Burning Deadlands ideas and suggestions?

OK, a little bit of Back Story…
…OK, I’m lying, perhaps “More than Necessary Back Story.” I’m like that. Anyway, Long ago and far away I got roped into a Deadlands game. It was presumed to be Over The Top, and (Strangely) the GM encouraged us to Cheat. Purposefully. Unabashedly. Yeah…

Basically he was having a regular Deadlands Group that he knew was cheating and had “Broken” his game by doing so (The Game, for those unfamiliar, uses playing cards as a major mechanic, and these players were top decking and using marked cards). Needless to say he was a pushover GM (And a bit of a “Munchkin” when it came to actual gaming as well), but he asked us to make a group that was at counter-purposes to his main group to teach them a lesson.

Initially I joined the game in support of a Friend (Whom this GM had approached), and made one of the wonkiest but also very enjoyable characters I have ever made. Long story short from here, we ended up trouncing the hell out of the opposed group in a PvP session (All while cheating less than the other group…I was amazed at how they flopped into some of the most obvious traps I have ever set…over…and over…and over again).

Well, then my friend opted to take over the game, trash the old characters (Since they were all created through cheating and were way overpowered), and set off anew.

Now comes the part where I get to the point (Sorry for making you all read through that background). I do enjoy playing the game (Sometimes) even though it is FAR from my favorite genre or style (And I don’t agree with the system often either). However, I have somehow ended up being pressured into GMing Deadlands on alternate weeks so that this friend (Who is enthralled with the system and setting…I myself don’t understand the Wild West Cowboy fetish he has…) can PLAY in the game rather than run it. In his words “I don’t trust alot of people to GM well, and you’re (That is, me) one of them.”

Honored though I may be hearing that, I have been putting this off for a wide variety of reasons. It’s a system I feel is particularly clunky, and the Genre and campaign (It’s a joint campaign split off his own) are not ones that appeal to me.

I am very much thinking of dropping the campaign and opting to run a different system. Which is where Burning Wheel comes in.

I thought to myself: Man, I like the system. It’s elegant, it has alot of things I love in a system. It’s gritty. It’s not TOO complicated to learn (Fight!, DoW, and R & C are the most complex bits really, and even those aren’t too complicated), and it emphasizes one of the things I love most about Role Play (Which is Role Playing…so many systems seem to de-emphasize that part in a very frustrating way).

Why not run Deadlands with the Burning Wheel then?

Naturally BW isn’t geared towards Wild West Shoot Outs, but I am going over it in my head and I am liking the idea of it more and more.

So I guess that’s where I ask what others think of the idea. What would I need to do to convert Deadlands to BW, other than alot of flavor (Easy to do really).

LPs seem like the biggest concern, since none of the existing LP’s really touch upon the setting (Considering it’s Medieval based, that’s a given). I imagine I would have to have a few LPs that start to branch towards the different “Classes”…that is, at least make a Mad Science LP setting, a Huckster setting, and a setting that hints at the religions (Which can all be handled with Faith. Lucky Me :slight_smile: )

I’d need to somehow create a couple gun weapons that are a bit more intense than what already exsists…

But really, I think that’s it. Anyone think I could pull this off?

I remember Ten of Swords posted an actual play about his Deadlands-inspired game. It’s called “Burning Saddles”.

He came up with some stats for western-era weapons here.

I’m guessing he used the lifepaths available on the wiki although I could be doing him a disservice, and he posted them there himself.

(I’ve just looked at the lifepaths and a lot of them are mentioned but not detailed.)

Enjoy your game :slight_smile:

Thanks! The Gun & Firearms info is particularly helpful. The Lifepaths help some, but because much of it isn’t detailed, I’m going to have to work on alot of it myself. But the links are helpful nonetheless.

I was actually just considering this very topic this morning. Although I’ve only played the “Reloaded” version of Deadlands, so stop me if you hate anything.

I was thinking about Grit as a while bunch of different sub traits, each used as a call-on (or +1 advantage, or Hesitation reducer) to resist fear in different circumstances - this means you don’t have a messy Grit stat, while also getting to have monsters increase Hesitation. Deadlands would definitely be a game where Hesitation would come to the fore.

I think that Mad Science can be handled like Skill Songs/Dwarven skills - but with the Madness emotional attribute, which causes you to slowly pick up negative traits. They would likely just the Enchanting and Alchemy rules most of the time.

Hucksters can roll like Sorcerers, but have the Card mechanic instead of Tax, drawing a number of cards equal to: pick your favourite [Corruption Attribute + 5, Forte + 4, Perception +4, 5 + Spellcasting Traits, Will+Sorcerery Skill, anything else], and then try to make a poker hand.

Ace High: Ob2 Spell
Pair: Ob3 Spell
Pair - Jacks or better: Ob4 Spell
Two Pair: Ob5 Spell
Three of a kind: Ob6 Spell
Straight: Ob7 Spell
Flush: Spell succeeds no matter the Ob
Full House: Spell succeeds and give two advantage dice to the casting roll
Four of a kind: Spell succeeds and give three advantage dice to the casting roll
Straight Flush: Spell succeeds and the casting roll also succeeds with two over the obstacle (roll if you want/need a better result but that is the minimum success level)
5 of a kind: Spell succeeds with five over the obstacle (see above)

Jokers automatically give you a Backlash (as per Deadlands, flavoured to the setting), as does failing to draw a hand good enough to cast the spell. As an optional rule, being able to cast the spell but Taxing forte (automatically) by the failure threshold (ex: I am trying to cast Phantasmagoria which is Ob5 and I only get a pair of Queens, I take Backlash automatically, but I can choose to tax my Forte by 1 in order to have the spell go off). The huckster would still need to roll to cast the spell.

Priests could easily use the Faith rules, and Shamans use spirit binding. Martial Artists would likely need lifepaths, skills, and spells (maybe a set of Magical Skills to cover everything).

Once you’ve got guns, a bunch of different spellcasts, push a few monsters into play, build some Western lifepaths, and I think you’re ready to put the fear o’ the Reckoning into some poor posse.

PS - Very sorry, I am too tired to be writing well, I will hopefully get a chance to come back and clean this up.