Updating the Doomtown Story So Far: From Gamorra to Deadwood and Beyond – by David Lapp
Greetings Doomtown fans! It has always been a pleasure to provide an ongoing storyline to Deadlands and Doomtown players alike that incorporates not only your choices from participating in organized play, but provides a window into how Doomtown fits into the greater...
Worms Among the Wheat
By Ross Fisher-Davis Seth Bullock took a long look into the cloudy sky above and exhaled slowly. There was an ugly knot of anxiety in his gut that’d been growing since they lit out from Deadwood. As they’d hit dirt and carried on...
A Miner Confrontation
By Owen Lean Mateo turned away from his unwanted companion for a moment as a girl in brown pigtails pushed the saloon doors open with all the confidence of one who didn’t think she was remotely out of place in the establishment. He raised an eyebrow before he noted...
Darkness Ascended: Act 3 – Between Stone and a Hard Place
By Jason Pere September, 1882 Coot Jenkins continued to fight a losing battle with himself. On the one hand, he took some comfort in the stacks of money he had won in the Virginia City poker tournament but the soothing weight of the bag of coins and ghost rock...
Darkness Ascended: Act 2 – God Forgives, Stone Kills
By Jason Pere September, 1882 The omnipresent rattling concerned Chuan "Jen" Qí. Her velocipede had gone far too long without a proper tune up. At first, Jen managed to ignore the noise, but the vibrations in the handlebars were like a small flurry of California...
Darkness Ascended: Act 1 – Darkness Repelled
By Jason Pere July, 1882 Chuan “Jen” Qi snuffed out the match that she had used to light the lantern in her cramped little hotel room. The sounds of Tombstone transitioned from work to revelry as the sunset came and went. But for...
Reprise and Reprisals
by David Orange Jessica Patchett curled one card, then the other upwards, revealing a jack of diamonds and a four of clubs. She looked over at Claude Fontenot, one of the Gem Theater’s dealers, who returned an equally impassive...
Hatching a Well-laid Plan
by David Orange “All aboard. Leaving for Deadwood in thirty minutes.” The conductor paused long enough from his shouted announcements to punch E.B. Farnum’s ticket. Farnum took measured steps down the aisle, scanning both sides...
Debt of Blood
by David Orange June 1882 “Arthur, when is that contraption gonna go off or blow us all to Kingdom Come?” Arthur Dingler turned to see Seamus O’Toole cowering behind a makeshift iron shield. “Seamus, for the umpteenth time,...
Beneath the Streets
By Ross Fisher-Davis SuAnne Bettelyoun considered herself an observant woman. She noticed small things around her, subtle changes in the dirt, smells in the winds, the movements of birds. She could judge the distance of a train...
The Raven’s War Cry
by David Orange Sylvester Heath adjusted his duster as he prepared to step out into the cool night air of Deadwood, South Dakota. Before doing so, however, he turned and looked back at the two Entrepreneurs poring over the...
Hot On The Trail
By Russell Smith June 1882 The food smelled so good, it felt as if Marshal Bass Reeves hadn’t eaten in days. Fact was, Bass had been far more interested in the serving of the Aunt Lou Marchbanks’ famous version of chuckwagon stew...
Of Legends and Ghosts
By Owen Lean June 1882 The closing act of Gui Fei Zui Jiu was reaching its crescendo. As the song reached its peak, The curtain at the back of the royal box in the Shan Fan theatre opened and a small man with a stack of steaming...
The Seekers
By David Hogg Smoke from the Seeking ritual still swirled around the small back room of the Office for Indian Affairs building as Messrs. Bullock and Swearengen gave their thanks and left. The man named Hickok had indeed risen...
The Friends of Farnum Committee
By Jeff Bailey E.B. Farnum rose from his chair in the back room of the Gem Theatre. "Fellow business proprietors. It's time we discussed Deadwood's decline." The owner of the Gem Theater, Al Swearengen, sat comfortably. Sylvester...
The Peaceful Life of Jessica Patchett
by David Orange The Peaceful Life of Jessica Patchett by David Orange The afternoon sun scorched the rounded outcrops of the Black Hills. The tedium of fence repair had settled into a peaceful rhythm. Ranch labor was a small...
Cage Match
By Jeff Bailey May 29, 1882 Abram Grothe stared at the outskirts of Tombstone, Arizona. “It has been a long journey, a long chase. My quarry will be brought to justice for the many murders he has committed, and the crimes of his...
Grim Servant O’ Death: A Fallen Star Epilogue
by David Orange “The Clantons and their allies are either dead or scattered. They are not the onlyones. The Earp brothers are all dead as well. Gunned down by a stranger as evil ashe is powerful.” Xiong “Wendy” Cheng paused as she surveyed the townspeopleassembled in...
Return To Gomorra, Part 3
By Jason Pere So far Coot Jenkins, Rafi Hamid, and Jack “Black Jack” Jackson had not seen hide nor hair of any other living being since their arrival on Whateley Isle. The entire estate festered like one giant dying thing. From barren trees to the cracked earth and...
Return To Gomorra, Part 2
By Jason Pere The door to the Gomorra sheriff’s office squeaked in protest as it swung inward. The splintered piece of wood hung precariously from its hinges as it had yet to be properly repaired since the latest bout of anarchy that had befallen the town. Warren...
Return to Gomorra, Part 1
By Jason Pere Nighttime on Gomorra’s outskirts was never completely silent. Somewhere a nameless critter howled or squawked at the moon. Occasionally a lonesome traveler whistled to themselves on the road leading towards Sacramento, and every so often gunfire...
Aces Low, Act V
By Owen Lean “Yep. Had no problem punching folks… but them things he made me fight… well, I tell you Mister Essex, they weren’t natural.” Lewis “Grizzly” Evans stared off into the middle distance as he reiterated the reasons he was ‘retiring’ as a prize fighter. ...
Aces Low: Act IV
By Owen Lean May, 1882 “Oh, for God’s sake, hurry up and die.” Christine Perfect snarled. “Or stop your incessant baying. Either works.” Understandably skittish ever since we’d witnessed her transformation, she anxiously sniffed at Cheyenne’s thin, dry air. “I’m...
Aces Low Act III
By Owen Lean May 1882 There are specific phrases in the modern parlance that are overused to the point of becoming as meaningless as they are odious. "It's been one of those days" is most definitely one of them. However, should one find oneself chained to a...
Aces Low – Act II
By Owen Lean May, 1882Lane Healey and I planned to rendezvous two weeks later in Santa Fe. Now, as I approached the San Miguel church, I could see the simpleton standing in its shadow looking impatient. Good. If he was irritated, he’d be easier to manipulate. On the...
Aces Low – Act I
By Owen Lean April, 1882There is absolutely nothing lucky about the number seven—anyone who tells you that is a fool. As I have discovered over the years, the truly potent number is one higher. It came as no surprise to me then that the clock in the town square struck...
Falling Star
by Jeff Bailey In most of the world, sunset was the sun’s warm embrace across the world before it receded. In Gomorra, it was the night’s slicing talons through the sky until its grip tightened to darkness. The fingers clawed over ruined rooftops, but hadn’t yet...
Out For Blood
By Jeff Bailey Lucy Clover had suggested the theater, arguing they wouldn’t get a sense of Tombstone only by looking for roughnecks to put down. “A town without community is a prison without walls.” She and Wendy Cheng arrived early for the evening show at...
Stupid Things
By Jason Pere The Bayou Vermilion train continued its creaky journey through Arizona’s southern desert. Its giltwork trim and gaudy colors contrasted with the harsh land it traversed. Xiong “Wendy” Cheng counted cacti as the train began its slow climb up yet...
Too Tough To Die
by Owen Lean Act 1 “Matilda, do you remember what happened?” John said when I came back. Of course I remembered. Nobody could forget a day like that and the nightmares that followed. It was the day after all that madness of the corral and the phrase “Murdered in...
There Comes a Reckoning
By David Orange Pancho Castillo paused as he entered the laboratory of the Distinguished Collegium of Interspacial Physics. Flickering gaslights illuminated two men. A tall man wearing a lab coat paced the lab, the other seated by a desk. The latter indicated an...