Howdy yall! I'm looking for a few more posse members for my Deadlands: Hell on Earth campaign. If you've never heard of it, here's a brief synopsis: A Brief History of a Future That Never Was
In the alternate reality of the Deadlands universe, the heroes
succeeded in defeating the Reckoners and stopping their evil
machinations to manifest in the physical world and rule as cruel gods.
This happened around 1890. The Reckoners, powerful demon lords, used a
one-time ability to cheat and send an undead gunslinger named Stone back
in time with one mission: kill heroes.
Stone was so good at his job that he forced the balance of power to
remain at a stalemate. Time marched on with monsters and evil keeping to
the background and shadowy corners of the world.
In 2070, a doctor named Hauptmann did a survey and realized the Earth’s
supply of ghost rock, a supermineral found in the 1860s, was going to
run out within 5 years. This was a huge problem as most of the modern
world ran on nuclear infused ghost rock reactors. Mexico and other Latin
countries formed the Latin American alliance and launched a land
invasion of the US and Confederacy with the goal of seizing the Maze and
the major supply of ghost rock.
Open warfare raged with more and more countries being dragged into the
conflict. There was no clear victor though. The battles, while costing
thousands of lives, were mostly stalemates.
On September 23, 2081 at 6:09 pm MST , the Last
War went nuclear. India launched a ghost rock bomb (a neutron bomb with
a ghost rock warhead) at Pakistan. Code named Shiva it hit and
decimated Islamabad. This triggered automated defenses and within 30
minutes every country that had ghost rock bombs had fired them. Six
billion people perished in the supernatural holocaust as not only the
bombs themselves killed people but they punched holes in reality to the
Deadlands. The darkest screaming part of the spirit world and monsters
poured forth to terrorize the shocked survivors. The situation got
worse..
A week later, Death appeared in Death Valley, CA. He rode through the
wasteland, swinging his scythe and creating hordes of walkin’ dead
before cutting up through the Coyote Confederation (Oklahoma and North
Texas).
War manifested in Kansas, site of some of the bloodiest fighting between
the Northern and Southern alliance forces. He headed across Iowa into
the Sioux Nation (the Dakotas). The Five Tribes gathered an army of
braves to fight him. They lost and the ranks of the dead swelled.
Pestilence arrived in Houston just as the sykers from Banshee were
getting themselves organized. Over a hundred brainburners went against
the Lord of the Flies and all of them died horribly of disease. He
stomped across Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, leaving plague zombies in
his wake.
Famine rode her horse into the city of Lost Angels, a place historically
wracked by hunger and was almost killed by the priests there. They
summoned holy fire and killed her horse. The skeletal queen was forced
to walk and made her way across Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Iowa before
linking up with her dark brothers.
That was 13 years ago. The Reckoners have left on their world tour
almost a decade previously but its whispered that one day they will
return.
This campaign chronicles the adventures of a group of heroes trying to
do their best to restore order to a chaotic world and weaken the
Reckoners before they return. FAQ What system is this? It's a levelless, classless system that uses playing cards for initative and dice pools for resolution. Combat is very tactical and there is a reroll mechanic in the form of poker chips. What are the major archetypes? Most people are Survivors. Just hardened folks who have survived the last 13 years in a world full of monsters, muties and misfits. There are arcane backgrounds but they are rare. The ABs are Sykers, think cranky PTSD bald soldiers who can blow you up with psionics, Templars, Post Apocalyptic paladins who are hell on wheels with melee weapons and can call on the Saints (spirits of heroes who have gone on), Doomsayers, Mutant priests who live off radiation and can start with the biggest can of whoopass in the game a spell called nuke, Junkers, tinkerers who have learned how to talk to tech spirits who fill in the missing bits of their cobbled together devices. Who are the Bad Guys? Raiders, hungry mutants, Monsters of all descriptions, Walkin' Dead, Insane Cyborgs, Mad Max style Road Gangers, and a lot more. This is a place where everything wants to kill you. You'll need a posse to survive. What do we do? As a posse, you travel around and try to help out the folks just trying to make it day to day in the world. You'll fight monsters because every one you kill weakens the Reckoners a bit more and they are coming back. I tend to run stories based around your characters, but there is a larger metaplot that stretches across three seperate games and more than 200 years. Are you newbie friendly? Of course. We all had to start somewhere so newbies are entirely welcome. A bit more information: Also the system seems confusing at first but once you figure out the chips and cards its actually pretty elegant. Basic mechanics are rolling a dice pool (example 3d6 is the NPC norm) and trying to beat a TN of 5. Every 5 point over that is a raise. Out of combat it tells you how well you succeeded at something. In combat it lets you "bounce" your attack to vital locations (the game uses hit locations and cover rules very well). You can spend chips to modify rolls or avoid damage. They are also your experience points. You earn these chips by good roleplaying, making me laugh or cringe, figuring out clues, etc etc. Combat is tense and lethal because all of dice for every roll explode (roll the highest on a die, roll again) and I've personally seen someone with a .22 derringer do 67 points of damage. Why that is impressive is that damage is based of Size. Humans are size 6 and can take 5 Wounds (30 damage) to any area before its blown off/manged/etc) Mechanics aside, the basic premise of the game is that you are literally killing monsters and saving people and it has a physical effect on the world. Make no mistake though this is a horror game and I'm very good at being a horror GM Other reasons to game with Murphy. I don't have plot armor in my games. You can kill any NPC that you like. I don't run modules but rather try to build stories around your character's personal histories. I'm a 'Yes, but" GM. You can literally attempt anything in my games (granted if it violates the laws of physics or the rules of the universe, you think you suceed but you are probably just crazy. :) Well that's my pitch. If y'all are interested, hit me up here and I'll give you the links to the game and the Discord server. Come join us. The bad guys aren't just gonna fall over dead and the world needs Heroes.
