Harrowed Rules

Deadlands 1876
Harrowed Rules

Introduction

A Harrowed character has a whole new set of “Harrowed Powers” to choose from, which may be purchased during advancement in the same manner as traditional Edges and Powers. Upon becoming Harrowed, the character is automatically bestowed with Unnatural Appetite. The Marshal is also free to grant Unnatural Healing as well.

Harrowed Points
Harrowed  Powers are fueled by “Harrowed Points” or HP, analogous to the Power Points that govern the traditional Powers used by characters possessing Arcane Backgrounds. Unlike these Arcane Powers, there is no need for an associated “Spellcasting” or “Faith” skill. Like Edges, Harrowed Powers are activated at will.

Using Harrowed Points

A freshly-Harrowed character starts with a number of HP equal to his Spirit, so a character with a d8 Spirit is granted 8 HP upon resurrection. Unlike Power Points, Harrowed Points cannot be regenerated naturally—they must be replenished according to the following methods:

Harrowed Powers

The Lemmy Joker
The Ace of Spades is now a very precious card to a Harrowed character. If dealt to the character during initiative, the Ace of Spades may be used as a “Lemmy Joker” by spending 1 HP. The Lemmy Joker acts first in the round—trumping both red and black Jokers—and bestows the usual +2 Joker bonus. With expenditure of a second Harrowed Point, the character may draw a second “Double Stake” Action card for that round, thus granting him two Actions that round. (If the Ace of Spades was drawn using Unholy Reflexes, this extra power is negated.) If the Double Stake card is also spade, and matches the face value of any opponent’s Action card, a third Harrowed Point may be used to steal that card from his opponent and add it to his own hand. If more than one opponent has drawn the same face card, additional HP may be spent to steal them all! Therefore, a Harrowed character drawing an Ace of Spades may theoretically spend 5 HP to collect five Action cards for a single round!

For instance, the Pale Rider is a Harrowed character who draws the Ace of Spades during a gunfight with the Bridges Gang. He spends 1 HP to activate the Lemmy Joker, and 1 HP to draw a Double Stake card, getting the Jack of Spades. In a happy twist of fate, two of his opponents have also drawn Jacks, and the Pale Rider spends 2 HP to collect both cards, giving him a mighty powerful hand of four separate Action cards this round and denying two of his opponents the ability to take action!

Playing with the Queen of Hearts
The Power of the Lemmy Joker has a downside. The Queen of Hearts now serves as the “Born to Lose” card. If the Harrowed draws it during initiative, he cannot use any other power to discard or draw another card, and it serves as an anti-Joker. The character moves last, and suffers a –2 penalty to all of his actions that round. Needless to say, a Queen of Hearts cannot be “stolen” from an opponent, and an unkind Marshal may rule that an opponent acting on a Queen of Hearts receives a +2 advantage against the Harrowed character!

Summon Relic Weapon
If the Harrowed character possesses a Trademark Weapon, he can invest it with supernatural properties by taking the “Relic Weapon” Power. This Relic Weapon is now bonded to the Harrowed character, and can be summoned directly into his hand, even across great distances. This ability costs 1 HP if the Relic Weapon is in sight, and an additional 1 HP for every factor of ten miles distance, loosely based on a logarithmic scale.

Unnatural Appetite
A Harrowed character no longer finds traditional food appetizing, and vegetables and cooked meats go through his system without being digested in any useful way. The most common method for a Harrowed character to replenish his pool of HP is to slake his undying thirst on warm blood or to devour raw flesh—the rawer, the better. The table above features the appropriate HP replenished for various cannibalistic activities.

Unnatural Healing
Being dead, a Harrowed character is no longer susceptible to medical treatment or natural healing, and may only be restored through magical healing employed by an Arcane with an ethically-appropriate alignment. (For instance, a benevolent Cheyenne medicine man or a Jesuit exorcist cannot treat a Harrowed character; whereas a Raven shaman or a self-styled necromancer may use Greater Healing as normal.) Fortunately, a Harrowed character can heal himself by spending Harrowed Points at the rate of 1 HP per Wound Level restored. This act of Unnatural Healing is considered a single Action, and HP cannot be used to automatically Unshake a character like spending a Fate Chip.

Unholy Reflexes
By summoning forth a burst of infernal energy, the Harrowed character can move with a preternatural speed, performing up to three separate Actions each round. These Unholy Reflexes require the expenditure of 1 HP per each additional Action card, up to a maximum of three. If the Ace of Spades is drawn during Unholy Reflexes, it may be transformed into a Lemmy Joker; but an additional Double Stake card may not be purchased.

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 4 December 2016
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
PDF Version:Deadlands Rules – Harrowed Rules