happens. A Bennie may be spent to take a Soak Roll and for a success and every raise, the character reduces the damage dealt by one.
Royal Flush
Deadlands is the flagship setting for a solid rules system, so if you like the fast, furious, fun style of Savage Worlds and want to stake a claim in the Weird West, I highly suggest you give Deadlands a spin. You’ll need the Savage Worlds Core Rulebook, which was just revised, as well as the Marshal’s Handbook and the Player’s Guide. Well, you might even be able to get by with just the Test Drive rules for Savage Worlds instead of the core book, but you’re on own then, pardner.
Wild West Weeks
Deadlands Reloaded
Listening to: Deadlands – Weird Wailin’s Soundtrack – Into the Deadlands
Deadlands: Riders on the Storm
A Weird West Campaign
The Harrowed
Strong-willed individuals sometimes come back from beyond the grave. As the Pinkertons and Texas Rangers have learned, these individuals are actually possessed by manitous, evil spirits who use the host's mind and body to affect the physical world. These undead are called the 'Harrowed,' which means 'dragged forth from the earth.'
Fortunately, a manitous in an undead host is slain if the brain is destroyed, so they only risk their otherwise eternal souls on individuals with exceptional abilities. Weak or infirm mortals are only possessed when it suits some more diabolical purpose.
Whenever a player character dies in the game and their body is mostly intact (especially the head), she draws 1 card from a fresh deck of cards plus 1 for every level she has in Grit. Hapi engine manual.
Deadlands Reloaded Character Sheet
If the player draws a Joker of either color, her character is coming back from beyond the pale. Otherwise the manitous were not interested in the character's spirit and it passes unmolested through the Hunting Grounds to the Great Beyond.
Most Harrowed stay in the hole 1d6 days. it takes a few days to fight for the hero's soul and then another 10-12 hours to dig herself out of the hole—assuming she was buried. Some come back quicker, some take longer—especially if the body was mangled worse than usual.
Very few characters come back from the dead, so you shouldn't go catching bullets hoping to come back with all kinds of cool powers. Unless your character has a lot of Grit, odds are you're just worm food.
Dominion
Manitous need a mortal soul to survive in the physical world. This means they must keep their host's soul around. When they inhabit an undead host, they fight with the soul inside for control.
When the manitou as 'dominion,' the soul loses all contact with the outside world. It has no memory of anything the manitou does while its in charge The manitou can still draw on the soul's memories, however. It uses these to pass itself off as the mortal while it causes mischief and mayhem.
Manitous never admit or reveal that their host is possessed in some way. They try to perform their cruel acts while no one is looking, hoping to keep their disguise intact.
Harrowed characters have a number of Dominion points equal to their Spirit. Whichever entity controls a majority of the character's Dominion points is in charge of the mortal's form. The mortal always wins ties.
The Nightmare
Manitous first battle for dominion moments after snatching mortal souls as they pass through the Hunting Grounds. This spiritual test of wills manifests as a horrible nightmare drawn from your character's past. That's why we had you fill in the 'worst nightmare' box on the back of your character sheet.
When your character has his nightmare, the Marshal has two ways to carry it out. One way is quick and dirty and gets you back in the game quickly. In the other, you actually have to struggle through a solo adventure inspired by your own nightmare. The result determines who's in charge when your character's corpse comes crawling up out of the earth.
The Eternal Struggle
The result of your character's nightmare determines how many Dominion points she and the manitou start with. From this point on, you need to keep track of Dominion The space beneath Your Worst Nightmare on the back side of your character sheet is a handy spot. Mark a column with your character's name and another 'manitou,' then write down the number of Dominion each has when you emerge from the grave. Never tell the other players your current state of Dominion—we want them to worry about you.
After a character's return from the grave, she and the manitou inside struggle for Dominion constantly, each trying to gain some advantage and wrest control from the other.
The manitou is best able to steal Dominion when the character makes use of its power. The Marshal may occasionally ask you to make a Dominion check under special circumstances, but there are two occasions where your hero must always battle for control of her mortal soul. The first is whenever your character uses a power of the Harrowed and botches. The second is whenever you purchase a new power or improve an existing one.
The struggle for Dominion is an opposed test of Spirits. Draw a card from a spare deck (or the Marshal's Action Deck if in combat) to determine the manitou's Spirit. The winner takes 1 point of Dominion from the loser for every success and raise
When a manitou gains a Dominion point but doesn't control the majority, it controls its host for a short while. This will cause him no end of Trouble. The Marshal will take care of things for you when this happens.
The Unlife of the Harrowed
So what's it like being undead? it's definitely a mixed blessing. A walking corpse is a tough hombre in a fight, but doesn't have an easy time making friends.
The first few hours an undead crawls back into the world aren't pleasant. His last memories are of whatever caused his death, and then he usually finds himself waking up in a grave or some other strange place. Whatever wounds the cowpoke died of don't seem as bad as they should, but he bears a scar or some other evidence of his death wound that never goes away.
The Harrowed's body doesn't adjust to its new state quickly. At first, rigor mortis causes the character seizures, and his mind is fuzzy as well. For the first 2d6 hours after returning from the dead, the Harrowed's Traits are halved.
Things aren't much better once the fog clears a bit. The character still doesn't know why he thought he died and has now come back. Even more confusing, if he listens for a heartbeat, he hears one, though it sounds more like a pregnant flutter than a heartbeat (that's the manitou wiggling around inside). If he tries to cut himself, he bleeds, but the blood is thick and dark.
After a while, the Harrowed eventually figure out they're undead When someone blows a hole clean through your gizzard and it's healed up in a few days, it's hard to deny something's up. That's when a fellow starts learning the up side of being a zombie.
Undeath
The undead can ignore bleeding and Wind caused by physical damage, drowning, or other indirect damage that affects the body's organs. The Harrowed still take Wind caused by magical or mental strain, such as failed guts checks or miscast hexes, however.
Undead don't suffer greatly from pain, but they still can't shoot as well if half their shooting hand is blown off. This allows them to ignore 2 levels of wound modifiers per area. In other words, serious wounds inflict a -1 penalty per area. Lesser wound modifiers are ignored.
Decay
Undead characters always have pale, sallow skin. They don't rot, since the manitous inside them sustain their bodies with magical energy, but they don't exactly smell like roses either. Anyone dumb enough to put their nose up to a Harrowed character can detect the smell of decay on a Moderate (5) Cognition roll.
Animals always react poorly to a piece of rotting meat that has the audacity to walk around on two legs. All horse ridin', animal wranglin', and teamster rolls are made at -2.
Regeneration
The same ability to suspend natural decay actually helps the undead regenerate their wounds as well. Harrowed characters may make natural healing rolls once per day instead of once per week.
Grit
Becoming a member of the walking dead hardens the mind. Seeing a werewolf loping across a moonlit plain is still unnerving, but a fellow who can shoot himself in the heart and keep laughing learns to accept these things.
Add +1 to your character's Grit after returning from the grave.
Faith
Manitous can use all the skills and talents of their host except one: faith. Should the spirit ever need to make a faith roll, the Marshal draws a card from her Action Deck to determine the number and type of dice the manitou rolls. The manitou's faith fluctuates because it is channeled directly from the chaos of the Hunting Grounds.
This also means that manitous cannot draw on the spiritual powers of shamans and the blessed.
Nature spirits abhor manitous so a manitou that inhabits the body of a shaman can't perform rituals when it has Dominion. If a shaman is in charge, the risk that the manitou might take over requires him to gather 1 extra appeasement point more than normal for each favor.
The blessed are treated in much the same way by their holy patrons. AS long as they are in charge, they can perform rituals. When the manitou rules, it cannot use the blessed's rituals or faith totals.
Destroying an Undead
The Harrowed take wounds normally, but they can't be killed except by destroying the brain—the manitou needs that to make the body function.
Deadlands Reloaded Characters
If the noggin takes a killing blow (is Maimed), the undead and the manitou inside it are destroyed.
Killing blows to the guts area put a Harrowed down until the manitou inside regenerates the damage back down to critical or less.
Powers
Harrowed characters can eventually learn two other types of powers: those they gain from defeating abominations, and those that are extensions of their own personality.
Counting Coup
The greatest abominations are filled with supernatural essences that give them their power. Harrowed characters can steal this energy by standing over the creature as it dies and absorbing its essence The Harrowed have come to call this 'counting coup' after the Indian tradition of touching their enemies.
The particular power gained from an abomination is called its 'coup.' Any Harrowed characters within a few feet of the creature when it dies absorb its coup automatically.
Deadlands Reloaded Powers
Only the most powerful abominations—singular 'named' creatures such as the Headless Horseman, Dracula, or the like—generally have coup.
Other Powers
Deadlands Reloaded Harrowed Coup Ability List
The Harrowed first emerge from the grave with only powers common to all undead. After a while, however, they inevitably find themselves in danger and accidentally tap into the manitou inside them. The manitou eagerly lends its power to the host, since this allows it a chance to steal Dominion.
A Harrowed can buy a new power by spending 10 bounty points. He can choose any power for which he has one of the recommended Edges or Hindrances. With the Marshal's permission, he can also buy a power that fits his particular background or personality. The intent is for the Harrowed's power to be an extension of his character. If the rules don't fit the situation, break 'em.
Deadlands Reloaded Character Creator
If the new power has multiple levels, the character starts at level 1. Additional levels may be bought with bounty points. The cost is 2 times the value of the new level. Raising a level 1 power to level 2, for example, would cost 4 points.
The downside is that every time a power is bought or raised, the Harrowed's manitou gets another chance to steal Dominion (see above).