Anyone ever play Deadlands?

[F. J. Rothchild III]

I'm a big fan of the "Weird West" genre, so when I discovered the pen and paper RPG, "Deadlands", years back I was very excited. I immediately got some of the core rulebooks, etc. and loved devouring all the highly unique lore, but have still never played the damned thing. I'm a complete neophyte when it comes ot tabletop role-playing, but, from what I've seen, Deadlands is definitely not one of the big dog titles people typically discuss, but it's such a cool setting and has such cool features. It's definitely my favorite, along with Vampire- the Masquerade. I tried setting up the Tabletop RPG Simulator program to play it, but no one I know is willing to dedicate the time to diving into and learning anything that isn't D&D or Warhammer-related. I do have one pal who was all-in to try it with me, but, despite having read the rulebooks, I'm still not confident that if it can be played with only two people. Has anyone here played Deadlands? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Any tips or ideas for me re: finally finding a way to play it? I'd love to find people to play it with, even if only online, but we'll see. In my opinion, it deserves a lot more attention (or rather, the classic version does. Can't speak for all the newfangled versions and spin-offs).

 

[Darth Roxor]

Deadlands is ace, that's all that really needs to be said. Or rather, the classic version does - accept no substitutes, and especially not Savage Worlds.

Any tips or ideas for me re: finally finding a way to play it?

Browbeat some buddies into joining up with promises of necrocowboy action. If the prospect itself doesn't make them interested, drop all connections with them because they are obviously fags.

Alternatively you can try running it in the GURPS version which more people may be familiar with and which to my knowledge doesn't suck, though the basic dice rolling system of xDy as found in the classic is one of my favourite ones in general, so I can understand not wanting to swap to something else.

 

[Jaedar]

Yeah deadlands is cool.

I think I had the most fun with it on one-offs and initial sessions rather than extended campaigns. The setting feels like it lends itself better to "group of strangers run into novel mystical phenomena" than sustained parties imo. There's also a huge amount of premade chars to get rolling quickly.

The systems in the original version are all cool. Chips, playing cards, the xdy die rolling is all fantastic.

 

[orcinator]

Nobody plays Savage Worlds Deadlands in my timezone, let alone classic so I'm stuck with trying to remake Coffin Rock in other settings.
(Didn't go so smooth the first time, went smoother with the other group that ended up interacting with most of the NPCs on the first trip there)
Gonna move on to trying to convert that other big town adventure with a suspiciously similar name (Headstone Hill) though I first gotta figure out if it's worth it (I did play through it but the experience was marred by the GM being bad)

 

[Silva]

Anybody interested in weird west, should take a look at Hunt: Showdown for PC. Just sayin.

 

[Bruuce]

Deadlands is ace, that's all that really needs to be said. Or rather, the classic version does - accept no substitutes, and especially not Savage Worlds.

Any tips or ideas for me re: finally finding a way to play it?

Browbeat some buddies into joining up with promises of necrocowboy action. If the prospect itself doesn't make them interested, drop all connections with them because they are obviously fags.

Alternatively you can try running it in the GURPS version which more people may be familiar with and which to my knowledge doesn't suck, though the basic dice rolling system of xDy as found in the classic is one of my favourite ones in general, so I can understand not wanting to swap to something else.

Dadlands classic needs an updated fan version like the one Cyberpunk 2020 has where you have all the splat items and rules in one book as well as fixes for the most broken stuff.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

Anybody interested in weird west, should take a look at Hunt: Showdown for PC. Just sayin.

Hunt is more Southern Gothic than it is Weird West.

It’s also, while visually and themstically, more up my alley than most games in the past decade, has a gameplay loop and overall infrastructure that were just not for me. Highly repetitive. I’m sure that many games that I count among my favorites could perhaps be described the same way, but the ideal scenario is, of course, one where the game is so fun, addictive or immersive that said repetition is less noticeable, and for me, personally, Hunt: Showdown didn’t successfully achieve that.

I’m currently playing Deadlands Classic with a group of people who all love Hunt, though, so it’s definitely just preference. I wish it clicked more with me as, like I said, it seems tailor-made for me.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Original Deadlands is stellar. The mechanics, while lacking some refinement, are excellent. Fuck GRUPS. We need a deck of cards and poker chips. The style of this game is impeccable.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

Original Deadlands is stellar. The mechanics, while lacking some refinement, are excellent. Fuck GRUPS. We need a deck of cards and poker chips. The style of this game is impeccable.

I'd just agree with a reaction emoji thing, but I've yet to earn the ability to use those, so...

Agreed!

 

[VengerSatanis]

Here's my way of handling any RPG these days that isn't already rules-light D20 based... read through the rules until you can understand them enough to type (or write) out a one-page "easy use" guide to actually run the game. Whatever isn't included in that one-page because of time or space or inscrutability, just has to go. At my current age (I'll be 49 next month), I'm just getting too old for 300+ page rulebooks full of rules that are different just so they're not like D&D.

BTW, I like Deadlands, too. I ran a few one-shots back in the day which were pretty good, but that's about it. If I went back and tried to run it again, I'd use the method above to help me out.

VS