Deadlands: Doomtown is an expandable card game based on the Deadlands role-playing game. It was originally a collectible card game that ran from 1998 through 2001 and was revived as the Reloaded version in 2014. During the game, each player builds locations in the town and fights for overall control. Doomtown sets itself apart from other card games in that each card doubles as a playing card, which impacts both deck building and gameplay. Players resolve certain in-game situations (such as combat) with a hand of poker, accentuating the Old West atmosphere of the game. The game's movement rules are also noteworthy, often being compared to chess.
Doomtown is also a heavily story-driven game, with many tie-ins to the events of Deadlands at-large. In both its iterations, players are given opportunities to affect the story line, such as through tournaments where players vote on characters getting to live or die.
In its original printing run (1998–2001), Doomtown was set in Gomorra, a boomtown on the edge of the Great Maze. Due to a preponderance of ghost rock in its vicinity, various factions fight for control of the town. As the town grew and factions arrived, the conflict between the peacekeeping Law Dogs and an outlaw gang called the Blackjacks escalated toward a climactic shootout at high noon. The violence rocked the town, but greater conflict brewed in the background.
The second story arc focuses on the Whateley family and the Flock. Despite attempts by Confederacy and Union agents to stop them, the Flock and Whateleys succeed in using a mother lode of ghost rock in the middle of town to summon a demon from Hell. The demon destroys much of the town but is defeated along with the Flock. Surviving factions race to build rail lines and control Gomorra's ghost rock reserves. The leader of the Flock returns with the backing of Lost Angels, and uses a ritual to cause a catastrophe known as the Storm, razing the town and killing almost all of its residents.
The Reloaded iteration of Doomtown, published initially by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), picks up in Gomorra about a year after the events of the Storm. There was enough remaining ghost rock to encourage rebuilding Gomorra, aided by the rail lines.
An escalating conflict builds between the Law Dogs and the Sloane Gang of outlaws, culminating in a high noon shootout and a dead sheriff. A mysterious illness sweeps through town, and the secretive Fourth Ring circus open a sanitarium for relief efforts, while the Morgan Cattle Company use 'mad science' in search of a cure. The Fourth Ring are revealed to be turning the townsfolk into zombies. They unleash this horde on Gomorra, but are thwarted by the combined efforts of the other factions. Under new leadership, the Sloane Gang take over and force the Law Dogs into exile.
Picking up in the immediate aftermath of the AEG era of publication, Pine Box Entertainment (PBE) broadened the story's horizons to encompass the wider world of Deadlands. It follows various characters fleeing Gomorra in the aftermath of the town's destruction by the Fourth Ring and the Sloane Gang.
The exiles run into nefarious villains such as the Servitors, representatives of the four Reckoners (known by some as the Four Horsemen), and become involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- Blackjacks: A local outlaw gang, constantly robbing the town and populace. Their founder, Blackjack, holds a grudge against the Sweetrock Mining Company.
- Law Dogs: The law of the town, they pursue fugitives and dispense justice.
- Collegium: Mad scientists and researchers who use ghost rock to power their gadgets.
- Sweetrock Mining Company: Corporation headquartered back East, who use extensive capital and aggressive tactics to control the mines.
- Whateleys: A notorious family of hucksters involved in witchcraft, demonology, and hexes. They are rumored to breed with abominations.
- Sioux Union: A nation formed by Native American tribes, with a local representation of warriors and shamans working to expel evil from Gomorra.
- Maze Rats: A band of pirates loyal to Chinese forces out of Shan Fan (i.e. San Francisco) that raid the local mines.
- Texas Rangers: Agents of the Confederacy, charged with a policy to "shoot or recruit" supernatural forces.
- The Agency: Agents of the Union, these "men in black" are tasked with eradicating abominations and evil.
- The Flock: A cult in Gomorra that employs holy magic, and has a different member personifying each of the deadly sins.
- Law Dogs: The law and order of the town, representing the sheriff's office (including mad scientists working to develop an advanced arsenal) and various religious figures with access to holy magic.
- Sloane Gang: A violent gang of outlaws that threaten the town. They use unholy magic in service of their crimes.
- Morgan Cattle Company: A ranching powerhouse which has branched out into mining and mad science.
- The Fourth Ring: A mysterious circus which is actually an association of abominations and unholy spellcasters working on behalf of the Reckoner known as Pestilence.
- Eagle Wardens: An independent organization spearheaded by people from various Native Americans tribes, who use shamanic magic to thwart evil.
- 108 Righteous Bandits: A loose gang of outlaws, transients, kung fu disciples, East Asian immigrants, and religious figures. They steal from the rich on behalf of the exploited masses.
- Anarchists (formerly the 108 Righteous Bandits)
- Entrepreneurs (formerly Morgan Cattle Company)
- Fearmongers (formerly The Fourth Ring)
- First Peoples (formerly the Eagle Wardens)
- Law Dogs (now encompassing more than Gomorra's law)
- Outlaws (formerly the Sloane Gang)
This game contains the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: The game has been stopped in numerous stories due to the new editions and changing of publishers. Currently, much of its history is up in the air due to the Retgone of the Confederacy with the latest Deadlands: The Weird West edition.
- Action Girl: Quite a few like Sloane, Xiong "Wendy" Cheng, Angelica Espinoza, and others.
- Adaptation Expansion: Doomtown or Bust and Doomtown Reloaded proceed to turn the relatively scant information available on the cards into full-fledged backstories.
- Alternate History: What if the Civil War never ended and the Wild West was full of monsters? Comes with being part of the Deadlands setting.
- Artifact of Doom: Sloane's gun that turns anyone who wields it into Sloane.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Happens a couple of times.
- The Storm razes Gomorra to the ground.
- Sloane successfully kicks the Law Dogs out of town.
- Big Bad: The demon Knicknevin was the ultimate evil of the gameline.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Whateley Family is a bunch of apocalypse cultist nutjobs with a bizarre family bush of inbred demon worshiping nutters that are out to destroy the world. You don't get much more screwed up than that.
- The Board Game: This is the card game AND board game of the Deadlands series.
- Boom Town: Doomtown is set in Gomorra, a boomtown on the edge of the Great Maze. Due to a preponderance of ghost rock in its vicinity, various factions fight for control of the town. As the town grew and factions arrived, the conflict between the peacekeeping Law Dogs and an outlaw gang called the Blackjacks escalated toward a climactic Showdown at High Noon.
- Canon Immigrant: Doomtown or Bust and Doomtown Deadlands RPG Conversion both import the characters of the card game into the tabletop RPG.
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: The signature trope of the Maze Rats along with the fact they're also pirates. Averted with Wendy who notably does not know martial arts but is a incredible badass with a rifle.
- Back from the Dead: Sheriff Coleman came back as a Harrowed to avenge his own death.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Sweetrock Mining Company, which wants to take over the rich Ghost Rock veins in town.
- Demonic Possession: Sloane is suffering from a case of this and, indeed, all Sloanes do.
- Doomed Hometown: Gomorra is eventually burned to the ground like the real-life Deadwood. It gets rebuilt. Then it gets burned down again.
- Doom Magnet: Gomorra is full of pretty much every single faction you could imagine in the setting and all of them at each other's throats. No wonder the place is destroyed twice.
- Foil: Almost every faction in the game has one of these in order to diversify playstyle.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Doomtown Deadlands RPG Conversion is an incredibly exact title.
- From Bad to Worse: The original story arc started relatively peacefully, but started getting progressively nastier until it climaxed with the arrival of the Demon Knicknevin. The final expansion of that story arc saw the death of many prominent characters (such as the leaders of the Sioux and Whateleys), along with almost half the characters in existence until then, and the destruction of an entire faction (The Flock). The demon was defeated, but at a great cost to the town, which was almost razed to the ground. The next story arc began with this reduced base, but was not fully fleshed out before production of the game was discontinued.
- Gold Fever: Ghost Rock Fever is the damned soul-produced magical coal version of this.
- Guns Akimbo: "Gordo" Andrade, and later an action card to let any dude pull it off.Gordo: Two hands, two guns. It is as God intended it, no?
- Hillbilly Horrors: The Whateley Family are this, calling back to their inspiration in H. P. Lovecraft's work.
- History Repeats: Doomtown is, well, doomed and gets burned down twice.
- Honest Corporate Executive: The Morgan Cattle Company serves as this, minus the mad science.
- Macguffin: Ghost Rock is what every faction wants in town and what they're all fighting over.
- Mad Scientist: The Collegium were a collection of these, vying to take over the town with other factions.
- Magical Native American: The Sioux Nation has a lot of spiritual powers to oppose the Whateley Family. The Eagle Wardens eventually take their place.
- The Men in Black: The Agency was this in the original story, combining this trope with the real-life Pinkerton Detective Agency.
- One-Steve Limit: Every character has a unique first name, likely to avoid confusion when having two similarly-named cards.
- Path of Inspiration: The Lost Angels are a sinister religion corrupted by dark forces. They were eventually eliminated from the town.
- The Rustler: The Blackjack and Sloane gangs.
- Still Fighting the Civil War: An unusual example in the Civil War never ended in this timeline and is still going on a decade later.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Agency and Texas Rangers since they're both supernatural fighting law enforcement. They just work for the North and South respectively.
- Weird Historical War: You can't get much more than an occult version of the Civil War still going on a decade after its RL conclusion.
- Weird West: In this genre if it wasn't abundantly obvious due to its setting and the mass amount of mad science as well as magic.
- Wretched Hive: Gomorra is the worst town in a monster and crime-ridden Alternate History.
