ReadLog: We Deal in Lead
Funny how games come in waves. I was reading Eco Mofos before going to LasagnaCon. At LasagnaCon I picked up the new Cairn Player’s Guide from Paolo. And not a week later, going to Wayland Games to get something else, I saw three By Odin’s Beard books on the new arrivals tables. Among which was We Deal in Lead. When I realised this is not just a weird west game, but a weird west game directly inspired by Stephen King’s Dark Tower novels, I just couldn’t put it back on the table. Sorry, Runecairn, you didn’t stand a chance.
Art by Kim Diaz Holm
We Deal in Lead is a straight Cairn hack by Colin le Sueur. Play an Order of hardened gunslingers, armed with magical shootin’ irons, riding together on a quest among the ruins of a world that moved on. As every other game of its kin, you can hit the ground running: roll on the character creation tables, discuss a few details together, and you’re ready to ride the dusty trails of the Driftworld.
On top of the Into the Odd core rules (at the risk of repeating myself, still the most streamlined engine for efficient old schooling), it has rules for animal companions (aka non-human gunslingers), ritual magic, and of course magical boomsticks. I like the short and efficient hexcrawling procedure with default encounter tables by environment (windshorn mountains, bleached deserts, but also irradiated sprawls), and the excursion generator that’s part scenario ideas and part solo crawl rules (which are completed by another short chapter including a tarot inspired oracle. The bestiary has about 40 spooky critters from spideer to serfbot. And there are monster creation and conversion guidelines as well.
The book is sewn hardbound, 88 full colour pages on thick paper inside a gorgeous Goran Gligović cover. The art is maybe a bit inconsistent in style, but each piece is atmospheric and/or illustrative though, so no complaint from me. I would also have liked a more complex starting adventure, but in 5 pages, Swampwater Shootout has atmosphere in spades and can be used as a springboard for a longer saga.
The biggest selling point for We Deal in Lead as far as I’m concerned is the slipdoors. Like King’s series, We Deal in Lead proposes to send your gun-toting knights questing into strange places. Places like, I don’t know, [the Vald](https://cairnrpg.com/, or Bastion, or fantasy Sumer, or another post-apocalyptic world or three. I’m also wondering if I could use more than just the setting from Mythic Bastionland… What I know for sure is I’d defo mine Frontier Scum for bleak western material (and probably the saved-by-your-hat rule).
You can get the PDF of We Deal in Lead on itch and the book directly from Odin’s Beard. I’ll add that the game has possibly the best official RPG soundtrack I’ve ever heard (which you can stream on Of Sleeping Bears’ bandcamp).