Deputy of the Weird West
Licensed to Terrify and Inspire
Welcome to the Marshal's Office
Congratulations, Marshal. You've accepted one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs in tabletop gaming: running Deadlands. You're not just a game master—you're a frontier storyteller, a keeper of supernatural secrets, and a conductor orchestrating a symphony of terror and heroism. Think of yourself as equal parts campfire storyteller, theater director, and chaos coordinator.
Running Deadlands is like being a Wild West sheriff who's also responsible for managing ghost problems, regulating mad science, and keeping the local demons in line. It's demanding work, but when you see your players' faces light up with excitement (or pale with terror), you'll know it's worth every sleepless night spent planning the perfect dramatic reveal.
Creating the Weird West Atmosphere
Atmosphere in Deadlands isn't just background—it's a character in its own right. The setting should feel like a place where hope and horror dance together under a sky that's just a little too big and stars that shine just a little too bright.
Setting the Visual Scene
🎬 Cinematic Descriptions
Describe scenes like you're directing a Western movie with a supernatural budget. Don't just say "You enter the saloon." Try: "The batwing doors creak open to reveal a haze of cigarette smoke and something else—something that makes the hair on your neck stand up. The piano plays a jaunty tune, but the pianist's reflection in the mirror behind the bar doesn't quite match his movements."
🌅 The Uncanny West
Take familiar Western imagery and add subtle wrongness. Tumbleweeds that roll uphill. Cactus flowers that bloom only at midnight. Horse tracks that suddenly become human footprints. Cattle that refuse to cross certain patches of ground. These details create unease without requiring explanations.
🌙 Time and Weather as Characters
Use environmental conditions to enhance mood. Dust storms that whisper secrets. Rain that falls upward in certain places. Sunsets that last too long or arrive too early. Wind that carries voices from empty prairies. These elements make the world feel alive and slightly threatening.
Audio Atmosphere
The Sounds of the Weird West
Ambient Sounds: Creaking wood, distant howls, wind through broken windows, the rhythmic chuff of steam engines, and the occasional scream—both human and otherwise.
Music Suggestions: Ennio Morricone film scores, blues harmonica, funeral dirges played on piano, Native American flutes, and industrial sounds mixed with traditional Western instruments.
Voice Work: Develop distinct voices for NPCs. A grizzled prospector's rasp, a huckster's smooth patter, a preacher's booming delivery, or a child's unnaturally calm explanation of impossible things.
Managing Fear: The Heart of Horror
Fear in Deadlands serves multiple purposes: it's a game mechanic, a storytelling tool, and a way to build tension. Managing fear effectively means knowing when to turn the terror up to eleven and when to give players a moment to breathe.
Fear Escalation Ladder
Building Fear Gradually
👻 The Uncanny Valley Approach
Start with things that are almost normal but not quite right. A shopkeeper who never blinks. A dog that walks backward. Children playing games with rules that don't make sense. These small wrongnesses accumulate into growing unease.
🕰️ The Unknown Timeline
Fear thrives on uncertainty. Don't let players know when supernatural threats will appear. Sometimes the monster attacks immediately, sometimes it stalks them for days. The uncertainty is often more frightening than the actual encounter.
🎭 Show, Don't Tell
Instead of saying "You see something terrifying," describe specific, visceral details: "The thing wearing your brother's face turns toward you, and when it smiles, you notice it has too many teeth—and they're all wrong."
Fear Check Guidelines
When to Call for Fear Checks
TN 5: Mildly disturbing (fresh grave, strange noises)
TN 7: Clearly supernatural (ghost sighting, undead creature)
TN 9: Actively threatening (monster attack, witnessing death)
TN 11: Deeply horrifying (mass carnage, eldritch abomination)
TN 13+: Sanity-blasting (cosmic horror, personal nightmare made real)
Balancing Horror and Heroism
Deadlands walks a tightrope between terror and triumph. Players need to feel threatened enough to be scared but empowered enough to be heroes. It's like cooking—too much horror and the game becomes oppressive, too little and it loses its edge.
The Hope-Fear Balance
Giving Players Agency
💪 Competence Porn
Let players be good at what they do. A gunfighter should feel like a gunfighter, a huckster should feel clever and dangerous, a blessed character should feel divinely empowered. Horror works best when competent people face overwhelming odds, not when incompetent people stumble through disasters.
🎯 Meaningful Choices
Present players with difficult decisions where there's no clearly right answer. Save the town or pursue the villain? Use dangerous magic or face threats with mundane tools? Trust the mysterious stranger or go it alone? These choices make players feel agency even in dire situations.
Victory Conditions
Not every victory in Deadlands is complete. Sometimes the best you can do is minimize the damage, save most of the people, or stop the threat temporarily. These partial victories feel more realistic and create ongoing story threads while still giving players a sense of accomplishment.
Creating Memorable NPCs
NPCs in the Weird West need to feel like real people living in impossible circumstances. They're not just quest dispensers—they're survivors, dreamers, and sometimes monsters wearing human faces.
Allies and Contacts
🤠 "Doc" Weatherby - The Frontier Physician
Concept: A former Union Army surgeon who came West to forget the war but keeps finding new ways to patch up bullet holes and supernatural injuries.
Motivation: Heal the hurt, human and otherwise
Secret: Has a mechanical arm he built himself after losing the original to a wendigo
Useful For: Healing, information about strange injuries, medical supplies
🎰 Poker Alice - The Gambling Hall Owner
Concept: A former huckster who gave up magic for regular gambling after one too many close calls with backlash.
Motivation: Run an honest game and protect her establishment
Secret: Still has her deck of hexed cards hidden for emergencies
Useful For: Information gathering, neutral meeting ground, occasional magical assistance
🏛️ Judge Isaac Stone - The Circuit Judge
Concept: A traveling judge who's seen enough supernatural crime to develop his own methods of frontier justice.
Motivation: Bring law and order to the lawless frontier
Secret: Carries a blessed gavel that can bind supernatural entities
Useful For: Legal authority, monster hunting contacts, moral guidance
Antagonists and Villains
💀 "Gentleman" Jack Morrison - The Cultured Cannibal
Concept: A refined Eastern gentleman who came West to indulge appetites that civilized society frowns upon.
Methods: Elaborate dinner parties with a very specific main course
Weakness: Overwhelming pride and need for social approval
Threat Level: Personal horror, corrupt influence, wendigo connections
⚡ Professor Zachariah Blackwood - The Mad Inventor
Concept: A brilliant scientist whose ghost rock experiments have cost him his sanity and most of his humanity.
Methods: Mechanical servants, electrical death rays, steam-powered monsters
Weakness: Compulsive need to explain his genius to victims
Threat Level: Mad science disasters, mechanical armies, reality-breaking inventions
🐍 Reverend Elijah Crow - The Corrupt Preacher
Concept: A charismatic minister who's made a deal with something that definitely isn't divine.
Methods: False miracles, possessed congregation, demonic contracts
Weakness: Still genuinely believes he's saving souls, just using questionable methods
Threat Level: Spiritual corruption, community subversion, demonic alliances
Designing Deadlands Adventures
Adventures in the Weird West blend investigation, action, horror, and moral choices. The best scenarios give players multiple problems to solve and several ways to solve them, with each solution creating new complications.
Adventure Types
The Cattle Mutilation Mystery
Hook: Cattle are being found drained of blood in geometric patterns. The local sheriff suspects rustlers, but the ranchers whisper about chupacabras.
Truth: A mad scientist is experimenting with blood-powered devices, but his failures are attracting real supernatural predators.
Complications: The scientist is the sheriff's brother, the real monsters are drawn to the artificial blood scent, and a local Native tribe knows the truth but won't share it with outsiders.
The Town That Wouldn't Die
Hook: A mining town struck by plague should be a ghost town, but the residents are still there—all of them, including the ones who died months ago.
Truth: A desperate doctor made a deal with Death himself to save his patients, but Death's cure comes with strings attached.
Complications: The undead residents don't know they're dead, killing them releases a worse curse, and Death wants to renegotiate his contract.
The Ghost Rock Express
Hook: The characters must protect a ghost rock shipment from bandits, but the cargo is more dangerous than anyone realizes.
Truth: The ghost rock contains trapped spirits of a massacred Native tribe, and they're not happy about being used as fuel.
Complications: The bandits are actually trying to prevent a spiritual catastrophe, the railroad company knows about the spirits, and the military escort has secret orders.
The Founding Day Festival
Hook: The annual town celebration is disrupted when the founding fathers literally return from the dead to reclaim their town.
Truth: The town was built on a mass grave, and recent construction has disturbed the rest of those buried there.
Complications: Some of the founders have legitimate grievances, the current mayor is their descendant, and the disturbance is spreading to other graveyards.
Adventure Structure
📋 Three-Act Structure
Act I - Setup (30 minutes): Present the mystery, introduce key NPCs, establish stakes. Let players investigate and plan.
Act II - Complications (60-90 minutes): Reveal complications, escalate threats, force difficult choices. This is where most of the action and investigation happens.
Act III - Resolution (30-45 minutes): Final confrontation, resolution of mysteries, dealing with consequences. Not all endings are happy, but they should be satisfying.
Clue Management
🔍 The Three-Clue Rule
For every crucial piece of information players need, provide at least three different ways they can discover it. This prevents the adventure from stalling if they miss one clue or approach the mystery from an unexpected angle.
📰 Information Comes at a Cost
Make players work for information, but not through arbitrary difficulty. They might need to earn trust, face danger, make moral compromises, or use valuable resources. The effort makes the information feel more valuable.
Running Great Sessions
Session Pacing
Managing the Mechanics
Quick Reference - Common TNs
Easy Task: TN 5 (Shooting stationary target, basic skill use)
Moderate Task: TN 7 (Typical skill challenges, most combat)
Hard Task: TN 9 (Difficult shots, complex problems)
Incredible: TN 11 (Heroic stunts, desperate measures)
Legendary: TN 15+ (Impossible made possible)
Card and Initiative Management
🃏 Making Cards Dramatic
When players draw initiative cards, narrate the moment: "You draw the Ace of Spades—fate itself seems to be on your side as you quick-draw your Colt." Use suit meanings to add flavor to actions and create memorable moments.
Handling Magic
⚡ Magic Guidelines
Huckster Backlash: Make it personal and dramatic, not just mechanical. Bad cards mean the entities are actively opposing the character.
Mad Science Failures: Failures should be spectacular and create new complications, not just negate the attempt.
Blessed Miracles: Tie effectiveness to moral choices and character development, not just dice rolls.
Shamanic Magic: Emphasize the relationship aspect—spirits have personalities and agendas.
Keeping Players Engaged
Character Spotlight
Make sure each character gets moments to shine based on their abilities and background. The gunfighter should have showdown moments, the huckster should face magical mysteries, the blessed character should confront moral dilemmas, and the mad scientist should have opportunities for creative problem-solving.
Personal Stakes
💔 Making It Personal
The best Deadlands adventures connect to character backgrounds and motivations. The mysterious stranger might be the gunfighter's thought-dead partner. The corrupt preacher could be the blessed character's former mentor. The mad scientist's latest invention might threaten the shaman's tribal lands.
Moral Complexity
Present situations where there's no clearly right answer. Should you destroy the cursed artifact that's protecting the town from worse threats? Do you trust the reformed cultist who claims to want redemption? Can you work with the lesser evil to defeat the greater one?
Player Agency
Troubleshooting Common Issues
When Players Aren't Scared
🎭 Fear Immunity Solutions
Personal Horror: Focus on threats to things the characters care about rather than direct physical danger.
Competence Horror: Show the aftermath of previous heroes who failed despite being skilled.
Moral Horror: Present situations where winning requires compromising their values.
Unknown Horror: Use mysteries and uncertainty rather than direct confrontation.
When Magic Becomes Overwhelming
⚖️ Power Balance Solutions
Consequences: Every use of power should have potential costs or complications.
Limitations: Environment, resources, or circumstances that prevent easy magical solutions.
Opposition: Enemies who are prepared for or immune to certain magical approaches.
Moral Costs: Using power in ways that challenge the character's values or relationships.
When Players Avoid the Weird
🌟 Encouraging Engagement
Natural Integration: Make the supernatural a normal part of daily life rather than an exotic threat.
Practical Benefits: Show how supernatural abilities can solve mundane problems.
Social Acceptance: Create NPCs who respect and rely on supernatural abilities.
Personal Connection: Tie supernatural elements to character backgrounds and goals.
Building Long-Term Campaigns
Campaign Themes
Campaign Arc Ideas
The Railroad War: Characters get caught up in the supernatural conflict between competing railroad companies, discovering that the race to connect the coasts has awakened ancient evils.
The Ghost Rock Rush: Following a new ghost rock strike leads to encounters with claim jumpers, supernatural guardians, and the terrible secrets of what ghost rock really is.
The Agency Files: Working as federal agents investigating supernatural threats across the frontier, building a network of contacts and uncovering a larger conspiracy.
The Founding of Prosperity: Building a new town from scratch while dealing with the supernatural challenges of frontier life and the moral complexities of civilization.
Character Development
Track how characters change over time, not just mechanically but psychologically. How does constant exposure to horror affect them? How do they grow as people? What new fears do they develop, and what old fears do they overcome?
Recurring Elements
🔄 Building Continuity
Recurring NPCs: Allies and enemies who remember past interactions and evolve based on player choices.
Consequences: Actions from early adventures that have long-term effects on the world.
Mysteries: Overarching questions that take multiple adventures to answer.
Reputation: How the characters' growing legend affects their interactions with the world.
Marshal Training Exercises
Exercise 1: Atmosphere Building
Take a normal Western scene (saloon, general store, church service) and add three supernatural elements that enhance rather than overwhelm the atmosphere. Practice describing these elements in ways that create unease without requiring explanation.
Exercise 2: NPC Motivation Web
Create five NPCs for a frontier town, then draw connections between their motivations, secrets, and goals. How do their agendas conflict? Where do their interests align? How can players leverage these relationships?
Exercise 3: Fear Escalation
Design a sequence that builds from mild unease to genuine terror over the course of an hour. Include specific triggers for fear checks and plan how to handle different player reactions to each escalation step.
Exercise 4: Moral Dilemma Design
Create a scenario where players must choose between two undesirable outcomes, with no clearly "right" answer. Make sure both choices have legitimate moral weight and that the decision feels meaningful to the characters involved.
Exercise 5: Magic Integration
Design an adventure that requires different magical traditions to work together despite their incompatible worldviews. How do you create situations where cooperation is necessary but not easy?
Essential Marshal Resources
Quick Reference Sheets
Fear Check Quick Reference
Mild (TN 5): Strange but not threatening
Moderate (TN 7): Clearly supernatural
Severe (TN 9): Dangerous and supernatural
Extreme (TN 11): Life-threatening horror
Legendary (TN 13+): Sanity-blasting terror
Inspiration Sources
Genre Inspiration
Films: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; Unforgiven; Young Guns; From Dusk Till Dawn; The Magnificent Seven; Wild Wild West
Literature: Anything by Ambrose Bierce; Weird Tales magazine; H.P. Lovecraft's Western-themed stories; Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Comics: Jonah Hex; Preacher; East of West; The Sixth Gun; Weird Western Tales
Games: Red Dead Redemption series; Call of Juarez series; Wild Arms; Darkwatch