An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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NoOneofConsequence
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

Victoria and British Columbia may still be two separate colonies, with the 1866 merger not happening. I'm not sure how much Victoria's ship yards will have developed between the 1858 gold rush boom and the present 1876. It's very possible the British government has decided to invest a lot of money and manpower in building both Victoria and New Westminster up in order to strengthen their influence in the region and secure access to Unobtanium in some of the islands of the Great Maze. This would include stationing soldiers there and building up the ship yards.

As for getting to San Fransisco and the Great Maze, the fastest way there from Back East (or Europe) is probably by boat. There's no Transcontinental Railroad, so you can take a train as far west as Dallas or Kansas, but from there it's an overland trek through various Balkanized nation states that aren't always welcoming to travelers. If you aren't bringing your own boat, you can always take advantage of the railway between Panama City and Colon in the Panama region of Columbia, which opened in 1855.

This means ship building in San Fransisco and Victoria are probably one of the biggest growing industries along the West Coast, as there's a huge demand for them in the Maze.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

South of the Border

Slightly shorter entry.

Mexico has a lot of problems. After the Liberal forces of President Benito Juarez won the Reform War, the French (along with British and Spanish) decided to take advantage of the US Civil War to forcefully collect on Mexican debts. This resulted in the French Empire deciding it would be an awesome idea to turn Mexico into a puppet state. Thus, Maximillian I, Emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. Because of the Reckoning and the influence of various powers, The Empire still exists, but is in a war against the remains of Juarez's Second Republic. In addition to the French military, the Empire is supported by the Catholic Church, the Mexican nobility and upper class Conservatives, and some Native groups. They have a solid hold on Mexico City and the central part of the country. One thing they've done is radically expand the port of Guaymas to give the French a launching point for expeditions into the Great Maze.

The Republicans hold Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, part of Nuevo Leon, and most of Sonora, and maintain a guerrilla presence in other parts of Mexico. They get support, usually in the form of smuggled weapons and sometimes adventurers from the United States and Prussia. However, this is slightly offset by frequent cross border attacks from the Republic of Texas (who have an aim of trying to conquer the areas the Empire of Mexico can't control). Luckily for the Republicans, Texas's troubles with the Comanche keep most of its military occupied.

(I sadly do not know enough about Mexico's indigenous population to make any sort of speculation on what groups may have their own places of power similar to those further North. The exception being the Apache, who I've mentioned earlier.)

There is a secret Aztec revivalist cult, led by one of the agents of the Reckoners who helped bring all this about. He wants to bring back the good old days of mass human sacrifices and the like.

Besides the usual Blessed, Huxters and other mystical power types, there are Brujo.

The Yucatan is effectively an independent nation at this point. While it is officially - to outsiders - run by various towns along the coast, it's really a stronghold of the resurgent Maya.

Next will likely be me musing about the various paranormal power types (and some a little more mundane maybe).
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
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MacynSnow
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by MacynSnow »

By what your writing, instead of going with a "Four Horsemen" concept like in the Original, the Reckoner's went with a Seven Deadly Sins" motif....
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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MacynSnow wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 4:54 am By what your writing, instead of going with a "Four Horsemen" concept like in the Original, the Reckoner's went with a Seven Deadly Sins" motif....
Hard to say. I never really liked the whole Four Horsemen thing. Aside from sort of misrepresenting/misunderstanding the point of them from the Book of Revelations, they feel sort of limited, at least to me. In my mind, the Reckoners are sort of vague and unknowable, possibly with various internal factions with their own (mostly malevolent) desires and plans. This enables them to be taken to be ancient gods, the hierarchy of Hell, alien monsters, etc. depending on who comes in contact with them and how. The setting's Dracula analog in Europe likely thinks they are Satan and his legions, while Baron LeCroix in New Orleans probably thinks he's been empowered by Papa Ghede and other death-aspected Loa, and Dr. Hellstrome thinks he's in contact with higher alien intelligences. And so on around the world.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

Heroic Power

So, one of the fun things about Deadlands is the paranormal abilities. (Also one of the annoying bits, as they kept introducing new ones, usually in expensive boxed sets, and would totally rework existing ones when the book about them finally came out.)

Anyway, I would sort of like to have a power ability or two that aren't exactly supernatural in nature, just ones that play on the cinematic aspects of the game's genre and setting.

One of those is Gunslingers, those people who are masters of firearms and able to do all the cool tricks you've ever seen or heard about. The Annie Oakley style trick shooting, as well as gun fight quick draws (maybe even to the ludicrous levels of the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles), the incredible marksmanship from something like Quiggly Down Under, and so on.

The other are Storytellers, those people who are able to spin yarns and enrapt people with their words, including in song, written form, and other methods. The Reckoners trade on fear, despair and hate, and people who can tell tales about heroes who conquer bad men, slay monsters, and rescue the oppressed actively fight against that. (Those abilities can just as easily be used for evil ends, as well as for being tricksters and knaves.)

On the more supernatural side would be the Blessed. They are touched by a force which is actively trying to counteract the Reckoners, and most Christians (and Jews) interpret this as God and His Angels (and Saints, if your denomination goes for those). The miracles they work would mostly hew pretty close to those mentioned in the Bible and lives of Saints, with possible a few more from folklore.

Shaman/Spirit Warriors are those from Native American cultures who've managed to use their traditional rituals and rites to form packs with a legion of spiritual beings who are unaligned with the Reckoners and not really on board with their goals. A lot of what they can do depends on which culture they're from, but the most common involves empowered weapons and animals, healing, and buffing ones self.

The Eurocentric counterpart to that are Arcanists, who do the same thing via 19th century ritual magic, ala the Golden Dawn and similar groups. Also most Voodoo practitioners do something very similar, with what they call the Loa. And probably rural witchcraft as well.

Then there's the Hucksters, the highly specialized wizards who work their magic via decks of cards. (With there also being a variant who do similar things with Tarot cards.)

Spiritualists are those with psychic type abilities, including prophetic visions, channeling, seeing ghosts, and the like.

And Mad Scientists, who have though their own genius (and exposure to unobtanium) made contact with the Reckoners (and sometimes non-aligned entities) to be inspired to create devices that really shouldn't exist in certain respects.

Finally, Martial Artists, who I have mixed feelings about. While the Kung Fu of Chinese immigrants would be the most famous of this, it's entirely possible the the Gunslingers I mention above are a cultural variation of this phenomenon.

Some of these powers probably aren't mutually exclusive. Blessed Storytellers, Huckster Gunslingers, etc. (Japan probably has ninja clans who combine Martial Arts with something similar to Hucksters but using "ninja hand kuji".)

I'm sure there are others that I've not thought of.

Next is thoughts on what the Reckoners want and various factions/societies as work in the world.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
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MacynSnow
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by MacynSnow »

I'd assume one of the "Good Guy"groups is the Texas Rangers, right? They're practically hard-wired into the System...
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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MacynSnow wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:38 am I'd assume one of the "Good Guy"groups is the Texas Rangers, right? They're practically hard-wired into the System...
They'd be one of them, though "good guy" would be a little subjective. More than a few of the organizations would be in a kind of grey area, and could serve as allies, rivals or antagonists to the PCs, depending on circumstances. In the case of the Rangers, on the one hand, they are the national paramilitary police force (and de facto secret police) for an expansionistic government run by a military junta. But even then, they include those old enough to remember what the group was focused on before Gov. Houston was deposed, those that are idealists and pragmatists who will want to act against the forces of the Reckoners once they discover they exist, those who take the idea of law and order on the frontier seriously, etc. And, collectively, the Rangers are a highly effective group of monster hunters. Even the ultimate official reason one of them happens to be in, say, the City of Lost Angels or the Great Maze or New Orleans (carrying out espionage or some other activity for the Republic of Texas and their plans for expansion), they'd have a lot of lee way in various areas, including helping (or being part of) a group of PCs.

The Pinkertons are in a very similar position in the United States. They're a de facto secret police force who barely answer to anyone, and engage in a number of activities that seem unsavory, both at the time and to a modern viewer (strike breaking activities, for example; see also the last season of Deadwood). But they also do a lot of more mundane detective work (investigating kidnappings or missing persons, acting as bodyguards, etc.) as well as being secret monster hunters. So, again, individual agents could be allies, rivals or enemies of the PCs, depending on circumstances, as well as being PCs themselves, even if the overall organization is a little shady. And really, if you want to do something akin to a 19th century version of the X-Files, then that shadiness is a feature rather than bug.

The Knights of the Golden Circle are geared more toward being antagonists.Their overall goals and methods are all the sort of things one likely associates with villains - building an imperialistic empire ruled by a wealthy elite, and thinking that it'd be a cool idea to bring back slavery, or at least something a lot like medieval serfdom if they can't accomplish the first one. But even then, it's conceivably possible to actually play a character who is a member (or agent). Pathfinder had a really good supplement, Agents of Evil, which talked about having PCs play agents or members of various Evil oriented orientations, be it as mercenaries, anti-heroes or what have you. You could also be the sort of person who originally joined out of some sort of naive patriotism or similar motivation, only to find themselves seriously questioning their previous assumptions when they go out into the bigger world and find themselves working along side Yankees, free blacks, etc.

As far as other groups, one is the Inquisition. Forces within the Catholic Church are aware of the Reckoners and their actions, and so have secretly organized collections of Priests and laypersons, many of them Blessed, to oppose them. While the Inquisition (specifically the Spanish branch of it) was abolished after the various Latin American countries gained independence, the new more covert version has taken advantage of recent events to establish themselves in Quebec and the Empire of Mexico, as well as Cuba, and to a lesser extent in California, New Orleans, New York City, Chicago, and the like.
Incidentally, you see various Anglican and other Protestant church based monster groups in various places, just none as large or organized as the Inquisition. The same with Jews (especially in Central Europe). Deseret has its own national police force, similar to both the Rangers and the Inquisition. I really don't know enough about Mormon doctrine and history to come up with a good name for them, but I suspect they're very similar to what you saw in the Dogs in the Vineyard RPG.

Twain's Enterprise is the unofficial name for a network of journalists, writers, investigators, scientists, actors, and other "interesting sorts" who correspond with (and in a sense work for) Samual Clemens, owner and editor of the San Fransisco Enterprise. The paper, established in the wake of the Great Quake and California's independence, it has slowly grown to a continent-wide audience, famed for its accounts of the Wild West, the Great Maze, the latest scientific inventions, and of "anomalous phenomenon" (meaning hauntings, monsters, and other Reckoning related things). Clemens has a strong inkling of the Reckoners' existence and some of their plans, including suspicions that they feed on fear and terror. As such, his paper tries to popularize the exploits of those who have defeated monsters and other menaces.

The flood of Chinese immigrants into California has brought with it two organizations. One is the Black Dragon Triad, ultimately led by the setting's Fu Manchu analog who is in China. If there is crime or other unsavory activity going on in San Fransisco's Chinatown or any of the West's other Chinese communities (or those Back East and else where), it almost certainly traces back to the Black Dragons. Opposing them is the Cloud Tiger Society, a fellowship of martial artists, folk heroes, and wandering youxia. Masters of Kung Fu (and occasionally other abilities such as Toaist Sorcery/Shamanism), they are heroes of the people and champions of the oppressed.

The Explorers Club originated in Britain, but has branches and members in places like New York, New Orleans, Halifax, Toronto, Victoria, and San Fransisco. Officially, the club is made up of explorers and adventurers who travel the world, looking for exotic and exciting new people, places and things. Unofficially, they are a secret society of monster hunters. Exactly how they go about their business varies quite a bit from member to member. Some go whole hog into the classic British Great White Hunter schtick. Others are more along the lines of archaeologists, anthropologists, naturalists, and even paleontologists investigating these new prehistoric bones people keep finding. More than a few are known to "go native", fully adapting to the ways and customs of the people they travel among, be they in Africa, Arabia, India or the Wild West. While officially a men's club, they do have a women's "auxiliary" (who are effectively full members in all but name) known as the Exalted Ladies Tea and Adventure Society.

The Collegium is The Coming Thing for Science. Founded in New York and now with branches in most major cities, they are a society of scientists, engineers, inventors, and financiers fully devoted to the existing new world of scientific wonders made possible with the discovery of Unobtanium. Science will lead the way to a more perfect world, one of amazing technologies and a society free of ignorance, poverty, and sickness. While the majority of its members are honest idealists and heartfelt utopians (think 19th century Star Trek fans), some have fairly screwy ideas of what constitutes a "more perfect world" and just what can and should be done to create it (think Dr. Moreau, Brave New World, and various crack pot eugenicists). And a few are just outright Mad Scientists building giant mechanical spiders with death rays.

There are certainly more groups running around out there, both in the Wild West and especially around the world, but these are the main ones that occur to me. You've undoubtably got two rival Voodoo societies in New Orleans, some sort of early Labor organization, some sort of evil Witches coven (and possibly a "white witch" group opposing them), an arcanist society similar to the Order of the Golden Dawn or Werewolf: The Wild West's Enlightened Society of the Weeping Moon, some sort of spiritualist/ghost hunters society, and various Native American/First Nations groups.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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So, to finish the discussion of North America, I was going to talk briefly about the Caribbean and Central America. However, it's not a part of the setting (ie the world during the 1860s and 70s) that I'd ever really looked into very much before. And after about an hour, it became very clear that this was going to require a lot more research and thought about just what was going on there.
Fun Fact: During the 1860s, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic were all having their own wars. Cuba's Ten Years War, the Laras Uprising, the Morant Bay Rebellion,and the Dominican Restoration War. Haiti was struggling to establish a functioning constitutional government while various generals jockeyed for power. It's going to take me a while to untangle everything and figure out what may be going on in those places, especially trying to factor in the activities of the Reckoners, the Knights of the Golden Circle, the British and Spanish governments, and other forces.

Meanwhile, all the Central American nations were at war, with El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras against Guatemala. So, again, a bit of a mess it's going to take a while to sort through and figure out what works best for the setting.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
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MacynSnow
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

Post by MacynSnow »

Check out information regarding Teddy Rosevelt's Rough Riders or Savage World's Weird War 1, that should get you get you what you need(Especially in regards to Cuba & Central America).
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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Under powers, I forgot about steamtech/clockwork bionics, which would be subset/offshoot of Mad Science, and not all that common outside of Lost Angels, certain US industrial cities, and a few places overseas.

Another offshoot are alchemical/pharmaceutical derived elixors that produce Jeckyl & Hyde and similar effects. This is more common in the South, maybe, as are Moreau/Frankenstein type surgical experiments.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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So, Jamaica in this alternate 1876 universe.

In the wake of the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865, things are still exceedingly tense. Britain abolished the island's (rather corrupt) House of Assembly and made Jamaica a Crown Colony under direct rule of the appointed Governor. The wealthy planter elite who controlled the House, mainly by using extremely high pole taxes to keep most black men from voting, are unhappy with their loss of power and influence. And the black population is still unhappy about the brutal way the "rebellion" was put down. Adding to these stresses are agents of the Knights of the Golden Circle, who are offering the planters a sympathetic ear to complain to, while also making suggestions about such things as, say, Jamaica becoming an independent state under the control of the planters and allied with the Confederacy (or Texas). Or perhaps even joining the CSA. And maybe even bringing back slavery, or at least a share cropper system close to it.
Britain, obviously, is unhappy with this sort of shenanigans, but it hasn't yet reached the point of becoming an incident. As such, the War Office its Intelligence Branch have found it necessary to dispatch undercover agents to the island. The Admiralty is also known to send people from time to time, as does the Foreign Office. These agents are usually highly trained and equipped with devices created by the new sciences and engineering made possible by Unobtainium.
From a supernatural standpoint, Jamaica has its fair share of local hauntings and creatures. The Blessed are part of the culture, both black and white. Arcanists and Huxsters are there (especially among those British agents who like to gamble), as are Spiritualists as well as Martial Artists among the Chinese who came as indentured servants after slavery was abolished. Voodoo is also present in the form of Obeah. And there are a few Mad Scientists here and there.
Essentially, Deadlands Jamaica is like a James Bond film (especially Live & Let Die and Dr. No) with supernatural elements and Victorian manners.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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As a newcomer to Deadlands, I will happily state this is a fantastic setting and I am very grateful that you shared your ideas. I'm currently running my first game in a fictional Arizona town called El Dorado (after the John Wayne movie).
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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Deadlands is a lot of fun, even if parts of it are too ludicrous for me. This is a game that had Bruce Campbell write an intro for the second edition, after all. Also, I kept finding some of the company's design choices somewhat questionable.

One of those is why they never bothered to do the obvious money making choice to do something that gave players at least some idea of what was going on in Europe. Because if you have a steampunk/weird horror game in the 19th century, it seems like a no brainer to make stuff like Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, and all that assorted stuff.

I'm still trying to hammer out my thoughts on the status of the Caribbean and South America, but one of the hang ups has been the status of Spain vis a vis Cuba and other places. Europe I do have a lot of the broad stokes figured out. The biggest being that the wars of German unification didn't happen. So Prussia is still its own Kingdom, and France is still in its Second Empire. Britain is the major world power, both in traditional military power and economics, but also the New Science. However, the supernatural forces at play are threatening a lot of the stability of Europe's empires. Russia is the other Great Power, and I'm still working out what's going on with the Ottomans.
Italian unification has been mildly disrupted. Spain is the real pain, with its various revolutions, counterrevolutions and counter-counterrevolutions being a mess to sort through and figure out what sort of outcome works best for the setting. Preferably without going into the Evil Spaniards and their Inquisition cliche.
The Dracula analog is very much a thing in Eastern Europe, with his shadowy forces having spread across the continent. The Roma are a thing, but I'm trying to hew as closely to historical accuracy as possible, just with the addition that a lot of their cultural beliefs and rituals are probably objectively true (or trueish) in this world. Spiritualism is super big, as are various Order of the Golden Dawn style groups.

Barring intervention by Player Characters, ultimately this version of Deadlands Europe is heading toward a major - if not cataclysmic - war between the Great Powers. The Emperors' War, called that because of the involvement of France, Russia, Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans, would be the equivalent of WW1 and 2 in the late 19th century, likely ending with the deployment of some sort of hyper-destructive super science weapon.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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NoOneofConsequence wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:22 am One of those is why they never bothered to do the obvious money making choice to do something that gave players at least some idea of what was going on in Europe. Because if you have a steampunk/weird horror game in the 19th century, it seems like a no brainer to make stuff like Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, and all that assorted stuff.
Shane said that the reason for that was because of two factoids:

1. He considered and wanted RIPPERS to be the official Deadlands Europe. However, for whatever reason, he can't get all the rights and lawyer matters taken care of with the people who created it to make it official.

2. The North and South supplements were badly reacted as was other attempts to move beyond the Wild West.
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Re: An Alternate Deadlands Setting

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That would explain it. Thanks for that.

I think the biggest problems with the two Back East books were that they didn't really have a "hook" to hang that part of the setting on, the way the Weird West had "Spaghetti Western with Zombies" going for it. In hindsight, maybe they should've just done a single "guide to the world" that gave a brief overview of the entire world for players who wanted to play immigrant and Tinhorn characters. Maybe even just make that a Tinhorn sourcebook that talked about that character archetype and introduced a bunch of obscure abilities/powers from other regions they might possess.
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