The year is 2097, but the future is not our own.

A long Cold War came to an end on September 23, 2081, at 6:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Judgment Day arrived on the wings of irradiated ghost rock bombs, leaving six billion dead. Of the billion who survived, most perished in the chaotic days following the end of the world.

But hold up, let's step back and I'll explain some of the ideas in this setting to you from the start.

The Great Spirit War?

So, in Deadlands, the supernatural is real. There are evil spirits, what indigenous characters might call manitous, or what Westerners might call demons. The manitous come from a place called the Hunting Grounds, a mystical locus of dark energies. The Hunting Grounds have masters, and they're called the Reckoners. In the setting of Deadlands, they've infested the Weird West and set their grand plans in motion.



These beings called the Reckoners, previously locked away by a group of medicine men, were released by a very big mistake--that's how I'd put it anyways. A young indigenous man, called Raven by those who knew him, was seduced by the power of the Reckoners, which he believed would drive out the settlers in American lands. Raven lived on over the centuries, under the thrall of the Reckoners. Well, until recently--we'll get back to that.



This had many effects, but probably these three effects of Raven's ritual are most relevant:

• The resulting Great Quake of 1968 shattered California's coast into a labyrinth of flooded sea channels and canyons. The region, stretching from Mexicali to Oregon, is now commonly called the Great Maze. The earthquake revealed veins of a previously undiscovered mineral called ghost rock, which burned a thousand times hotter than coal and screamed when set alight. Soon, many veins were discovered not only all over the Americas, but worldwide.
• The Reckoners, working in their secret ways, began to terrorform the Weird West, seeding fear deep in the countryside and allowing for the infection of forces from the Hunting Grounds.
• Alongside Raven, a large number of business interests unwittingly lined up to become the servants of the Reckoners. Chief among these was Darius Hellstromme and his company, Hellstromme Industries, but there were also the other Rail Barons. Deadliest of them all was the Harrowed named Stone, the servitor of the Reckoners and a sure sign that you'd be at rest soon.

So what's this got to do with me?

In 2081, the bombs dropped. They had been invented by Darius Hellstromme, still alive after all those years after transferring his mind into a robotic body. But all sides of the conflict used these bombs.

Here's what happened: just before Christmas of 2080, President Mary Tremane of the United States agreed to a cease-fire with the enemy, secessionists in the South of the country and their new allies globally. They agreed to a joint press release--yet, when Tremane's plane took off from Denver, it disappeared over the Rockies. Theories abound about what happened, but Tremane's successor, Andrew Bates, was convinced that the secessionists had shot Air Force One out of the sky.

He began making threats with his cache of ghost bombs. Immediately, most realized that "A-Bomb Andy's" threats were the beginning of the end for civilization. Germany invaded Mexico, where they also fought French soldiers at the French Embassy in Mexico City. In retaliation, French forces in Europe marched over the Rhine and invaded Germany, then turned around to fight off a British invasion.

Battles broke out across Asia, Africa, and South America. Russia and Japan invaded China. South Africa charged north.

No one had yet dropped a ghost-rock bomb, but A-Bomb Andy had threatened nuclear armament. Then Pakistan launched a tac-nuke against India.



The nuclear genie was out of the bottle. A few weeks later, Great Britain dropped a nuke on France's coastal defenses. Germany coordinated a dual invasion, and Russia invaded in support of France.

In North America, the Canadians dropped bombs in Washington an New England. Within a couple days, the Canadians took Boston and proceeded south to rendezvous with a Southern division for an attack on Washington, D.C.

Under attack from all directions, A-Bomb Andy turned to his last resort: scorched earth tactics. Both sides launched their entire arsenals--most of the bombs that fell on that day were city busters. They were designed to kill everyone in a city without destroying that city's strategic value.

From ground zero to about five miles out, all but the biggest, toughest buildings were reduced to rubble, and pretty much everyone was flash-fried by ghost rock-fueled radiation. Around this area formed a hurricane of screaming souls, called a ghost storm.

At any blast site, the worst part, inside the maelstrom, became a Deadland. Plants died, creatures mutated into monsters, and horrors plucked out of nightmares came to life.

The Reckoners

Shortly after the dust settled, the Reckoners themselves arrived on Earth. One Reckoner showed up in Kansas, and stomped his way through the Dakotas. Another popped up in California, flattened Los Angeles, and headed East, leaving devastation in her wake. A third appeared in Texas weeks later, and led an army of plague zombie through Texas, Louisiana, to the East. A fourth rose in Death Valley, leaving a trail of corpses to the Mississippi.

For fifteen years, they toured the world slaughtering by the millions. When they returned in 2096, they faced a reckoning of their own. Again, we'll come back to this.

Livin' in the year 2097

So, how do people live? Well, some folks, mostly mutants, live near the cities--but it's not very hospitable due to all the radiation and the critters.

Smaller towns still aren't in great shape, but they're in slightly better shape than the cities. Mostly, these are ghost towns.

Most people live in the survivor settlements these days, and they're pretty picky about who they let in. Some are built on rickety platforms over water, others on mesas in the Great Maze. Most are built over the ruins of old towns. Most have walls, sometimes of wreckage, and sometimes of brick and concrete.

Every settlement's got a leader of some sort, a mayor or a sheriff, or sometimes a council of folks. Occasionally, they're elected, but usually it's just some waster with a mouth.

So how do you get around, I hear you asking? Simple. You get a car and you go to the highway. Going on foot or on horseback is an absurd idea on account of all the horrors, road gangs, and other dangers on the road, and because of the difficulty of pulling together the scratch for the supplies you'd need to get anywhere. This isn't Fallout, you can't walk the wastes and stay alive.

A good option is joining up with a trade caravan.

Of course, if you wanted that, you'd have to pay out for it, right? Right. So you need scratch, which means you're going to be bartering mostly. Some settlements have their own currencies, but only Junktown's currency, what they call widgets, extends beyond its' walls. That's because Junktown is the settlement. More on that later.

Long-distance communication is also a crapshoot. If you're real good with tech, you might be able to get hooked up with ComSat, the last remaining radio satellite. It's self-aware and lonely, and you may find yourself whispering sweet nothings for a chance to talk to your friend in the Maze on the other side of the Wasted West.

It's a lot more likely that you'll go to a Postman though. That's someone who's taken the job of delivering parcels and letters across the Wasted West. They'll charge usually $5-10 per letter, about $100 for an easily carried package. It's dangerous work, you know. No refunds, brainer.

You should know about Mother Nature, too. She's a mean bitch now.

Black Rain: Ghost rock deposits burn all over the West. Occasionally, huge black clouds from these fires coalesce with thunderclouds. They drift for hundreds of miles before they unleash a downpour of deadly black rain filled with the damned souls let loose by burning ghost rock.

Dust Storms: The Last War did a lot to the planet's weather patterns. Smart ones get under cover when the dust storms kick up--dumb ones suffocate in seconds. The worst are radstorms.

Hellstorms: These have it all: searing hot winds, boiling rain, violent lightning. It'd be best to get to shelter. A bomb shelter, if you can manage it, but lesser shelter might work in a pinch. Tents, trees, and so on won't last.


Toxic Clouds: Green, yellow, orange, or red clouds floating low to the ground. Should be easy to spot, easy to avoid.

Below, I'll tell you about who's who and what they do in the Wasted West.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:31, Tue 06 Sept 2022.

Who's who?

Lots of folks out there in the Wasted West. I already mentioned the Postmen above, and so I'll mention a similar group now.

Law Dogs: So there's no law, but you still get people out there trying to keep order. And believe it or not, the people they call Law Dogs tend to be fairly decent people. Take Jane Swindall, a former Texas Ranger. After the end, she gathered every law dog she could find and tasked them with keeping order impartially. She also hunted down anyone who shamed that designation. Law Dogs protect people. Any people, without regard for race, faction, or mutation.

When it comes to sentencing, it's a mixed bag. In this world, jailing people is not an option--so murderers are killed, thieves are relieved of their ill-begotten goods and sent on their way, and so on. Law dogs don't enjoy this, but someone's got to do it.

The Combine, aka the Black Hats: So Dr. Hellstromme pulled some really interesting shit when it came to Denver and Salt Lake City, where he built the core of his corporation's power. Those cities came equipped with state-of-the-art energy shields around his holdings there, preventing the total destruction of those cities. The rest of Denver was hit by a neutron bomb and some sort of bioweapon, and has become a giant graveyard of mostly intact buildings filled with rat-gnawed skeletons.

There was a secessionist general, called himself General Throckmorton, who found his way in just after the Apocalypse. He managed to rewire the factories to obey him, and used them to build himself a mechanical army.

The bulk of the army, though, is the Black Hats, identified as you might have guessed by their headgear.



All in all, the Combine are bad folks.

Mutantkind: So people say "mutants" and they think of, like, horrific three-eyed cannibals. That's not really reflective of the reality of the situation, though. There are three broad groups of mutants out there, and they typically call themselves the Chosen.

"Free-range mutants": This insulting term is applied to unaligned mutants, who live just about anywhere, typically somewhere the norms shun due to radiation levels. Others get kicked out of survivor settlements after the discovery of their mutations. Few any develop any weird powers, but norms live in fear of mutants.

Some mutants take up residence in ruined cities. This is a bad idea--give it enough time, that's not a regular mutant, that's a god-damned trog, a loser so messed up by the radiation there's no reasoning.

Many independent mutants have resorted to forming bands to raid norm settlements, perpetuating a cycle of fear, hatred, and violence. All the better for Silas and his Cult of Doom.

The Cult of Doom: So let's talk Los Vegas. It didn't get blown up, alright? The secessionists missed the city, and hit the city's easterly suburbs. Those who survived in the West fell under the dominion of the Vegas mobs and later the "Cult of Grendel," which worshipped a monster that laired in the ruins of the Tropicana. A few years later, Silas Rasmussen showed up.

He had been a professor before the bombs dropped, and he became a powerful mutant in Vegas. He claimed that radiation should be worshipped, and became a powerful priest of a new god, called "the Glow." He cemented his power by destroying the Grendel.

Silas capitalized by building himself a new society in Vegas, with himself and the Doomsayers, his radiation priests, at the top. Mutants flocked to his banner. Most brought with them stories of atrocities and intolerance against mutants perpetrated by norms.

The story of two mutants killed for the crime of being mutant in Virginia City provided Silas his opportunity. He gathered his Doomsayers and mutant legions and they attacked Virginia City, where Silas ordered the total slaughter of the population of the city. The new religion was truly born in this moment.

Silas' bloodlust was not yet sated, and he turned his armies against Carson City. The Doomsayers had earned a new name as the Doombringers. Here, however, Silas failed, due to the efforts of a traveller named Teller. From then on, Silas no longer led attacks, and the Doombringers waged a guerilla war. Regular retaliations provided plenty of propaganda.



They were to attack Junkyard during the Harvest. Yet, during the attack, the foretold Harbinger arrived and ordered them back to Vegas.

There, Silas found he had a lot of problems on his hand. After all, the Heretics had been right.

The Doombringers wear green robes to mark themselves.

The Heretics:

After the massacre at Virginia City, a few of Silas' inner circle woke up. They tried to talk some sense into Silas, but Silas rounded them up. He began executing heretics, several a day, until the heretics made their move. Fifty of them made a break for freedom, but only a dozen escaped. They scattered, and began preaching tolerance and understanding between mutants and norms where they popped up. Although the Doombringers and the heretics both believe norms are doomed, the heretics believe in treating mutant and norm just the same.

The heretics wear purple to distinguish themselves from the Cult of Doom. They search for the Harbinger, the subject of a vision the leader of the heretics experienced.

The Grand Library: Well, it's a place. Led by Head Librarian Marcus Liebowitz, the Librarians are dedicated to preserving the knowledge of the past. They're pretty secretive, so most folk don't know their business. They place preserving knowledge above all else, though, and they're not about sharing it, either. Their vaults are locked until they feel the knowledge they keep is needed.

The Iron Alliance: This alliance of disparate groups grew out of Junkyard's boss, Ike Taylor, and his realization that Junkyard would need to forge a coalition of like-minded folks to withstand Silas' assault. After a whole lot of diplomacy, he put together the Junkyard Summit. He managed to get the Chamber, the Heretic mutants, a bunch of Law Dogs, and other sorts to form an alliance. It took another few months to agree on terms. This, they called the Iron Alliance.



It seems like it's time to talk about the Harvest, and the Battle of Worms, and where you all find yourselves now.

The Harvest

General Throckmorton had his sights set on Junkyard. To that end, he forged an alliance with Silas Rasmussen and his Cult of Doom.

The showdown occurred on New Year's Day, 2096. On one side stood the Iron Alliance. On the other side stood the Combine and the mutant hordes of the Cult of Doom.

During the Harvest, Rasmussen's mutants attacked a blocking force composed of the Convoy and the Heretics south of Junkyard. Just as it seemed the glowing horde would overrun the Iron Alliance, the Harbinger descended from the sky in a sleek black vessel...

...and revealed himself to be none other than Dr. Darius Hellstromme.



So Darius Hellstromme, revealed as the Harbinger, ordered the Doombringers back to Los Vegas to await further direction, and many of the mutant hordes followed his word.

Having lost the support of the Mutant King's Cult of Doom the Combine's "Harvest" broke against the walls of Junkyard.

Most in the Alliance wanted to call it quits there, but certain voices prevailed and the decision was made to pursue the Combine back to Denver. That's when Raven reappeared.

The Battle of Worms

Just as the Combine was on its last legs, Raven showed up, marching across the Mississippi at the head of an army of undead, rattlers, and wormlings. This unholy horde smashed into the forces of both the Iron Alliance and the Combine. Despite high-tech weaponry in the hands of both the Iron Alliance and the Combine, Raven's troops were handily winning the battle until the Reckoners appeared to save the day.



Before things got too out of hand, Dr. Darius Hellstromme deployed an ingenious invention, and he captured the Reckoners. In doing so, Hellstromme was wounded, and he believed he was dying. He turned his device over to a group of heroes, who vanished from view.

Raven kept up his attack on Denver and burrowed underneath the city, making tunnels for the legions of wormlings and undead. The tunnels collapsed, leaving Dencer a ghost town.

Aftermath

After the Harvest, most of the major players went home to regroup.

The Combine: Throckmorton's army suffered extremely badly during the Harvest, and they no longer deploy automatons outside of Denver. They remain a powerful force.

The Mutants: Silas has attempted to reframe the fight at the Junkyard as an attack by the Iron Alliance on all mutantkind. Casting the norms of Junkyard as a common enemy seems to be working, as long as Silas can keep the heretics out of Las Vegas. To that end, he has his Doombringers scouring the Wasted West searching for the remaining heretics.

Librarians: The Librarians have become even more reclusive than before, withdrawing even their advisors from the Iron Oasis of the Junkyard.

The Chamber: The Chamber provided  whole array of high-tech equipment to the Iron Alliance, and many of their guys served with the Alliance during the attack on Junkyard.

The Road Gangs: Ike's treatment of road gangs paid off during the Harvest, but when Raven attacked in the Battle of Worms, they suffered horrific casualties. Still, in the general triumph after the fighting, the road gangs celebrated, and they celebrated hard. Ike even let them into Junkyard. Then, they started realizing that they suffered the brunt of casualties, and they began causing trouble around Junkyard.

The Iron Alliance: The Iron Alliance lost a lot, and they find themselves in a newfound position. A large refugee camp exists outside the walls, outcast mutants, the remnants of road gangs. It's like a powder keg waiting to go off.

Wait, you never said what this had to do with me. Answer the question, little man!

You'll be starting off in the refugee camps, my friends.