Deadlands is an RPG originally published in 1993. It’s been through a few iterations and currently is under Savage Worlds rules, I think.
This very old book is from the original run.
What happens if the supernatural comes back to the world during the American Civil War? Well you get gunslingers dealing with hucksters, people who make deals with demons to sling magic and Blessed running around trying to save the world with Mad scientists makings thing better (or far worse) while all dealing with blood thirsty tumbleweeds (tumblebleeds) and the dealing with the Reckoners, unknown True Evils.
The original system was its own creation, using a deck of cards including 2 jokers and multiple types of dice, it was an exciting system. Eventually the old system was replaced a free times and it’s currently published under Savage Rules.
I can only talk on the original system, quite liking the use of decks of cards for initiative and other uses. Combat could be quite slow, but it is a very flavorful system.
This is a bad photo, but it’s the book from our shelf!
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I only ever got to play one game some number of years back, and it was under the savage pands rules, but I absolutely loved it.
The magic system is all flavored as mad science, so you picked your spells from the generic savage worlds book and then flavored it however you felt fit your character.
My stun spell was a little hand-held contraption I had built called a ‘gastrointestinal defortification projector’ It went ‘BWOMPH’ and anyone within 20 feet shat themselves or threw up.
I pooped myself the first time I used it in combat…
Mad Science under the original system was much more complex, almost extremely so. You designed devices yourself, and what they would do, so unique entirely (or just use one described in the books, there were several mad science books) and then the Marshall decided what poker hand you needed to make the blueprints. Which, of course, it used the poker deck! My sibling played a québécois Alchemist. Things went boom.
Savage worlds still uses a poker deck
You played as an ancestor of Spider Jerusalem?
Oh man, it has been ages since I read transmetropolitan. It is strange that I was just thinking about it the other day though.
Not the entire magic system. There’s hexslingers, blessed, shamans, and witches too.
Fuck, that’s funnier than it has any right to be, great work.
I ran a dnd campaign that was wild west themed, and I used a few plotlines from this source. The Lost Angels storyline is pretty good
I love the introduction by Bruce Campbell. Spaghetti with meat!
I have the new edition. It still uses a deck of cards. Actually, that’s just a thing in Savage Worlds!
Ah, good! We have the original decks made for the system, they’re very lovely cards they are.
The game with the best name for a perk/trait ever: Grim Servant of Death.
There’s another system based off mork borg called “Frontier Scum” that I’ve played a few times and is great fun. It’s rules light so super easy to pick up an run.
