A Short History: Deadlands CCG (1998-2001 AEG/Five Rings Publishing/WoTC)

In 1998 AEG began the release of Deadlands: Doomtown, a trading card game set in the Weird West world of Deadlands. The story for the game focused around the boomtown, Gomorra which was situated at the edge of the Great Maze near what is left of California in 1876. As the town grew through the story, more factions would appear in game expansions. Each player would choose a faction for their deck, and just like other AEG games their factions would help to determine the story of the game over successive events, tournaments and set releases.

Just like previous games AEG made, Deadlands had its own set of unique terms to define the games mechanics and play. They are:

Ghost Rock (GR): The money of the game. Used to buy or pay upkeep on items, dudes, etc.
Production and Upkeep: Production gives a specified number of GR per turn, while upkeep costs a specified number of GR per turn to keep the card in question.
Influence: A characteristic of some Dudes, it shows how much the town populace knows, fears or respects them, and is used to prevent another player from winning and controlling deeds.
Control: A characteristic of some Deeds, which shows how important the structure is to the town, and is used to win the game.
Victory Points: Like control, but it is won in game and cannot be taken away.
Bullets: The combat prowess of a Dude. The higher it is, the more cards you can use to make a poker hand. There are two types of bullets, Draw and Stud (affecting the hand similarly to draw and stud poker).
Outfit: The faction a dude belongs to. Dudes that belong to no specific outfit are called Drifters.
Pull: Drawing the top card of your (or sometimes an opponent's) Deck. This is used to determine if Spells or Gadgets are successful, or other game effects.
Draw Hand: A hand of poker.
Shootout: The combat phase of the game.
Cheatin': A Draw hand that has two or more cards with the same rank and suit (such as two aces of spades), not counting jokers. These hands are "illegal" and may be punished by Cheatin'! action cards.
Boot: When a card is used, it is usually booted (turned sideways) to indicate this.
Fear Level: This changed with each expansion as storyline progressed. The higher this is, the nastier the town has become.
Boot Hill: The graveyard of the game's cards. In contrast to the discard pile, the Boot Hill isn't reshuffled into the deck when the deck becomes depleted.

There were 8 types of cards in Deadlands: Doomtown. Actions, Dudes, Events, Goods, Deeds, Improvements, Spells, and Jokers. And each of those cards used a specific playing card suit. Each deck must be exactly 52 cards plus one outfit cards and up to two jokers. No more than four copies of any one card in the same deck and no more than four copies of a card with the same value in a deck.

As in other AEG games, what might have been called personalities or some other term, in this game were themed as "Dudes" and they are your gang, ranging from old-style Wild West desperadoes and lawmen, to Lovecraftian witches and mad scientists or wily scientists as the RPG traditionally called them. Each dude belongs to a specific outfit (except for drifters) denoted by a small icon below the character's influence. Dudes are used to conduct your business and disrupt your opponent's plans, and are often expendable.

Some Dudes were quite powerful, while others might be very low power but would compensate with a strong card effect or ability or a passive that would support a specific play style. What is interesting is that unlike other AEG games, this game was lacking the experienced system of other AEG games of the time. They tried out a lot of new mechanics here and a new way of design for a ccg that went above and beyond other games of the era.

Deeds: These are used to provide income and to win the game. Deeds have three defining stats - control, cost, and production/upkeep. Some deeds have actions or restrictions on them or will tell you when a specific effect will happen or trigger. Think of them as territory that you put into play.

These are all the nasty surprises you will play on your opponent(s). They are called Action cards and they are divided into Noon actions (which are playable on their own), Shootout actions (which are played during a shootout), and Reactions (which are played in response to another action or effect). These cards would help to flush out your strategy for how you intended to win the game.

Reaction cards could be specifically very powerful cards which would grant you instant speed ability to react to what your opponent was playing or attempting to do. One of the common tactics in any TCG is trying to throw wrenches into your opponents plans while you simultaneously work to execute your own plan for victory, these reaction cards could be very powerful in helping with that strategy.

These are the normal items your dudes will equip and use, from Horses and New Hats to Death-Ray contraptions and mystical Bullets. They're called Goods.

Phases of the game:
Gambling Phase is a round of lowball poker, where the worst hand wins. The winner gets one GR from each of the other players and wins initiative, gaining the first action in the following phases of play (with actions then proceeding clockwise). In this phase, very illegal decks may be punished, because players cannot manipulate their cards to avoid an illegal hand (as in shootouts).
Upkeep Phase is a round in which players to gather GR from deeds with production and pay GR for the upkeep of cards (or discard cards to avoid paying upkeep).
High Noon is the main part of each turn, in which players can buy deeds and goods, recruit new dudes for their gang, move dudes around to take control of other deeds, start shootouts, and generally promote their strategy while disrupting that of the opponents.
Nightfall is the end of each turn, when scores are counted and a win may be declared. Otherwise, each player prepares for the next turn: booted cards are unbooted and play hands are refilled. The player with the most influence at nightfall is rewarded with an extra bonus card for their play hand.

In addition, Movement is a major part of the game. Yours and your opponents Dudes must move from one place to another, and their ability to do so is based on the physical arrangement of the deeds. A deadly shootout hand may be useless if unable to catch the opponent's dudes while they are moved around town to disrupt businesses and plans.

Victory conditions for Deadlands:
The game is won when, during Nightfall, one player has more control + victory points than the highest total influence of a single opponent. (In a later rules revision, a variant called for beating the "lowest total influence", which leads to quicker multiplayer games for tournaments.)

Control points are acquired by controlling deeds that provide them. Deeds are controlled by the player with the most influence at the deed; if there is a tie then the owner of the deed controls it (even if they're not involved in the tie). Some goods also have control points.

Victory points are given by meeting a condition of a card. For example, the Law Dogs outfit grants a victory point each time their controller kills a wanted dude with more than one influence or puts a wanted dude in jail. Some jobs earn victory points as well.

Deadlands was both a fascinating TTRPG and then a wonderful CCG. This is one I never got the chance to play and it has been so much fun to read about and delve into. For the next post, I'll be talking about another game I never had the chance to play: ANIMAYHEM!

Thanks for reading, happy gaming!