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 21st 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!
