Kevin C. Wong

Wendigo Tales v0 (2023) [/]

Pinnacle Entertainment has a set of Wendigo Tales books — short stories set in the various Savage Worlds RPG settings. Deadlands RPG had a set of Dime Novels published which combined a short story with a corresponding adventure. Wendigo Tales v0 collects the stories in the original set of Dime Novels published for Classic Deadlands.

I never read the stories so was a bit surprised they all have Ronan Lynch as either the main or one of the main protagonists. Ronan is a Harrowed — undead powered by a demon (Manitou) — with free will although occasionally the Manitou can take over and cause mischief.

Anyway, Ronan travels the Weird West sometimes with allies (which can repeat) and sometimes alone. This being the Old West even investigation adventures end with gunfights. Ronan himself, and really all the characters, is thinly developed but I guess that's because the stories are by various authors.

What's more interesting are the various bad guys they fight. Vampires, Werewolves (via a Werewolf the Apocalypse crossover), Mi-Go (via a Call of Cthulhu crossover), as well as various Deadlands monsters. That's pretty much the only thing that keeps the stories interesting.

Otherwise I'm not impressed with these stories. Writing good short stories is a special skill and good short stories have a finish that rivals novels. I'd say in the end this is a book for completionists since Ronan is also in other Deadlands media.