FUDGE Deadlands

These are my conversion notes for Deadlands. I referenced the 1st edition Deadlands book and some of the revised edition changes. After using these rules for character creation and 2 sessions of play I was not entirely satisfied, there was still a bit too much complexity in some areas. I decided to head the conversion back towards being mostly about feel and setting and less about mechanics. The Coordination rules I originally came up with can be found on the Optional Rules page.

* The Basics * - The Main Conversions

Traits

Task Difficulty and Task Rolls

Modifiers - Halve all Deadlands bonuses and penalties, except a +/-1, rounding down.
Raises - If a result depends on the number of raises, every level above the target is a raise.
Drawing Cards - Whenever a task roll can gain extra cards for a draw hand an extra card is gained for each level above Fair on the task roll.

* The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of * - Creating Characters

Attributes (Traits)

Draw 12 cards as normal for Deadlands and use the tables below to interpret them.

Wind and Damage

Use the standard Fudge Damage Track except that the number of Scratch boxes a character has depends on the characters Deadlands Wind rating. Scratches represent Wind at a ratio of one Scratch for every three wind, instead of having a Wind total.

Use the table below to determine the number of scratches a character has.

Skills (Aptitudes)

Skills (Aptitudes) have no connection to any Trait.

Most Skills (Aptitudes) default to Poor, except for Hexes, Miracles and Rituals which have no default.

Skills (Aptitudes) are chosen using a variation of the Five Point Fudge character creation system by Steffan O'Sullivan.

Your character receives 5 Skill Points and must spend points in at least two different Groups.

Skill Groups

Skills marked with * are available in more than one group.

Skills followed by [Concentration] require an area of that skill to be chosen as the main area of the characters skill, all other areas are one level lower. A Mediocre skill may be traded for a second concentration in a skill.

Gifts and Faults (Hindrances and Edges)

Buy these using the Deadlands rules.

* Gear * - Characters Equipment

Weapons

Keep most of the same stats except for range which is worked out as shown below.

Range

Inspired by John Harpers gunslinging rules, descriptive ranges and distances used in many other FUDGE rule sets and my habit and desire as a GM to give distances roughly rather than to the exact metre.

Ranged weapons have three ranges, Short, Long and Extreme. Each range always has the same difficulty but the distance varies for each weapon.

Distances are as shown below.

Descriptive        Rough Distance              Range Inc
                                   Short GOOD  Long GREAT  Extreme SUPERB
-----------------  --------------  ----------  ----------  --------------
In yer face            2 m
Across the room       10 m              5
Across the street     30 m             10           5
Down the street       50 m             15          10            5
Few Hundred Yards    200 m                         15           10
Half a Mile          500 m                                      15

* Blowin' Things All to Hell * - Combat

The Action Deck

Make a Quickness roll and use the table in the Basics to determine the number of extra cards received. Then choose 1/2 of the cards to keep (round down, max 2).

Movement and Carrying

If you want to be bothered working these out use the die type equivalents for the relevant Traits.

Shootin'

Use the range rules presented above with the weapons to determine the base difficulty.

Fightin'

Fightin' is an opposed roll between the attacker and the defender.

Damage

Damage rolls, Hit Locations and Armour all work as in the Deadlands book.

All damage done is assessed against the modified Fudge Damage Track shown below.
Alternatively divide damage by 3, rounding down to a minimum of 1, and apply it to the standard Fudge Damage Track.

Wind Scratches represent Wind so ignore the Wind component of damage unless the damage is only to Wind, in which case it does one Scratch for every D6 or part thereof.
Treat costs in Wind, such as for Hexes, the same as damage only to wind.
If all Scratches are filled then a character is out of action as all wind has been lost. Further damage is handled by normal use of the Fudge damage track.

Healing: One Scratch is healed every 4 minutes. All other wounds heal at the rate of their Deadlands equivalent.

Stun rolls are made against Vigor using the wound just taken but including any penalties for existing wounds.

Higher wound levels will cause wound penalties. You can either represent wound penalties using Wound Dice (Fudge dice which are only counted if they come up showing '-', they are added to all dice rolls for the character.) or as a penalty to every roll (these are not cumulative, use the worst wound).

* Fate Chips and Bounties *

Fate Chips

These give either a bonus to a roll or reduce wounds or wind taken.

Bounty Points

The costs to improve Traits when spending Bounty Points are shown below.

Arcane Abilities

Hucksters

No special notes.

Hucksters & Hexes

Treat Tricks as Gifts (Edges) that may be bought at character creation instead of a Mediocre skill or later for bounty points.

Mad Scientists

No special notes.

The Blessed

No special notes.

Shamans

Choose one favour for each level above Poor in the highest ritual.

The Harrowed

No special notes.

* Fear *

No special notes.