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.

Blast From The Past: ReZolution

Why is the future always terrible? Oh, wait, that’s because we’re people…

Have you ever found something and wished you had found it sooner? And known that it would have been great for you? For me, that’s ReZolution. I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s loop back around to this.

ReZolution is a miniatures game made by a company called Aberrant Games and was released in 2004. It’s a dark future cyberpunk-ish game, full of grit and grime and sexy outfits. It’s 2175 and the world is, in a word, fucked. Pollution has caused climate change and the seas have risen, Mars is being terraformed, and there’s even colonies around Alpha Centauri. But earth is in bad shape. A lot of governments have collapsed and reformed, with several corporations becoming nation-states themselves. Africa was decimated by a virus called Pale Horse. The entity that replaced the UN uses slave labor to mine the moon and Mars. At some point, AI and robots achieved sentience, had a rebellion, and now have a moon around Neptune. The Vatican, under a new name, even has a massive space station. Oh, and in addition to the massive internet infrastructure that requires hackers, there’s also people with psychic powers. 

 

In this game, there’s four major factions you can build crews from, and each one is unique and different. Not just in terms of game play, but also of who they are and what their goals are. While they’re mostly similar, with nominal leaders, squads of grunts, hackers, psychics, and heavy weapon folks. What differences there are, are based on who they play, along with their aesthetics. Let’s get started.

APAC is a major company that owns and controls most of Asia, as the company was once called the Asia Pacific company. Based out of what was once Japan, they have a very strong Japanese look to them, including the killer school girls. Their leaders are supernatural beings with massive psychic powers. Their main grunts are their Enforcers, who carry blades and pistols, sometimes two pistols as once. They have psychic nullifiers, called Numb Sisters, that have a Geisha look to them. There’s also the aforementioned killer schoolgirls. And a few other things. When it comes to how they’re suppose to play, they’re a mid range and close combat type force. Personally, of all the factions, I like these the most in terms of how they look.

Next up, we have the CSO or Central Security Organization, that’s one part military and one part police force. They’re the only “real” army left and let me just say, there’s some deeper commentary on the police these days, but I doubt they meant that at the time. Anyway, the CSO has a leader in the Marshals backed up with groups of Troopers, Peace Keepers, and Penal Legions. They’ve got Rangers, who are investigators, and the expected Medics and Engineers. If you do pick up this game and want the shooty group, this is the one for you. However, they’re also expensive in terms of points.

The next faction is the Ronin, who are the hired muscle of the various corporations. In fact, the other three factions can take a percentage of their units to balance them out. They have a leader, a second in command, hackers, psychics, punchers, shooters, heavy weapon people, and mechanics. Unlike the other factions, they don’t really have troops or groups to fill out their numbers. Each model is going to have a different role in terms of combat and other things. Visually, they have a more Road Warrior look, combined with a similar vibe of the APAC crews, but with even more skin showing.

The last major faction is the Dravani and they’re unique in a lot of ways. The Dravani are aliens that arrived on earth, centuries ago. The last survivors of a race that feeds on biological energy and can take the form of humans, along with massive psychic powers, they’re clearly the source of vampire myths on earth. Now, their race is in even worse shape but have a solid control over things on earth. Of course. Their history is long and complicated, but is really interesting. The short version of it is that earth isn’t really habitable for them, but they can mimic and feed on humans. As time as gone on, they’ve had several conflicts among themselves, further reducing their numbers, but they are now a (mostly) united group. And what a group they are. They’re the close combat group of the factions, using humans for basic troops, but having those that have failed them to be used as dangerous hunters and mutilated close combat fighters. Of course, their own butchers and monsters are also melee combat models.

The last group, while not being a faction in and of themselves, are the mercenaries. Really, these are previews of the factions they intended to have in expansions, as there’s a Cardinal and Nun from the not-Vatican, which seems to have been fleshed out into a faction in the only expansion this game got. There’s also an emissary of the Nile Empire, which I feel was supposed to be another faction that would have been introduced in full.

 

Okay, let’s have a talk about the rules. They’re pretty standard fare for the time, as this came out in 2004, which was around the same time as the 4^th edition of Warhammer 40k, and it shows. Thankfully, rather than rolling fist fulls of d6s, you roll 2d6 and add the stat needed. There’s stats for movement, shooting, close combat, a toughness like stat, and the stats for hacking and psychic powers, which not every model has.

When it comes to damage, things get interesting. Each weapon does a set number of d6s in damage, reduced by the target’s armor. For every roll that meets or beats the toughness stat of the target. As the model takes more damage, it suffers more penalties. There’s also different types of damage, beyond just ranged and melee, with each having different effects on different models. As this was also the heyday of Warhammer 40k, there’s also templates for weapons. There’s blast templates in 2/3/5 inches, a flame template with different range marks on it, and a template for smoke grenades. Honestly, if I had found this game while I was still playing 40k, I would have been over the moon for this stuff. Now, however, it show its age, as you can’t really find those templates easily and they put them in the middle of the damn book, so making a copy is a pain.

Another thing that show its age is how there’s units in the game, but only a few, that still require unit coherency. Add to this the fact that they wanted a 300 point game, at the small side, up 1,000 points, it feels like they wanted to make a skirmish game, but didn’t know how to do it, and took too much from 40k and the size of those games. The fact that units have morale stats and have to make tests only makes it more obvious.

When you get right down to it, this game is one that could have been a well known one. If it had come out a little bit later, and with a few changes, it could have been something we talk about in the same breath as Malifaux, Warmachine/Hordes, and the Grave games. The rules are solid, if a bit dated, but the real problem comes from what the creators were trying to do, make something that was near the scale of Warhammer 40k, with touches of skirmish game rules. If they did a new edition, or perhaps a continuation of the original, with a focus towards proper (or current) skirmish game rules, this could really take off. A unique and interesting setting, several interesting factions, and a unique aesthetic to how the minis look makes for a great combination in today’s wargaming environment, especially with new resin minis, or even just STL files, could make some waves. 

 

Personally, I’m glad I ended up with a copy of this game. I really like the art design by Sophie Ross, and how that’s reflected in the designs of the models. The only faction they didn’t seem to have designed is the CSO, making for a bit of clashing visuals. Sure, it’s very fetish fuel type art, but I think it fits (and I like it, so sue me) because fetishization is very much a part of the cyberpunk genre. I even picked up some ACAP models, as I found some good deals and I liked the designs. They’ll work for something like Rogue Stars and StarGrave easily enough.

If you think this is something you’d like, several models can be found online, but they should be easy enough to proxy. The rules can be found on Wargame Vault for $12, and even the expansion is there. Maybe I’ll pick it up. Maybe not. We’ll see what happens.

Blast From The Past: Weird War II (original d20)

Wait… You guys are Nazis!

There was an interesting period in gaming that I’ve mentioned a few times, after D&D 3^rd edition dropped and everyone got into the d20 system. One of those who did was Pinnacle, who made d20 books for their various Deadlands settings. However, one of the first non-Deadlands games they made was the Weird Wars setting(s), but instead of using their unique and interesting system, they selected the d20 system. I’m going to come back to this whole thing but I wanted to address it now, as the later incarnations (and expansions) were done in the Savage Worlds, and this isn’t that.

To kick things off, the game gives us a few new classes to replace the ones from the PHB, as magic isn’t very common in the modern world. While this is a bit of alternative history, it’s not that drastically different. Anyway, we get the Grunt class, which is really just the Fighter from D&D, and is designed for Enlisted and NCOs. There is an Officer class, but they don’t really have anything going for them besides Rank. They don’t even have Leadership or something. Then, we have the Medic/Nurse class, which can heal. That’s all. However, as this is a d20 game without a lot of healing magic, this class is important. The next military class is the Scout, which I’m sure you guessed is based on the Ranger but has some Rogue class features. Speaking of Rogues, the only non-military class is the Resistance Fighter (or, as we should call them, the Anti-Fascists), and is more in line with a traditional Rogue.

Now, the core book is called Blood On The Rhine and is focused exclusively on the European area of conflict, in the late war, around 1944-1945 or so. It has stats and information for the various weapons, tanks, and other equipment for the Allied and Axis powers. And I rather like this, as you could use this to include tanks and machineguns in a D&D game. I did that once, it was a good time.

 But, what about magic? Well, it is there but uses Runes instead of normal D&D type spell casting. In order to cast a spell, you have to use Runes that your character has learned and has carved themselves, and make a roll. Side note, the Runes are the Germanic Runes that you’ve probably seen a round. The reason why they’re Germanic is because you’re fighting Nazis. Not playing them, fighting them. Just to be clear. Rune Magic can only be used by OSI Adepts, which is a prestige class. What’s the OSI? Well, aside from the Venture Brothers (which is why I put the quote at the top), they’re the magical super secret group in the US/UK that works with (or is part of the) OSS, which was a real thing. The Office of Strategic Services was a Commando thing, doing super secret things during the war and was eventually rolled into the CIA after the end of the war. The history and missions of the group are really very interesting and I suggest reading up on them if you’re interested. Anyway, the OSI in this setting is the Office of Supernatural Investigations and is run by US General George Marshall, who is a real guy. The OSI recruits members of the military who have run across the supernatural and various Nazi occult experiments. They also try to find Chaplins, who are the other magic users in the setting, the ones who call down the Divine whoop ass for the Lord. If you’ve played Deadlands, you’re already seeing parallels between the settings and mechanics and it doesn’t surprise me much.

As the Pinnacle boys like their horror, and mythology, there’s some other goodies in the core book. Yes, there’s Nazi Wehrwolves, and they are scary. But there’s also Fext, which are effectively invulnerable, and the classic Nazi zombie. There’s also kinda-sorta Nazi Orcs and some other things but not a whole lot. While there’s not a lot of monsters included in the core book, there’s enough to add some flavor to the game and get you started.

 So, with all that out of the way, let’s talk about what this game does. It’s walking a line between historical war action and dark horror. You play a bunch of regular Joes, trying to survive the war, and will end up facing horrors beyond your darkest fears. If you’re lucky, you’ll get some magical back-up as time goes on, but maybe not. You might not get someone who can cast spells but you could get a haunted tank (yeah, there’s rules for that). When this game came out, there were only a few supernatural horror movies set in the WW2. There’s a few more now, which vary in quality, but this genre is kind of dead now. That means that finding inspiration to draw from might not be easy. Of course, you can just watch Band Of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan and just add in some horror elements.

Before I go further, there’s a few things I need to talk about. First off all, the Holocaust happened and it was tragic and we should make sure that it does not happen. The industrial scale of murder of people is one of the worst things we’ve ever seen on the planet. And the Nazis are bad guys and shouldn’t be viewed as heroes or something to aspire to in any way, shape, or form. Killing Nazis is an American tradition. Not joining them. So, there’s going to be a delicate balance you’ll want to do if you run this game, making sure that you’re respectful to the millions of people who were murdered and making sure that the Nazis are bad guys. One of the reasons why I want to run or play this game is because I want to kill Nazis in a safe and healthy way.

 Ahem. Anyway. I mentioned that there’s some expansions and I’m going to take a minute to discuss two of them. The first one is Hell In the Hedgerows, which is a campaign you can run, and even includes pre-made characters. Set in the direct aftermath of D-Day in France, the characters will start in a small French village but will quickly be set against a supernatural threat that feeds on blood. After that, there’s a fight over a Golem. No, not the ones from D&D but the ones from Jewish tradition. So, that’s fun. I’ll keep mum on the last two adventures but it does build to some great scares and heights. I wanted to talk about this one, as if you are interested in picking up the game, this is something you’ll want. Or maybe you can steal the ideas for a game of your own.

The second source book I want to talk about is Dead From Above, which adds in rules for airplanes and air combat. And it can give you haunted aircraft. I mention this one as some people might like the idea of dropping bombs or having a crashed air crew having to escape from enemy lines. It also gets referenced in the other books from time to time.

What at are the other books? There’s a campaign books for North Africa and the Mediterranean, the Russian front and rules for making Russian soldiers, and about the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. The last book is a collection of monsters and spooks you can unleash upon a group. Since there’s a lot of stuff in each one of these, I’ll probably tackle them one at a time in Sources Say.

 I really liked the idea of this game but I feel like the system was a poor choice. The d20 system isn’t conductive to a feeling of suspense or horror in the mechanics. The other thing is that when you make major changes to the system that doesn’t include AC and healing, the game gets much more deadly. Now, I think it’s been updated to the Savage Worlds system but I also feel like that isn’t quite the right fit, either. That’s due to the simplistic elements in that system when it comes to wounds and the like.

I would love to take the time to break the system apart and rebuilt it, as the game is very much what I like to call Blue Collar Horror. Much like Hunter, the focus is on regular people in extraordinary circumstances, and it isn’t the world your trying to save, but yourself and your friends. And that’s where this game can be very, very good. Sure, you want to beat the Nazis but you also want to make sure that your buddies make it home. And that can lead to some really good gaming experiences.

Blast From The Past: Fantastic Worlds - Pulp Action In The Far Reaches Of Space

Have raygun, will travel!

As I’ve mentioned, I love those old serials and pulps involving rockets, rayguns, and all that good stuff. While it’s something of an acquired taste, it seems like several people who got into gaming have the same taste. However, they seem to be few and far between. I find it easier to locate RPGs that involve the setting, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this minis game called Fantastic Worlds with some good old pulpy action on the cover.

Using the Pulp 45 game rules, Fantastic Worlds captures the spirit of Rocky Jones: Space Ranger, John Carter Of Mars, and Flash Gordon; allowing for all manner of heroes and villains. This means that the game allows you to replicate many of these different types of settings and characters. There’s characters who are part of an interplanetary police force, people from “modern” Earth who have been transported to strange and alien worlds, aliens from different world, despotic rulers of kingdoms and their minions, and even Amazon warrior women. Oh, and let’s not forget the nobles who ignore their responsibilities to have adventures, as well as mad scientists and their robotic creations. Once you settle on your hero or leader, you get to pick their allies or “supporting cast” meaning your plucky co-pilots, loyal underlings, and so on. After that, there’s your typical grunts and extras that will survive if they’re lucky. That also means that there’s a variety of skills, weapons, and equipment to give to these characters, as well as rules for a few vehicles. Oh, and mounted combat. In case you want to replicate The Hidden Empire, which is an old serial with Singing Cowboys versus Ancient Hidden Empire. I’m not kidding.

Unfortunately, there’s a fair bit of complexity to these characters and equipment. There’s seven main stats, which are going to be modified by the skills, abilities, and equipment that your characters have. Weapons have several range bands, making them vary wildly in terms of effectiveness depends on where your target is. And since this is a d10 system with an unopposed goal of a 10, you better hope that your stats are high enough to make the rules you need to activate some of the abilities or equipment you need. So, you might have problems doing what you want, when you want. To add to complexity, each model is going to have four hit locations (head, torso, arms, and legs), which can take several hits and will effect your stats with each hit. This means that combat is going to drag on for a while, even after you play a few games, and that you’re going to have a lot to remember. All of this also kind of annoys me because it means that I can’t really make character cards using 3x5 cards, like I do for most miniature games I play.

Which brings me to another thing I’ve noticed: this is either a miniatures game that wants to be an RPG or an RPG that wants to be a miniatures game. While they do kind of defray the problems by keeping forces down to 3-7 models per side, there’s still a lot of bookkeeping involved in not only playing but running a campaign, as characters can “level up” to another one of the character types as games go on. It also means that there’s quite a few different scenarios and each one is clearly part of an ongoing story. However, there’s a problem when the situation they’re describing may not match the forces you and your opponent have chosen. For example, one of the scenarios starts right after a regent or king or emperor has been assassinated and the heroes have to try to escape. But, they also provide you with the characters you should use, which is a poor choice for either type of game this one straddles the line between. And, while they do give you ideas for making your own, there’s no hard and fast rules for it. Which feels off. Now, in 45 Adventure/Pulp 45, they do discuss having a GM for your games, but there’s no real exploration for that in the core book.

Oh, that’s right, this game has a source book, Planet X: Terror From Across The Universe. And it’s actually pretty good? The first thing is does is give you some better, hard rules for the various types of common alien races we see in the old stories (except for the inclusion of Greys, which are a more modern invention). After giving you the rules for making your own aliens, they introduce several races that are home to Planet X, so you know what these rules can do, as well as giving the game a more established campaign setting. I don’t know how I feel about that but I don’t hate it. While the flexibility of the game lets you do whatever, having something to look at, to maybe get started with, can help you learn the basics or get someone into the game.

Another thing that this book adds is some better Psychic powers, as well as Psychic character types, and hive alien races, so you can include some more interesting aliens in your games. And things get better when they give you rules to include random alien creatures and monsters. So, if you do want to have a GM, as well as two players, things can get more interesting. 

The last few things the book gives you, aside from new equipment and abilities as you would imagine, is some sample monsters, some interesting scenarios, and campaigns, is a time line of the setting. Which I really liked, because it felt like I was getting two or three different stories with the flavor text in the books.

As much as it may sound that I don’t like this game, I do think it has a place and a use. While it isn’t the raygun gothic game I’ve been looking for, it does have some things going for it. It’s played on a 2x2 board, which are easy to make/build/assemble, and it only needs a handful of models. Since models in this genre have been hard to find (Reaper has perhaps a dozen unique minis in this genre), that isn’t too much of a problem. Personally, I’d like to make a little “Heroic Trio” to go on adventures on strange planets. Even if you don’t have the minis that fit the theme, you can use your fantasy stuff you probably already have, using the Amazons and Tribal groups they name. Even an evil cleirc mini can become a High Priest or Warlord. Just give them some rayguns in their equipment and have at. Also, with the world the way it is these days, you could make this into a solo game with some tweaks, and have some fun on your own. That’s probably what I’m going to do, before too long.

So, if you’re trying not to go out but love this genre, this might be the solo game for you. If you’re looking for a new, smaller project, this could be something to give a try. However, if you’re looking for a skirmish game with rockets and rayguns to play with friends, this isn’t it. That said, I’m going to keep searching for that one. Maybe I’ll find it. Someday.

Blast From The Past: Teenagers From Outer Space

It's the most horrible thing in the universe: TEENAGERS!

If BESM is the “rules-lite” version of anime gaming, Teenagers is the “rules fat-free” of anime gaming. Seriously. There's not a lot of rules to the game. I wrote up the character creation rules to use for my friends and it was three pages. I imagine that the rest of the rules, with the exception of “mad science,” is probably just as long. It's not big on rules. But, it is big on comedy. And references. And terrible jokes. And koalas.

Originally inspired by books like “Surfing Samurai Robots,” Teenagers (or TFOS) is about aliens coming to Earth because Earth is cool. That's your premise. The later editions switched to a more anime inspired look, with characters that are very close to famous anime of the 1970's and 1980's. Okay, there's a dash of some 1990's stuff in there. We're talking about variations on the “Magical Girl” genre of anime, stuff like Urusei Yatsura, Tenchi Muyo, and so on. This type of anime was about the stranger coming to our world, unlike Isekai anime. If this game was made today, it would probably be about a bland, boring human teenager getting set to an alien (or perhaps fantasy) school. Because Isekai is an all-consuming monster...

Ahem. Anyway. Yes. Let's talk about the game. You can create several different types of aliens, varying from almost indistinguishable from human to a bouncing purple and pink blob that wears sunglasses. Really, we’re talking everything from Spock to Jabba the Hut with a lot in between. You can also play a boring, bland human if you really want to. And someone probably should play a human, at least one, as you’ll have a “native guide” to earth and they can use the one power all humans have: the ability to convince an alien that anything they say about earth is true. But as Uncle Ben has told many a generation: With great power comes great responsibility. And if you get your alien girlfriend to believe that kissing is typical greeting on earth, well, you reap what you sow. The main difference between humans and aliens is the powers they get. Aliens have three different tables of powers they roll for, with some more useful than others. Since the game is suppose to be fun, balance doesn’t really matter. Humans, on the other hand, have one table with powers, which are humorous and not as powerful, in addition to their power I mentioned above. When it comes to stats, there’s eight, which are rolled randomly, but you can shuffle them around if you want. Beyond that, there’s Knacks, which are skills by any other name. Unlike most games, you can make up your own Knacks, but you shouldn’t make them too specific.

When you get into the mechanics, the game is ridiculously simple. Roll a d6, add stats and Knacks, and get your total. However, since the game grades on a curve, rolling too high can have dire consequences. You have been warned.

The last thing you have to worry about is equipment. There are weapons but they’re not lethal no matter what. Your character will get knocked out briefly but you really can’t die. Since the game was inspired by comedies, the gear you can get is out there as well. The infamous Boy/Girl Gun, the Duplicator Gun, Spring Shoes, and Popcorn Grenade to name a few. There’s also the Hyperdimentional Superhammer, something older anime fans might remember. You know that hammer that women in a harem anime would pull out from no where to bonk the bland protagonist over the head when he became horny? Yeah, that’s the one. There’s also vehicles, something teens in America would obsess over back in the day.

Once everyone has their characters put together and all of their gear picked out, it’s up to the Referee (DM by any other name) to give them something to do. And the basic book is actually really good for that. There’s a sample adventure you can use to get things started and give your players a sense of how the game is going to play, based on hunting down a sphere to win the hand of an alien princess. After that, there’s a whole “season” of game ideas they hand you to flesh out on your own. All of these things give the Ref a large amount of things to work with. They also give you tips on how to be funny, something I have used more than once.

In the end, this game is a lampoon of old anime and media that somehow manages to work. However, I don’t know if you can really run a whole campaign of it. I use it as a filler when someone can’t make it to the game and we don’t want to leave them out. If you do want to run a long term game of it, make sure to develop a host of odd, wacky, and weird characters to populate the world and then just let your players run amok. It’s a great game to play when you need a breath of fresh air, especially after you’ve been running something serious and dark. The game is built around the “Rule Of Cool” or “Rule Of Funny” to be more accurate. Just don’t hold your breath for the Hentai Expansion…

Blast From The Past: Star Trek The Next Generation RPG

Space, the final frontier...

If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of Star Trek. I grew up on The Next Generation, loved Deep Space Nine, and watched Voyager. I've seen every movie made. I've even tried to watch Enterprise. Which was harder to tolerate than the Animated Series until the last two seasons. I haven’t seen too much of the newer series, except the first season of Discovery.

Yeah, I'm a fan.

And there's been quite a few attempts to bring the setting into the tabletop gaming world. Some have been more successful than others. I talked about the Star Fleet Battles universe a while back but today I’m going to talk about something a little more recent. That doesn’t mean current, however.

In the late 1990s, a company called Last Unicorn Games got the license to make RPGs based on the Star Trek universe, and created games for The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine. They were going to release one for Voyager but something happened with Decipher getting the license (which makes sense as they were the ones who had been producing the CCG) and the book was never released. Even though they didn’t have the license for long, they did produce a lot of books for TNG and DS9.

The system used for this game is very dramatic and story-driven, rather than the cold hard mechanics of GURPS or d20 system. Instead, you have a very simple system based around die pools of d6s. The Narrator (as the GM is called) picks a difficulty and you roll dice equal to the stat associated with the skill and then add your skill level to the highest die rolled. So, if you make a 3d6 test, get a 3,2,4; you would add the four to your skill level to see if you succeed. It reminds me of Deadlands, which had come out not long before this game. You also need to have a “drama die” which a different color than the rest of the dice rolled, as it can help or hurt you. Now, when it comes to initiative, things get wonky. You would roll initiative based on the skill you’re probably going to use, like unarmed combat for a fist fight, phasers if you’re going to shoot it out, but I can see problems already. People can change their minds as the round progresses or people can try to power game by using one skill for the initiative roll and then “changing their mind” when it comes to the combat roll. There is a way to change it up but it isn’t much better. 

When you make your character, the first thing you do is pick a “Template” which is really your character’s race. It gives you your stats (Fitness, Coordination, Presence, and Psi, which all have Edges associated with them) as well as some basic skills and typical Advantages and Disadvantages. There’s the more common Star Trek races in the core book; you’ve got your classic Vulcans, Tellerites, Andorians, and Humans, and the common ones in the TNG era of Betazoid, Bolians, and, then the Centaurians, which are a common part of “beta cannon” from the books and comics. Once you get your Template figured out, then you get to pick an Overlay. The Overlay is your character’s occupation and training, things like Science, Command, Security, Operations, and so on. They even have one for Ship’s Councilor. All of these will give you more skills and maybe some more Advantages. Once those are done, you do your character’s Background. The TNG book assumes that you will be playing a Star Fleet officer, so it’s all about your days at the Academy and tours of duty. These can be picked or you can spend some points to build your own. With that all out of the way, you’re pretty much done. There’s some math you have to do but you’re ready to go. Now, if you want to play a non-Federation character, you’re going to need the DS9 core book, which I will be getting to soon.

But, what else does this game do? Well, if you’re going to play Star Trek, you have to be ready for some space ships shooting at each other and the like, so there’s rules for that, too. Like many other games that include space ships (and especially Star Trek stuff), you have to manage power for the ship, dedicating percentages to weapons, engines, life support, and all that other technobabble you’ve heard when consoles start exploding on the bridge. If you want to play the bridge crew of a Star Fleet vessel, your group can pull it off, with everyone having something to do. The captain can make support rolls, the poor sap at Ops directs power, Tactical can shoot, the Helm officer makes rolls to move the ship, etc. If you are going to do this, you want to have a good group that’s worked together before and can handle disputes, as well as working on a plan each turn. I do think this is can be cool, with the right people. Besides, if you’re going to be Star Fleet officers, you want a star ship. And that means you have to get into a fight.

In the core book, there’s an overview of the major races, locations, and some monsters you can use. In addition to stuff we’ve seen in the show, there’s some from “beta canon” or the books and comics that have been made, as well as some stuff they wanted to throw in.

All in all, this captures the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s about noble Star Fleet officers going around the galaxy, exploring strange new worlds and encountering new civilizations. It’s not perfect but it does a fair job of what they set out to do. If it had been given more time, I think it would have been much bigger. They explored the Romulans in a boxed set, something that hasn’t been done too many times before, as well as some source books for the Andorians, Vulcans, a boxed set for the Klingons, books with new planets to explore, and even a source book for Section 31.

If you like this one, let me know. I have several source books, including some that were released as PDFs by one of the creators. And, yeah, Deep Space Nine will be soon, promise.

Blast From The Past: Dominion Tank Police

What kind of world requires the police to have tanks?

This is the actual book cover, FYI

When it comes to anime and manga, Masamune Shiro is one of my favorite creators. Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, and even Dominion Tank Police are some of my favorites. I enjoy his style and his inclusion of high concepts and social issues in his works. After I discovered Ghost in the Shell, I read and watched the original OAV of Appleseed. Next, I started tracking down some of his other works. Having seen it mentioned, I watched Dominion Tank Police. And it was... Interesting. Big guns, sexual innuendo, and tanks driving down city streets. But, the setting of Dominion is a little deeper than you might think...

Dominion Tank Police is a product of its time. During the 1980's, the world was dealing with two issues that found their way into the setting: increasing violent crime and pollution. If you look past the tits and ass, as well as the massive explosions, you can see these elements there. And that's why this is an interesting setting of an RPG.

Dominion Tank Police uses the Big Eyes, Small Mouth or Tri-Stat system, so I won't be delving too much into the basics of the system (you can read this for the basics). However, Dominion Tank Police was one of the first Tri-Stat game to introduce skills to the system. It also combines the original rules and the mecha creation rules into on simple package. And, like the Sailor Moon RPG and Resource Book before it, it contains glossy color pages with images from the original OVA series. As with all of Resource Books, there's stats for all of the major characters and items, but there's only a few in this one. Part of that is because there's only a handful of real characters in the OVA and partly because they just rolled a lot of them into the “typical member” profiles. I guess they had to save space? Or maybe they didn't want to go too far from the original source material? I don't know.

When it comes to the information presented in the book, they do a decent job of keeping things informative without taking up too much space. There's a brief overview the world of Dominion Tank Police, their organization, the enemies seen in the series, and other minor characters. After that, they offer some examples of what people could play (one example used is a member of the Osaka Air Police) and some sample adventures.

Building characters is fairly simple and most of it is taken straight from the BESM core book, as well as parts from Cool Robots, Big Starships. The rules for building a mecha are also taken from CRBS, but are much more focused on how to build tanks and air vehicles, with much of the really odd mecha stuff left out. As with all BESM systems, making a character is fairly quick and easy (especially if you abuse the system) but making a mecha takes much longer. Thankfully, if you want to just play a Dominion game, you make sure the players have enough mecha points between them and assign them a basic tank.

While skills do complicate things, they're not too hard to figure out. Since you really don't need them, I've found it best to min/max them and be done with it. The reason for this is that each level in a skill provides a bonus to a stat roll that involves the skill. Shooting a gun, piloting a tank, hacking a computer mainframe, and so on. Since most skills aren't required to preform actions, you might as well focus your character on what you want to be really good at and leave it at that. They're helpful for defining your character, because they're not like skills in other games. In most other games, you need the skill to be able to do something with it, suffering a hefty penalty at best, and are simply unable to use it at all.

While the game does allow you the freedom to create any sort of character, I've always gotten the vibe that they wanted you to play a member of the Tank Police. Which I do understand, to a point. I believe part of it is because the police were the main characters of the series, not just the OVA, but the manga as well (which I would suggest giving a read, there's two things of it and I'm not 100% they're in the same exact setting, but the funny little cameos the artist put in are fantastic). While the Buaku Gang are given some screen time, they're mostly there as a foil for the “good guys.” That said, what I really do like about the series and manga is that there's no real good guys in it. Sure, the police are there to stop criminals but they really don't seem to care about the destruction they cause in the process. And while Buaku is a dirty thief, he has a very sad backstory. Even the sex kitten Puma Sisters aren't just eye candy, they also have a reason for being in the gang. If you did a bit, there's a lot of layers of moral complexity that I appreciate and I feel that the game didn't quite want to get into it.

There's too adventures in the game, one for the police and one for a gang of criminals. While the game does talk about the Red Commandos, I think they're suppose to be bad guys for either side. And while that's cool, it would have been nice to try to propose using them for characters as well.

If I were to run a campaign of this now (speaking to you from mid 2020, a very explosive year), I could easily use the game to showcase some political commentary, as the creator clearly intended, just a bit more modern. Imagine, if you will, a game set after the show. Crime rates are dropping, but the Tank Police still exist. The force has to figure out how to keep their funding or they'll be disbanded. Sure, you can have some action here and there, but you can dig deeper. What if the players find out that the new crime boss they've been doing after is actually the head of the Tank Police? He's been committing crimes and stealing to justify keeping the Tank Police funded. Where do they side on this situation? Or, what if in the process of chasing a criminal, the players drive through a house and totally destroy it? You could have a series of sessions where each player has to be taken aside and their character gives testimony to an NPC. The other players don't know exactly what the player said, and then when they're interviewed, the NPC twists everything around to get someone to admit fault. You could take it all the way to a court case and the characters have to give testimony. If they get caught lying, it would mean their jobs.

Just because something starts out fun and lighthearted doesn't mean you don't have to play it exactly that way. If you take a deeper look at a game like this, there's a very strong undercurrent of politics to be explored. Which, having read a lot of his stuff, Masamune Shiro clearly intended it to have.

Okay, let's go back to some more fun stuff. Let's say you don't want to play Tank Police. That's fair. You could play just regular SWAT and have to call the Tank Police for backup. You could totally play up the rivalry between these two groups. Or you could play a group that pilots the police helicopter, trying to relay information. And maybe opening up with a minigun. This is Tank Police, after all...

Or you could make a group of hardened criminals looking to take the #1 Most Wanted spot from Buaku and his gang.

If you're a fan of the old series, I can't recommend this book enough. It's a great read for someone who enjoys it. If you're not a fan, but the idea of playing a satirical game of cops with tanks, check it out. Watch the old OVA and see what you think.

Blast From the Past: SuperSystem

Let's do some thrilling heroics!

SuperSystem is another game from West Wind Studios. The same people that did Road Kill. As such, the rules are almost exactly the same, just not as brutal. It's designed to be about heroes and villains duking it out in the streets of a city, not a gritty skirmish in the ruins of a wasted world.

As with all West Wind games, you can use any model you want, but they had a setting and rules based around ones they make (or had a partnership with another minis company). The setting of Supersystem is very simple, but weird. There's something about Atlantis and Lemuria, aliens, and weird radiation. There's also some weird kind of Soviet super team, even though the USSR ( or CCCP for my Russian readers) had collapsed long before this game's release. Does anyone under the age of 30 even know what the USSR was? Leave a comment if you do. They've got a super smart, super villain ape guy and his minions. A “legally distinct but closely resemble” X-Men team, with a dash of the Avengers, group. Some mercenaries are there. There's a government group that seems to be there to “solve problems” that crop up. And some terrorists that are connected to Atlantis. Or is it Lemuria? I don't remember.

As I mentioned, the system is the Goal 4 System (even though it doesn't use that name). You roll d6s equal to your stat plus any modifiers and each 4 or better is a Goal. The modifiers come from the many, many super powers. There's actually quite a few and are customizable enough that you can come up with a reasonable approximation of whatever you can think of. Want to fly? Got it. Be invisible? Done. Super strong? You know it. And the powers look appear balanced enough that there's no One Power Everyone Needs. However, if you don't plan right, there are some you can get royally screwed over if you're not prepared for. They also have rules for using street lights, Dumpsters, motorcycles, and other models as improvised weapons. You know it wouldn't be a good super hero game without that. There's also rules for making groups of henchmen that are... Okay? You make them like a hero, but their health is based on how many models you have in the group and if you want them to be even remotely survivable, you have to bring a lot of models. They also seem to come very close to messing up the rules because of how they work in the rules, as you can buy a group big enough to cover enough of the board that only fliers are going to be able to move or hit anything and the group would take forever to remove from the board using melee combat.

The game does want you to cap your stats and points per model, but you can ignore that if you want. If you want to have a Superman level one on one battle, you can go for it. I might actually do that for a one off fun game... But, the game wants you to have a team of 5 or 6, as well as a group of henchmen, to keep things balanced. I do agree with having a team of 6 or so, that way you can have a variety of models and powers on the board, but not too many to bog things down.

My sticking point with this game, as it seems to be with West Wind's games, is the initiative system. In Road Kill, you would draw a card. In Supersystem, you roll initiative for each individual model. Which is both time consuming and annoying. Most skirmish games try to make this easy and fast. West Wind does not. I've been kicking around a few ideas of how to fix it, but you should find one that works best for you and your group. You might want to borrow one from another game that actually works and doesn't take forever.

But what do you do with your forces, now that you're ready to play? Well, there's six scenarios they provide. Some are clearly better than others. There's a simple one, where you just go at each other in a city, an old classic. The mission I dislike the most is where one member of each team gets kidnapped by aliens. It really seems to require a third player, which you don't always have. Other missions require having a VIP mini that can be abducted, be ambushed, and so on. The missions aren't bad, they just require having being prepared for all of them, as they are randomly rolled and each has a random event table that also requires some extra models. I will say that it does give it a bit of longevity because you'll want to try them all with the variations. Or you could roll the same mission over and over again and get bored quickly. I would have liked something like “basic” missions and “advanced” missions, to let you get used to the game and then have more crazy stuff happen. I know you can just do what you want, but I tend to get distracted by things and want to do everything. So, I like it when the creators start slow then build to the cool stuff.

One of the things that kind of impresses me is the Experience System. It does seem fair,as every model gets some, win or lose. It does seem a little random about how you can “earn” new powers, but you can always just do what you want. I think it's important to have things be fair, as it always suck when you lose a lot (like me) and get quickly outpaced by your opponent by the second or third game. Of course, since XP increases the model's cost, you're going to need to make sure that the points limit for games start moving up, too... The point of the XP system is to give you a reason to start a campaign and keep playing, so you can get more XP and advance the narrative. It's based on comic books, remember?

One thing that doesn't impress me is the half-assed “Morality” system. Each model is a Hero, Villain, or Mercenary. Heroes don't kill KO'd models. Unless they want to? There's nothing in the system to punish heroes that kill. And if you want to be good but also be able to kill, you just make every model a Mercenary, and it doesn't matter. I would like to see an XP penalty for heroes who kill and for villains that kill too much. Since there's a post battle recovery system, having your model not be killed, just KO'd, is important. My thoughts are this: If you're going to put something in there about morality and heroes and all that stuff, you need to make sure that you have a mechanic that enforces it. For example, maybe if your villain has reached a high number of “Bad Karma” from killing every hero they can, then you have the army start shooting at him when he appears. By turn two or so, he has to avoid random shots from them. And if you have a Mercenary that's killing too much, they lose that morality and become a villain. Same if they do more good things than bad. It's all about balance, both in game and as part of the narrative. The game clearly wants to be a narrative game, not that it's a bad thing, but it has more of “Beer and Pretzels” feel without that mechanic.

When you get down to it, this game isn't a bad one. But, I wouldn't pay too much for it. It is much better edited than Road Kill and the book itself isn't as poorly made, it's actually decent quality. It is still available from West Wind Productions and even has two expansions. The first is about an alien invasion (very much “on brand” for comic books) and the second is called “Showdown!” but there's no information on their website about it. I picked up the core book for $5 used and it was worth it. If you check my Project List, you'll see that I have some super hero minis I'm working on. Of course, since Marvel and DC have launched some minis games (to get more sweet, sweet nerd money), you can use this game to have your dream crossover fight between the characters from both worlds.

Blast From The Past: Deadlands: The Wasted West

You've been to the Weird West. Welcome to the Wasted West!

Welcome back, cowpokes! A while back, I told you all about the Weird West. Now, it's time to tell you all about the next game in the Deadlands world. Hell On Earth was released a few years into the original Deadlands production and it was cool. I liked Deadlands and, as you may have noticed, I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic stuff. Plus, irradiated Ghost Rock nuclear bombs. That made skull shaped mushroom clouds. How metal is that? I have a copy of the version released at GenCon I found used, signed by Shane Lacey Hensley. It's one of my prized possessions. Sadly, it has a split in the book's spine caused by poor quality control. Oddly enough, my other copy of the core book has a split in the exact same location. Oh, well. Totally worth it.

The game is set around 2094, 13 years after the end of the world as we know it. Since this is the world of Deadlands, the CSA was able to last into the 21^st century. While the USA and the CSA mostly got along, they did have a giant wall along their border. Well, that all went to shit because of some president they called “A-Bomb Andy” who ended up living up to his nickname and started a global nuclear Ghost Rock war.

When the bombs dropped, they created instant Deadlands, the parts of the Hunting Grounds that are the antithesis of “happy.” So, not only do you have radiation to deal with, but supernatural monsters as well. This had been the Reckoners plan the whole time. You see, the this was the entire reason Mad Scientists had demons whispering in their ears. That's why the minute they invented Ghost Rock nukes, they stopped talking to people.

Keep in mind that was years before the War. Ghost Rock also end up being used to create a new fuel called Spook Juice. That's right, everyone knows that Ghost Rock is made of the souls of the damned. Or, just souls. I'm not completely sure.

One of the notes the creators make is that you don't have to worry about your Weird West characters not having an impact in the metaplot. How? Well, you see, the Reckoners cheated. They lost. In the original timeline, people weren't afraid. The bombs never dropped. Their power was almost gone. So, they pulled a fast one and sent Stone back in time to make things more in line with what they wanted. In the Devil's Tower Trilogy, you find all of this out. You meet both Stones, old and young, and then a woman from the future. At the end of the last adventure, you let her take the Heart Of Darkness into the future. You could even take your posse into the future, if you wanted. Which is something I always wanted to do. When I ran those adventures, I gave the posse a choice. They elected to remain in the Weird West. I promise that you'll have a chance to read about the Ferner Five's misadventures and the thrilling conclusion of their experiences with the Heart o' Darkness, Stone, and the Devil's Tower before too much longer.

But, let's talk more about the Wasted West. Because things are different, there's new Arcane Backgrounds. Hucksters are gone. Now, we have Sykers, that are more like martial artists, but with mind melting powers. The parallels between Hucksters and Sykers are quite obvious in terms of powers and how to use them. Subtlety over big blasts.

Instead of Mad Scientists, you have Junkers. Where Mad Scientists had the Manitous eagerly helping them out, Junkers have machine spirits to help them out. Of course, the effect is the same. They make wondrous things happen with random bits and bobs.

The Harrowed are still around and just as troublesome. Mechanically, they operate the same as their Weird West counterpart. They're just a little more common. And they can be plugged into cyborg bodies.

Another new type of character is the Doomsayer. Doomsayers are mutants with mutant powers. There's two different types: Mutant Supremacists and Mutant Exceptionalists. The “bad” ones wear green robes, the “good” ones wear purple robes. Players better like the color purple... When you get down to it, they're the new Hucksters.

Our last group (from the core book) is the Templar. Comparable to the Blessed of the Weird West, the Templar are a bit more... Martial. They carry swords and aren't afraid to use them. Sadly, their magic isn't nearly as powerful as the Blessed.

In Deadlands: Hell on Earth: The Wasted West, they give us Witches. Yep, good ol' fashion witches. Who use a book called “How To Serve Your Man” written by an descendant of Mina Devlin. And it makes me cackle with joy to read about it.

In the core book, I couldn't find anything for Shamans. I believe they mentioned “Toxic Shamans” in some of the advertising, but didn't see them in the core book or the setting book. (Edit: Turns out that they have their own book, I'll be checking it out soon.)

There's a ton of other character concepts you can use, without needing an Arcane Background. Soldiers, gunslingers, convoy leaders, Tale Tellers, Indian Braves, Law Dogs, and Librarians are also types of characters you can play. There's a plenty of options for characters, you should be able to find something you like without too much trouble.

With that out of the way, it's time to drop some major spoilers. Yes, I know I've dropped some already but these are The Big Ones. If you haven't explored the lore of Deadlands, you're going to be in for a shocker. Back in the Weird West, they started talking about a group of beings known as the Reckoners. In the Wasted West, the Reckoners are revealed. They are Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. That's right, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Given how the apocalypse happened 13 years ago, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The Reckoners appeared in the American West after the bombs dropped and began making their way east. In North America, most everything east of the Mississippi is full of monsters and the undead. What's going on in Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world is something of a mystery, but it's probably not good.

The Four Horsemen shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Just look at the major servants of the Reckoners in the Weird West. Reverend Grimme was clearly serving Famine. Dr. Hellstrom (who's still around in the Wasted West as a cyborg) was a servant of Pestilence, creating all those wonderful ways of killing people. War's servant was... I don't remember off the top of my head. Raven, who's also still around and very pissed off, was a servant of Death. They even told you this in The Quick and The Dead Weird West source book. They made those names (okay, Death Valley, but still) chapter headings. Talk about playing a long game..

Speaking of The Quick and The Dead, the Wasted West as a similar source book called Deadlands: Hell on Earth: The Wasted West. I guess they couldn't come up with something clever. No matter the lack of original name, it does a great job of filling in the state of the world. They even add another Arcane Background: Witches. A call back to “good” old Mina Devlin of Black River Railroad fame. If you're wanting to run a game of the Wasted West, I can't recommend this book enough. I'm just happy that Portland (well, a suburb) gets something. I'll tell you how disappointed I've been over the years to see Portland and most of the West Coast being ignored or completely destroyed.

The Wasted West book updates you on the state of many of the locations you know from the Weird West. Turns out that Hellstrom got kicked out of Salt Lake City, but the Mormons disappeared after the bombs dropped and now the Junkyard is the last free city, or real city, left. Denver has been taken over by a group called the Combine, also known as the Black Hats. Denver is where Hellstrom set up shop after the Mormons gave him the boot. The Maze was divided into two states: NorCal and SoCal. Hollywood ended up happening, the City of Lost Angels ended up being a bit more liberal after Grimme got... Removed.

Just about everything else is a nuked wasteland. Sure, only the big cities got bombed, but after the Reckoners appeared, even small towns got wiped out. Most places are walled off and heavily guarded. Raiders are common, as people would rather take then work themselves, as are a whole bunch of monsters. Not just things we saw in the Weird West, but new and terrible monsters created by the bombs. One of the most horrifying is the Blood Wolf. That's a werewolf AND a vampire together in bundle of hate and hunger. Something I'd love to unleash on a posse, of course.

Okay, I've probably spent a little too long talking about setting, so I'll start talking about the system, not that there's much to say. Because the system for the Wasted West is almost exactly the same as the Weird West. And it works. Since the Weird West had automatic weapons, horseless carriages, and even flying machines, those rules were already there. Some things, like computers and modern mechanics, had to be added but it's not too much to add. There are a lot of cool rules for mutations, radiation, and other science fiction stuff, but it's just a few extra layers.

Like in the Weird West, there are books for each of the Arcane Backgrounds that expand the world and rules for the Backgrounds. I just picked up the Templar book and it adds a lot to them. I have, but haven't yet read, the Junkers book and I know there's going to be something great in there for them. As well as some interesting lore, as always.

Speaking of lore, there's something I've been waiting to talk about. Why? Because it connects to the next Deadlands game. You see, before the Big War, there was the Faraway War. Dr. Hellstrom made a portal to another solar system and found an inhabited planet. The planet ended up being called Banshee, due to the winds that whipped over it, and we did the same thing to the natives there that the Europeans did to the native peoples of the Americas. Because the more things change, the more they stay the same. One of the things is that many of the Sykers in the Wasted West fought on Banshee, but got recalled back to Earth because of the Big War. By the time they made it back, the war was over and the world was in ruins...

Next time, I'll be going into the Way Out West and Deadands: Lost Colony. That will be the conclusion of the original Deadlands games. That isn't the end of Deadlands tale, however. Hope to see you next time, amigo!