With lack of time being a standard for me right now, I’ve spent the small amounts of random free time reading over the Deadlands: Reloaded rulebook. For those that don’t know about it: tabletop RPG horror/dark fantasy alternate history set in the wild west (or weird west as they call it). It uses the core rules of Savage Worlds.
I love history and alternate history especially. In the case of Deadlands, there’s a lot of recognizable pieces — and a lot of history changed. For a brief rundown: the nation is still split, slavery has been abolished, the west is very much untamed, special coal known as ‘ghost rock’ has been recently found and allows for previously unheard of technology (steam powered, of course), Native American tribes have taken control of two large areas (basically over the Dakotas and Oklahoma), and evil demons are trying to invade from the spirit realm — causing tons of fear, abominations and death.
Magic is present in the game, in the form of miracles used by the ‘blessed’ — typically priests of some sort, all kinds of religions available — and ‘hucksters’ — sorcerers that use dark magic, based off the demons and such. Magic is played out a bit differently than most games I’ve seen — and I really like it. For hucksters, if your power points run low (or you want to save them) and you really want to cast a spell — you can ‘Deal with the Devil’ which causes your character to play a hand of poker against a demon in exchange for its power. To do this, the marshal (GM/DM) hands you 5 cards (plus 1 per point of grit you have) and you form the best poker hand you can out of it. Take this hand and compare it to a little chart to see what happens to you. Your hand needs to fulfill the amount of power points you requested before the match begins and if it does you’ll be good — just go on to roll your spellcasting dice as normal (unless you get a really good hand, then the spell will work automatically) — should it fail, however, you get hit with backlash and get to roll on the backlash chart… which can seriously set you back, if you get my drift. Miracles work in a bit different fashion — a bit more ‘normal’. Your blessed needs to pray to work the powers and thus roll for it. Should you critically fail, however, you’ll be in a crisis of faith. Fail again after that, and… well, let’s just say the God(s) you were praying to have turned a deaf ear to your pleas. At this point you’ve got to do something to appeal to them, and the marshal won’t let you know what it is — you should know it, and do it to regain favor (and the ability to use your miracles). The blessed also have sins tied to their religions, these are things you shouldn’t do — remember that. With these few differences I sense a much different play experience than your typical mage or healer.
The huckster and blessed were what really stood out to me, though the harrowed come close. Harrowed are undead… but not the walkin’ dead type you might be familiar with. When your characters die they have a chance (most of the time) to resurrect themselves as harrowed — undead that still maintain their soul but with a little extra catch… the spirit of a demon also resides inside them. Yup, if you’ve become harrowed — whether you know it or not — you have a demon to thank for it. This demon will keep quiet most of the time, but he will occasionally try to take over and cause some mischief. Should it really not like what you’re doing, or you’re weakened severely, it may even try to take over completely — and permanently. That’s one thing about the Deadlands, there’s plenty of ways to die or lose control of yourself.
Really though, if you have any interest at all in tabletop RPGs or an alternate history of the wild west containing lots of steam punk/magic/horror — check this game out. Deadlands: Reloaded uses the Savage Worlds rules (as mentioned before) but there’s also the Deadlands Classic that uses different rules and has plenty of books already published.
As for the rest of this week’s posting, not sure what it will be. I didn’t get any time to play the NA Aion beta this past weekend, so nothing there. Overlord 1 & 2 along with a touch of Trine is all the video gaming I’ve done this past week so there’s nothing much to write up. I may continue some Savage Worlds games for awhile.
