The Epitaph’s Newcomers Guide to the Weird West 1877 Edition
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Lexicon Some of the terms within the Deadlands rulebooks may be confusing to new players, so they are listed below for your convenience. TERM Ace
Aptitudes
Boun Bounty ty Poi Point ntss
Bust
Conc Concen entr trat atio ions ns
Extras
Marshal
Oppos pposed ed Roll Roll
Posse
Raise
Successes Target Number (TN)
EXPLANATION The maximum number on any particular type of die, such such as the “6” on a d6, or the “0” on a d10, whenever you get an Ace, you can roll the die again and add it to the previous total. Skills, ta talents, or or tr trades a character has learned or developed. This includes skills like persu like persuasion, asion, shootin’, shootin’, and sneak and sneak . These hese are are rew rewar ards ds tha thatt can can be use used d to improve your character’s character’s Aptitudes or Traits or to purchase new Edges or Hindrances. You go when you roll more “1s” than anything else. This usually means your character failed catastrophically. Spec Specia ializ lizat ation ionss withi within n a broad broader er Aptitude category, each major type of firearm (pistol, rifle, shotgun), for instance, is a concentration of the shootin’ shootin’ Aptitude. Aptitude. These are the non-player characters (not controlled by the players) who populate the world of Deadlands Deadlands.. Extras include everything from loyal sidekicks to dastardly villains and strange critters, the Marshal player the roles of the extras. The game master, or the guy or gal responsible for setting up the adventure and guiding the posse though it. A con conte tent nt bet betwe ween en two two cha chara ract cter ers, s, such as a stare down (overawe (overawe)) or wrestling match ( fightin’ fightin’ : wraslin’ ) The player characters (PC) and any sidekicks, allies or other extras that happen to be tagging along. When you make a Trait of Aptitude check, every 5 points over the TN is an extra success level: a raise. Sometimes this is said to mean a success and any raises. The difficulty of a particular task, if your dice roll is greater than or equal to the Target Number, your
Traits Trait Le Level
character succeeds at whatever she was attempting. Raw physical and mental attributes such as Strength or Smarts or Smarts.. The nu number of of Tr Trait Di Die yo you ro roll when making a pure Trait check, such as a Strength or Quickness or Quickness roll.
General Rules Round Down: Whenever you are asked to round a number, always round down. Dice: Normal die rolls are listed as XdY, where X is the number of dice to roll and Y is the type of dice to roll (4sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided. 12-sided or 20-sided). When reading the result take the highest result out of all the dice rolled. If there is a number listed after the dice such as 1d12+2, then that is added to the final result. One exception to this rule is when rolling damage, in that case all dice are added, then any modifiers to get the final result. Cards: During the game standard 54-card decks are used for character generation, generation, determining who g oes first in combat, and various other things. Usually the i nstruction in a specific section tells you when to shuffle the deck, but if they don’t assume the deck isn’t shuffled before each draw. Reading Cards: Sometimes you need to translate a card into a die code to do this, use the table below.
CARD VALUE 2 3-8 9 - Jack Queen - King Ace - Joker
DIE TYPE D4 D6 D8 D10 D12
CARD SUIT Clubs Diamonds Hearts Spades
DIE TRAIT 1 2 3 4
NB: When Jokers Jokers are drawn, you have to draw draw another card from a fresh deck to determine it’s “Suit”, if another Joker is drawn then the “Die Trait” is 5.
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Fate Chips: At the start of each session each player draws 3 chips from the Fate Pot, each Fate Chips can be coloured white, red, blue, gold (called Legend) or black. Each Fate Chips can be used in game for various things such as negating damage, re-rolling or improving Aptitude or Trait
The Epitaph’s Newcomers Guide to the Weird West 1877 Edition
“Believe it or Else!”
tests or they can be traded in for Bounty Points. At end of a session you cannot have more than 10 Fate Chips to carry over to the next session, so you must trade in as White Trait Or Aptitude Effect One extra die may be rolled; you can keep spending chips till you’re happy with the result. May Heal 1 wound or 5 Wind Bounty Points 1 Special Notes When used on a Trait or Aptitude roll, the player cannot spend a White chip after they’ve spent a red, blue, legend or black chip.
many Fate Chips for Bounty Points as it takes to reduce your carry over amount to 10 or less.
Note you cannot use a Fate Chip to modify a roll that has gone Bust unless you use a Legend Chip. Difficulty: Sometimes the Target Numbers are expressed as words instead of numbers, in that case use the following table to find out the TN. DIFFICULTY Foolproof Fair Onerous Hard Incredible Astounding
Red Trait Or Aptitude Effect You can roll a bonus die and add it to the highest current die. Only a single red chip can be spent on a roll. May Heal 2 wounds or 10 Wind Bounty Points 2 Special Notes The downside is that when a hero uses a red chip on a Trait or Aptitude roll, the Marshal gets a draw from the Fate pot.
Blue Trait or Aptitude Effect You can roll a bonus die and add it to the highest current die. Only a single blue chip can be spent on a roll. May Heal 3 wounds or 15 Wind Bounty Points 3 Special Notes None
TN 3 5 7 9 11 13
Unskilled Checks: Sometimes you go to make an Aptitude check and discover that you don’t actually have the Aptitude. In these cases you get to roll one die as if your character had level 1 in the Aptitude. The downside is that you take an unskilled penalty of -4 to the final result. Related Skills: If your character is making an unskilled check but has a related Aptitude (usually one with a different concentration though some skills like persuasion and bluff can be considered related), he gets to use the unskilled Aptitude at the same level as his related Aptitude but still takes the unskilled (-4) penalty to the result.. Raises: As mentioned in the Lexicon, when a hero rolls 5 or more above the TN he achieves a raise, and you get a raise for every increment of 5 beyond that as well. The more raises you achieve on a roll the better you succeed at a task.
Legend Trait or Aptitude Effect You can roll a bonus die and add it to the highest current die. Only a single Legend chip can be spent on a roll. May Heal 5 wounds or all Wind Bounty Points 5 Special Notes You can use a Legend chip to re-roll any dice roll (including re-rolling from scratch) even if the roll went Bust. You can even modify the Marshal’s rolls if they affect your character! Note that when a Legend chip is used it’s not returned to the pot.
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Black Trait or Aptitude Effect None! May Heal None! Bounty Points None! Special Notes When you draw a Damned chip from the Fate Pot, inform the Marshal and discard the chip from the Fate Pot. You do not get to draw again and worse yet, something wicked this way comes!
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Success: You barely achieved the desired effect. If this is an opposed roll the opponent continues to resist normally and you both should roll again next round. One Raise: You manage to accomplish your goal with a little room to spare. If this is an opposed roll, you opponent loses or surrenders, at least until he can find another way to recover his loss. Two Raises: You make it look easy. If this is an opposed roll, your opponent surrenders and does not resist or attempt to recover without a major change in the situation.
The Epitaph’s Newcomers Guide to the Weird West 1877 Edition
“Believe it or Else!”
23 24
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