#WEIRD WEST RPG ADVENTURE HOOKS SERIES#
When they burned in the irradiated flash of the nuclear explosion, they raised the levels of fear even further, in the process turning the planet into a series of ‘Deadlands’, areas warped enough to draw out monsters from mankind’s nightmares. This was not just a war fought with nuclear weapons, but nuclear-Ghost Rock weapons, and the contained within Ghost Rock the spirits of the damned. The need for Ghost Rock would ultimately send mankind to war on Banshee, another world where more of the weird mineral was discovered-as detailed in Lost Colony, the third roleplaying game in the Deadlands series-whilst at the same time bring about the Last War. Their influence prolonged the American Civil War and permanently divided the United States of America into the United States of America and the Confederate States of America with great swathes of disputed territory between them. It explains how Native American shaman, known as the Last Sons, in 1863 performed a ritual known as the Reckoning which unleashed malicious spirits that increased the fear levels nationwide, let magic into the world, fuelled mad science with a newly discovered glowing mineral known as Ghost Rock, and created monsters, cultists, and madmen. So in explaining the set-up for the 2094 of the Wasted West, Hell on Earth goes both into some details as how this future came about and how the set-up of Deadlands is the foundation of that. Again, with Hell on Earth and its extra genres, not so much. Setting up, running, and playing a scenario for Deadlands was easy because both Marshals and players knew both genres from years of exposure to both genres in film and television.
The horror-Wild West combination of Deadlands was an easy sell and an easy buy-in, but the horror-Wild West-post-apocalypse, fantasy mashup of Hell on Earth or ‘It’s the sequel to Deadlands’ was not as much.
This compounds the second issue, that of too many genres, which made the roleplaying game difficult to access. Arguably this space could have been better devoted to more of the new background of the Wasted West-there is some background in Hell on Earth, but it does not feel enough, especially considering that it took another supplement, Wasted West, to give that background. The rules for Hell on Earth are those for Deadlands, barring the new and changed character types and genre rules, so if Marshals and players already had that roleplaying game-which seems likely given that the audience for Hell on Earth and Deadlands were essentially the same.
The first is background versus mechanics. Īll of which raises two fundamental problems with Hell on Earth. Hell on Earth also reveals all of the major secrets to the Deadlands storyline which had been hinted at in supplements released in the two years leading up to the release of Hell on Earth. It is another genre mashup, but where Deadlands does horror and the Wild West to get the Weird West, Hell on Earth adds post-apocalyptic and fantasy to get the Wasted West. It uses many of the same character archetypes as well as adding a few new ones and removing others. It uses the same mechanics and it is set in the same background, only two hundred years later. On the other it is a sequel to Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game, which had proved to be a big hit for their publisher, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, two years earlier.
On the one hand it is a standalone roleplaying game. Published in 1998, Hell on Earth: The Wasted West Roleplaying Game is a roleplaying game with an identity crisis.