Deadlands: Classic
The Granddaddy of the Weird Western RPG genre! Deadlands first crawled out of the grave in 1996.
Deadlands: Classic refers to the original system first published in 1996, the d20 system, or even the GURPS adaptation. We’ve also included in this section Deadlands: Hell on Earth Classic and Deadlands: Lost Colony Classic. Deadlands: Classic does not use the Savage Worlds core rules, and is not supported by new releases. For releases using the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition core rules, please visit Deadlands: the Weird West. We hope you enjoy these “classics” as inspiration for tale-tellin’ and insight into the history of Deadlands RPG!
The year is 1876, but the history is not our own. The long Civil War rages on. California is shattered by the Great Quake Quake of ’68, a superfuel called ghost rock revealed in the new channels and cliff faces. Powerful Rail Barons strive to complete a transcontinental railroad, and the Great Rail Wars exact a bloody toll in the Union, the Confederacy, the Sioux Nation, the Mormon state of Deseret, and the Independent Commonwealth of California.
The Tombstone Epitaph has always been filled with lurid tales of daring desperadoes and deadly drifters, but lately the West’s most-read tabloid claims there’s something more sinister stalking the fronteir’s lonely plains: monsters! Fortunately, where there are monsters, there are heroes. Squinty-eyed gunfighters, card-chucking hexsligners, savage braves, and righteous padres have all answered the call. And if they fight hard enough, they might just discover the identity of the mysterious Reckoners some say are behind it all.