DEADLANDS, or: Of Course the Dead Got Up at Gettysburg

As ever, there are multiple ways to achieve ruledom, though Deadlands has never received an OGL of any form nor been popular enough to sink into common knowledge.

Essentially, the rules are simple things.  A variety of stats receive, not only a number, but a Die Type, from d4 (terrible) to d12 (peak human).  (Rarely a stat might be d12+2 or something like that, representing super-human abilities, but it's rare.)  Numbers go from 1 (terrible) to 5 (peak human).  They are written like this: 1d6, 4d8, etc.

Skills receive a number, and are associated with a stat.  The number is the amount of dice you roll for that Skill, and the Stat determines what die type you roll.  They range from 0 (totally untrained) to 10 (verging on superhuman levels of skill).

FOR EXAMPLE:

Shooting is associated with Nimbleness.  Let's say we've built a gunslinger, and they've got a high Nimbleness of 3d10.  That's good!

But that's just their general Nimbleness.  If they were attempting an action they weren't trained at, they'd take a penalty to their die roll- in the case of Shooting, it'd drop to a 1d10.  Sadness!

So they need a Skill to use their Stat effectively.  Let's say they buy up a 5 in Shooting.  That means they'll roll 5d10 every time they want to plug some varmint or let the sunlight into into some bandit's hide.  That's amazing, I should point out, and almost guarantees them at least one hit.

This is just one example.  If you like, I can post the generic rules on here, since I believe the original Deadlands Classic is actually out of print; I don't think we'll be running afoul of any intellectual property problems, assuming no one can find any rules.

If anyone's interested in a game, I'd be glad to Marshal (DM) it!

Hmmm... I'm interested in playing, providing I can play as a Mad Scientist. As I said, I can provide .pdfs for anyone that needs books.