Currently, only fan conversions

Thanks Bill :)

Now, in here I will be quoting certain parts of Hell on Earth classic, to let those of you who don't know the background, some ideas about the changes since normal Deadlands.

Then, I will start working on converting weapons, armour, equipment, and any Edges or Hinderences I believe are fitting, though several useful ones came straight across from Deadlands: Reloaded.

Deadlands: Hell on Earth is one possible chapter in a story that begins in the year 1863 with an event called the “Reckoning”. That tale was told in the sister game, Deadlands: The Weird West. If you aren't familiar with it, here's a quick summary of the story so far.

The Reckoning began when a vengeful Indian shaman named Raven released long-imprisoned evil spirits back into the world. The Indians called them manitous; Westerners call them demons. Their purpose is to carry fear and other negative energy to the Hunting Grounds, where the forces of destruction, in the form of the Four Horsemen, feed upon it. The Reckoners regularly reinvest some of their precious energy to create new horrors, which in turn create even more fear.

Unfortunately, the return of the Reckoners occurred during one of  the most violent times in human history, especially in America, where the Civil War raged. (The Reckoning began July 3, 1863.) That war eventually ended and established the Confederacy as a new nation. The two countries even mended their wounds and fought side-by-side in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and even a war in space.

During this time, a secret war was taking place between the Reckoners and those who had learned of their existence. Pinkertons, Texas Rangers, other national security forces around the world, and independent heroes battled the horrible creations of the Reckoners until they nearly had been banished from the Earth.

Because of their efforts, the forces of evil were nearly defeated. But the vanishing Reckoners did not give up easily. They broke the cosmic rules and cheated. The Four Horsemen used the last of their power in a one-shot effort to make a rift in the Hunting Grounds. Through this they sent back their most deadly agent, Stone, back to the Weird West. The undead gunslinger hunted down heroes and helped create Deadlands until the Reckoners won the next time around through history's timeline.

The combined efforts of Stone and his dark masters culminated in the “Last War” of 2081, a massive, worldwide conflict that ended in an incredible conflagration of irradiated ghost-rock bombs. Billions died. Worse, the bombs created Deadlands, areas where fear was so strong it actually warped the landscape and gave life to humanity's worst nightmares. With most of the the world one vast Deadland, the Reckoners had “terrorformed” the Earth in fear and could walk upon it as physical beings.

The Four Horsemen first appeared in the American West. There they slaughtered thousands, then stalked off across the Mississipi and haven't been heard from in nearly 13 years. Rumours persist they are “touring” the world, reveling in the destruction they've caused. If true, they will inevitably return to the Wasted West. And soon.

Adventurers are folks who have no real profession, at least not anymore. They simply wander the Wasted West looking for something better. Some might have been waitresses; others were lawyers. Whatever their trade, they find little use for it now.
You character is an “adventurer” if he's a comman man or woman who just happens to wind up in incredible adventurers. His skills are entirely up to you, but he shouldn't be too good at combat or survival, at least not yet.

Doomsayers are “radiation priests” of the Wasted West. Most Doomsayers are evil right down to their irradiated hearts, but your hero is one of those who rebelled against the “Cult of Doom” and their current leader, Silas Rasmussen. All Doomsayers believe norms are “doomed”, hence their name, but Silas slaughters them to hurry things along. Your character is far more noble then that. He knows norms are going to be around for a good long while, and he wants to ensure they don't rise up and destroy the true watchers of humanity's destiny.

Gunslingers sell their guns to the highest bidder or those in need, depending on their personal codes. Duels are still fairly common in the Wasted West, so gunslingers are quick-draws and deadly shots.

Indian Braves are Native Americans who followed the “Old Ways”. They sensed long ago that technology was leading humanity to a bitter fall, and so they use only natural, handmade tools and weapons.

Junkers are the Wasted West's version of “mad scientists”. They wander the wastelands, collecting junk with which to build incredible machines. Their inspiration for their infernal gizmos, some say, comes from the very evil spirits who destroyed the world.

Law Dogs have taken a solemn oath to bring law and order to the ruined world. They have no real authority, just common sense and their own incredible wills. Their enemies are many, and their rewards are few, but someone must bring justice to the wastes.

Ravenites are Indians who laughed at the “Old Ways” movement. They embraced technology and became incredibly rich before the Big Bang, selling ghost rock from the once-sacred Black Hills. Now these once proud tycoons are well-armed wanderers scattered when Deadwood was destroyed by ghost-rock bombs. Some refuse to acknowledge their part in the Apocalypse. Others seek retribution.

Road Warriors travel the ruined highways of the Wasted West looking for fuel to sustain their wanderlust. They often help towns plagued by other highway marauders in exchange for precious ghost rock or gas. The odds are often overwhelming, so road warriors outfit their rigs with salvaged armour and heavy guns.

Savages are younger survivors who have little or no memory of the world before the bombs. Some have built their own communities where “elders” are reviled for destroying the world. Others are simply idealistic youths looking to become a great hero or heroine.

Scavengers are those desperate enough to enter the ruins of blasted cities. They must brave ghost-rock storms, irradiated battlefields, and the creatures of the outlands in search of treasures left intact after the Last War. Most end their days violently, but a lucky few become wealthy traders.

Soldiers are hardy survivors of the Last War. Some lived because they were deserters or cowards, others because fate made them the sole survivors of units annihilated in the final days of blood. Now they wander the wastes, offering their grim services to those who feed them – or pay them enough bullets to fight the next job.

Sykers are former soldiers with incredible mental powers. They learned their amazing trade in government academies where they were made into commandos, spies, and assassins. In the years before the Apocalypse, most sykers served on an alien planet named Banshee, though those that did are loathe to talk about the atrocities they were forced to commit there. Now they travel from town to town, drawn to trouble like moths to flames and using their incredible powers to fight the horrors of the Reckoning.

Tale-Tellers know the Reckoners can only be defeated by spreading hope and eroding their precious fear. They join with other heroes in defeating those evils and then make sure the locals hear the story of their victory. Other taletellers may not be so noble, or perhaps they don't know of the Reckoners' weakness. They perform for pay, for food, or simply for a warm bed for the night.

Templars travel the Wasted West in disguise, looking for those worthy of protecting. Once they discover a worthy cause, they reveal themselves as modern-day knights and pledge themselves to see the trouble through to the end.
Once revealed, Templars are heroic figures with white tabards adorned with a red Maltese Cross, and swords enchanted by their own acts and deeds.
Templars are a stingy lot however. They don't hesitate to desert those who prove immoral.
They are also cautious and, unlike the chivalric knights of old, have no qualms about backstabbing or tricking a foe if it wins the day.

Traders are merchants who have discovered, earned, or stolen great treasures to sell and barter with others. They often command squads of lyal bodyguards or war beasts to protect their valuable wares.

I actually have most of the books for all the deadlands products in some form or another.  While the Wierd West is fun, nothing beats post-apocalyptic games, expecially those set in the Wierd West.

I'd be willing to playtest rules, if you need someone to, but I am not sure how good I am at conversions.  Most of my conversion attempts never make it off the ground.

What I need to decide on is what needs converting over, what already exists, and what can be left out.

For example, the way Junkers powers are handled isn't necessary in the SW system. If you want to have a Junkgun, you would buy the Bolt power. then you would describe how you rummaged around and put the parts together, doing the required legwork.

However, I do want to have a nice variety of different weapons that people can pick from. I don't want to just say there is one kind of pistol, shotgun, SMG, etc. After all, Reloaded gave alot of choice, even though it's still Savage [and most people chose the Peacemaker anyway ;)].

For those of you who don't know HOE, what kind of things would you say is missing from SW for post-apocalypse, and what is interesting from Reloaded that should be brought over and continue in HOE: Reloaded, such as the Tale Telling Edge for example.

realistically, there are a heck of a lot of ammo types out there.  for pistols, .38 cal, 9mm, 10mm, .40 cal, in game terms they might all do the same damage, but for a PA game they aren't compatible.  having lots of differnt ammos types or types of spare parts is realistic, but it might not be FFF.

the biggest thing I think would tables of searching/random loot for you to use when we do that sort of thing, and figuring out how you want to do repairs and spare parts.  If a party vehicle takes 2 wounds, for example, how many "units" of spare parts do you need to fix that?  how much does a unit weigh or cost?  how many can be salvaged from a "dead" vehicle?  how specific are parts?  Mechanical?  vehicle?  car?  2020 ford sedan?

In Reloaded, all normal ammo for both pistols and rifles only comes in two catergories - Pistols are .22-.38 & .40-.50, with Rifles at .38-.52 & .56+

I could say that to repair vehicles, you need a number of parts equal to its Toughness per health level. And when stripping them, you get a number of parts equal to its Toughness, and increases by the same amount per raise.
So get two raises on a Toughness 10 vehicle, and you get 30 parts.

I wouldn't have parts be specific - We don't want to be number crunching, they just "co-incidentally" happen to be the right things when you repair whatever it is.
In the case of the Gadgetteer edge, you need a number of parts equal to the PP the item will end up having. But only for Gadgeteer'd items, not powers bought through advancement.

What I will probably work on next is writing down all the old skills and seeing what they would go under now. Then, what kind of rolls previously happened for that skill, and how it would also be done now.

For example, me and Ben have been discussing online how to scavenge for food & drink, which is mentioned in the SW book. But, we can then add modifiers for location, such as in the middle of the wastes could be -4 or worse!

I thought that was the costs, not for compatibility.  so a box of .44 or a box of .45 costs the same, but they still don't fit the same guns.

parts - that makes sense.  More parts for bigger vehicles, very logical.

This is a list of all the old core skills from HoE, and then which SW skills or edges I think would best replace it.

Hell on Earth		Savage world
Artillery			Shooting
Arts			Knowledge [Art]
Scrutinize		Notice
Search			Notice
Trackin'			Tracking
Academia			Knowledge
Area Knowledge		Common Knowledge
Demolition		None
Disguise			Stealth
Language			Knowledge [Specific Language]
Medicine			Healing
Professional		Knowledge
Science			Knowledge
Trade			Streetwise
Animal Handlin'		Beast Master Edge
Leadership		Leadership Edges
Overawe			Intimidation
Performin'		Persuasion
Persuasion		Persuasion
Tale Tellin'		Persuasion & Tale Teller Edge
Bluff			Persuasion
Gamblin'			Gambling
Ridicule			Taunt
Scroungin'		Notice / Survival
Survival			Survival
Streetwise		Streetwise
Tinkerin'			Repair
Faith			Faith
Guts			Guts
Bow			Shooting
Filchin'			Stealth / Agility
Lockpickin'		Lockpicking
Shootin'			Shooting
Sleight o' Hand		Stealth
Speed Load		Speed Load Edge
Throwin'			Throwing
Climbin'			Climbing
Dodge			Parry
Drivin'			Driving
Fightin'			Fighting
Ridin'			Riding
Sneak			Stealth
Swimming'			Swimming
Teamster			Driving
Quick Draw		Quick Draw Edge

I would make bullets break down into big or small - As long as people don't try to fit small bullets in a big gun, or vice versa, I'm happy. Small pistols will use small pistol ammo, big pistols use big pistol ammo, and so forth.
Anything which would be a special exception would be named as such.

I don't want to offer players a box of .45 ammo, when they only have .44 guns - It wouldn't be much use, whilst saying "You guys find 20 bullets that will fit small pistols." is much more useful and keeps the speed of the game high.

This is a list of powers which are available to each of the Arcane Backgrounds.
All spells are from Deadlands: Reloaded.
Currently there are no spells I am going to be creating based upon old spells, though this may change if there is nothing appropriate so far.

Doomsayers: As per Arcane Background: Magic
Aim, Armour, Blast, Bolt, Boost/Lower trait, Burst, Curse, Detect/Conceal Arcana [Detects Radiation Only], Healing, Light, Quickness, Succur [Radiation Loss Only]
#Notes# Immune to Fatigue Loss caused by Radiation

Junkers: As per Arcane Background: Weird Science
Aim, Armour, Barrier, Beast Friend, Blast, Bolt, Boost/Lower Trait, Burrow, Burst, Deflection, Detect/Conceal Arcana [Detect Only], Dispel, Elemental Manipulation, Entangle, Elemental Protection, Fear, Fly, Healing, Invisibilty, Light, Obscure, Quickness, Smite, Speak Language, Speed, Stun, Succor, Teleport, Wilderness Walk, Windstorm

Sykers: As per Arcane Background: Psionics
Aim, Armour, Beast Friend, Blast, Bolt, Boost/Lower Trait, Burst, Deflection, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Elemental Manipulation [Air, Earth & Fire], Fear, Fly, Healing [Self Only], Invisibilty, Mind Rider, Puppet, Quickness, Speed, Stun, Telekinesis, Wilderness Walk, Windstorm

Templars: As per Arcane Background: Miracles.
Aim, Armour, Beast Friend, Boost/Lower Trait, Burst, Deflection, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Dispel, Exorcism, Gambler, Greater Healing, Healing, Inspiration, Protection, Quickness, Sanctify, Smite [Melee Weapons Only], Speed, Succor, Wilderness Walk, Windstorm
#Notes# One starting power must be Healing and in addition, gains a free Templar Sword [Counts as Long Sword]

Due to not everyone owning Deadlands: Reloaded, here is what they approximately do. Also, not all powers can be taken at novice level - Please check with me first.
Aim - Reduces Called Shot penalties
Armour - As per SW
Barrier - As per SW
Beast Friend - As per SW
Blast - As per SW
Bolt - As per SW
Boost/Lower Trait - As per SW
Burrow - As per SW
Burst - As per SW
Curse - Target loses fatigue, eventually causing death
Deflection - As per SW
Detect/Conceal Arcana - As per SW
Dispel - As per SW
Elemental Manipulation - As per SW
Entangle - As per SW
Elemental Protection - As per SW
Exorcism - Gets rid of those evil spirits ;)
Fear - As per SW
Fly - As per SW
Gambler - Chance to get an extra benny
Greater Healing - As per SW
Healing - As per SW
Inspiration - Bonus to Tale Telling
Invisibilty - As per SW
Light - As per SW
Mind Rider - Read a victims mind
Obscure - As per SW
Protection - Can't take actions, but difficult for Evil to attack
Puppet - As per SW
Quickness - As per SW
Sanctify - Blesses land against Evil
Smite - As per SW
Speak Language - As per SW
Speed - As per SW
Stun - As per SW
Succor - Cures Fatigue
Telekinesis - As per SW
Teleport - As per SW
Wilderness Walk - Bonus to Stealth and can't be tracked
Windstorm - Summons a small tornado
This message was last edited by the player at 17:52, Tue 23 Jan 2007.

Mechanically, what else would I need to convert?

For those of you who have never played HoE before, what else would you need that I haven't mentioned so far to be able to play a character?

For those of you who have played HoE before and own the books, what is missing that a player would need to know?

For example, I haven't worked out things that are beyond the reach of low level characters, such as the power armoured suits, which whilst there are some in the SW book, I would want to bring over the flavour of the different variations from HoE.

I have just been converting many of the weapons over to use Savage Worlds, but as I did, I realised most of the more standard weapons would just be ones from the core book, but under a different name.

For example, I consider the SA Officer's Sidearm to be a Desert Eagle - High stopping power and the same calibur, whilst the NA Officer's Sidearm would be the Glock - High clip size and also the same calibur.

However, after I didn't think about this until after writing out most the weapons out and deciding their appropriate stats.

In the case of military grade equipment such a Rocket Launchers without a cost, well, players should 'aquire' them in-game, shouldn't they ;) We couldn't have you starting out with all the fun toys.

In regards to armour, it would follow a similar grade of being pulled straight from Savage Worlds, although no name to name change. After all, a Flak Jacket is still a Flak Jacket many years down the line.
In regards to the Power Armour, they too would just be a name change:
CSA Wolverine = Heavy Suit
HI Purgatory = Battle Suit
USA X-Suit & LatAm Diablo = Scout Suit

ok this is a bit of an old thread but I felt I should give some input on the skills list as i see it.

Hell on Earth Savage world

Demolition From the settings I've read that use explosives this is usually taken care of with a Smarts roll

Trade This also seems to be covered by Knowledge. It's not something you just pick up off the streets. You need to be taught or self taught through hours and hours of practice. I could see this also being split between an agility skill and a smarts skill. One for general knowledge and one for actually crafting an item. But that isn't very FFF and takes away skill points for a player so I'd probably leave it as one smarts based knowledge skill.

Scroungin' Definatly a notice I think. Scroungin' up slingstones is a notice roll in settings that have them. Why not anything else? with appropriate penalties for rarity.

Filchin'         This is covered under Lockpicking as per the core Savage Worlds rules.

Dodge Dodge skill was always for ranged attacks and fightin' was used for avoiding melee attacks so I say this one falls under no skill and should be represented by the Dodge and Improved Dodge edge and battlefield tactics. Use of cover, going prone, etc.

I guess I was wondering how you would handle cyberware and cyborgs?  use the sci fi toolkit system?

lots of good info and ideas here....keep up the good work, HOE:reloaded would be cool, but this works in the meantime..

You asked for it.

Savage world rules and HOE required! Just too much information for me to post and players really need to understand the world.

link to another game
This message was last updated by the GM at 18:52, Sat 28 July 2012.

Would anyone be willing to run Hell on Earth Reloaded?

So hi everyone.  Just recently joined the group and noticed it's not one that gets a lot of traffic, buuuuuuuuuuuut I figure this is the best place to discuss this.  Consider this an interest check.

Ever since Hell on Earth Reloaded came out, I've wanted to do something with it.  Classic HoE was like the third RPG I ever played, and to this day, I loved the setting and the mishmash of Old West and Post Apocalypse.  It's a damn weird game and I love it, there's nothing else quite like it.  I loved the Reloaded core book and I'm buying the entire line as it comes out (thankfully the books are small and inexpensive).  The Companion added a lot I felt was missing.

Also a bit of a SW geek in general (YA THINK!?)

So here's a proposal.

I have an idea for a Hell on Earth game, but unlike the usual ones that see the characters running willy nilly across the wastelands (not that there's anything wrong with that!), I instead wanted to sort of shrink it down to a microcosm of the Hell on Earth Universe and more or less ignore the larger metaplot.  I want to essentially "flesh out" how does life actually work in the Wasted West, usually the player characters swoop in, save the town, and swoop out again only to repeat elsewhere.

I've chosen a small patch of East Texas with some interesting local history for the setting, which I will fictionalize.  The idea is that there's a new town, highly secure and very rich, built around an experimental oil refinery that survived the Last War that brings a lot of wealth to the area.  However there's a lot of political intrigue involved with this settlement and the Oil Producing Economic Council.

Simultaneously, the settlement has relations with both a mutant community and a nomadic tribe.  The mutants are used by the oil barons use as expendable labor in irradiated oil fields.  Secretly, an inner circle of the mutants believes they may be nearing a valuable ghost rock strike, previously undiscovered, and finding it would decisively shift the power in the region away from the norms.

Trapped between the two is a nomadic society of post apocalyptic primitives who the rich settlement pays to track and combat massive roving gangs of undead who keep coming from the eastern US.

And in the background are tons of road warrior bandits, mutants and humans alike, who are taking advantage of the limited roads capable of transporting the oil.

I wouldn't be a frequent updater like some of these games on site that have multiple daily updates, I'm an adult with a job and all that, I'd strive to advance each player at least once every other day though.

Ideally, I would most value players who like to also be world builders who will make the little region come alive, and I'm not above letting players be their character, plus maybe an occassional villain or NPC merchant or something like that.

I'm tempted to mark the game Adult, not for sexual content per se (though hedonism and decadence are interesting themes in post apocalyptic settings) but rather to just make it clear that although we're going to focus on adventure and setting, terrible, horrible stuff is going to happen and I don't want to pull any punches with the themes we might explore.

I was curious what everyone thought of that too, otherwise we could just flag it Mature buuuut I feel like I'd have to scale it back a bit that way.

It would take some time to spin up, since I don't have a Plot Point kind of setup in mind, the initial situations would reflect the characters playing.  We'd start with a little bit of the setting set forth and gradually kind of build it up as things happen, might even force a retcon or two but them's the breaks.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Thu 11 Dec 2014.

What I took out of your description is that there won't be much action or exploration - just folks sitting around in rocking chairs and poking their noses in other town folks' business or something. That doesn't seem very exciting to me and I love post apocalypse stuffs =/

Yikes!  That result's obviously not my intent of course, but if the basic idea is so terrible it's probably not worth trying.

Having the focus be on one single location isn't a terrible idea. It seems like it would be a bigger challenge to keep things exciting though. But if you have enough ideas to keep things interesting, go for it.

Seconded!  If you build it.  They will come

This could catch my interest. I tend to prefer intrigue and relational drama to pulpy action.

I would definitely be interested.  Been jonesing for some HoR.  Let me know if this happens.

Thanks for feedback everyone.

I've put some stuff down in text but it needs a wee bit more shoring up before it gets anywhere, and then decide if I'm happy with it.

To be completely honest, I think it'd be a mistake to even try to get it off the ground before 2015.  You'll hear about it here first.

FWIW, I've had a similar idea (not HoE) for a while.

Basically, you'd do like the old western shows. Like Bonanza or Ft. Laramie or Bordertown. It's the same problems, but the problems come to you.

I would almost pre-gen characters for this, to make the town's citizens of note. The brave Sheriff, the pretty Schoolmarm, the rich mayor who always has a scheme, the town drunk, the rancher that everyone looks to, the wise preacher. (feel free to mix and match those descriptors...)

Make a few nearby places to watch for. The glowing lake. The Haunted caverns. Mutietown.

Give the town a reason to be. Are they farmers, ranchers? Located on an unbroken stretch of highway? The river? What would happen if a bike gang came along and tried to take that away (blockade the road, dam the river, steal the cattle, steal the grain shipment)?

It's got a lot of tread on the idea. Flesh it out and let us know when you are looking for players!

*taps the mic*

Interest check on Hell on Earth: Reloaded?  Start with simple one-shot and go from there.  Just feelin' the need to head back into the Wasted West.  Anyone else?

Count me in :)

What's the setting like? I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic stuff.

It's kind of mad Max with magic and tech.

The original was quite Gonzo like the deadlands classic whereas reloaded is a bit more gritty. I really like it :)

I'm down.

If you build it they will come.

Settles that then.

SOOOOOON

*gets to typing*

I take it you'll be using the HoE Companion as well?  (Witch or Librarian.... *debating*)

Entirely depends on date though.... my RPOL activity is a bit hampered at the moment.  :/