History TabletopGame / Deadlands

* SinisterMinister: Grimme. Just Grimme.

* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Nicodemus Whateley is an {{Expy}} of [[TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], but after the first Doomtown story arc begins leading the Gamorra Whateleys in a less overtly antagonistic fashion, with faint references to having come round to the side of good. [[spoiler: Also, he killed [[TheAntichrist the reincarnation of Knicknevin]] ]]. By the time of Doomtown Reloaded, however, he's mayor and full on evil again.

* PhlebotinumInducedSteampunk: The steampunk mechanisms are fueled by a miracle fuel, ghost rock, which is a supernatural mineral made by the [[BigBadEnsemble BigBads]] from damned souls.

** Justified with regards to slavery. Historically, Major General Patrick Cleburne proposed emancipating slaves in return for enlistment in the Confederate Army, but his plan was not implemented. With the ''Deadlands'' Civil War going on for years longer with heavier losses, the plan was enacted to give the South the manpower they desperately needed. Combined with the GrandUnifiedTimeline/FirstIndustrialRevolution making the slavery economy unfeasible and the British (who had already outlawed slavery historically) making abolition a condition for their support, the South outlawed slavery and societal norms grew to match.

* TheMagicComesBack: The return of magic is one of the major events that kicks off all of the weirdness.
* ManEatingPlant: The Blood Oak

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The game includes multiple types of vampires to allow players to include whichever kind they prefer. These include everything from feral Nosferatu-style vampires to modern Anne Rice - style vampires.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: It is implied that strangeness is breaking out all over the world, but the forces or darkness and all the major events are concentrated on the North American continent.

** Justified with regards to slavery. Historically, Major General Patrick Cleburne proposed emancipating slaves in return for enlistment in the Confederate Army, but his plan was not implemented. With the ''Deadlands'' Civil War going on for years longer with heavier losses, the plan was enacted to give the South the manpower they desperately needed. Combined with the IndustrialRevolution making the slavery economy unfeasible and the British (who had already outlawed slavery historically) making abolition a condition for their support, the South outlawed slavery and societal norms grew to match.

* BigScrewedUpFamily, and also ItRunsInTheFamily: The [[Creator/HPLovecraft Whateleys]]. "How screwed up?", you ask? You have to make a ''guts'' check to be able to ''[[GoMadFromTheRevelation look]]'' at the Whateley family [[strike: tree]] [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow gnarled non-euclidean shrub]]. They are wicked, incestuous, inbred, crazy and extremely powerful sorcerers. [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch You can play a good Whateley]], but if you do, the rulebook suggests they be fairly far removed from the main family branch (cousins at the very least). This is a very reasonable suggestion.

* HollywoodVoodoo: Baron [=LaCroix=] has turned basically all of Louisiana into a pit of stereotypical voodoo madness.

In 2014, the {{Collectible Card Game}} was rebooted as Doomtown Reloaded. Cleaned up rules and a new story that begins after the destruction of the old town.

* LordBritishPostulate: Why Stone [[spoiler:has no listed stats in ''Classic'']]. With the release of ''Reloaded'', [[spoiler:he does have stats, but is practically invincible and has two weaknesses that are essentially impossible to exploit.]]

* HandCannon: While the Agency (see below) issues their men [[MoreDakka Gatling pistols]], the Texas Rangers prefer to go with scaled-up LeMat revolvers loaded with magnum rounds.

* GatlingGood: Every single vehicle in the Smith & Robard's catalog has multiple gatling gun mounts. Players can also acquire rifle and pistol-size gatling guns.

** ''Deadlands'': ''Classic'', ''{{GURPS}}'', ''D20'', and ''Savage Worlds'' (''Reloaded''). Plus the CCG and the miniatures game.

* ''{{GURPS}}''

* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Nicodemus Whateley is an {{Expy}} of [[TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], but after the first Doomtown story arc begins leading the Gamorra Whateleys in a less overtly antagonistic fashion, with faint references to having come round to the side of good. [[Spoiler: Also, he killed [[TheAntichrist the reincarnation of Knicknevin]]. By the time of Doomtown Reloaded, however, he's mayor and full on evil again.

* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Nicodemus Whateley is an {{Expy}} of [[TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], but after the first Doomtown story arc begins leading the Gamorra Whateleys in a less overtly antagonistic fashion, with faint references to having come round to the side of good. By the time of Doomtown Reloaded, however, he's mayor and full on evil again.

Originally released in the 1990s by [[http://www.peginc.com Pinnacle Entertainment Group]], ''Deadlands: The Weird West'' was the first setting in what would become a trilogy. The brainchild of Shane Lacy Hensley, ''Deadlands'' was, at the time, praised as a breath of fresh air amidst the various ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' clones and derivative works. The rules were very detailed (to the point of being cumbersome, at times), and the setting was more so (to the point of being awesome, most generally). Since then, Pinnacle (and its affiliate, Great White Games) has begun re-releasing the settings with the much lighter (but less detailed) ''SavageWorlds'' rules system. This began in 2006 with ''Deadlands: Reloaded.''

* TheRemake: The original ''Classic'' systems re-adapted for the SavageWorlds system and an advancement of the metaplot.

* ArmyOfTheDead: The Black Regiment is a rare evil example of this, though technically more an example of NightOfTheLivingMooks. They are a regiment of Walking Dead created from fallen soldiers, their uniforms stained a blackish color due to being soaked with half-dried gore (hence the name), who mysteriously appear on battlefields to turn the battle in favor of the losing side with their vicious tactics. Of course, they fight for the Union or the Confederates as they see fit, as their purpose is to basically keep the deadly stalemate between the countries going, and they're perfectly happy to turn on their "allies" of a given battle if they get in the way.

* WeirdHistoricalWar: The core book provides some information about how WorldWarOne develops (-ed) in this setting.

Finally, there's the third Deadlands setting, ''Lost Colony''. Set in a star system "far, far away", where a group of [[NobleSavage sentient, but primitive]], aliens may just hold the key to defeating the {{Big Bad}}s once and for all. It's meant to provide a suitably expansive backdrop to the series' climactic [[GrandFinale final confrontation]], but was hindered by a lack of support: only two sourcebooks and one novel were written to support the setting, a far cry from the extensive treatment of previous games in the series. Like its big brothers, however, it maintains a very "Western" feel, leading to the tagline used in all three series, "The spaghetti Western...with meat!" A ''Reloaded'' edition of ''Lost Colony'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcLu_TNGZ78#t=08m42s has been announced]], with an estimated release date of mid or late 2016.

In 2014, the {{Collectible Card Game}} was rebooted as {{TabletopGame/DoomtownReloaded}}. Cleaned up rules and a new story that begins after the destruction of the old town.

* {{Wendigo}}: See the page.

* GenreBusting: Horror meets WildWest by way of CattlePunk, moving through FilmNoir before going on to PostApocalyptic.

** Especially in Noir but also in the other books, "zombies" are definitely of the classical voodoo variety being bound to the will of their reanimator and generally unstoppable (with their few weaknesses being things like facing the sea and having their mouths stuffed with salt and sewn shut).

* KillerRabbit: Jackalopes and Dusters; the former are antlered rabbits who cause bad luck in an effort to get people killed so they can eat their souls, while Dusters look like any small, harmless creature but cause water to evaporate by their very presence and can suck every last drop of water from a person they touch.

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: The narrator of the core book is a woman named Debbi Dallas. She explains that "Dad was a marine and liked the classics".

* StableTimeLoop: On July 3, 2063 - the day Darius Hellstromme revealed the [[FantasticNuke Ghost Rock Missile]] to the world - the manitous stopped inspiring mad scientists, as the G-Bomb was assured to turn the entire world into a Deadland. When some of the smarter mad scientists got together and tried to ''make'' them cough up more technology, it was discovered that the manitous had been GivingRadioToTheRomans the whole time by stealing inventions from the future. And since they stopped sending them back, there was no more to steal. {{Deconstructed}} in that the past three centuries of technological civilization have been an utter waste as a result; it has reached a dead end and ''there is no more tech that can be built with ghost rock!''