Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Deadlands: Hell on Earth cover
Designer(s) Shane Lacy Hensley
Publisher(s) Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Publication date 1998
Genre(s) Alternate history, post-apocalyptic, horror, Western, magitech
System(s) Custom

Deadlands: Hell on Earth is a genre-mixing alternate history roleplaying game which combines the post-apocalyptic and horror genres. Western tropes and magitech elements are also prominent. It was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and originally published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. As part of the original marketing campaign in August 1998, the game had a green leatherbound hardcover edition run, limited to about 750 copies.

Plot

As the name implies, Deadlands: Hell on Earth is set in the same exact place as the original Deadlands roleplaying game. Specifically, it is set in a post-apocalyptic future of the original "Weird West" setting of Deadlands, also known as the "Wasted West."

Through a series of machinations, the Reckoners from the original Deadlands setting contrive to spark a nuclear war between the United States and the still-existent Confederate States, in which the weapons are not only powered by nuclear fission and nuclear fusion, but are also powered by a supernatural element known as "Ghost Rock." The combination of multi-megaton explosives, radiation, and supernatural devastation serves to turn large portions of the United States into hellish wastelands filled with radiation and deadly supernatural monsters.

The formation of these large "deadlands" allows the Reckoners to enter the realm of Earth, where they are revealed to be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They ravage across the globe, destroying civilization and turning most of the Earth into a wasted landscape of nightmares and death. Then they mysteriously vanish.

Thirteen years have passed since the Reckoners appeared, and civilization is once more attempting to assert itself in small, isolated pockets. Players take on the roles of characters struggling to survive the nightmarish wasteland that the Reckoners left behind. A variety of mundane and arcane archetypes are available, including "Sykers" (characters with deadly psychic powers), "Doomsayers" (magical priests of radiation), "Templars" (members of a martial organization patterned after the Knights Templar), "Junkers" (humans with the supernatural ability to create working devices from the scavenged debris of pre-apocalypse civilization), and even just plain-old everyday humans, surviving by their wits and their gun.

Character types

In addition to a variety of mundane survivors, would-be law men, ex-road gangers, and general do-gooders that exist in Hell on Earth, there are a number of magically-attuned characters that are playable.


In addition to the new arcane backgrounds found in Hell on Earth, many of the arcane backgrounds from Deadlands still exist. These include Shamans, Hucksters, Voodooists, and Blessed, and are detailed in their respective Deadlands: Weird West sourcebooks.

Current Status

Although Deadlands has officially ended as its own product line, Pinnacle Entertainment Group has re-released all of the "Classic" Deadlands line in print and in an electronic version.

Deadlands: The Weird West saw an update in 2006 as Deadlands: Reloaded. The Reloaded line updates the setting and brings the rules in line with Pinnacle's current flagship product, Savage Worlds. Hell on Earth: Reloaded was released digitally in July, 2012, with a print version to follow later in the year.

Rulebooks

See List of Deadlands: Hell on Earth publications

Official Site

Fan Sites

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