Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game

Deadlands: The Weird West

by Shane Lacy Hensley

Welcome to the world of The Weird West! So, have you got what it takes partner? Are you ready to face the worst horrors the Reckoners have to throw at you? Are you ready to stare Death in the face and spit in his eye-socket?

Well, then, saddle up, hombre. The Weird West awaits!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Games, Steampunk, Alternate History, Fantasy, Horror

221 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 1996

About the author

Shane Lacy Hensley is an author, game designer, and CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Paul Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Edition Deadlands: The Weird West. One of the great RPGs. It is the late 19th century in the American West. Outlaws rob banks and trains, pursued by hard-faced Lawmen who are only separated from them by a badge and a sense of honour. Sharp dressed poker players ride on riverboats or fleece the hick locals in a piano bar as a couple of high-kicking dancers flap their petticoats. Cold-eyed gunslingers face each other down a dusty street as a ball of dry weed is tumbled along by the wind. A mad scientist rides his steam-powered mech against and leads an army of zombies against some Indian shamans protecting their lands with the power of the spirit dance.

Wait. What?

Deadlands, as do many role-playing games, takes a familiar genre and blends it with odder fare. The world of the Weird West has as much to do with horror movies as with westerns, and throws zombies and various flavours of magic into the mix. As well as shamans, some hucksters cast hexes with their decks of cards, priests can call on the power of god and the saints and mad scientists can imbue machinery with enslaved manitou spirits. And some folk just prefer to face these outlandish critters with their two fists and their six-shooters.

Deadlands gives an excellent background and storyline, as well as a system which includes specialised strengths and weaknesses for characters that are completely part of the setting (the whole book is written in the cod-western vernacular of western B-movies, critters and varmints and shootin' irons, and this carries over into edges and flaws in such descriptors as 'tinhorn' and 'big britches').

But the real jewel of Deadlands is the system, which is, for my money, not only one of the best fast-and-fun gaming systems ever created, but so in tune with the milieu that the game isn't the same without it (as was proved when the game was relaunched with a far inferior generic system). In tandem with the usual dice (everything from 4- to 12-sided), the players and gamemaster (or Marshall) each have a pack of standard playing cards, and get to draw cards to determine certain actions (combat order, magic use, etc), making poker hands to determine the level of success. In addition, it was also the first game I came across to use 'fate chips' - again poker chips - being awarded for good game play (good roleplaying, bravery, reducing the whole group to howls of laughter), and exchangable for such things as changing dice rolls or avoiding damage. Always a good thing to shoehorn into almost any system if you want to encourage heroic play.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An innovative idea, executed fairly well but with some crucial flaws. The system is clunky, and after all of the authors' efforts to create a system that's evocative of the setting, by using playing cards and poker chips, they go and mess it up by using polyhedral dice. The artwork ranges from great to amateurish, and the typesetting seems a bit large in places. Overall, though, the concept and the setting are excellent.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of horror and the wild west. It had some pretty interesting concepts, such as playing with not just dice, but also playing cards and poker chips. The only thing it really missed was a good "quickdraw at high noon" type rule that is so common in western movies. They added these in a later supplement, but even then I don't think they quite captured the feel of a quickdraw.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oozing with 90's edge, Deadlands is an evocative if a little gaudy weird west RPG. The ruleset includes playing cards, poker chips and dice to inform the role playing action, which whilst suiting the setting often overcomplicates matters.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A likeable rpg setting but slight and insubstantive for the GM. Shane Lacy Hensley takes advantage of a semi-familiar Wild West world and concentrates on providing flavor by colloquialisms in a highly PC focused rulebook. This is an advanced game for advanced players and a good GM. Not for everyone, but if you like the setting concept and you have prior RPG experience, you can use this.

[B. Barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Like it - I really, really like it.
It has problems, minor issues. I think they went a bit crazy in using cards in the game (Looks like you need about four or five decks), some of the monsters are a little off (but I LOVE the TumbleBleed!), and I kind of hate the rules for playing an undead character.
Still, great ideas and a wonderful concept.