Fear & Grit

"Courage Ain't the Absence of Fear—It's Keeping Your Wits When Terror Comes Calling"

The Weird West isn't just dangerous—it's downright terrifying. When you round a corner and see a walking corpse shambling toward you, or when you hear something with too many legs skittering in the darkness behind you, your body reacts before your brain catches up. Your heart hammers. Your hands shake. Your legs forget how to work.

This is fear, and it's a weapon as deadly as any six-gun. In Deadlands, terror is real, measurable, and dangerous. But experience hardens a hombre against the horrors. That hardness? That's called Grit.

Guts Checks: When Fear Strikes

Whenever you encounter something disturbing, horrifying, or downright unnatural, the Marshal will call for a guts check. This represents your character's ability to keep their composure when confronted with the impossible.

Making a Guts Check

Step 1: The Marshal sets a Target Number based on how terrifying the sight is (see the Terror Table below).

Step 2: You roll your guts Aptitude (Cognition + Concentration for most folks, unless you have actual ranks in guts).

Step 3: Add your Grit to the roll (if you have any).

Step 4: The Marshal tells you if you succeed or fail—but they don't tell you the TN until after everyone's rolled.

If you succeed: You steel your nerves and can act normally. Your hands might shake, but you keep it together.

If you fail: Fear gets the better of you. Roll the dice indicated on the Terror Table and check the Scart Table (that's "scare" with an Old West accent, partner) to see what happens to you.

If you go bust: You not only suffer the effects from the Scart Table, but if the TN was Hard (9) or higher, you permanently lose 1 point of Grit. A truly terrifying failure can shake even a veteran's confidence.

The Terror Table

How scared should you be? The Marshal uses this table to set the TN and determine how many dice you roll if you fail.

TN	Dice Rolled on Failure	What You're Facing
3	1d6	A description of a strange event or creature; a nasty wound on a living being
5	2d6	Something slightly strange (a vampire not "vamped out," a fresh Harrowed with no obvious wounds); a dead body with "normal" wounds
7	3d6	A bizarre creature (mad grizzly, jackalope, prairie tick); a gruesome corpse
9	4d6	An undeniably supernatural creature; a sickening scene (dismembered or mutilated corpse)
11	5d6	A unique and overwhelming horror (wendigo, vampire lord); nauseating mass carnage
13	6d6	A creature that defies imagination; grisly carnage serving some arcane evil purpose "man was not meant to know"

Important: Count Aces when rolling these dice. Your total determines what happens when you check the Scart Table.

The Scart Table: What Fear Does to You

When you fail a guts check, roll the dice indicated on the Terror Table above, add them up (with Aces), and consult this table to see how badly fear affects you.

Roll Total	Effect Name	What Happens
1–3	Uneasy	You stare for a moment at the scene. You lose your next Action Card.
4–6	Queasy	You stare in horror. You lose your next Action Card and take –2 to all rolls for the rest of the round.
7–9	The Willies	You stagger back in horror and miss your turn for the round. You lose 1d6 Wind. All actions are at –2 until you make a recovery guts check (which you may attempt as an action).
10–12	The Heebie-Jeebies	You turn white as a sheet. You lose your entire turn and 1d6 Wind. All actions are at –2 for the remainder of the encounter.
13–15	Weak in the Knees	You lose 1d6 Wind. At grotesque scenes, you lose your lunch and stagger away. At terrible scenes (supernatural creatures), you run away. You're completely ineffectual until you make the guts check that caused this result. You remain at –2 for the remainder of the encounter.
16–18	Dead Faint	You take 3d6 Wind. If reduced to 0 or below, you faint until you recover. If you have faith, you must make an Onerous (7) faith check immediately. If you fail, you lose 1 level of faith permanently.
19–21	Minor Phobia	You go Weak in the Knees and gain a minor phobia (as the loco Hindrance) associated with the current event. You suffer –2 to actions when the phobia's stimulus is present.
22–24	Major Phobia	You go Weak in the Knees and gain a major phobia (as the loco Hindrance). Same as Minor Phobia except the penalty is –4.
25–27	Corporeal Alteration	You gain a Minor Phobia and suffer a physical defect (streak of white hair, voice reduced to whispers, nervous tic, etc.).
28–30	The Shakes	You get a Major Phobia and must make a Hard (9) Spirit roll. If you fail, Deftness reduces by one die type permanently. If you succeed, it only reduces for 1d6 days.
31–35	Heart Attack	Your heart skips a beat. Make a Hard (9) Vigor roll. Success: 3d6 Wind loss and Major Phobia. Failure: 3d6 Wind, Vigor permanently reduced one die type, and make a second Hard (9) Vigor roll. If you fail that one too, you die unless someone makes an Incredible (11) medicine roll within 2d6 rounds. If Vigor falls below d4, you're dead.
36+	Corporeal Aging	You have a Heart Attack (as above) and age 1 year instantly. Your hair goes whiter, your face more lined. The trauma leaves permanent marks.

One Check Per Encounter

You only make a guts check the first time you see a particular type of creature in an encounter. If you're fighting through a train full of ghosts, the first one causes a check. After that, you've seen what you're dealing with. However, if you encounter similar creatures in a different location or several hours later, you check again. Only frequent exposure to a specific horror makes you truly immune to its terror.

Grit: The Measure of a Veteran

After you've battled werewolves, stared down the walking dead, and seen things that would drive most folks to madness, something changes inside you. You gain a little resistance to fear and terror. Your hands don't shake quite so much when the supernatural comes calling. That inner toughness is called Grit.

What Grit Does

Grit is a bonus you add to all your guts checks. Every point of Grit gives you +1 to guts rolls, helping you resist the effects of terror.

Example: You have Grit 3. When you make a guts check, you roll your guts Aptitude + 3. If you normally roll d8 for guts, you're now rolling d8+3. This significantly improves your chances of keeping your cool when the horror shows up.

Maximum Grit: You can never have more than 5 points of Grit. Once you hit 5, you're as hardened as a mortal can get. You can't store up "extra" Grit to cushion future losses.

Earning Grit

You don't buy Grit—you earn it through experience, survival, and victory against the forces of darkness.

At the conclusion of an adventure in which the posse defeats a major foe, every Troubleshooter who participated gains 1 point of Grit.

What counts as a "major foe"? The Marshal decides, but generally it's:

A powerful supernatural creature or abomination
A dangerous villain with a complex plan
The climax of a multi-session "Issue" for Colonel Brennan
Any situation where you stared death in the face and came out the other side

Example: Your posse spends three sessions tracking down a wendigo that's been terrorizing a mining camp. When you finally destroy it, everyone who participated in the adventure gains 1 Grit. The next time you face something terrifying, you're a little bit harder, a little bit braver.

Losing Grit

Just as victory can steel your nerves, a stinging defeat can rob you of your confidence.

You lose 1 point of Grit permanently whenever you go bust on a guts check with a TN of Hard (9) or higher.

Lesser failures (TNs below 9) don't cost you Grit—only truly terrifying encounters that break your will can shake a veteran's confidence so badly they lose their edge.

Example: You have Grit 4 and encounter a vampire (TN 9 guts check). You roll poorly and go bust. Not only do you roll on the Scart Table for the effects, but you also lose 1 Grit permanently. Your Grit drops to 3. That encounter shook you to your core and damaged your confidence.

The Cycle of Fear and Courage

Grit represents the balance between experience and trauma. Every victory makes you stronger, but every devastating failure chips away at your resolve. A Troubleshooter's Grit can rise and fall over the course of a campaign, reflecting the toll that fighting supernatural evil takes on the human psyche.

Grit and the Harrowed

When you become Harrowed, you automatically gain +1 Grit. Dying and coming back tends to put regular terrors in perspective. A werewolf is still scary, but not as scary as the demon fighting for control of your own skull.

Additionally, when determining if a dead character comes back as Harrowed, you draw 1 extra card for each point of Grit they had. Manitous prefer tough, experienced hosts—they're more useful in the physical world.

Fear Levels: The Reckoning's Shadow

Some places in the Weird West are darker than others. Not just physically dark—spiritually dark. These are areas where fear has taken root, where supernatural evil has festered so long that it affects the very land itself. This ambient terror is measured in Fear Levels.

The Fear Level Scale

Fear Levels range from 0 to 6:

Fear Level	Effect on Guts Checks	What the Land Looks Like
0	None	Normal. Folks live without daily supernatural dread. Rare in the Weird West.
1	–1	Slightly darker than normal, even in daylight. Folks are a bit superstitious.
2	–2	Rocks look jagged and sharp. People avoid going out after dark.
3	–3	Cliff walls are foreboding. Shadows flicker and seem to move on their own.
4	–4	Something darker than shadow lurks in corners. Cacti look like grasping hands. Folks distrust neighbors.
5	–5	Oppressive, like a heavy dew about to burn your skin. Flora and fauna wither or take on horrific forms. Tangled weeds look like they'll swallow you alive.
6 (Deadland)	–6	Twisted, macabre landscape. Trees look like splintered skeletons. Rocks resemble groaning faces. Water turns dark and stagnant. The land itself may devour unwary travelers. No sane person can deny the supernatural here.

Where Fear Levels Apply

Fear Levels usually affect a specific area—a town, a hollow, a haunted mansion, a gulch, or similar location. Sometimes an abomination haunts a family (an ancient curse) or an artifact, in which case the Fear Level follows them wherever they go.

Dodge City's Fear Level: As a boomtown with supernatural undercurrents but still largely civilized, Dodge City typically sits at Fear Level 1-2. Certain locations within Dodge (haunted buildings, cursed grounds) might have higher local Fear Levels.

How Fear Levels Change

Fear Levels Rise: When an abomination causes considerable mischief without setbacks, the Fear Level can rise by one step about once per month. Powerful creatures or dark rituals can raise it faster.

Fear Levels Drop: When a great evil is defeated or becomes inactive, the Fear Level drops by one about every two months naturally. However, heroes can speed this process through tale-tellin' (see below).

Fighting Back: Tale-Tellin'

Every victory against the supernatural matters. Every abomination you defeat, every cursed artifact you destroy, every haunted soul you lay to rest chips away at the Reckoning's power. But your victories don't matter unless people know about them.

That's where tale-tellin' comes in.

How to Tell the Tale

After defeating a major supernatural threat, someone in the posse should spread the word about your victory. This is usually done by:

Speaking to a church congregation
Writing an article for the local newspaper
Giving a speech in the town square
Any other method that reaches an influential portion of the community

The tale-teller makes a tale-tellin' roll against a TN based on the area's current Fear Level:

Fear Level	Tale-Tellin' TN
1	3
2	5
3	7
4	9
5	11
6	15

If you succeed: The Fear Level drops by 1 immediately. People hear that the horror has been defeated and take heart. Further tales about the same evil have no effect until a new horror moves in.

If you go bust: Oh no. You've scared people worse than you helped them. The audience hears only that horrors beyond imagination exist in their backyard. The Fear Level rises by 1 instead. This is why organizations like the Texas Rangers and the Agency sometimes discourage loose-lipped adventurers—bad storytelling can make things worse.

Reward for Success: When a tale-teller successfully lowers a Fear Level, they receive a one-time Legend Chip (don't put it in the pot—it's theirs alone). This represents the forces of Good rewarding those who fight back against the Reckoning.

Every Story Matters

Troubleshooters aren't just hired guns—you're heroes fighting for the soul of the Weird West. Every haunted shack you cleanse, every monster you slay, every tale you tell chips away at the Reckoning's grip on reality. Colonel Brennan sends you on missions that might seem small, but each victory weakens the darkness. Keep fighting. Keep winning. Keep telling the tale.

Practical Examples

Let's see how fear, guts, and Grit work together in actual play:

Example 1: The Walking Dead

Your posse is investigating disappearances near Dodge City. You enter an old barn and see three corpses shambling toward you—walking dead, freshly risen from shallow graves.

The Marshal calls for guts checks. Walking dead are "undeniably supernatural creatures" = TN 9, rolling 4d6 on failure.

You have: Cognition d8, Concentration d6 (so guts is d6), and Grit 2.

You roll: d6 + 2 (Grit) = You get a 4 + 2 = 6 total.

Result: You failed (needed 9). Roll 4d6 for the Scart Table. You get 11 total = The Heebie-Jeebies. You turn white as a sheet, lose your entire turn and 1d6 Wind, and take –2 to all actions for the rest of the encounter.

Did you go bust? No, you just failed. You don't lose Grit. But you're shaken and penalized for this fight.

Example 2: A Grizzled Veteran

After months of fighting supernatural horrors, you now have Grit 4. You encounter the same walking dead.

TN is still 9. You roll guts d6 + 4 (Grit) = You get 5 + 4 = 9 total.

Result: Success! You've seen worse. You keep your cool and can fight normally. Your experience has made you harder, braver. The dead don't rattle you like they used to.

Example 3: A Devastating Failure

You encounter a wendigo in the wilderness—a unique and overwhelming horror (TN 11). You have Grit 3.

You roll: guts d6 + 3 = Total of 5. You needed 11. You went bust (rolled below half the TN).

Result: Roll 5d6 on the Scart Table. You get 22 = Major Phobia. Not only do you go Weak in the Knees (flee the scene, –2 for the encounter), but you also gain a permanent major phobia of wilderness areas or large creatures. AND because the TN was 11 (Hard 9+), you lose 1 Grit permanently. Your Grit drops from 3 to 2. That encounter broke something inside you.

Colonel Brennan's Troubleshooters and Fear

Working for the Colonel means facing things most folks never see—and surviving to tell about it. Here's how fear and Grit affect your work:

Building Grit Over Time: As you complete Issues for the Colonel, you'll gain Grit. Each major victory hardens you a little more. A greenhorn Troubleshooter with Grit 0 might become a grizzled veteran with Grit 4-5 after a year of missions.

The Toll of the Work: Sometimes you'll fail guts checks spectacularly. You might develop phobias, physical tics, or other mental scars. This is part of the job. The Colonel understands—most of his veteran Troubleshooters have quirks born from the horrors they've faced.

Tale-Tellin' After Missions: After completing an Issue, consider having someone in your group spread the word (carefully). Successfully lowering a Fear Level makes Dodge City and the surrounding territories safer. Just be careful—going bust on tale-tellin' can make things worse.

When to Keep Quiet: Sometimes discretion is better. If you've just killed a powerful horror but the details would terrify the public, it might be better to let the Fear Level drop naturally over time rather than risk making it worse with a botched tale.

You're Not Alone

Every Troubleshooter deals with fear differently. Some become hard and cynical. Others develop nervous habits or dark humor. Some turn to whiskey or religion. Whatever your method, remember: you're part of a posse. When one of you breaks, the others hold the line. That's what it means to ride together.

Fear is real. Courage is earned. Grit is forged in the crucible of survival. Face the darkness, tell the tale, and maybe—just maybe—we'll win this war for the soul of the West.

Ready to Face Your Fears? You now understand the core game mechanics of Deadlands. From dice rolling and fate chips to combat, wounds, the Harrowed, and fear itself—you have everything you need to ride with Colonel Brennan's Troubleshooters. Continue to Quick Reference Tables for an at-a-glance summary of the most important mechanics, or dive into your first Issue and see what the Weird West has in store for you.