The Epitaphs Newcomers Guide to the Weird West

1877 Edition Lexicon Some of the terms within the Deadlands rulebooks may be confusing to new players, so they are listed below for your convenience. TERM Ace EXPLANATION The maximum number on any particular type of die, such as the 6 on a d6, or the 0 on a d10, whenever you get an Ace, you can roll the die again and add it to the previous total. Skills, talents, or trades a character has learned or developed. This includes skills like persuasion, shootin, and sneak. These are rewards that can be used to improve your characters Aptitudes or Traits or to purchase new Edges or Hindrances. You go when you roll more 1s than anything else. This usually means your character failed catastrophically. Specializations within a broader Aptitude category, each major type of firearm (pistol, rifle, shotgun), for instance, is a concentration of the shootin Aptitude. These are the non-player characters (not controlled by the players) who populate the world of Deadlands. Extras include everything from loyal sidekicks to dastardly villains and strange critters, the Marshal player the roles of the extras. The game master, or the guy or gal responsible for setting up the adventure and guiding the posse though it. A content between two characters, such as a stare down (overawe) or wrestling match (fightin: wraslin) The player characters (PC) and any sidekicks, allies or other extras that happen to be tagging along. When you make a Trait of Aptitude check, every 5 points over the TN is an extra success level: a raise. Sometimes this is said to mean a success and any raises. The difficulty of a particular task, if your dice roll is greater than or equal to the Target Number, your Traits Trait Level Believe it or Else! Only 10 character succeeds at whatever she was attempting. Raw physical and mental attributes such as Strength or Smarts. The number of Trait Die you roll when making a pure Trait check, such as a Strength or Quickness roll.

General Rules Round Down: Whenever you are asked to round a number, always round down. Dice: Normal die rolls are listed as XdY, where X is the number of dice to roll and Y is the type of dice to roll (4sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided. 12-sided or 20-sided). When reading the result take the highest result out of all the dice rolled. If there is a number listed after the dice such as 1d12+2, then that is added to the final result. One exception to this rule is when rolling damage, in that case all dice are added, then any modifiers to get the final result. Cards: During the game standard 54-card decks are used for character generation, determining who goes first in combat, and various other things. Usually the instruction in a specific section tells you when to shuffle the deck, but if they dont assume the deck isnt shuffled before each draw. Reading Cards: Sometimes you need to translate a card into a die code to do this, use the table below. CARD VALUE 2 3-8 9 - Jack Queen - King Ace - Joker CARD SUIT Clubs Diamonds Hearts Spades DIE TYPE D4 D6 D8 D10 D12 DIE TRAIT 1 2 3 4

Aptitudes

Bounty Points

Bust

Concentrations

Extras

Marshal

Opposed Roll Posse Raise Successes Target Number (TN)

NB: When Jokers are drawn, you have to draw another card from a fresh deck to determine its Suit, if another Joker is drawn then the Die Trait is 5. Fate Chips: At the start of each session each player draws 3 chips from the Fate Pot, each Fate Chips can be coloured white, red, blue, gold (called Legend) or black. Each Fate Chips can be used in game for various things such as negating damage, re-rolling or improving Aptitude or Trait

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The Epitaphs Newcomers Guide to the Weird West

1877 Edition Believe it or Else! Only 10 tests or they can be traded in for Bounty Points. At end of a session you cannot have more than 10 Fate Chips to carry over to the next session, so you must trade in as White Trait Or Aptitude Effect One extra die may be rolled; you can keep spending chips till youre happy with the result. May Heal 1 wound or 5 Wind Bounty Points 1 Special Notes When used on a Trait or Aptitude roll, the player cannot spend a White chip after theyve spent a red, blue, legend or black chip. Red Trait Or Aptitude Effect You can roll a bonus die and add it to the highest current die. Only a single red chip can be spent on a roll. May Heal 2 wounds or 10 Wind Bounty Points 2 Special Notes The downside is that when a hero uses a red chip on a Trait or Aptitude roll, the Marshal gets a draw from the Fate pot. Blue Trait or Aptitude Effect You can roll a bonus die and add it to the highest current die. Only a single blue chip can be spent on a roll. May Heal 3 wounds or 15 Wind Bounty Points 3 Special Notes None Legend Trait or Aptitude Effect You can roll a bonus die and add it to the highest current die. Only a single Legend chip can be spent on a roll. May Heal 5 wounds or all Wind Bounty Points 5 Special Notes You can use a Legend chip to re-roll any dice roll (including re-rolling from scratch) even if the roll went Bust. You can even modify the Marshals rolls if they affect your character! Note that when a Legend chip is used its not returned to the pot. Black Trait or Aptitude Effect None! May Heal None! Bounty Points None! Special Notes When you draw a Damned chip from the Fate Pot, inform the Marshal and discard the chip from the Fate Pot. You do not get to draw again and worse yet, something wicked this way comes! many Fate Chips for Bounty Points as it takes to reduce your carry over amount to 10 or less. Note you cannot use a Fate Chip to modify a roll that has gone Bust unless you use a Legend Chip. Difficulty: Sometimes the Target Numbers are expressed as words instead of numbers, in that case use the following table to find out the TN. DIFFICULTY Foolproof Fair Onerous Hard Incredible Astounding TN 3 5 7 9 11 13

Unskilled Checks: Sometimes you go to make an Aptitude check and discover that you dont actually have the Aptitude. In these cases you get to roll one die as if your character had level 1 in the Aptitude. The downside is that you take an unskilled penalty of -4 to the final result. Related Skills: If your character is making an unskilled check but has a related Aptitude (usually one with a different concentration though some skills like persuasion and bluff can be considered related), he gets to use the unskilled Aptitude at the same level as his related Aptitude but still takes the unskilled (-4) penalty to the result.. Raises: As mentioned in the Lexicon, when a hero rolls 5 or more above the TN he achieves a raise, and you get a raise for every increment of 5 beyond that as well. The more raises you achieve on a roll the better you succeed at a task. Success: You barely achieved the desired effect. If this is an opposed roll the opponent continues to resist normally and you both should roll again next round. One Raise: You manage to accomplish your goal with a little room to spare. If this is an opposed roll, you opponent loses or surrenders, at least until he can find another way to recover his loss. Two Raises: You make it look easy. If this is an opposed roll, your opponent surrenders and does not resist or attempt to recover without a major change in the situation.

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The Epitaphs Newcomers Guide to the Weird West

1877 Edition Believe it or Else! Only 10

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