deadlands: the marshal’s handbook. revised edition · of the deadlands: the weird west...

6
Deadlands: The Marshal’s Handbook. Revised Edition Written & Designed by: Shane Lacy Hensley with John R. Hopler, Matt Forbeck, & Hal Mangold Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain: John “Stephen Hawking” Goff Additional Development by: Michelle Hensley, John Hopler, Matt Forbeck, Greg Gorden, Steve Long, Chris McGlothlin, Charles Ryan, Lester Smith, Tim Brown, Paul Beakley, Jay & Amy Kyle, Jason Nicols, Dave Wilson, and Tim Link. Revised Edition Developed by: Hal Mangold and Shane Lacy Hensley Editing: Matt Forbeck, Michelle Hensley, Jason Nichols & Hal Mangold Layout: Hal Mangold & Shane Lacy Hensley Cover Art: “Pumpkinhead” by Allan Pollack Interior Art: Thomas Biondiolillo, Steve Bryant, Paul Daly, Kim DeMulder Tom Fowler, Don Hillsman, Ashe Marler, Allan Nunis, Andy Park, Jacob Rosen, Kevin Sharpe, Ron Spencer, Bryon Wackwitz and Loston Wallace Graphic Design by: Charles Ryan, Hal Mangold & Matt Forbeck Cover Design by: Hal Mangold & Zeke Sparkes Index by: Hal Mangold and Tom Huntington Logos: Ron Spencer, Zeke Sparkes & Charles Ryan Special Thanks (in no particular order): Allen Seyberth, Graveyard Greg, Tom Huntington, Tom Cashman, Mark Metzner, Trevor and Eric Lee, Bryan Maloney, John Fletcher, James Cook, and Pat Phalen (the listserv posse), Jenny Hise (booth babe!), Natasha Corey’s posse, Joe & Rose Wolf, and every fellow gamer we’ve met in the last 5 years Deadlands created by Shane Lacy Hensley. Author’s Dedication: My two “John’s:” Goff, my first real game master, and Hopler, my old friend and fellow gamer. Editor’s Dedication: The guys and gals of the Deadlands listserv. Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. Scores of additional products are available at: WWW.PEGINC.COM Deadlands, Weird West, Dime Novel, the Great Rail Wars, the Deadlands logo, and the Pinnacle logo are Trademarks of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. © 2004 Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This Electronic Book is copyright 2004, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. Redistribution by print or file is a violation of copyright and is strictly prohibited. Sample file

Upload: others

Post on 22-Mar-2020

105 views

Category:

Documents


23 download

TRANSCRIPT

Deadlands: The Marshal’s Handbook. Revised Edition

Written & Designed by: Shane Lacy Hensley with John R. Hopler, Matt Forbeck, & Hal MangoldComin’ ‘Round the Mountain: John “Stephen Hawking” GoffAdditional Development by: Michelle Hensley, John Hopler, Matt Forbeck, Greg Gorden, Steve

Long, Chris McGlothlin, Charles Ryan, Lester Smith, Tim Brown, Paul Beakley, Jay & Amy Kyle,Jason Nicols, Dave Wilson, and Tim Link.

Revised Edition Developed by: Hal Mangold and Shane Lacy HensleyEditing: Matt Forbeck, Michelle Hensley, Jason Nichols & Hal MangoldLayout: Hal Mangold & Shane Lacy HensleyCover Art: “Pumpkinhead” by Allan PollackInterior Art: Thomas Biondiolillo, Steve Bryant, Paul Daly, Kim DeMulder Tom Fowler, Don

Hillsman, Ashe Marler, Allan Nunis, Andy Park, Jacob Rosen, Kevin Sharpe, Ron Spencer, BryonWackwitz and Loston Wallace

Graphic Design by: Charles Ryan, Hal Mangold & Matt ForbeckCover Design by: Hal Mangold & Zeke SparkesIndex by: Hal Mangold and Tom HuntingtonLogos: Ron Spencer, Zeke Sparkes & Charles RyanSpecial Thanks (in no particular order): Allen Seyberth, Graveyard Greg, Tom Huntington, Tom

Cashman, Mark Metzner, Trevor and Eric Lee, Bryan Maloney, John Fletcher, James Cook, and Pat Phalen(the listserv posse), Jenny Hise (booth babe!), Natasha Corey’s posse, Joe & Rose Wolf, and every fellowgamer we’ve met in the last 5 years

Deadlands created by Shane Lacy Hensley.

Author’s Dedication: My two “John’s:” Goff, my first real game master, and Hopler, my old friend andfellow gamer.

Editor’s Dedication: The guys and gals of the Deadlands listserv.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc.

Scores of additional products are available at:

WWW.PEGINC.COM

Deadlands, Weird West, Dime Novel, the Great Rail Wars,the Deadlands logo, and the Pinnacle logo are

Trademarks of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc.

© 2004 Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc.All Rights Reserved.

This Electronic Book is copyright 2004, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc.

Redistribution by print or file is a violation of copyright and is strictly prohibited.

Sam

ple

file

Table o’ ContentsTable o’ ContentsPrologue:

The Prospector’sTale .............................. 5

The Rules ............... 7Chapter One:

There WillCome AReckoning ................ 7The Order

of Things......................................... 7The Old Ones ................................... 8The Great

Spirit War ........................................ 8A Tale of Vengeance .............. 9Raven Reborn .................................. 9The Hunt .............................................. 10The Reckoners Awake.......... 11The World Today........................... 11

Chapter Two:Runningthe Game ................ 13Shortcuts .............................................. 13Fear ............................................................ 17Guts Checks ................................... 20Tale-Tellin’ ........................................ 22Awarding Fate Chips ............ 24Adventures....................................... 25Traveling the Weird West . 26The Law ............................................. 28The Black Hats ........................... 29Running the Game...................31

Chapter Three:Arcana ......................35Mysterious Past .......................... 35

Knacks ................................................. 39Veterans o’ the

Weird West ................................. 43Arcane Misfires .......................... 45The Harrowed ............................... 50Relics ...................................................... 54

Chapter Four:Abominations .......59Critters & Abominations .. 60Desert Thing .................................. 65Dust Devil .......................................... 66Devil Bat ............................................. 67Hangin’ Judge................................ 68Gremlins ............................................. 69Jackalope ............................................ 70Los Diablos ...................................... 70Maze Dragon ................................. 72Mojave Rattler .............................. 73Night Haunt .................................... 74Prairie Tick ...................................... 75Tumblebleed .................................. 76Walkin’ Dead .................................. 77Wall Crawler ................................... 78Wendigo............................................... 79Werewolf ............................................ 80Rogue’s Gallery........................... 82Black Magic ..................................... 83

The World ........... 93Chapter Five:

The Weird West ....93The War .............................................. 93The Great Rail Wars .............. 96The Election of ̀ 76 ............... 100Back East ........................................ 102

The North........................................ 103Agents & Rangers ................. 104A Tour of the Weird West .111The Great Northwest ............. 111The High Plains .......................... 114The Disputed Lands .............. 119The Great Maze ........................ 126Great Basin .................................... 134The Wild Southwest ............. 137The Indian Territories ....... 142The Heart of the West ..... 150Deadwood ....................................... 150Dodge City ...................................... 164Tombstone ....................................... 183The Weird World ....................... 185

The AdventureComin’ ‘Round The

Mountain ............... 187The Story

So Far ............................................. 187The Setup......................................... 188Chapter One:

Tickets Please! ..................... 188Chapter Two:

This is a Stickup! ............. 192Chapter Three:

Night on ColdMountain ................................... 196

The Clearing ................................. 197

Tables &Charts .................... 200

Profile Sheets ........ 203

Index .......................... 205

Sam

ple

file

Sam

ple

file

TheProspector’s

TaleA lot’s changed since the last time

we talked, Marshal. The Reckoners aregettin’ more powerful, an’ somebody’shuntin’ down my posse. Killin’ ‘em alldeader ‘n doornails. Again.

I thought you was done for too. Gladto see you’re still squirmin’. You gottawatch those twisters. All teeth andspines. Tear you up real good. I broughtsome raw meat to get you healin’, butyou’ll need half a steer to fix you upwhole. Here. Wolf it down. An’ stick thateyeball back in yer noggin. My vittlesare comin’ up.

That’s better. Much obliged.If it’s any consolation, your friends

finished the job you started. A wholemess o’ folks are gonna’ see tomorrow‘cause of what you done. Guess youramigos didn’t know you was already

dead, huh? Congratulations onkeepin’ your secret. Half thedeaders I dig up can’t manage it.But that’s not why I’m here. I need

to know who’s killin’ off all my deadmen. S’far as I can tell, a fellernamed Stone’s doin’ most of

the killin’.

He knows what he’s doin’ too. Shoots‘em right in the pun’kin. Might even bedead himself. We need to plant him forgood, but we also need to figure outwhy he’s so intent on killin’ off heroes.Most of ‘em have done some bad, butsome were pure as the driven snow—’cept for that demon inside ‘em, ofcourse.

Stone don’t seem to care either way,and he can’t have a personal grudgeagainst as many Harrowed as he’skilled. An’ he ain’t no over-zealous do-gooder who thinks you’re allblasphemous abominations either.

Tell you the truth, I got a suspicion. Ithink he’s killin’ anyone who puts aserious dent in the Reckoner’s plans.Scary ain’t it? Could it be those bastardsare huntin’ us down? If it’s true, itmeans we got ‘em scared. That meanswe’re doin’ somethin’ right. So let’skeep up the fight. Are you up for it,Marshal? I hope so. ‘Cause it’s time toante up again. An’ it’s only gonna’get worse.

Sam

ple

file

Sam

ple

file

Welcome to the Weird West, Marshal.The Marshal’s Handbook is one-half

of the Deadlands: the Weird Westroleplaying game. The other book youneed to play is the Weird West Player’sGuide. That book tells the players howto make characters and describes thebasic skill and combat mechanics.

This book is for the Marshal. In hereyou’ll find out how to run adventuresin Deadlands, rules for fear and howthe bad guys use it, and all the tablesyou need to figure out what happenswhen your heroes dabble withsupernatural forces and blow it. You’llalso find shortcuts for handling hordesof bad guys and advice on handing outthose priceless Fate Chips. Then we’llgive you a little deeper tour of theWeird West than the players got in their

book. Finally, we repeat the importanttables from the Player’s Guide soyou’ll have them handy when you

need them.But let’s start with what’s really

going on with this whole Reckoningthing.

The Orderof Things

Since man has walked the earth,there have been monsters in the world.All cultures have their bogeymen, nightterrors, haunts, spirits, werewolves,vampires, ghouls, and zombies.Collectively, they are “abominations.”And they are real—don’t let yourselfthink otherwise.

Abominations dwell in the physicalworld. In the spirit world—the Indianscall them the “Hunting Grounds”—nature spirits and manitous are mostcommon. Nature spirits are generallygood or at least neutral toward theaffairs of man. Manitous are downrightevil.

Manitous drain fear and othernegative emotions the abominationsspawn, and they channel them backto a special place in the Hunting

Chapter One:

There Will Comea Reckoning

Sam

ple

file