Blast From The Past: Deadlands - Lost Colony

 

If you haven't noticed, each one of these logos is slightly different

The West has been Weird, then Wasted, and now it's time to go to the Way Out West!

Before I get into the meat of this review, I do want to talk about something: this is NOT a stand alone game. It requires that you have the HOE rule book, be it the original Deadlands system or the d20 version. Because everything had a d20 port. Which was the style at the time.

As such, this is really more of a supplement than a stand alone game.

 Deadlands: Lost Colony is the final part of the original Deadlands trilogy and was mentioned in the Hell On Earth books. It takes place on Banshee, earth's first colony on another world, where Ghost Rock eventually was discovered. And history repeats itself...

You see, when humans arrived on Banshee, they found a primitive species there. If you've played the Weird West, or know something about history, you know what happened next. The advanced humans ended up wanting to move into the areas that the aliens, the Anuoks, were living in. After some conflicts, there was a treaty made between the humans and the Anouks. And then the humans broke the treaty, were made to move back into the treaty area, and then moved back. When there were more conflicts, they tried to make another treaty and then another treaty, but the miners and homesteaders kept breaking it. So, the Anouks do as colonized people do and started fighting. Lots of humans and aliens died in the ensuing conflict. Some of this backstory is explored in the Wasted West books, mostly the Syker book, as they were part of the main force that broke the Anouks resistance, before the Last War heated up and then Judgment Day came.

Anyway. This book is about the people who are now stranded on Banshee and the Anouks who were there first. Unlike the Wasted West, the people in the Faraway system (where Banshee is located) aren’t living in the ruins of civilization, but they are recovering from a cataclysm. You see, about a year after all contact with Earth was lost, Banshee suffered from the World Storm. Seeing as Banshee is named after the winds that whip around, this was a really, really bad storm and some of the settlements and cities were destroyed and a lot of people died. But the society is still functional. They might be stranded and dealing with living on a hostile world, there’s still hope here.

Beyond Banshee, there’s stations in orbit and in the asteroid belt nearby. There’s miners in the belt, pulling out Ghost Rock from the rocks, which means there’s also pirates. Around the brown dwarf planet/star, there’s a few stations and colonies there as well. The power groups in orbit are Hellstromme Industries, run by Vanessa Hellstromme, and the Untied Nations EXFOR, commanded by Confederate General “Overkill” Warfield. HI is the economic powerhouse of the Banshee system, with their high technology and private military forces. While they’re not in total control of everything, it’s not for a lack of trying. They’re also on the cutting edge of technology, with the invention of nano-technology, which allows people to “transmute” things. On the other hand, the UN is in nominal control of the Banshee system, but not really. When the Tunnel failed and there was no communication from Earth, General Warfield recalled his forces to the flagship in orbit and has been waiting up there ever since.

Meanwhile, back on Banshee, there’s only one real authority, the Colonial Rangers. Modeled after the Texas Rangers, they’re very thin on the ground but very effective at one they do. They try to maintain law and order, as well as the treaty, but they can only do so much. Mostly because of a lack of numbers and equipment. On the flip side, you have a group called the Reapers, who follow a madman Communist/Socialist named Nikolai. They want to unite the humans and Anouks in some socialist uptopia. By force if necessary. 

I could almost see people thinking this is what the game is

But let’s talk about the Anouks. They’re seven feet tall, purple, and look like reptiles but they’re actually warm blooded. The men type are usually warriors and the female types are the shamans. The culture is presented through a human lens and resembles a simplified version of a Native American monoculture. However, I will give them some credit here, as we find out in the Marshal’s Handbook that their culture was conquered some time again and these are the decedents of the liberators, so that would cause their culture to be simplified to some degree, and they didn’t really have enough room to give us much more. But it kind of sucks to have two tribes, one good, one bad, and mention of some other groups. The interesting thing about the Anouk is that they are all psychic to a degree and have a special connection to a type of rock on the planet. While the inclusion of the Anouk is neat, I do think that it’s a missed opportunity.

Moving on, let’s talk a bit more about Banshee herself. The planet has two continents, called One and Two. One is where most of the humans are and where the focus is. Two is left more mysterious, which I’m sure was going to be expanded on later, but that never really happened. Oh, and if you noticed, I gave the planet a gender, because it is alive. No joke. And that’s also why the majority of shamans are women. Anyway, much like other core books for Deadlands games, there’s only the basics covered so you can get started, with the details usually filled in later. But later never really happened with this one before Pinnacle fell on hard times and eventually everything was rebooted under the various versions of the Savage World systems.

So, at the end of the day, there’s a fair amount of problems with this book. One of my first problems with it is that it feels very much like a large source book for Hell On Earth, rather than a full fledged stand-alone game. In part, that’s because it’s a soft cover book, rather than a hardback, which is what they usually did with the core books of their games, but this was in the process changing when this one came out. The other part is that you have to have the HOE core book, or the D20 HOE book, which makes it feel a little tacked on. And the other problem is that inclusion of the D20 conversion rules. As I mentioned, this was the style at the time for games. I could go on about this, and I think I have a few times before, so I’m not going to on about it. Except for one point: The inclusion of the D20 rules reduced the amount of room the book had for other information. You might not think it’s that much, but don’t forget that not only did they have to add the classes, but also the various DC over TN stuff, reprint the spells in D20, stats for equipment, and so on. All of that adds up. My unscientific estimation is that the book loses about 25% of its space to the D20 conversions throughout the book. And that took a lot away from what it SHOULD have included. And that’s the thing that probably did the most damage to it. And, in my opinion, it feels a little rushed and incomplete compared to everything else. Maybe that’s because they had to have it ready when The Unity adventure dropped. Which also felt kind of the same.

Anyway. All of that said, I like this setting. I kind of liked it when it first came out, as there was all of this classic sci-fi stuff in there, aliens, spaceships, weird science, and so on, but with that unique Deadlands flavor. Unfortunately, that unique flavor isn’t enough to make it something that will make people seek it out. The Wasted West was a post-apocalyptic game for Deadlands fan. The Way Out West is science fiction is for Deadlands fans. But the Weird West is a wild west game and not everyone drawn to that is going to be drawn to the rest of it. Like the friends I used to game with, back in the day. Because they didn’t like the Wasted West and Way Out West (and never really got into the Weird West beyond Doomtown), I think it’s why I never gave this Deadlands setting a chance. And it’s a shame. There’s some good stuff in here. A colony cut off from Earth, with this weird mix of magic and technology, and surrounded by an alien race that is varying degrees of hostile could be a really good time. And since everything isn’t filled it, you could fill it in yourself. There’s some good bones here, even if you ignore the metaplot and the fact that The Reckoners have been dropped on the planet by Dr. Darius Hellstromme and they might be weak enough to be killed. Oh, did I forget to mention that until now? Funny that…

And a final note: I do have a few books for Deadlands Noir but I’m not sure yet if I’m going to review it. If you want it, let me know.

Let's Review: Deth Wizards

 

What is it?:

Deth Wizards is a skirmish miniatures game that can be played solo, cooperatively, and standard skirmish with players duking it out.

 

The setting:

Deth Wizards is set in the kingdom of Deth, a once typical fantasy world with kings, villagers, paladins, wizards, and the like. And necromancers. You take control of one of these necromancers, cast out for your dark interests, and have now returned to the kingdom of Deth, to cause havoc and have some revenge!

One interesting thing about this setting is how there seems to be something wrong with the land now. In the lore, there’s talk of how the sun doesn’t shine fully or for as long as it used to. And the land is becoming fallow. I imagine it’s because of the return of the necromancers, but who knows?

 

The system:

To start, you’re going to make a Necromancer. You get to pick a spread of stats, a legacy, and then some powers of your choice. The legacy is how you figure out what “kind” of necromancer you’re playing. Some build up hordes of cheap zombies and skeletons, while others are drawn to the spirit type of undead. There’s only six of these legacies, but you can put a spin on them with the stats and powers.

When it comes to powers, you’re going to have powers that boost your necromancer and those that boost your undead minions, but there’s some that can effect the enemies you’ll be facing. You only get to pick three, after the three everyone, and the ones you might get from your legacy. While you can pick up so more powers and abilities later, it’s really hard to pick just three powers to start off with, especially when you’re just getting started. I’d suggest playing a game or two before setting everything in stone.

The next part of getting ready for the game is picking your minions. Minions have a rating, which will roughly tell you how powerful they are. The higher the rating, the more powerful the minion is. However, that will also depend on your necromancer and your play style. Sure, zombies are low rating and hard to put down, but are slow as hell. This is another thing you should play test before you pick them for sure. Since I tend to play horde style in most games, I know I had to switch myself away from zombies, because of how slow they were, when coupled with the other stuff I wanted to take.

The final part of making your necromancer is selecting a lair for your necromancer. There’s only three of these, and they provide a few abilities, a cap for the amount of undead you can have, and a limit of improvements you can make. You’ll need to leave some undead behind, because your lair can get attacked between games, which you don’t play, you just roll for. And I think that’s kind of lame. I’d rather than it be a thing you play or it doesn’t happen until you reach a certain level of power.

Each mini has a series of stats, the usual ones that you can expect. You’ve got move, Offense, Defense, Resist, and Durability. For the most part, you should be able to puzzle these out and you’ll be rolling d10s equal to the number you have in a stat, with the enemy’s stat being your meet-or-beat on the dice. Resist is the stat you’ll use when you’re trying to effect an enemy model with one of your necromantic powers. Given how you can play against other people, you should think about this as well when picking your minions, if you’re going to being playing that way.

One interesting thing about the game is how your necromancer’s health works. You don’t have any. Instead, you have energy that’s used to power your spells and is how you take damage. Once you run out, you’ll start draining power from the nearest of your minion, continuing until you spread the damage around. I think this is an interesting and unique way of handling this, regaining power isn’t easy. At the start of the turn, you gain 3 energy. That’s the cost of most powers. Your necromancer is going to activate at least twice in a turn, able to move, attack, or cast a power each time, so you’re going to be burning power quickly if you’re going to be running out of it before too long. There’s too other ways to regain power: kill a minion or collect energy from killing enemies. Regaining energy by killing your minions might be a good idea for a minion that’s already badly hurt, but you only gain energy equal to the minion’s rating. That’s 1-4 energy. For the necromancer that’s quote Caligula (Quantity has a quality all its own), you’re boned, getting only 1-2 energy. And to collect energy from a dying enemy, you have to be within 3” of the enemy when it dies. So, you decided to go for a long-range necromancer with a horde of cheap minions, you are screwed for energy. You need to be in the face of the enemy if you want to use more than one power each turn, and if you expect to heal damage. Clearly, the way that the creators what to play the game shines through here. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, you can play one of three ways: Solo, co-op, and skirmish. For the most part, solo and co-op are played the same, just with some slight changes for additional people. In this version of the game, you pick a scenario (attack innocent villagers, raiding a castle, and robbing a graveyard, just name a few) and then set it up. As common with Snarling Badger games, the terrain is the same from Reign in Hell, with crags, forests, and pools of water. What makes this version of the game so interesting to me is that they have “AI” enemies. These enemies are the typical “heroes” you’d see in other games; paladins, priests, rangers, and so on. When they get to go, you roll a d10 and see what they’re going to do this turn. This can be absolutely brutal, if you get the worst result at the wrong time. And there’s a lot of enemies you’ll have to face in a game. Unfortunately, the scenarios are mostly “attack this place, face ever increasing enemies, and try to kill everything in five turns.” Which is going to get boring quickly. And requires certain type of terrain (anyone got a “magical college” building laying around?), which is a bit taxing. Also, you either kill everything in five turns or you lose. There’s no minor victories. There’s only succeed, really succeed, or do it again harder and get even more success, or you lose. That’s it. It’s all shades of success or total failure.

And while there is the skirmish version of the game, it’s much more “roll dice to see what we’re fighting over and how we win” which doesn’t feel engaging. I admit that I haven’t read all of the rules about it, as I picked this game up for the co-op or solo play, because that’s what interests me. That said, it’ll be nice to try out, once I finish the campaign in the rest of the book.

After you’ve finished a game, there’s a roll to see if your minion has survived (even if you blew it up, which some necromancers can do), which is pet peeve of mine. After that, you get to choose to raise one new undead. You can either choose to create a new minion from the list at the beginning, or you can raise one of the heroes you defeated. When you try to raise a new minion, you roll a die and hope for the best. Some of the scenarios give you an automatic success on some type of minion or a bonus on the roll. It does it easier to succeed the more you fail. When it comes to raising a hero, you get a hero with the abilities it has, with the rating equal to what it had when it died, but it loses all the AI stuff. I do like how you get a choice of what you want to do, it’s really nice to customize what kind of force you can build. Once you’re done with this, you can spend any experience you were able to earn to get more powers, select some abilities, or save it up. And then you can improve your lair, every other game. The bookkeeping isn’t too much but it seems to be a little too random for me. 

 

Is it worth it?:

Yes, if you have the stuff for it. If you’ve got an evil wizard mini and some undead monsters, go for it. It’ll be a fun change of pace for you. If you’re looking to be evil, there’s a lot of evil stuff to do. It’s less than $20 for a physical and digital copy.

However, the game isn’t a hard, crunchy system. Stuff is really swingy and I bet you could math your way into the best minions to take for every scenario. It’s an indie game, it’s going to be flawed, so you have to be ready for that. It’s more about fun than setting or rules. And that might not be the best for everyone. Plus, it’s not going to be much for replaying after you finish the campaign once or twice, or play the skirmish version a dozen times.