History TabletopGame / Deadlands

** Any huckster knowingly deals with evil spirits to do "magic". Mad scientists also deal with those same spirits, but not knowingly (usually - some mad scientists, called [[PostModerMagick metal mages]], have figured out the truth and use mory mystical techniques to speed their own crafting).

* WitchSpecies: Downplayed, as there's other forms of magic, but the Whateley clan and all its branches are noted for being extremely talented ''at minimum'' for all of the morally ambiguous types, and have a unique form of BloodMagic plus the ability to [[CastFromHitPoints spill their own blood]] for power. [[spoiler:There's a good reason for this; beyond their willingness to interbreed with demons, they are all descendants of Morgan le Fay.]]

** This seems to be a company policy for Pinnacle Entertainment Group; their guidelines for third-party licensees explicitly forbids them from including smoking in their products.

* WitchSpecies: Downplayed, as there's other forms of magic, but the Whateley clan and all its branches are noted for being extremely talented ''at minimum'' for all of the morally ambiguous types, and have a unique form of BloodMagic plus the ability to [[CastFromHitPoints spill their own blood]] for power. [[spoiler:There's a good reason for this; beyond their willingness to interbreed with demons, they are all descendants of [[{{Myth}}/ArthurianLegend Morgana le Fay]].]]

* BadassBolas: The {{Gaucho}} archetype carries a bolas.

[[folder:Tropes Found in Doomtown]]
* ActionGirl: Quite a few like Sloane, Xiong "Wendy" Cheng, and others.
* BigBad: The demon Knicknevin was the ultimate evil of the gameline.
* AllChinesePeopleKnowKungFu: The signature trope of the Maze Rats along with the fact they're also pirates.
* BackFromTheDead: Sheriff Coleman came back as a Harrowed to avenge his own death.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Sweetrock Mining Company, which wants to take over the rich Ghost Rock veins in town.
* DoomedHometown: Gomorra is eventually burned to the ground like the real-life Deadwood.
* FromBadToWorse: The original story arc started relatively peacefully, but started getting progressively nastier until it climaxed with the arrival of the Demon Knicknevin. The final expansion of that story arc saw the death of many prominent characters (such as the leaders of the Sioux and Whateleys), along with almost half the characters in existence until then, and the destruction of an entire faction (The Flock). The demon was defeated, but at a great cost to the town, which was almost razed to the ground. The next story arc began with this reduced base, but was not fully fleshed out before production of the game was discontinued.
* HillbillyHorrors: The Whateley Family are this, calling back to their inspiration in Creator/HPLovecraft's work.
* MadScientist: The Collegium were a collection of these, vying to take over the town with other factions.
* MenInBlack: The Agency was this in the original story, combining this trope with the [[LawEnforcementInc real-life Pinkerton Detective Agency]].
* OneSteveLimit: Every character has a unique first name, likely to avoid confusion when having two similarly-named cards.
* PathOfInspiration: The Lost Angels are a sinister religion corrupted by dark forces. They were eventually eliminated from the town.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Agency and Texas Rangers since they're both supernatural fighting law enforcement. They just work for the North and South respectively.
* WretchedHive: Gomorra is the worst town in a monster and crime-ridden AlternateHistory.
[[/folder]]

* Deadlands: Doomtown (CCG) (Classic, Reloaded)

* HillbillyHorror: The Whateley Family are this, calling back to their inspiration in Creator/HPLovecraft's work.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: In this version of the Old West, the South freed its slaves and the Civil War's drain on manpower allowed females to gain greater social status. The rulebook stipulates that only villains be racist.
An attempted justification was made 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 UsefulNotes/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. This proved very controversial with Civil War history knowledgeable fans and became a BrokenBase that resulted in a {{Retgone}} regarding the Confederacy.

[[folder: Deadlands: Reloaded]]
* AwfulTruth: The [=PCs=] can discover that all of Hellstromme's automatons are powered by human brains. This will bankrupt him if it gets out as it is easily verifiable if you own an automaton.
* BrainInAJar: The secret to Hellstromme's automatons.
* CorporateWarfare: The Railway Wars are conducted by the corporations using actual soldiers and explosives.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The [=PCs=] in the Plot Point campaigns successfully destroy one of the Servitors, kill the future self of another, and cripple the plans of two more. As such, the Reckoners plans are indefinitely postponed.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Stone, of all people, has this opinion of his invincible future self and decides to recruit the [=PCs=] to take him down.
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Pinkertons have officially become the Agency now.
* TheGreatFlood: A Wild West version is triggered by the [=PCs=] to wash the city of Lost Angeles clean of evil.
* HeelRealization: Darius Hellstromme, of all people, has one of these with the help of the [=PCs=].
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Chief Sitting Bull turns out to be the leader of the Order of Raven. Working with Darius Hellstrom, he gained vast numbers of weapons to fight the white man and killed George Armstrong Custer (who rose as a Harrowed). He was later defeated by Crazy Horse.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: The Plot Point Campaigns involving the Servitors all result in the previously invincible servants to the Four HorsemenOfTheApocalypse are all brought low.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Stone ([[ItMakesSenseInContext at least one of them]]) is finally killed after a decade of running wild on [=PCs=] as well as in-universe heroes.
* KilledOffForReal: Wild Bill Hicock, Doc Holliday, and others by Stone.
* MsFanservice: The Witchita Witches are women in dress in tight revealing leather and carry whips. Unsurprisingly, fan artists love them.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: A part of Pinnacle Entertainment's design philosophy was to ''avoid'' this as they believed ''Classic'' had way too much happening in the metaplot that didn't involve the players.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Subverted and downplayed, the South never gave up slavery [[spoiler:as the Reckoners supported it due to the sheer amount of [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil suffering]] the institution caused]], and was ultimately destroyed after a longer Civil War after the Texas Rangers defected to the North.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The increasingly common automatons employed by Hellstromme Industries are all operated by picked human brains.
* ShootTheDog: The [=PCs=] in ''The Flood'' have to kill a lot of innocent people to destroy Brother Grimme and his 13 Apostles.
* SpaceColdWar: What the conflict between the North and South has become.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Whenever Unionists and Confederates have to work together against the Reckoners.
* TimeSkip: ''Classic'' takes place in 1876 and ends in 1878. ''Reloaded'' takes place in 1879.
* UpdatedRerelease: ''Reloaded'' had the second printing, both of which revised a number of rules and split the single book into Player's and Marshal's books.
[[/folder]]

* Deadlands: Reloaded (Savage Worlds)

** 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 UsefulNotes/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.

* CosmicRetcon: In the ''Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition'' version, [[spoiler:Morgana le Fay's resurrection]] has thrown time out of wack, creating a relatively new setting.

* AwfulTruth: The PCs can discover that all of Hellstromme's automatons are powered by human brains. This will bankrupt him if it gets out as it is easily verifiable if you own an automaton.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Stone, of all people, has this opinion of his invincible future self and decides to recruit the PCs to take him down.

* TheGreatFlood: A Wild West version is triggered by the PCs to wash the city of Lost Angeles clean of evil.
* HeelRealization: Darius Hellstromme, of all people, has one of these with the help of the PCs.

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: The Plot Point Campaigns involving the Servitors all result in the previously invincible servants to the FourHorsemenOfTheApocalypse are all brought low.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Stone ([[ItMakesSenseInContext at least one of them]]) is finally killed after a decade of running wild on PCs as well as in-universe heroes.

* ShootTheDog: The PCs in ''The Flood'' have to kill a lot of innocent people to destroy Brother Grimme and his 13 Apostles.

[[folder:Tropes Found in Deadlands Classic and Deadlands: Reloaded]]

* HeadlessHorseman

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Chief Sitting Bull turns out to be the leader of the Order of Raven. Working with Darius Hellstrom, he gained vast numbers of weapons to fight the white man and killed George Armstrong Custer (who rose as a Harrowed). He was later defeated by Crazy Horse.

* MsFanservice: The Witchita Witches are women in dress in tight revealing leather and carry whips. Unsurprisingly, fan artists love them.

** Subverted and downplayed in the ''Adventure Edition''; the South never gave up slavery [[spoiler:as the Reckoners supported it due to the sheer amount of [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil suffering]] the institution caused]], and was ultimately destroyed after a longer Civil War after the Texas Rangers defected to the North.

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Classic'' had the "Revised and Expanded" edition and ''Reloaded'' had the second printing, both of which revised a number of rules and split the single book into Player's and Marshal's books.
* USMarshal

The material for ''Deadlands: The Weird West'' is extensive, covering approximately 30 or so full-length sourcebooks. GM's — "Marshals", in game parlance — were widely encouraged to research actual history and folklore to color in the details of their campaign world. Don't think the game's authors were slouches, though. July 3, 1863 was the date of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. The interference of these new malevolent forces turned that battle to the favor of the Confederacy, and perpetuated the war for about 15 years. The setting is filled with historical {{Shout Out}}s. In 2020, they released a new version of the setting where the Confederacy fell during the battle of Washington DC in 1871, due to the [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] shenanigans of the sorceress [[Characters/ArthurianLegend Morgana le Fay]].

* Deadlands: Lost Colony (Classic & D20)

[[folder:Tropes Found in Lost Colony]]
* EarthThatWas: So far as any humans know. They have no hope of ever getting back to Earth. Even if they wanted to leave Faraway to its native population they can't. So many humans in such a hopeless situation is the driving emotion of the setting.
* EvilColonialist: Humanity is for all intents and purposes doing the same thing that happened to the Indians, only to an entire alien planet.
* InnocentAliens: The Anouks really don't want to deal with Humans, not to mention the fact that they brought all of the woes of the Reckoners with them.
** There is an entire group of the Anouks called [[Literature/StarshipTroopers Skinnies]]. They are especially hateful of the humans and will kill anyone they can. [[spoiler: These Anouks are actually from an evil version of the planet itself. Their home destroyed long ago.]]
* {{Nanomachines}}: Transmuters (or 'Mutes as people call them) have cybernetic enhancements that allow them to control tiny robots that allow them to build generally anything they can think of. [[spoiler: The Nanites are possessed by manitous and have a habit of... upgrading... their wielders.]]
** In Lost Colony Reloaded, it would seem that the network that all of the nano-machines get their orders from has been corrupted from a virus uploaded by EXFOR. Once these individuals could build wonders with their nanobots, now they can only destroy. [[spoiler: There is no virus. The creator of the 'bots attached a type of tormented soul called a Sykergeist to the network to bring terror to the world.]]
* ReactionlessDrive: Space travel is accomplished with an engine that not only allows close to warp speed travel but also reduces the mass of travelers and their craft so as to not cause any physics issues. [[spoiler: The engine is magical in nature, and if it goes wrong (and sometimes even if it doesn't) you run into a situation similar to [[EventHorizon Event Horizon]]]]
* ScavengerWorld: To a lesser extent than ''Hell on Earth''.
* SpaceWestern: The whole setting.
* UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: The United Nations Expeditionary Force (EXFOR) was tasked with suppressing the Anouks for the human settlers.
* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: The narrator of the core book is a woman named Debbi Dallas. She explains that "Dad was a marine and liked [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Does_Dallas the classics]]".
[[/folder]]

** Hell on Earth: Reloaded (Savage Worlds)

* Hell on Earth: Reloaded (Savage Worlds)

* TabletopGame/DeadlandsHellOnEarth Deadlands: Hell on Earth (Classic, Reloaded, & D20)

* [[TabletopGame/DeadlandsHellOnEarth Deadlands: Hell on Earth]] (Classic, Reloaded, & D20)