Deadlands: Reloaded

[Reginald de Curry]

A preview of the new rules is now available.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

I've been a big fan of Deadlands, though I haven't got many oppertunities to play it.
I think its the most facinating setting I've ever read. I love the rich diveristy present, with cowboys
vs. US men in black
vs. confederate mad scientists
vs. the bristish
vs. indian shamans
vs. santa anna's zombie army
vs. the foreign legion
vs. chinese triades
vs. indescibably tentacled things from the foulest hells

hopefully this new eddition will develop the plot, rather than just end it.

[Reginald de Curry]

It's supposed to; Deadlands is supposed to be the first "open" setting for the Savage Worlds system.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Oh, I'm eagerly awaiting this one, rest assured...

[Reginald de Curry]

The second preview is up.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

The artwork looks out of this world but it would be a killer to print. I imagine that the primary sales are going to be in PDF format, with a few high priced books going out.
I remember the innacle crew publishing a couple of articles about how hard it is to run an RPG print buisness, but how much more profitable it is to go electronic.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Fun fact for you guys; all the artwork on Page 11 of the second preview, as well as the picture of the Hangin' Judge on page 9, are all recycled from the sadly-deceased Deadlands-based card game Doomtown.

Not that I hold their recycling of artwork against them, and the card game had some really fantastic art in it, but I was amused to see that some of that art looked pretty familiar...

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

Wow...been waiting on this for quite some time. I'll have to try and keep myself from setting unrealistic expectations of it's quality, but still, it should be quite the read.

[Ronia Sun]

Hmmm. Always had an interested eye towards the Deadlands setting, but didn't know where to start with the book buying. Perhaps this is it?

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Most likely. Or you could by an older copy of the setting book.

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

I picked this up today, gave it a quick once-through. There are a few minor things with regards to some of the arcane backgrounds I'm a little annoyed about, though I can understand some of them from a balance point of view. Still, the art's polished and the rules are fairly tight. There doesn't seem to be *a lot* of plot developement, but it does do a good job of summing up everything important that changed over the course of the games origional run. I'm hoping that upcoming books will expand on that a little more.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Awwww.... not much plot development?

How much value would the book be fro someone who has stuck to the original Deadlands rules and doesn't use SavageWolrds?

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

Other than doing a good job of collecting most* of the major plot points that occured between the release of the origional handbook and when the line ended, very little. If you're in it solely for the plot, I'd reccomend waiting for later books in the line to come out, as they have promised several books developing the 1873 setting before they'll start adressing the other two of the games lines.

*I say most, because they do still have a bad habit of hinting at things, then saying "Sorry, we'd love to tell you more, but you'll just have to wait for the next book." There's at least one reference to what I know is the monster known as The Cackler, but no details, not even a name.

There are things those familiar with the history presented in Hell on Earth know are coming, like Custer's Return, The Great Wasting of the Coyote Cofenderation, and the death of the monster posing as the Reverend Grimme, but those are all still a few years away from where the book places itself. I suspect those and other things might just be part of any upcoming releases, partiularly the last one. At the very least, the writers have promised a definitive winner to the rail wars some point in the future.

edit: Okay, after doing a touch of searching, I found two important things; number one, the Deadlands Reloaded was never meant to contain any plot developement, but rather give all the things needed to run a campaign. Two, there will be at least four plot point books developing the setting, as well as a number of Dime Novels.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Shoot.
BANG!
Okay, bad thing to say in Deadlands.

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

Still, I'm a little amazed they not gave only concrete stats for the Big Four, but finally answered the ongoing question "What would kill Stone?" Of course the weakness is so difficult to meet as to be effectivly impossible, but it's kind of nice from a completeness point-of-view.