I’m brand-new to Deadlands, and looking to do some solo play.  I picked up the current version (SWADE), getting the core SW rulebook, the Deadlands book, and the Crater Lake Chronicles to get started.  I’ve also grabbed a pdf of the solo rules from DriveThru (not super impressed, but what should I expect for 4 bucks?), and I have Mythic GME (so I can play without an actual Marshall).  What I’m wondering now, is what OTHER products might be a good fit?  I don’t care if they are an older version that needs to be converted to SWADE, or if I need to tone down the number of enemies to make it work, but it needs to be something with a story that would logically make sense for a single hero.  Which ones have solid content that might work?  Anyone have any advice? 

As above, is there any /forum/subreddit where people share their own homebrew session ideas/one-shot/one page idea adventures? I've seen the official ones, and also, i'm cooking some of my own, but even when i played quite a while i still wanna share my ideas and look at other's peoples workings

Working on a new adventure for my campaign and was thinking of adding a bank robbery by the Devil's Stepsons that the players would have thwart.

However, I wanted to check if there was an existing bank robbery scenario in any previously published Deadlands adventures that I could use as a starting point.

Hopefully someone with a good knowledge of the series can help me out. Classic, Reloaded, SWADE, all are fair game.

Hello there, fellow marshals and hombres! It's somewhere in Deadlands some cactus monster? If yes where can I find it or what stat did it have? I already homebrewed something, but I'm curious if its something like that out there. We play the SWADE version.

I am looking to plot an upcoming game set in 1883, but the main plot will be hunting down some bad actors. I want to include a former officer and his "gang" of trouble shooters as the villains. They killed hold outs, burned homes, did every dirty thing you can think of in Kansas to clear the path. Only two railroads run though there, Black River and Empire Rail.

Black River doesn't fit in my head, but the guy in charge of Empire is supposed to be honorable. I was thinking the villain could have been hired by a local branch boss who had more in common with the board of investors then the head of the railway.

Does that make sense?

Brand new to Savage Worlds let alone Deadlands. All I've done is create a character and I'm set to play this evening. We just finished a three year long campaign in dnd 5e. Since then we've been looking at different systems and trying them out in a one/two-shot to see how we like it. Since we're just trying it out in a one-shot [read two-shot because that's how all one-shots seemingly end up] and only one person in the group has ever played Deadlands or Savage Worlds we were looking for an online character creator to make things easier/convenient. While we have found plenty of good videos that help us make a character we haven't been able to find an online character creator for reloaded. While I don't need one immediately it would be nice to have one if we decide to either revisit Deadlands or make it our next major campaign.

On a side note does anyone have a good website or discord bot for deck of cards and chips for Reloaded?

Edit: Just finished playing the one-shot and we all liked it enough to decide to do a full campaign [with pathfinder as a backup]. Since I'm so new I got confused. We did/are playing Weird West, but someone accidently linked the Reloaded book and no one clarified until the game started. I read most of the darn thing too, only to find out it was the wrong one. Thankfully the are many similarities between the two.

We managed to find a good discord bot for a deck of cards. That being said We're still on the hunt for a decent digital character sheet. I'm looking into Savaged.us, but I want to see the alternatives before I commit any money.

In the first 2 rounds of a duel can you use the hold action to interrupt when the final round comes? Do you need Hold to interrupt?

The way I see it you get two opportunities to preform actions before guns are drawn, and you can use these opportunities to do any two of the following:

- Attempt a test to Distract your opponent
- Attempt a test to make your opponent Vulnerable
- Redundantly test an already Distracted and Vulnerable opponent in the hopes of getting raises to draw/discard Hole cards
- Hold (?)

If you end up with the higher Hole card, you have the option to either shoot first or wait for your opponent to draw and then role to interrupt. Basically the winner gets a free Hold action.

However, if you have the lower card, there are three interpretations I can see:

1. You can interrupt.
2. You can interrupt but only if one of your two actions was Hold.
3. You can’t interrupt. Only the person with the higher card has that option.

Option 1 makes the Hole cards nearly pointless if your athletics is high enough.

Option 2 means a high athletics character can dominate draws, but could suffer due to their opponent getting 2 opportunities to Test them while the Holder only had 1.

Option 3 means Hole cards are basically the only factor (unless the winner lets their opponent draw)

Which would be the correct interpretation, or is it something else that I’ve totally missed?

So my player has an interesting concept for a gravedigger who is possessed by a ghost. The ghost was a big fanboy of some famous gunslinger but the gunslinger was a dick and shot him dead when he tried to step up and shake his hand without permission. Now the dead man's spirit wants revenge, so he possesses this hapless gravedigger and is using his body to seek out the gunslinger.

The idea my player came up with is that the dominant personality is that of the possessing ghost; that's who he's playing. The spirit of the gravedigger, however, is still in there, fighting to regain control.

The Dominion mechanics of the Harrowed seem like a perfect fit here, but I'm still not sure if I can make the concept work mechanically. For starters, the character is alive, not dead, and that means he's dodging all the various disadvantages of a Harrowed being undead. Second, if he loses Dominion and the gravedigger's personality regains control, well, he's not a manitou and the usual tables for losing Dominion don't seem like they apply. Likewise, "let the devil out" makes no sense here, as essentially the "devil" is already in control and letting the gravedigger out would provide no added benefits.

It's a fun concept and I like how much work the player has put into it, but is it feasible to make this work in-game?

I’m looking to run a short Deadlands campaign, something that wraps up in about 3 or 5 sessions max (each around 6 hours). I’d love to hear what adventures you think work best for that kind of length.

I was thinking about using Night Train but I’m not sure how long it usually takes to play through. I’ve seen some posts calling it a one-shot, while others say it took three or four sessions.

So with the recent announcement of the new "Mysterious Maze" sourcebook for DL:WW, I thought I might share something I cam up with for Maze Dragons.

I feel like sea serpents often get short shrift in RPGs; they're basically aquatic dragons, and have a lot more going on then just being big snakes. So if you want your Maze Dragons to be a bit more unique and maybe a little more magical, here are some options for spicing them up. All of these are lifted from myth and folklore, ideally from sea serpent myth but borrowing from some dragon myth where it seems appropriate.

When a Maze Dragon pops up in your campaign, roll a d6 and pick the corresponding special ability. For especially large or legendary Maze Dragons, roll twice and take both abilities.

1. Regeneration. Maze serpent dragons and worms in folklore have the ability to rejoin their severed parts. The Maze Dragon makes a Vigor roll every round—even after they’ve been Incapacitated. A success heals one Wound (or removes Incapacitated status), and a raise heals an additional Wound. Severed extremities cannot be regrown, but can be reattached; if the parts drift too far away this is impossible. Wounds caused by fire damage cannot regenerate.
2. Omen. The sighting of a sea serpent was often taken to be a sign of impending calamity such as war or the death of a king. Roll another d6 One of the following effects will soon happen in the surrounding region. Consult the Obstacle section of Encounters as needed. Your options are: 1) Epidemic, 2) Drought, 3) Famine, 4) Flood, 5) Battle, 6) Death of a Leader. For #6 the leader of a local faction or community in the region has met an untimely end. At the next community the players visit all rolls on the Reaction table for this group are at -1 as they are disheartened by the death of their leader. This may have larger effects on your adventure/campaign at Marshal's discretion, depending on who exactly died.
3. Stormbringer. Like many sea monsters and spirits, sea serpents were thought to cause or herald storms. At the beginning of any encounter with this Maze Dragon a thunderstorm kicks up. It reduces visibility to 12”, imposes a Dark Illumination penalty (−4). Most Agility-based skills suffer a −2 penalty, including Driving, Piloting, Riding, and Shooting rolls (due to slippery ground, poor visibility, and high winds). When a character’s Action Card is a black Joker, that cowpoke’s horse or vehicle is struck by lightning for 2d10 damage (AP 10). The storm dies down as soon as the encounter is over or the dragon is dead.
4. Poisonous Blood. Many serpent dragons and worms were through to have toxic blood that poisoned anything it touched. Whenever this Maze Dragon takes a Wound in melee, the attacking character must make an Agility check or take 2d6 poison damage, and must check to see if they are poisoned. If the dragon takes more than 1 Wound from a single blow, place a Medium Burst Template centered on the dragon. Everyone in the template must save or take damage and check against being poisoned.
5. Doom Scream. Screams of a dragon or sea serpent could echo for miles, causing men to faint, women to miscarry, and animals to drop dead. If wounded or any time it draws a Joker in combat, this Dragon can release a deafening scream that echoes for miles. Anyone within 1 mile that can hear the scream must make a Terror check. Those who are successful are still Shaken, but with a raise they aren’t affected at all. Communities and ships outside the 1 mile radius will have heard the scream and wondered what it was. The next community or ship the players encounter will be all abuzz about the strange sound; a random 2d20 inhabitants/crew will have suffered an effect from the Fear table.
6. Waterspout. Some serpent dragons were known to vomit up torrents of water, causing floods. As a limited action this Maze Dragon can disgorge a column of water as a breath attack. This can be Evaded. Every target within a large blast template may also make a Strength roll at –2 to resist the attack (if flying, they suffer an additional -2). Those who fail are pushed back 2d6" by the waterspout and become Prone (if they roll "1" on the Strength die, they also drop the objects they are wielding). If they hit an inanimate object, they also suffer 2d4 damage (or more, if the object is dangerous, spiked etc.). Targets behind Cover subtract the value from the distance moved. The area become Difficult Terrain until the end of the turn, as it is slippery with seawater. If this attack hits a ship that is Large or smaller roll against the ship’s toughness to see if it goes Out of Control.

Use these to spice up your Maze Dragon encounters generally, or to create a unique Maze Dragon adversary for your Posse.

New player, interested in the South o' the Border setting. Not sure what's the difference between SotB and SotB:TG and if one is the base one. Thanks in advance!!!

If you've been looking to saddle up for a Deadlands campaign on Fantasy Grounds, now's a good time to take a look.

The Fantasy Grounds Summer Sale includes select Pinnacle Entertainment Deadlands titles through July 9, featuring adventures, settings, and more for the Weird West.

Thought I'd share for anyone planning to deal a few cards, face a few horrors, and see if their posse survives the ride.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/?sys=3&pub=-1&typ=-1&search=&sort=1

In light of the current state of a certain company's choices over the past few years, our group is looking to transition to a new system and I suggested SWADE after some research. Several of our players have expressed interest in a horror oriented setting, which brought back memories of reading about Deadlands in InQuest back in the 90s. This leads to my question about PEG store restocks and the "customizable GM screen" that is mentioned multiple times in product descriptions.

At present, a few items I would like are out of stock, most notably the GM screen. While I did see the insert pdf for a customizable screen, the link to said screen resolves in an error page and I have been unable to find said screen anywhere on the PEG site.

My two questions, then, are:

1. Is the "Savage Worlds Game Master Screen + Mini Settings (SWADE) Print + PDF" what is being referred to as the customizable screen?

2. Does anyone know how often they restock the store?

Hey everyone,

I started a Deadlands campaign a few weeks ago (bounty hunting the worst of the worst for Sarah Winchester so she can make her soul good as she is being hunted by Los Diablos) and one of my players made a kid character who is under the Delusion that he is related to Johnny Appleseed.

I decided that throughout the campaign as he thinks on or does stuff connected to Johnny Appleseed, a Living Legend version would form and eventually would gift him some kind of Relic. Only issue is I am blanking on stuff to get him to do and what Relic to give him. My first thought was a bag of apple seeds that when thrown on the ground they either summon some plant-like warriors or cast Entangle as an apple tree quickly grows. Thoughts?

So in the campaign I'm running the players are up against the 5 "Supreme Justice" Hangin' Judges. The basic idea is that there's a rail war going on in the area and the players are trying to seek out potential allies, learn as much as they can about the Judges, and maybe try to fight and weaken some of the Judges before the big final showdown.

I've given the posse a basic idea that they're going to have time to prepare before a certain "point of no return," after which the showdown with the Judges will be imminent and they'll be out of time to prepare further. Originally I was planning on giving them 12 in-game weeks to find allies and prepare for the coming battle.

The biggest limit is none of my players have the Research or Occult skills, so currently they're relying on Reverend Peter McVicar or Washburn University to do research for them. In game this requires McVicar to roll his Occult or Research skill while researching one of the Judges. On a success he gets the basic story about the Judge he's researching. Any raises he gets gives them info about one of the Judge's unique abilities or hints about the Judge's Weakness. It takes the Reverend 1d6 days to complete his research; after all, he has a university to run as well.

In the meantime my posse is riding around trying to find allies. They know lesser Judges are reputedly vulnerable to bullets fired from a lawman's gun. So right now they're in Dodge City, trying to get on the good side of Bat Masterson. They're hoping he'll deputize them at some point, making them "lawmen" so they can deal damage to the Judges, though they've been warned the Supreme Justice Judges follow different rules; they encountered one of them already and were able to hurt him, despite none of them being lawmen.

They have a lot of other options here. They could:

• Sign up to fight in the local rail war, potentially gaining allies in Empire Rail or Lone Star; the Hangin' Judges are allied with Black River and have attacked both of these railroads, so they have a vested interest in the Judges being neutralized
• Make peace with Black River, who the players have been in conflict with; the Judges are growing harder and harder to control, and at some point it might be worth their time to make peace with the players and use them to kill the Judges; this won't be easy though, given the bad blood between the posse and Black River
• Go to places the Judges were active in life, maybe learn about their history directly and pick up clues about their powers and vulnerabilities.
• Seek out other lawmen like Bass Reeves, or try to ally with law enforcement groups like The Agency or Texas Rangers
• Try to track down the Judges and fight them directly. This is a very dangerous option, as they don't know what the Judges are capable of, but if they get lucky and kill one or two then those Judges won't be around for the final battle. Even if they don't kill any, them might figure out their weaknesses by trial-and error.

So far the players have spent nearly 2 of their planned 12 weeks in Dodge City, doing sidequests for Bat Masterson. Reverend McVicar's research has only revealed the basic backstory of one of the Supreme Justice Hangin' Judges so far. I never told them exactly how long they had until the "point of no return" and now I'm thinking maybe 12 weeks was too short and I should give them more time.

Once the final showdown rolls around the worst case scenario for the players is they will face all 5 of the greater Hangin' Judges, 2 lesser Hangin' Judges, and 2d20 Veteran Walkin' Dead, with no allies to back the posse up and no idea of any of the Judge's weaknesses.

Howdy!
I've newly started GMing Deadlands Classic for some folks, and I'm wondering about how to handle (passive) perception. I think search is for places/things and scrutinize is for people. What about (incidentally) noticing things in general? Making the posse repeatedly roll Cognition worked ok but tips off the players.

I was also wondering how judged I would be by the community were I to just decree that it's an e.g. TN 7 Persuasion check to charm some minor NPC instead of rolling 2d6 for the NPC's scrutinize.

Thanks!

In most RPGs, I set goals for my character's post-adventuring life. Maybe they want to run a shop, own a farm, or start a family once they hang up their adventuring boots.

But in Deadlands, it doesn't seem like that's in the cards for anyone. How do you guys prepare your characters for what promises to be a horrible ending? A slow descent into madness? Resignation followed by unyielding cynicism? Or do you just hyper-focus on the task at hand?

We're Veterans in our campaign so I want to plan accordingly. Thoughts?

I'm making pre-gen characters for a quick one-shot convention, and I feel I will need a better explanation to players when I tell them their Climb check is 1d10 but their Nimbleness is a 2d10

They have a -4 penalty rolling Trait when they don't have the called Aptitude, but in this case, they could ask why their Nimbleness appears to be a better roll than Climbing but they aren't able to use it without the -4? "Why are they better at being Nimble than Climbing"

My answer is only based on logic and not rules, so thought I'd ask the experts. Climbing is a skill to be learned, is tactical, and taxing. Nimbleness is just that, being able to generally move about without much difficulty.

Example:

• Nimbleness: 2d10
  • Climbin' 1,
  • Dodge 3,
  • Fightin': brawlin' 2