TEXT: © 2016 Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Savage Worlds, Deadlands, and 
  all related original characters, marks and logos are trademarks of Pinnacle 
  Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.
  The Deadlands 20th Anniversary and Good Intentions 
  Kickstarters are huge successes by any measure, and 
  that’s all thanks to you, the fans. We sure do appreciate 
  it! I’m going to wrap up my reminiscing with the 
  stories of how our newest Deadlands comic books and 
  novels were developed, followed by a little of taste of 
  what’s coming down the twisted trail next. Oh—were 
  you under the impression Good Intentions is the end of 
  the story? Not even close, buckaroos...read on!
  DRIVIN’ BACK THE DARK
  The Weird West of Deadlands is a sprawling, 
  variegated setting, and it includes elements of Westerns, 
  horror, alternate history, and even science-fiction. 
  Depending on your posse’s location and composition, 
  nearly any type of adventure is possible: shoot-’em-up 
  action, mystery, political, exploration, mercantile, you 
  name it. But at Deadlands’ core is a single, binding 
  principle that sometimes gets obscured by all the 
  shiny bells and tuneful whistles: For the heroes, it’s 
  all about fighting back the fear.
  The Reckoners’ mad quest to “terrorform” the 
  Earth to their liking, using the four Servitors and other 
  evil entities, is central to every struggle—or at least it 
  should be. Sure, all sorts of hombres and chicas walk 
  the Weird West, and they’re all after their own goals. 
  But the battle against terror...that’s where the true 
  stakes lie. Winning that fight provides the big payoff, 
  sometimes in the form of Legend Chips but more 
  often as a safe haven for good-hearted folk. Heroes 
  of the Weird West seek to create bulwarks against the 
  darkness, towns where life can thrive.
  I try to keep that principle firmly in mind when 
  I’m going about all the other things a Brand Manager 
  does besides writing and editing books, and laying 
  them out in our purty, Western design. Those include 
  working with new authors, helping them adjust to 
  our house style, and ensuring their tales feel like the 
  Weird West we’ve come to know and love. At the 
  same time, we don’t want to shoehorn new voices 
  into the same mold; stories should build upon what 
  came before but also add something new.
  If you’ve got a hankerin’ to write for Deadlands—
  and we’re always accepting One Sheet adventures 
  as “auditions,” though we don’t pay for those unless 
  they’re publishable—always keep fear in mind.
  INTO THE TWILIGHT
  Deadlands Brand Manager Matthew Cutter
  talks about writing the Weird West
  In the last of three design diaries, the Big Bug teases the Weird West’s future.
  DEAD MAN’S VISIONS
  Shane’s been looking to get Deadlands into various  
  media over the years: films, novels, comic books, 
  video games, anywhere a Weird Western milieu 
  might thrive and spawn entertaining yarns. To that 
  end, we partnered with Chuck Sellner and Charlie 
  Hall at Visionary Comics a few years ago to produce 
  Deadlands comic books and novels (in partnership with 
  TOR Books). Although they were kind enough to give 
  me the opportunity to write a short comic book story—
  ”What A Man’s Got To Do”—my main job has been to 
  act as the Deadlands consultant: in short, making sure 
  any tales in our sandbox embody the power of fear and 
  don’t contradict or invalidate anything that’s come 
  before. So even though I never got too immersed in 
  Classic Deadlands back in the day, over the intervening 
  years I’ve read every orange sourcebook cover to 
  cover...some of them several times!
  
  Our first outing with Visionary was a series of 
  one-shot tales by leading comic writers and artists, 
  which Visionary collected in the graphic novel Dead 
  Man’s Hand. It was the Big Bug’s job to read the scripts 
  ahead of time, comment on setting elements, and even 
  toss out a few edits and ideas here and there (when I 
  just couldn’t resist). I also helped out with the game 
  statistics for the comics’ main characters, ensuring 
  those were up to snuff and street legal.
  Our next comic book story with Visionary was a little 
  more ambitious in terms of the Weird West’s metaplot. 
  Dead Man’s Hand had explored a range of locations and 
  character types; for the Raven graphic novel, we set 
  out to relate the Reckoning’s beginnings through the 
  eyes of the man who started it all. And because Shane 
  had already laid out the story’s outlines in numerous 
  Classic books, the question wasn’t so much what tale 
  to tell, but how to tell it.
  Working with Chuck Sellner and artist Greg 
  LaRocque to flesh out Shane’s story was one of the 
  most rewarding things I’ve had the chance to work on 
  during my tenure with Pinnacle. Pulling information 
  from Classic Deadlands, we hashed out exactly how 
  Raven and the Last Sons perpetrated their murderous 
  spree in the Hunting Grounds, slaying the Old Ones 
  and cracking open the Deadlands’ gates. We created 
  all the supporting characters we would need to give 
  the tale depth and pathos, and to humanize Raven a 
  little bit. (But just a little bit; he’s one bad dude!)
  We delved into Hell on Earth to determine Raven’s 
  eventual fate, and with the help of our Kickstarter 
  backers gave personalities to the heroes who finally 
  tracked Raven down in the 1980s Sioux Nations. In a 
  rip-roaring online game session—which I was Marshal 
  for, via Roll20, with Shane on the players’ side—the 
  backers guided their characters through the actual 
  defeat and binding of Raven. Chuck was on hand to 
  record the results and take notes; the game session is 
  now immortalized, pretty much exactly how it went 
  down, in the Raven graphic novel’s pages! Never 
  before or since have our fans been so directly involved 
  in writing the Weird West’s story; I was proud to be a 
  small part of it.
  Finally, I was lucky enough to be included as Shane 
  told a story he’d had under his hat since the earliest 
  days of Deadlands: the tale of the Cackler! Although my 
  role was strictly editorial, it was amazing to watch that 
  twisted tale unfold. I won’t spoil the Cackler graphic 
  novel’s payoff for those who haven’t had the chance 
  to read it (buy a copy at www.peginc.com, amigo, and 
  get the PDF for free!), but I can say the Cackler’s return 
  to the Weird West brought down a pall of twilight...one 
  that has yet to reveal the full extent of its malevolence.
  And that, friends, brings us to the year 1883 in 
  Deadlands lore. The Servitors are defeated, thwarted, or 
  their plans delayed...but that doesn’t mean the Weird 
  West is a bright and happy place. Quite the opposite.
  TWILIGHT OF THE WEST
  The Cackler’s return brought substantial changes. 
  The Union and Confederacy remain bitter enemies, 
  but their Secret Services—the Agency and the Texas 
  Rangers—have put aside their differences in the face 
  of an implacable foe. After the Cackler’s return and 
  the evil acts that ensue, the skies seem a little darker, 
  the vast prairies a little lonelier, the distances between 
  burgs a little longer and more dangerous. It’s almost as 
  if a permanent twilight has fallen. In that metaphysical 
  gloom, magic and monsters thrive.
  First, a caveat: this is by no means a release schedule 
  or definite in any way...merely a peek behind the 
  curtain at some of the things we’ve discussed for the 
  next iteration of Deadlands. It’s also at least a year 
  away, so a lot could change between now and then. 
  All right—now that all those boring qualifications are 
  out of the way, we can get to the nitty gritty!
  We’ve been updating all our game lines to the new, 
  graphic novel format for a few years now. Deadlands 
  will get the same treatment, and like Savage Rifts® 
  we’ve discussed splitting the material into a Player’s 
  Guide, Marshal’s Handbook, and Critter Codex (we 
  might not call it that, but it sounds sweet and I admire 
  alliteration), all of which will be rewritten yet remain 
  compatible with the Reloaded game line.
  We have an updated book of Relics, by the talented 
  Zach Welhouse, ready to go. As well, for years I’ve 
  felt Deadlands could use a book that allows heroes to 
  build and run a town. This one would give players 
  the opportunity to be entrepreneurs and leaders of 
  a settlement or boomtown, with rules for running 
  establishments; for the Marshal, a complete guide to 
  filling the lives of townsfolk with terror and adventure. 
  And of course, the goal would be to soothe fears and 
  keep the heroes’ home safe and sound from things that 
  snarl and slaver in the night.
  We’re also planning a new line of sourcebooks, 
  each one focused on a particular town and the 
  region around it. These books would include maps, 
  personalities, unique critters and beasts, and a short 
  Plot Point campaign set in the burg’s environs—a little 
  like Deadlands: Ghost Towns, but far more detailed. 
  Broadly speaking, our goal is to get back to the heart 
  of Deadlands: the Weird West itself, and the Westerns 
  and horror stories that fuel it and give it life (or unlife).  
  And did I mention that Deadlands: Dark Ages by John 
  “Night Train” Goff is also on the way? I reckon I just 
  did, compadre!
  In all these adventures, wherever they may take 
  place, the heroes’ objective is to fight back the creeping 
  fear. And we wish ’em luck. —Matthew Cutter
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Savage Worlds System (SWADE) [multi]/Deadlands Reloaded/Misc/Deadlands Reloaded - 1882 - Good Intentions - Design Diary 3 - Into the Twilight.pdf