What is Deadlands?
Imagine the Wild West, but with a supernatural twist that would make Stephen King jealous. Deadlands: The Weird West is like taking a classic Western movie, adding a dash of horror, a sprinkle of steampunk technology, and a healthy dose of dark magic. It's Cowboys and Aliens meets The Walking Dead, set in an alternate history where the Civil War never ended and supernatural horrors roam the frontier.
Think of it this way: if the Wild West was a comfortable campfire story, Deadlands is that same story told during a thunderstorm while strange shadows dance just beyond the firelight. It's familiar enough to feel like home, but twisted enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.
How This Section of the Guide Works
This section covers Deadlands: The Weird West, Pinnacle's current edition of the setting, built on the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) rules. The core rules aren't repeated here: trait tests, raises, Aces, the Wild Die and Bennies are in Core Rules; action cards, damage and Wounds are in Combat Basics; and building a hero starts in Character Creation and Edges & Hindrances.
What these pages add is everything the setting brings to that engine: the alternate-history world and its factions, Fear and Grit, Fear Levels that rise and fall across the land, high-noon duels, the Weird West's Arcane Backgrounds (hucksters, the blessed, shamans and mad scientists), the Harrowed, and the setting's own Edges and Hindrances. In Deadlands the GM is called the Marshal and the party is the posse.
You'll also run into two older editions in books and fan material: Deadlands Classic, with its own dice-pool rules and coloured fate chips, and Deadlands Reloaded, built on Savage Worlds Deluxe. Where they differ, this guide follows the current edition.
The World of Deadlands
Picture America in the late 1870s, but history took a hard left turn. The Civil War never truly ended, because supernatural forces have their own agenda. It's as if someone took a history textbook and rewrote it with a ouija board.
The Reckoning
The Reckoning is like opening Pandora's Box, except instead of releasing hope at the end, it just kept pouring out nightmares. It broke loose in 1863, in the thick of the Civil War: evil spirits called manitous, servants of the dark powers known as the Reckoners, came flooding into the world. They feed on fear, and a nation at war gave them a feast. Think of it as the universe's worst possible glitch.
This event awakened ancient evils and made the impossible possible. It's the reason why your character might face down a zombie gunslinger one day and a steam-powered mechanical man the next. The Reckoning didn't just change the world—it rewrote the rules of what could exist in it.
Core Concepts That Make Deadlands Unique
Fear and Grit
In most RPGs, your character gets tougher as they level up. In Deadlands, they get grittier—and possibly more terrified. Fear isn't just a roleplaying element; it's a mechanical force that can literally scare your character to death. It's like having a horror movie's tension meter built right into your character sheet.
The Weird Science
Forget everything you know about physics. In Deadlands, science runs on equal parts genius and madness. Mad scientists create steam-powered robots, electrical death rays, and mechanical limbs that work better than the original. It's like steampunk invented by people who never heard the word "impossible."
Hucksters and Hexes
Magic exists, but it's not your typical "wave a wand and cast a spell" affair. Hucksters are magical practitioners who literally gamble with demonic entities for power. Every spell is a poker game with your soul as the ante. It's magic for people who like their supernatural power with a side of existential dread.
The Hunting Grounds
The Hunting Grounds is the spirit world, home to the manitous and to nature spirits alike. When fear in a region climbs high enough, the barrier between our world and theirs wears thin and the land itself turns hostile, a magnet for everything that goes bump in the night. Those places are the deadlands that give the game its name. Imagine if Stephen King's imagination had a baby with a geography textbook.
How Deadlands Plays
Cards and Dice
Deadlands uses both playing cards and dice, because why settle for one random element when you can have two? It's like the game designers looked at traditional RPGs and said, "You know what this needs? More gambling metaphors."
Playing cards determine initiative (who goes first), while dice determine success or failure, exactly as in any Savage Worlds game. Deadlands then brings the deck back out for duels and hucksters' hexes. It's a beautiful marriage of chance and skill, much like the Wild West itself.
Poker Hands for Magic
Hucksters can deal themselves a poker hand to bargain with the spirits for extra power. The better the hand, the bigger the payoff. It's literally putting your money where your mouth is, except your "money" is your character's sanity and the "mouth" is a portal to hell.
Types of Characters You Can Play
The Gunslinger
Fast on the draw, quick with a quip, and deadly accurate. Think Clint Eastwood meets John Wick, but with supernatural enemies. These are the folks who solve problems with hot lead and cool confidence.
The Mad Scientist
Einstein meets Dr. Frankenstein in a world where the laws of physics are more like gentle suggestions. These characters build impossible devices that shouldn't work but somehow do—usually with spectacular and dangerous results.
The Huckster
A magical practitioner who gambles with demons for power. Imagine if Doctor Strange had to play poker with Mephisto every time he wanted to cast a spell. It's high-risk, high-reward spellcasting.
The Blessed
Holy warriors fighting against the darkness with faith as their weapon. They're like medieval paladins who traded in their armor for cowboy hats and their horses for six-shooters.
The Shaman
Native American spiritual leaders who work with nature spirits and ancient wisdom. They're the bridge between the old world and the new, often serving as guides through the supernatural landscape.
Why Play Deadlands?
Unique Atmosphere
Deadlands offers something no other game quite captures: the marriage of Western adventure with supernatural horror. It's like having chocolate and peanut butter for the first time—you didn't know you needed this combination until you tried it.
Moral Complexity
The game doesn't deal in simple good versus evil. Sometimes the "good guys" make terrible choices, and sometimes the monsters have understandable motivations. It's a world painted in shades of gray, much like the dust-covered frontier itself.
Creative Problem Solving
With magic, weird science, and traditional skills all available, players can approach problems from multiple angles. It's like having a toolbox that contains both a hammer and a lightning rod—you never know which one you'll need.
Your First Steps into the Weird West
Understanding the Tone
Deadlands walks a tightrope between horror and heroism. Your characters are heroes, but they're heroes in a world that's actively trying to break them. It's like being the protagonist in a horror movie who actually has a chance to win.
Embracing the Weird
Don't fight the strangeness—embrace it. In Deadlands, the weird isn't a bug; it's a feature. The sooner you accept that steam-powered mechanical spiders are just part of Tuesday, the sooner you'll start having fun.
Building Your Legend
Every character in Deadlands has the potential to become a legend. Whether that legend is about heroic deeds or spectacular failures is entirely up to you and the dice.
Practice Exercises
Exercise 1: Setting the Scene
Imagine you're describing a typical Wild West town to someone who's never seen a Western movie. Now, add three supernatural elements that would make it distinctly Deadlands. For example:
- A normal saloon, but the piano plays by itself
- A sheriff who casts shadows that move independently
- A general store that sells both bullets and holy water
Exercise 2: Character Motivation
Think of a classic Western archetype (the mysterious stranger, the schoolmarm, the outlaw with a heart of gold). Now, give them a supernatural reason for being in the Weird West. What brought them here? What keeps them here?
Exercise 3: Moral Dilemma
Create a scenario where the "right" choice isn't clear. For example: A town is being terrorized by undead, but the necromancer raising them is trying to bring back his murdered children. What do you do?
Real-World Inspiration
Historical Foundation
Deadlands draws heavily from real American history, particularly the period of westward expansion, the Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution. It's like reading a history book where the pages occasionally scream.
Cultural Influences
The game incorporates elements from Native American mythology, European folklore, and American urban legends. It's a melting pot of cultural fears and hopes, much like America itself.
Genre Mashup
Deadlands proves that genres are more like suggestions than rules. It shows how combining seemingly incompatible elements can create something entirely new and exciting.