Deadlands: Lost Colony is a genre-mixing Weird West Alternate Timeline roleplaying game which combines the post-apocalyptic and horror genres. It is part of the larger Deadlands timeline. Western tropes and magitech elements are also prominent. It was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and David D Hillman and originally published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
The story is a continuation of that featured in the Deadlands: Hell on Earth roleplaying game. Shortly before the Last War, a devastating nuclear war that allowed the Reckoners to ravage the Earth and turn it into a nightmarish wasteland seen in Hell on Earth, a trans-dimensional gateway called the Tunnel was created between Earth and a distant planet called Banshee. The planet was rich in Ghost Rock, and small outposts were established in order to harvest it and ship them back to Earth. On Banshee, the human colonists had a number of run-ins with the local species, called Anouks, causing a war of their own.
As the Last War heated up on Earth, the Tunnel was closed, leaving no way for the colonists on Banshee to return to Earth. Now they must make new lives on the planet, surrounded by hostile Anouks and various bands of human radicals. Uneasy tensions and a long, grueling war have left both the human colonists and the Anouks with massive death tolls, and fights occasionally still break out between the two. In addition, horrific supernatural monsters are beginning to appear on the planet as a consequence of the Reckoners, who (unbeknownst to the Banshee colonists) have found themselves also stranded on Banshee.
This series contains the following tropes:
- Big Bad Ensemble: In addition to the four Reckoners, there are several other villains with their own ruthless plans for the planet.
- Earth That Was: So far as any humans know. They have no hope of ever getting back to Earth. Even if they wanted to leave Faraway to its native population they can't. So many humans in such a hopeless situation is the driving emotion of the setting.
- Evil Colonialist: Humanity is for all intents and purposes doing the same thing that happened to the Indians, only to an entire alien planet.
- Genius Loci: Banshee is sentient and benevolent, and may offer support in the form of prophetic dreams to player characters working to save it from the Reckoners.
- Innocent Aliens: The Anouks really don't want to deal with Humans, not to mention the fact that they brought all of the woes of the Reckoners with them.
- There is an entire group of the Anouks called Skinnies. They are especially hateful of the humans and will kill anyone they can. These Anouks are actually from an evil version of the planet itself. Their home destroyed long ago.
- Nanomachines: Transmuters (or 'Mutes as people call them) have cybernetic enhancements that allow them to control tiny robots that allow them to build generally anything they can think of. The Nanites are possessed by manitous and have a habit of... upgrading... their wielders.
- In Lost Colony Reloaded, it would seem that the network that all of the nano-machines get their orders from has been corrupted from a virus uploaded by EXFOR. Once these individuals could build wonders with their nanobots, now they can only destroy. There is no virus. The creator of the 'bots attached a type of tormented soul called a Sykergeist to the network to bring terror to the world.
- Reactionless Drive: Space travel is accomplished with an engine that not only allows close to warp speed travel but also reduces the mass of travelers and their craft so as to not cause any physics issues. The engine is magical in nature, and if it goes wrong (and sometimes even if it doesn't) you run into a situation similar to Event Horizon
- Scavenger World: To a lesser extent than Hell on Earth.
- Space Western: The whole setting.
- United Nations Is a Superpower: The United Nations Expeditionary Force (EXFOR) was tasked with suppressing the Anouks for the human settlers.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The narrator of the core book is a woman named Debbi Dallas. She explains that "Dad was a marine and liked the classics
".
