Unlike the majority of companies that produce games, Pinnacle haven’t stamped out these unofficial sites or taken action against their Webmasters. On the contrary, they have combed the Internet sites and taken some of the best creatures, monsters and other nastiness and bungled them all together in a single soft bound book.

With a very moody cover by Hal Mangold, the book follows the usual format for a Deadlands supplement, being split into the usual Posse Territory, and Marshals Handbook.

The Posse Territory contains new Archetypes (more of which in a moment) and rules for animal sidekicks in the game. The No Mans Land section is set out like an old time news rag, in a format that fans of the game should be all to familiar with. Each page is as if taken from eye witness accounts of the various horrors that are covered here, with artwork adding pathos to the accounts. Looking like a very strange version of the National Enquirer the No Mans Land section is a great read and I found it highly entertaining. However you wont find any rules for the creatures here as is normal with a Deadlands product, the real meat of the game is hidden away at the back of the book in the Marshals (Gamesmaster) section.

Over 45 entries make up both the Bestiary ( in the No Mans Land section) and the Marshals handbook, and range from things that would make the small hairs rise a little to other creatures that could turn it white. The balance in the rules is excellent as is to be expected with a book that has been complied by the games’ fans, (lets face it the players know much more about the system than the designers normally) and the creatures will add life to any campaign or one off adventure.

As mentioned briefly above the book also contains rules for creating your very own animal sidekicks. Yes now your Gunslinger or Injun can have their very own Silver or Rebel. Only two types of animals are covered, these being horses and dogs, and perhaps its a good thing too. Imagine all your players running around with bizarre animal sidekicks; "Is that your Iguana madam?" In my own campaign, Laura (my lady wife) plays a Native American Shaman, with a brown bear cub for a sidekick for a while now, so with a little change here and there you could very easily adapt most creatures to sidekicks.

The new Archetypes allow the players to choose from an Explorer a Trophy Hunter and finally a Wrangler (someone who breaks horses or trains animals for a living). All three templates are well written as usual and have some nice black and white illustrations accompanying them.

I don't want to go into too much about the creatures in the book here as I would hate to spoil the surprises that Marshals may have lined up for their Posses, however I will say that I can highly recommend this book, and find that it is a must buy for any Deadlands Marshal.

Marc