Just as fate smiles on those that persevere against the odds and accomplish their goals, fate also frowns upon those that cause trouble and fail their desires. When the posse royally screws up an adventure and ends up leaving things worse than when they started, they earn a “Black Chip”. Some examples of screwing things up include raising a fear level, a major public disgrace for the posse, letting tough opponents get away, getting involved in the wrong side of a dispute and gaining major notoriety for their magical or bizarre talents which would draw the attention of the Tombstone Epitaph or government agency.

When a posse member draws a Black Chip from the fate pot, fate frowns upon the group and bad things are soon to come. Remove the Black Chip from the game just as you would a used Legend Chip. The posse member who drew the Black Chip does not get to draw a replacement chip. During the session, something bad will happen to the posse and that something will most likely notice the player who drew the Black Chip first if possible. For example, if the posse earned the Black Chip because they angered, attacked and fled from the notorious bandit “Six-gun Sanchez”, then maybe he came looking for the posse for revenge. And Mr. Sanchez most likely walks into the local saloon just as the unfortunate individual who drew the Black Chip was coming down the stairs...alone. Sanchez will most likely take out his pent-up aggression on right then and there, or follow the individual back to the posse before he begins causing trouble (depending how deserving he is and what kind of mood the Marshal is in). Say the posse earned the Black Chip because their huckster gained a reputation as a practitioner of the black arts, then maybe a team of Pinkertons or a posse of bounty killers will be aiming to take him dead or alive. Only the players may draw Black Chips. The possibilities are endless, but any way you look at it, the Black Chip is an omen that something wicked this way comes...

As an alternative, if the Marshal draws the Black Chip from the fate pot, he may treat it as a Legend Chip for himself. During that session, something bad will happen just as if a posse member had drawn it. Under this system, if the Marshal draws a true Legend Chip he returns it to the fate pot and does not redraw; therefore only the posse may have Legend Chips and only the Marshal can keep and use Black Chips. There may only be one Black Chip in the fate pot at a time.

A good way to mark the chips is to spray paint some of your extra blue chips. Use silver paint for a Legend Chip and black spray paint for a Black Chip. A permanent marker will show on a gold painted chip to mark it so that you can remember how the posse earned it. The posse won’t have more than one Black Chip, so the Marshal can decide which is the most interesting to keep in the fate pot.

C) Gift o' Gab (62): Characters now get to pick up languages as if they had a skill of 1 after a few minutes of conversation. This cleared up some ambiguities on the old system. [Shane Hensley, DL listserv, 5/28/99]

Whether it was your fault or not there are times when you just can’t help but break the law. Those who do often end up on the wrong end of a rope but that doesn’t have to happen to you. With the expert services of the lawyers at Dewy, Cheetem, and Howe you too can enjoy the freedom guaranteed to all men under the constitution of both the United and Confederate states. Put your defense team on retainer today and let us start defending you!

Everybody needs a lawyer at some point and these guys only employ the best. Well mostly anyway. You could defend yourself but we really wouldn’t recommend it.

Here’s how you can go about getting the best legal (or otherwise) defense possible.

Dewy, Cheetem, And Howe have regional offices in most major cities in the east and most of the ones in the west. If there isn’t an office in your town the lawyers will travel to you by rail, stage or air if necessary. There are some other law firms that offer this service but DCH is the best.

Retaining the best legal defense on the continent is not cheap. Standard retainer fees start at $500 and go as high as $3,000 depending on the quality of lawyer you want. Then when you get arrested or put before a judge or are anticipating doing either just telegraph the nearest office and a lawyer will be dispatched to your case.

• Deadlands - Lawyers.pdf

Hucksters challenge Manitous to a game of wills in order to get the evil spirits to power their hexes. However, not all Manitous are the same. The following is a selection of one of a kind Manitous that can give a little extra boost to a hex, but at a cost. These Manitous usually only come when specifically called, Hucksters usually learn of them by word of mouth.

• Deadlands - Manitous.pdf

This here's a page for ideas on how to drive your marshal nuts. Mostly it's about combinations of edges and hindrances that ought to be illegal, but aren't explicitly forbidden by the rules.

The Quicker Picker Upper

The rules for Scrawny says you can't be a Big-Un if you take Scrawny. They don't say nothing about being Brawny and Scrawny, though!

Size Matters

Want to be Brawny but don't want to spend 3 points on it? Take Big-Un and Fleet-Footed for a total net cost of 1 Point.

Courage Under Fear

Here's a trick for the faint of heart. Squeemish? No problem! Take Brave to cancel out those Guts check penalties, and you've still got 1 point of Squeemish left over to spend on something else.

Deep Pockets

The rich get richer and the poor get... a little dinero! Tired of having to walk everywhere 'cuz you can't afford a horse? If you've taken the Poverty Hindrance, pick up 1 point of Dinero. Now you've got $300 and an extra $100 stashed away somewhere. Total gain: $150 and 2 points of hindrances.

Extra Thick Skin

Harrowed characters get to ignore up to two wound levels of penalties. With the Thick Skin Edge, they can ignore up to three! This is official, too... Shane said so.

I don't quite remember where I found this, nor do I know the name of the original author.  I didn't compile these, but I like them (well as a player, anyway.  Maybe not so much as a Marshall)

Obviously, there just wern't enough ways to mess with your Posse's heads, Marshal, because some clever sod-buster came up with this document.  The Wierd Wide Web breeds all sorts of mysteries, including 54 new mysterious pasts that can be used to flesh out your characters.  That's one per card in the deck, if you wern't counting!

• 54 More Mysterious Pasts