Another 52 Deadlands plot hooks

Deadlands Articles

1. 52 Adventure Hooks
2. Another 52 Adventure Hooks

The first one of these was so popular I decided to do a second one. Basically, 52 plot hooks for the Deadlands tabletop role-playing game. 

52 Deadlands Adventure Hooks

1. Locals find a plant that seems to cure any wound, or at least, make them survivable. They're convinced they've found the secret to immortality. Unfortunately, the plant only zombifies flesh exposed to it, leaving the applied area dead, but functional. Repeated exposure to the plant will eventually turn someone into a flesh-eating ghoul.

2. See #1. The guy who owns the land the plant grows on hires a gang to shoot up the town in hopes of being able to sell more miracle cures....

3. A preacher has begun a campaign against the Devil's Weed that is a popular recreational pastime in the area. His reasoning is extremely spotty with statements that it makes colored people think they're the equal to whites, workers lazy, and hallucinations from the Devil. He demands it be subject to fines and jail time. The preacher is being paid heavily by an opiate and cocaine drug company that wants to make their product more appealing.

4. Notably, Devil's Weed is cannabis grown in Ghost Rock slurry and does bestow an exaggerated sense of pot effects. It can also be used as a painkiller, fear reducer, and in mystical rituals. The money to be made is considerable. However, what sort of person would invest in such a thing? Can they be trusted?

5. The PCs receive the last will and testament of a brothel owner who leaves them his employees as well as facility. This would be humorous enough if not for the fact said man was murdered by a group of bandits who want to claim the place for himself and his will was a posthumous "f-u" to the people he knew would kill him.

6. A gunslinger challenges the Player Characters to a showdown at high noon in a nearby stable. The PCs have no idea who the hell this guy is or what his problem is.

7. See #6. It is in fact a sense of mistaken identity and their challengers are decent folks about to get themselves killed against what is almost assuredly a group of hardened killers. The PCs will also find themselves in serious trouble.

8. See #6. The challengers are Mad Scientist "moving picture" makers who are trying to drill up publicity for their prototype film. Unfortunately, their antics have pissed off several real life killers and monsters.

9. See #6. The gunslinger is a ghost caught in an eternal loop of his death and can only be set free by WINNING a gunfight. Which is not something the PCs can easily do without getting killed.

10. The PCs are buried alive in what is thankfully a set of shallow graves in what is still a pretty damn traumatizing experience. Whoever drugged them and did so apparently has fled town and the PCs are likely to chase them. Was this a prank? Some sort of weird initiation? A mystical rite of some kind? Or is the guy who did it just nuts?

11. A treasure of Lost Confederate gold keeps falling into the hands of thieves who end up killing each other for it. This is because the gold is actually a manifestation of the demon Mammon. The only way to end its curse is to dump it in the gravesite of the original betrayer who murdered his partners for it. All all the way the PCs will be under attack by greedy yokels. Mammon will also promise the PCs their every wish as long as he's fed.

12. A Hanging Judge is actually after a Harrowed that he hung but did not destroy in life. Both beings are utterly evil but have decided to arbitrate things in a unique way--by having a new trial. If the PCs can decide the trial fairly for a corrupt judge and a rugged outlaw, they might banish both back to Hell.

13. A young Native was kidnapped from his tribe and re-educated against his will until he escaped. He wants to rejoin his tribe but has gotten himself hopelessly lost and taken advantage of in the process. He may not find a warm welcome even if he is able to discover his former home since he has been changed severely by his experience.

14. A oil rig-sized Ghost Rock powered mecha has been constructed by a mad Confederate Lost Causer who intends to use it to blow up towns until the United States surrenders. This plan is moronic, and the US government is sending the PCs with rocket packs to blow the damn thing up as well as kill its commander: an undead Nathaniel Bedford Forrest.

15. Several bankers and land speculators have had their livers eaten after terminating the deed to Native American land after Ghost Rock was discovered there. The Natives involved would normally not care about the deaths of some horrible swindlers but they're the obvious suspects and Liver Eaters are considered to be violent evil monsters (because they are). Someone summoned one and the Natives would like both it and its summoner put down before they're subject to white "justice" by the rich men's families.

16. See #15, the Liver Eater is the illusion-covered wife of one of the men killed and plans to inherit all the stolen land due to them forming a company where its stock goes among the survivors. The killing of local Native tribesmen is just a bonus to getting rich.

17. A sex cult led by Satan is reported in the area and people are ready to storm the compound to liberate the poor women that have been led astray by the Devil.

18. See #17, it is led by a satyr of all things. The Happy Hunting Grounds spirit looking very much like the Devil and possessing absurd sexual prowess (but not necessarily attractiveness--that's all on him). He offers to lend them some of his magic if they help him escape this.

19. See #17, it is a cult led by a demon, but the false religion of free love, unconventional pairings (gay or interracial), polyamory, and mild drugs is harmless if not progressive for a century later. It is meant to be offensive to others to drive them to murder. The demon is an ex-disciple of Brother Grimme who wishes to make “his” followers into an offering to the Reckoners.

20. See #17. It's a perfectly "normal" apocalyptic fundamentalist cult led by a disgusting pervert and con mam. Saving his victims is tougher than it looks since they will commit mass suicide if he dies without being disgraced.

21. The PCs wake up in their undergarments and missing their equipment as well as horses. Tracing back their steps has them deal with a series of bizarre adventures and royally ticked off locals. It turns out they met with Mina Devlin and her Wichita Witches who decided to curse them with a night of debauchery. Except the spell has backfired and they are also missing their possessions.

22. A young expectant mother begs the PCs to protect her from their monstrous father who plans to kill her and take their child to raise as part of his evil cult. The father claims that she's been impregnated by a demon and that it will burst from her, Alien style, and become an adult within days as a permanent host for said demon. Is either telling the truth?

23. An order of Spanish monks are supposedly protecting the Holy Grail when the Cackler decides to surround their monastery with mindless feral vampires to get it. The PCs are inside and must hold them off until dawn or they can prove the artifact the monks guard is not the holy relic.

24. A Twilight Legion member claims that the seeds used to imprison Merlin under a magic tree can be used to imprison the Cackler. Is it true or is this some sort of bizarre scheme by a lunatic obsessed with Arthurian mythology?

25. The PCs are the subject of a series of Dime Novels and while initially flattering, the latest ones have gotten a decidedly raunchy tone to them as a new character they have never met before is someone they all fight over romantically for. There are other elements too that make them subject to someone's self-insert fanfic.

26. Someone is putting up fake Wanted Posters of the PCs for absurd amounts of money. Verifying this is not something most bounty hunters are worried about.

27. A group of failed half-insane dissident Mormon settlers have started worshiping a Rattler and offering it human sacrifices kidnapped from the trade routes of Deseret. The Rattler enjoys being worshiped as a god and is exulting in its power like it’s the Hyborean Age. The Deseret Church has thus posted a bounty on not only the heretic preacher in charge (who exemplifies the worst of their faith) but also a bounty to kill the massive worm that is being worshiped as a god.

28. A gunslinger protected a valley of farmers from a cattle baron and road off into the sunset, dying in the process. Unfortunately, he didn't stay dead and is now stalking the very people he used to protect with his Manitou almost completely in charge.

29. A Twilight Legion group has located a group of Native shapeshifters that they are planning to exterminate but there's something "off" about this particular group. Specifically, they’re harmless buffalo or deer shifters that are not corrupted by the Reckoners. The leader of the Twilight Legion sect wants to slaughter them out of a mix of racial hatred and loathing of all forms of magic.

30. A sixty-year-old cowboy killed the father of a young hombre and is now being hunted by said child. However, it's soon revealed that the kid has lost multiple older brothers in his revenge scheme. It is very likely that he will die at the hands of the old guy himself. The older cowboy actually would like the PCs to try to talk him out of it. If not, he'd like them to train him to at least make it a fair(er) fight. What is the angle here?

31. A young child living with a starving family goes to an old house to steal something. The family begs the PCs to go rescue him and when they arrive, they find the place is full of ghoulish horrors and has a family murderous subhumans with tunnels leading down to a maze-like dungeon crisscrossing the town. What the hell has this kid gotten himself into?

32. A group of grave robbers are on the loose and they have been selling their twisted wares in many cities.

33. See #32, they're resurrectionists of the mundane sort and the people they sell to are medical schools lacking cadavers.

34. See #32 and #33, not that they don't help themselves to wedding rings and other precious valuables.

35. See #32, they're also ghouls who are trying to eat without harming the living.

36. A local gunsmith wants the PCs to endorse their firearms. It's then noted that the gunsmith makes "special" weaponry that is designed to remove superhuman things. They're also not too discriminating about who they sell to.

37. A menagerie of monsters has been brought into town by a flamboyant carnie who promptly loses control over them. These include a unicorn, manticore, a griffon, and a dragon. All of them are actually real-life animals with illusions cast over them by a huckster. Well, except for the dragon. The dragon is real. Yes, this is an homage to a quest from Red Dead Redemption 2.

38. A man, possibly Robert Ford, possibly not, claims to have shot the outlaw Jesse James and killed him. He is hosting a fair to celebrate his achievement and signing autographs. This is proving less lucrative than he thought since James has many ex-Confederate sympathizers and people financially benefiting from his infamy. Jesse James is also an immortal Harrowed.

39. See #38. The irony is that said man shot Jesse in the back...of the head. Jesse James the Harrowed is, in fact, dead and a rotting undead is impersonating him in hopes of claiming the legend for himself. This is based on the fact he had multiple people impersonating him postmortem in real life like J. Frank Dalton. Ironically, Dalton is a good candidate for a Harrowed as he survived a hanging and 32 gunshot wounds over the years.

40. Abe Lincoln shows up with the PCs, carrying a lever-action revolver and a silver-edged ax. Abe wants the PCs help in murdering some zombie slavers and vampire Neo-Confederates. Possibly with the help of his son, Robert, and Edwin Booth, master actor!

41. See #40, Players may question how he's a Harrowed when Lincoln was shot in the head. Is Lincoln an imposter? An incarnation of human hope? An angel taking the form of the Great Emancipator? Note: while shot in the head, Lincoln died of complications to the head shot so he's the only Harrowed who shooting in the head wasn't enough.

42. A young fourteen-year-old girl wants to recruit the PCs to hunt down the man who murdered her daddy. The PCs will find out as they find themselves facing a lot of angry people that she's recruited others and her father was a bandit. The irony being that while true, he was a bandit, he was murdered for reasons unrelated to his crimes.

43.The PCs are snowed into a terrible blizzard that leaves them guarding a group of eight settlers who will not survive the night. However, one of them is an imposter and starts murdering as well as eating the locals. The PCs will find themselves turned on before they figure out the truth. Assuming that it is one of the eight at all and not an invisible evil hiding out in the wilderness.

44. The player characters are asked to eliminate a group of four famous gunfighters who have escaped justice for their crimes. One of them being a mad scientist with a spring-loaded holster, one of them being a beautiful prostitute who killed several mostly deserving men, one being a murderous undead bandit, and the fourth being a miserable drunk. If the PCs investigate, they will find out that they have been hired not by victims of their crimes (which range from the negligible to the justified to the monstrous) but a man who plans to print bogus newspaper articles claiming credit for their defeat.

45. A Tulpa (“Imagined into Reality Object”) of General Custer has been created powered by the ridiculous hero-worship propaganda printed by his wife. Literally, the Fake General Custer is empowered by all the stories being told by him with several artifacts binding him to reality. Fake Custer has already slaughtered an entire tribe with his magic and forms possess to carry out “heroics” designed to spread his legend and miraculous survival further. The PCs can destroy his avatar by suitably taunting or humiliating him but permanently destroying this Abomination will require destroying objects sacred to his myth or possibly printing a suitably successful take down novel. His wife, Libby, can also destroy the creature since despite her many-many failings—she knows this is not her husband. Crazy Horse would also be able to do it but good luck getting to him.

46. A disciple of Charles Darwin and early paleontologist is excavating a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Wild West with his assistants. He is under attack by a bunch of rampaging Creationists and religious fanatics who he claims have murdered one of his men. In fact, he was the one who murdered said man because it was discovered he’s actually a Satanist necromancer who wants to animate the T-Rex to lead an army of the undead on a mission to destroy Christianity! Yep, even Richard Dawkins might balk at this fella.

47. The player characters are contacted by the Agency who have a list of four Confederate war criminals that they want brought in, dead or alive. Reconstruction is suffering a lot of problems and some people want to pardon these fellas in the interest of national (white) unity. The player characters can bring them in for trial or kill them and possibly avoid them getting let off the hook. Two are still murderous scumbags, one is trying to put the war behind him despite the atrocities he committed, and a fourth is working to fight Reconstruction via politics where he’s become a beloved local celebrity.

48. (1881 only) President Garfield has been assassinated! Murdered by a man who claimed that he was motivated by being politically snubbed by the President, the Agency suspect a Knights of the Golden Circle or Reckoner plot. This despite the fact Garfield was tepid in his suppression of white supremacist terrorists and opposed the KKK Act. Even so, the Agency wants the PCs to go undercover at a big Southern shindig in hopes of finding out the truth.

49. The US government is doing a test run in the PC’s locale to allow women the right to vote due to it having a decent track record in Wyoming (1869 onward). The ten-year Civil War caused a lot of changes as has the Weird West’s influence. This would not be a problem if not for the fact the female candidate is being threatened by a mysterious masked anarchist with dynamite. Whether it’s an incubus, a deranged misogynist, or a jilted lover (male or female) doesn’t matter. The election must not become an embarrassment to the movement!

50. The Wasapt Rail Company wants the PCs to investigate Darius Hellstromme’s new mistress. Can the genius inventor finally heal his broken heart? Almost certainly not given the Reckoners have a vested interest mooning over a dead woman to the point of breaking reality. Is she an automaton, an Agency asset, a con woman, succubus, or just a normal woman who would be horrified to discover she’s in love with a literal servant of Hell?

51. Ghost Rock is found under a Native reservation. Rather than simply wait for the government to take it, the Natives want the PCs to negotiate a deal for mining it. They plan to migrate to Sioux or Coyote Country but want to make a company that will feed them resources that can be used in future dealings with Whites. If the PCs DON’T try and screw their partners, this will be problematic as many will consider this colluding with a hostile foreign power.

52. An Incan mummy is tracking down a descendant of conquistadors that looted many sacred holy sites. The man is trying to recover them to be restored but it is a rather tough job given how much has been melted down or sold. He is also of native ancestry himself and the sole survivor of a bloodline that has been gradually winnowed down.

 I hope you enjoyed!