Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Author: Shane Lacy Hensley, Teller, Clint Black

Format: Hardcover, 201 pages

SKU: S2P-10017

ISBN: 978-1-937013-21-9

Price: $40

Deadlands: Hell on Earth Reloaded (HoER) is a post-apocalyptic horror role-playing game set in the Deadlands universe. Deadlands diverges from our history during the American Civil War when some Indian tribe summons some sort of reality storm to protect themselves. Magic comes into the world. Monsters come into the world. The USA and CSA stalemate and the world moves on from there.

In 2087 World War Three starts and the bombs cause the whole Earth to become a Deadland; a Deadland being an area where the Demon universe holds the most sway. Actually it's mostly Deadland pockets with somewhat Deadland areas in between but perhaps no "normal" places left.

Now it's 2097 and the heroes are survivors fighting the horrors (and there's an in-game reason to do this as defeating enough horrors slowly brings an area away from the Deadland end of the scale to the normal end of the scale).

It's the Savage Worlds system and you need Savage Worlds RPG to play HoER.

For people familiar with HoE classic and Savage Worlds:

1. *Unlike Deadlands Reloaded, HoER uses bennies as normal.
   

2. *For arcane characters you can play: Doomsayer, Harrowed, Junker, Syker, Templar, Toxic Shaman.
   

3. *The various HoER arcane backgrounds use the standard rules. Each background has a few new powers. Harrowed don't use power points and they have their own set of powers.
   

4. *I like the SW Fright rules as they're a lot simpler.
   

5. *HoER scrounging rules are also simpler.
   

6. *HoER mutation table is about 1/4 the size of classic and not as interesting.
   

Contents

Introduction (30 pages). HoE classic started in 2093 and ended in 2097. Half this section is history up to 2097 and the rest is state of the current world, including spoilers if you haven't played the HoE classic adventure Unity.

Making Heroes (10 pages). List of valid skills. New hindrances and edges.

Equipment (25 pages). Much of the equipment from HoE classic translated to SW.

Setting Rules (10 pages). Counting Coup, Death, Ghost Storms, Scavenging.

No Man's Land (25 pages). The various arcane backgrounds.

Marshal's Handbook (15 pages)

The Wasted West (50 pages). Short descriptions of various places. Some encounter tables and NPCs.

Monsters and Misfits (45 pages). A good selection of OPFOR including lots of automatons.

Value

With this book and the classic books you can run a Savage Worlds HoE campaign. By itself there's a lot of information but it doesn't hang together enough to run a campaign unless you're good at making up a lot of stuff. There is a sample HoE adventure and some sample SW adventures on the Pinnacle web site.

So I wouldn't buy HoER unless I had adventures to run. There will probably be some HoER campaigns published but I don't get the feeling this will be a well supported line. Luckily there are lots of classic adventures, most monsters are already converted and you could wing the rest.

Still, it's a really nice hardcover book with full color interiors. I just have a hard time believing I could run any sort of campaign with just Savage Worlds RPG and Hell on Earth Reloaded.