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.
  With the Deadlands 20th Anniversary and Good 
  Intentions Kickstarters in full swing—thanks for your 
  generous support, amigos!—Shane and Jodi asked 
  me to set some words to paper explaining how my 
  trip through the Weird West got started, the thought 
  process behind our Servitor Series of Plot Point 
  Campaigns, and what exactly a Deadlands “Big Bug” 
  does to keep the game line’s trains running on time.
  That’s a lot to cover! So without further ado, let me 
  get down to speechifyin’.
  FROM CLASSIC TO SAVAGE
  I first encountered Deadlands as a leather-bound 
  tome circa 2003. I’d known of its existence in the ’90s, 
  when I lived in Colorado, but like so many other 
  gamers of that era we were immersed in White Wolf’s 
  supernatural-themed games. And with a subsequent 
  move to Plattsburgh, New York, my gaming fell by the 
  wayside while I pursued a master’s degree.
  By late 2003, I’d moved to Maryland, taken a job 
  as an editor,  and married my lovely wife. A chance 
  comment by a co-worker during an “icebreaker” 
  session—something about Marvel comics, as I recall—
  led me to ask if he’d ever played roleplaying games. 
  Glen had, but not in more than a decade. Undeterred, 
  we assembled a new group from our other friends 
  around the office and played some Dungeons & 
  Dragons. When that got old (we’d all played the heck 
  out of it growing up), we looked for something new.
  It was Glen who found Deadlands, and schooled us 
  on how cool it was. It had cowboys and zombies! And 
  poker chips and playing cards! And magic and weird 
  science! And best of all, the fictionalized “history” 
  really gave us old grognards something to chew over. 
  I’d minored in history at Plattsburgh, after all.
  Sadly, the game lasted only a few sessions. Glen was 
  a great Marshal as far as stories and descriptions went, 
  but none of us could really wrap our heads around 
  the rules (and I, with a newborn at home, had neither 
  time nor inclination to try). At the same time, we 
  were infatuated with the Weird West. We wondered 
  if it would be possible to play in this strange and 
  wonderful milieu using some other ruleset. Whether 
  it was fate or simple irony, I’ll never know, but the 
  game system we settled on was Savage Worlds.
  A LONG WEIRD TRIP
  Deadlands Brand Manager Matthew Cutter
  talks about writing the Weird West
  In the first of three design diaries, the Big Bug recalls how his trip down twisted trails got started.
  For old guys like us, with spouses and jobs and 
  kids, the “little-or-no-prep” feature and streamlined 
  mechanics of Savage Worlds were just what the 
  doctor ordered. Of course, we later figured out that 
  Savage Worlds was in fact the most recent iteration 
  of the Deadlands rules we were replacing. If we were 
  impressed with Savage Worlds before, at that point we 
  were hooked. We used it to play Deadlands, 50 Fathoms, 
  Necessary Evil, and a setting I developed—set in the 
  Colonies just after the American Revolution—called 
  Spirits of ’86 (1786, that is).
  OHIO ON THE COB
  In 2007, I learned that my new gaming idol Shane 
  Lacy Hensley would be attending that year’s Con on 
  the Cob in Ohio. Moreover, he was bringing the whole 
  Savage gang. Determined to break into the field and 
  design, write, and edit my own games (fueled by 
  Savage Worlds, of course), I put together a Spirits of 
  ’86 Player’s Guide. I found some old-timey fonts and 
  
  jazzed it up in layout with Colonial-era images. I even 
  bought an entire Colonial replica outfit—from tricorn 
  hat to buckled leather shoes. And in October, I drove to 
  Ohio so I could put what I’d written in Shane’s hands 
  and ask for freelance work.
  That year’s Con on the Cob was a memorable one. 
  I ran a few Spirits of ’86 games in full Colonial regalia, 
  and met a number of Savages who remain friends to 
  this day: Clint and Jodi Black, Simon Lucas, Evil Mike, 
  Chaos Steve, Sean Patrick Fannon, Andy Hopp, and 
  Shane himself (Sean introduced me because I was too 
  starstruck to approach on my own).
  The next day I asked Simon whether he thought 
  Pinnacle would be interested in expanding Spirits of 
  ’86 into a full Plot Point book. “Um...no,” he replied, 
  and before disappointment could set in, he continued: 
  “But by any chance would you be interested in writing 
  for Deadlands?”
  I’m fairly sure I managed to say “yes” after picking 
  up my jaw from the floor.
  THE PALE GUNMAN
  At this point I was highly qualified to write for 
  Savage Worlds: I knew the system front to back, worked 
  as a writer and editor, had a master’s degree in English 
  Literature with a History minor, and had played RPGs 
  since age 12. Being qualified to write for Deadlands was 
  a whole different story. As much as I loved the setting, 
  I’d never immersed myself in the various adventures 
  and sourcebooks; I simply didn’t know what had come 
  before.
  My first attempt at a full-length adventure was 
  called “Behold a Pale Gunman.” It portrayed a small 
  Kansas town called Epiphany, whose leaders were 
  thralls of the telepathic rattler that lived under a 
  nearby mountain.  It had everything and the kitchen 
  sink, including the hackneyed population sign with a 
  total that kept getting smaller. I revised it through six 
  versions, rewriting and polishing until it was as good 
  as I could make it.
  Which, as it turned out, was awful.
  Oh, the writing was fine and it had its moments—a 
  few elements have shown up here and there in 
  Deadlands books since—but overall it was just another 
  “town gone wrong” adventure. It didn’t bring anything 
  new to the setting; it just mined well-worn territory.
  Luckily for me, Shane and Simon saw past the 
  window dressing to the structure and style, and liked 
  what they found. So although “Pale Gunman” went 
  into the dead letter office, the time spent on it was far 
  from wasted. It was only an audition for what was 
  next: the first Plot Point book for Deadlands Reloaded, 
  tentatively titled The Flood. With my fingers itching to 
  hit the keyboard, I signed an NDA and officially joined 
  the Pinnacle team as a freelancer.
  SETTING THE TEMPLATE
  By 2008, Deadlands was suffering from growing 
  pains. Although the team had done a bang-up job 
  translating the rules into Savage Worlds with a new core 
  rulebook a few years earlier, we needed a Plot Point 
  book that would cover a number of crucial elements: 
  details on all the people, places, gear, and mysteries 
  of the Great Maze; Setting Rules that would help a 
  Marshal bring it to life; and most important, a story 
  that would finally pay off the hints that had been 
  dropped in the Hell on Earth line for years. All that, we 
  knew. What we didn’t know was what form it would 
  take. What did a Deadlands book for Savage Worlds look 
  like? What was the format? Pinnacle’s flagship setting 
  was on new, uncertain ground.
  Although I never got to see them, I was told The Flood 
  had gone through a few pitches and drafts already, 
  but neither Shane nor the team was satisfied. Whether 
  it was the fact that I’d never really clicked with the 
  Classic rules, my love for Savage Worlds, or some 
  combination of the two, the answer seemed obvious 
  to me. We already had an established format—a 
  damn good one, I thought—in our Plot Point books 
  for 50 Fathoms, Necessary Evil, and others. Why should 
  Deadlands be any different? Shane and Simon agreed, 
  they sent me a draft in progress (the Plot Point itself 
  and a few other adventures, written by Shane), and I 
  was off to the races.
  DELUGED!
  The design mandate for The Flood seemed simple: 
  Cover all the West Coast’s locations, from Canada 
  down into Mexico, and provide Savage Tales. That’s 
  about when I went a little crazy for Deadlands. I delved 
  into every Classic sourcebook on the area, using the 
  original conversion document to update it all to Savage 
  Worlds. My draft included Alaska, British Columbia, 
  the Pacific Northwest, all of California, and Mexico. It 
  was sprawling and comprehensive.
  And it was completely unpublishable! I’d created 
  a 250,000-word monster. (I still have a print of that 
  first version, in crude layout with tiny text; it fills a 
  thick three-ring binder.) With a lot of help from the 
  team, we salvaged it, of course. Simon came up with 
  the brilliant idea of Trail Guides—smaller books that 
  could cover the Weird West’s out-of-the-way locales. 
  Material pulled from The Flood’s earliest version would 
  eventually become the Great Northwest, South o’ the 
  Border, and Weird White North Trail Guides. Best of all, 
  I had the honor of collaborating on a book with Shane 
  and seeing our work published.
  Little did we know, one Plot Point and an established 
  format weren’t quite enough. To finish the tale of the 
  Servitors, we’d have a lot more knots to unravel.
  Next: A Deadlands summit in the Big Bar on Two!
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deadlands [multi]/Deadlands Reloaded/Misc/Deadlands Reloaded - 1882 - Good Intentions - Design Diary 1 - A Long Weird Trip.pdf