Deadlands: Reloaded: Something Wicked This Way Comes

The name of our Deadlands: Reloaded campaign is Something Wicked This Way Comes. Anytime I start creating a new campaign, I look for a name that nicely captures one or more of the themes of a campaign. Some names come easily. For the Legends of Steel Campaign, "Shadows of Yar" foretold of plots and skullduggery by an evil, sorcerous, demon infested land. Some names do not come easily. For Mars, I wanted a wide-open, sandbox campaign. I eventually went with "Under the Moons of Mars" because I couldn't come up with anything original.

For Deadlands, the name of the campaign actually came before any campaign themes or adventure ideas. I was brainstorming and writing things down; surfing and googling the net, looking for inspiration for the campaign and first adventure. I stumbled upon the phrase, "Something Wicked This Way Comes." The phrase clicked with what I wanted: a plot point campaign against a Big Bad Evil Guy (or Big Bad Evil Something, in this case). The setup seemed easy enough: a cult or other evil organization is tying to summon something evil. The Posse finds out about the plot and does their best to stop Something Wicked from coming this way.

I wanted to lay out a number of premade scenes that the Posse would run through whenever it seemed appropriate. In between the plot points, the Posse could explore the Weird West or work on character goals.

I'm still working on the actual writing of the scenes for the plot points, but I have an outline of what the Posse will need to work through.

I have the first adventure laid out.

- It takes place in the southwest corner of Kansas. Bloody Kansas is a free state, claimed by the US and the CS; it borders Indian country, the Coyote Confederation; and it lies between two railways, Black River and Dixie Rails. Any kind of character would have reason for being in the area.

- All of the characters will be on a train headed for Dark Horse, Kansas. Any character with the Old Ways Oath (Major) is screwed. I'll have to figure something out if this happens. The characters may or may not know each other. I'll leave that up to the players.

- The very first scene will be a fight on the train. Assuming that we avoid a TPK, the post-fight cleanup will reveal evidence that Something Wicked is coming this way and certain elements of humanity are making preparations to welcome it. It's up to the Posse to stop it.


Tim