Deadlands: Hell on Earth
Deadlands: Hell on Earth (or "Deadlands: The Wasted West") 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 "". 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. Reception. The reviewer from the online second volume of "Pyramid" stated that ""Deadlands: Hell on Earth" continues the trend that the original "Deadlands" game began, taking the Weird West more than 200 years into the future for a kind of "Weird West meets the Road Warrior" setting with all the fun and weirdness of the original, and then some. There are themes of fighting against evil, rebuilding civilization and man's inhumanity to man but mostly it's a fun game outlaw heroes with cool  new guns and abilities fighting mutants and other nasty critters." Rulebooks. "See " External links. Official Site Fan Sites