Hexes

It seems like there’s never a doctor around when you need one. For example, when you’re bleeding to death! Bandage lets a huckster quickly stop bleeding from wounds. This prevents continued Wind loss due to any serious (or worse) wounds the subject may have suffered up to the point the trick is performed. Further wounding causes Wind loss as normal. The trick does not in anyway prevent loss of Wind due to a hex or other magical or natural effect—only that lost as a result of bleeding.

Bar

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Concentration

Range: 10 feet

With this trick, a huckster is able to reinforce a closed door, making it more difficult to open— quite helpful when bandits or werewolves are trying to break it down. For as long as the huckster concentrates and remains within 10 feet of the door, anyone attempting to force the door suffers –5 to any Strength check made to open it. The moment the huckster’s concentration lapses, the door loses its added resistance.

Beggar’s Banquet

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Permanent

Range: 5 feet

This trick is often used in conjunction with the vittles hex. With beggar’s banquet the huckster is able to make a bland or even downright unpleasant food taste like a fine dinner (or a least a home-cooked meal). The trick does nothing for the actual content or even appearance of the food—it only changes the flavor to make it savory. This trick is a favorite among traveling hucksters, and it can often help less-proud hexslingers find themselves temporary employment as a trail cook. More unscrupulous types have used it to hide the taste of drugs or worse in their dinner companion’s food. Each use of the trick affects enough food for one meal for one person.

Calling Card

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Permanent

Range: Touch

A huckster with this trick can alter the face of an ordinary playing card to make it recognizable to her at a glance. Often this involves a mark or symbol of singular design, but the design may not incorporate a language. The caster always knows her own calling cards on sight, and if a unique mark is chosen, others aware of the mark’s significance can identify the cards as well. Some hucksters use this trick to create lasting “passwords” or identification devices. Note that since the mark must be on the face of the card, it’s of little use in games of chance.

Coffin Varnish

Trait: Spirit

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard

Coffin varnish is a slang term for bad coffee, and that’s just what this trick makes—well, sort of.

The trick must be cast on a cup or glass filled with some beverage. The contents don’t matter so much—they can be anything from water to whiskey. The former beverage turns into a hot coffee-like beverage that would curl a dead man’s toes. While few, if any, enjoy the truly Hellish brew produced by this trick, it does have a few uses. First, it adds a +4 to any Vigor check to stay awake, which can be useful on guard duty. Second, it immediately sobers up any drunk unfortunate enough to imbibe it. The poor soul has a terrible hangover for 1d6 hours after drinking the coffin varnish and during that time is at –1 to all Trait and Aptitude rolls.

The coffee (or “mo-joe”) brewed by this trick loses its power if not drunk within 10 minutes of creation. With a flavor like coffin varnish, it’s not for sipping anyway.

This trick automatically fails if used on a magical liquid or an alchemical concoction.

Compass

Trait: Cognition

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

Compass determines the direction of the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west), and conveys this information to the huckster. It orients her to her immediate surroundings with this knowledge. This trick is a favorite among hucksters forced to travel alone.

Unfortunately, this information is valid only for the huckster’s current location. Once she moves from her position, she is as easy to disorient as anyone else.

Copy

Trait: Knowledge

Duration: 1 round

Range: 1 yard

With this trick, the huckster is able to make an instant—although rough—copy of a single page of written material. The copied item may be a page from a book, a portion of a map, or a Wanted poster. The copy is obviously a rough duplicate, and it’s not likely to be mistaken for the original. However, it does quickly provide the huckster with a usable likeness. Multiple castings can be used to copy a large map or several pages of a book.

The caster must have enough blank paper to make the copy, because the trick does not supply the materials. When this trick is cast, the writing or sketching can be seen to rapidly appear on the paper, as if being scribed by an invisible hand.

Divinin’ Rod

Trait: Cognition

Duration: 5 minutes

Range: 5 yards/Cognition die type

This trick finds the closest water source within range. If water is within range of the trick, dowse brings one quart of it (about a canteen’s worth) to the huckster and deposits it in an empty container.

Should there be no such container available, the water spills onto the ground. If someone’s desperate, it’s still usable, as long as she laps fast enough! The huckster has no way of knowing the purity of the water so provided, nor the location of the water’s source.

The trick always takes from the closest source, regardless of the number of times it is cast. If there is no water within range, the trick fails.

Envision

Trait: Cognition

Duration: 1 round

Range: 1 foot/Cognition die type

A huckster using Envision can, to a limited extent, see through thin objects. The maximum density her vision can penetrate is a single playing card, or perhaps an outer pocket on a garment. Obviously, this trick is of great use to a card player. The cost of dealing with even a small manitou prevents this trick from being too effective in longer gambling periods. However, any single hand in which the huckster uses envision, she gains a +5 to her gamblin’ Aptitude. A clever huckster often lures her opponents into a high-stakes hand, and then uses envision to gain tremendous advantage.

False Face

Trait: Smarts

Duration: 5 minutes

Range: Self

There’s many a time when a fellow wished he could trade in his looks for a set of new ones. Anyone who’s had his face on a Wanted poster or had an unwanted romantic interest has had this feeling more often than most. A huckster with this trick can’t get a new set of looks, but he can take a loan on one.

False face lets the caster change a few simple elements about his facial appearance. These changes include changing hair or eye color, adding or removing a mustache/beard, or changing hair length and style. All in all, the trick provides a +2 to any disguise Aptitude roll.

While these simple cosmetic changes won’t fool a determined observer, they may allow the huckster to pass a casual glance. Combined with a different hat or an eyepatch, they can go a long way toward hiding the caster’s identity.

Flare

Trait: Knowledge

Duration: Concentration

Range: 1 yard/Spirit die type

With this trick, the huckster causes an existing flame or fire to suddenly flare up to 150% of its original size. The fire affected can be no more than two feet in diameter before the flare trick is used.

The fire does not increase in either heat or rate of fuel consumption, but it does give off more light and cover a greater area. For example, a candle which is under the effect of a flare does not burn its wick or melt its wax any faster, although the flame is now larger and brighter. The trick lasts as long as the huckster concentrates on it.

Flicker

Trait: Knowledge

Duration: Concentration

Range: 1 yard/Spirit die type

By use of flicker, the huckster is able to dim all artificial light (lanterns, candles, campfires, etc.) in range of the trick for one round. The change in lighting is faint, but noticeable—as if a sudden draft had blown across the flame. The dimming effect is sufficient, however, to give all in its area a –1 to all Cognition rolls based on vision during its duration. At the end of the trick, the lighting immediately returns to normal.

This is a favorite trick of hucksters who pose as fortune-tellers or mediums. It makes it easy to make the rubes believe the spirits are “communicating” with them.

This trick has no effect whatsoever on magical lighting or daylight. Thus, it is of limited value during daytime, unless used underground or in similar conditions.

Forecast

Trait: Cognition

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

Forecast gives the huckster a brief glimpse of what the future holds for her. At least in terms of weather. With this trick, she can predict what kind of weather will occur within her vicinity over the course of the next few hours. Exactly how far ahead she can see is equal to her Cognition Coordination in hours.

Her prediction is accurate, but rough. Forecast tells her the direction of wind, relative temperature changes, cloud cover, and the amount of precipitation, if any. The amount is a very general approximation and the quantity is given as either none, little, moderate, heavy, or storm. This hex cannot predict unnaturally influenced weather patterns, such as those caused by powerful hexes or the like.

Groom

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

Often after a long ride, a fellow builds up a fair amount of dirt. Groom serves as an instant valet and tidies up the huckster’s clothes and appearance. It removes dirt and grime, even going as far as to shine his shoes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on stains. It also cleans up a huckster’s face and hair—although it won’t shave or cut hair. Basically, a huckster can use this trick to make himself presentable to polite company in a hurry. It’s a favorite among New Orleans dandies, allowing them to always look their best. In some places, though, it’s more likely to get the huckster labeled a tinhorn.

Guesstimate

Trait: Cognition

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

A huckster with this trick never has to say, “Well, that was harder than I thought.” Guesstimate gives the caster an idea of just how hard a particular action is to accomplish—before she gets in over her head.

In game terms, when cast successfully, the trick gives the huckster the difficulty of the task she’s considering—Foolproof (3), Fair (5), Onerous (7), Hard (9), or Incredible (11). The more information she has on what she wants to try, the better her guess. For example, if she’s looking at a cliff face and guesstimates how hard climbing it would be, the trick provides not only the difficulty, but also the effect of known current conditions such as slippery or crumbling rocks, high winds, etc. On the other hand, if she’s simply wondering what her odds of winning the next Union election are, it’s likely she’ll get some fairly sketchy information.

Guesstimate does not provide any information, it only assesses what the huckster already knows. For example, if the huckster isn’t aware of a bushwacker planning to take a potshot at him while he climbs a cliff, the trick can’t take into account the added difficulty of being fired at while scrambling up the cliff face.

Hesitate

Trait: Mien

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard/Mien die type

Hesitate is a minor magic that has, on occasion, saved a huckster’s life. This trick has proven most useful in situations where seconds count. It causes the target a moment’s hesitation in taking her next action.

The game effect of this is that the target’s next Action Card is considered to be the next lower value. Hence, a Jack of Spades would become a 10 of Spades, and so forth.

If the target’s next Action Card is a deuce, the card is then considered to be the 2 of Clubs. If it’s already the 2 of Clubs, the trick is wasted.

This trick affects a character’s regular Action Cards before any card the character may have up his sleeve.

Ignite

Trait: Spirit

Duration: Instant

Range: Touch

This trick allows the huckster to ignite a small, inanimate, flammable object which he is holding. The maximum size of an object that can be affected is a cigar or candle. If a single match can’t light it, neither can this trick. And, yes, to those of you with a violent bent, it could be used to ignite a fuse.

Likker Up

Trait: Spirit

Duration: 1 hour

Range: 1 yard/Spirit die type

Often a drinking companion just isn’t drinking fast enough to suit a huckster’s purpose, be that purpose benign or otherwise. With likker up, a hexslinger can give a target a friendly nudge toward whiskey-induced congeniality. The effect of this trick is to give the target a –4 to Spirit tests to resist consuming more of the demon Alcohol (as well as to any other rolls to resist the effects of the drug).

If the target doesn’t manage to resist temptation, the trick is wasted. Of course, the huckster is welcome to renew the trick when the duration expires.

Palm

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Instant

Range: Touch

Using this trick, a huckster can transfer a small object from his hand to his pocket, or vice versa. The object must be concealable in the huckster’s palm. Items which might be affected include cards, coins, a matchbook, or a derringer.

Note that only one transfer is possible from each trick cast. In other words, it is not possible to transfer one item to a pocket and another back to the palm in a single casting of this trick. That would take two separate tricks.

This trick is the stock and trade of huckster stage magicians.

Preserve

Trait: Knowledge

Duration: 1 day

Range: Touch

This trick allows a huckster to prevent her trail rations from spoiling. It preserves up to 1 pound of food from rotting for a single day. The huckster must renew the protection several times over the course of a long journey—unless she likes her vittles a little gamey.

This trick affects all forms of organic matter, although regardless of the type of matter, it only preserves 1 pound per casting. It is not possible to partially protect a substance with this trick. If the entire amount is not preserved it spoils at the normal rate. For large amounts of food or the like, the huckster must cast the trick several times.

This trick has no effect on food created by the vittles hex.

Reload

Trait: Smarts

Duration: 1 action (see below)

Range: Touch

Few things are more unpleasant than pulling the trigger for the seventh time on a six-shooter. Empty firearms have probably killed as many gunslingers as loaded ones have. With reload, a huckster can remedy her ammunition shortages.

This trick allows the caster to transfer fresh cartridges to her weapon. There are two limitations, however. First, the caster must have fresh cartridges—there ain’t no such thing as a free bullet, pardner. Second, the trick only transfers three bullets per casting—so don’t waste time casting this trick on a Gatling gun. Still, three bullets are better than none— especially when they’re your bullets! Unlike the Aptitude speed load, if the trick fails, you get no bullets.

Shatter

Trait: Spirit

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 foot/Smarts die type

With this trick, a huckster can cause small, easily breakable items to violently shatter. Most often the target of the trick is glass, although fragile ceramics can also be affected. The item in question can be no more than a half pound in weight—about the size of a whiskey bottle.

Additionally, if the item is in the possession of another person, the huckster must win an opposed Spirit test.

Shout

Trait: Smarts

Duration: 1 round

Range: Self

A huckster can project his voice a long way with this trick. Shout allows her voice to carry as far as 200 yards in the open. Anyone within 200 yards can clearly hear the caster. The huckster must actually yell for the hex to be effective. The trick does not magnify his voice, it merely carries it over the distance, so there is no ill effect to being close to the huckster while she is using shout.

Sound

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard/Smarts die type

This trick recreates a single sound somewhere within its range. The sound must be simple—a knock, click, or a bump. If the huckster wants a more distinct sound (like of a pistol’s hammer), she must make an Onerous (7) Smarts roll. Even then, the best result would be a single muffled moan or groan—distinct words are not possible with this trick. Really loud noises (like a gunshot) aren’t possible.

Whisper

Trait: Cognition

Duration: 1 round

Range: 5 yards

Folks say that nothing attracts attention like a whisper. Well, they’ve never used this trick!

Whisper allows the huckster to pass a simple message to one person within the trick’s range. The huckster’s message can be only one sentence in length, and he must whisper it for the trick to work, although only the target can hear the message. For the purposes of whisper, the sentence must be completed within five seconds or less, or the trick fails.

Will o’ the Wisp

Trait: Spirit

Duration: Concentration

Range: 10 yards

This trick creates a small, intangible, floating sphere of green luminescence. The huckster can control the movement of the sphere within the trick’s range as long as she concentrates on it. The light produced is very faint, providing only about 2’ of illumination. Even within that area, only the roughest details can be seen. You can’t read by the light of a will o’ the wisp.

Extra Tricks (Hexarcana)

Brace

Trait: Spirit

Duration: Concentration

Range: Touch

Sitgreaves developed the brace trick to help himself when building larger gizmos or constructs by himself. This trick gives the caster a phantasmal “third hand.” She channels a small amount of spectral energy to hold an object in place or to brace a structure.

The object or structure supported must be one the caster could handle herself, and she has to actually hold the object in place while casting the trick. After that, she can move up to three yards away from the braced object and still maintain the trick.

A cowpoke trying to move a braced item must overcome the brace in a contest of Strength. The trick’s Strength is equal to the caster’s. In addition, if this trick is used to support, say, a ceiling that was collapsing (assuming the huckster was strong enough to actually hold it up!), it would buttress the ceiling with the caster’s Strength.

No more, no less.

This trick doesn’t work on live organic material. No bracing people, compadre. Your hero could, however, brace a fellow’s boot to the floor—if she could get a hold of it long enough to perform the trick, that is!

Debug

Trait: Knowledge

Duration: Next use or 1 hour

Range: Touch

There are times when a mad scientist

really needs a device to work correctly. With his debug trick, Sitgreaves developed a method to give a device a magical “once-over,” ensuring that the gizmo has a bit less of a chance of falling apart or exploding the next time it is used. The huckster needs about five minutes to tinker with the device, tightening a screws, oiling a joint, etc.

Once he’s finished, the device’s Reliability is increased by +2 the next time it is used. This bonus applies only on the next use. If the device isn’t used within an hour following the casting of debug, the benefit is lost as well.

A gizmo can gain the benefit of only a single debug trick at a time. Further improvement of the device’s Reliability requires either redesign or a more powerful hex.

Stabilize

Trait: Smarts

Duration: Concentration

Range: 1 yard

Volatile chemicals and explosive substances are pretty common tools of the average mad scientist. Sitgreaves developed stabilize to add a modicum of safety to his work environment.

This trick allows your huckster to stabilize any one flammable or explosive substance within three feet of him. The amount affected is equal to a single cubic foot; mad scientists who insist on working with larger amounts of dangerous compounds at any one time deserve what they get!

Any substance your huckster targets with stabilize has its damage die type lowered by a single step. For example, a stick of dynamite stabilized has its damage die type lowered from d20 to d12.

This can also lower the damage die of any fire—except ghost rock, which is oddly resistant to the trick.

The effect lasts only as long as the huckster is actively concentrating on the substance in question and remains within range of it.

Tool

Trait: Knowledge

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: Touch

The tool trick allows a huckster to create a tool from some raw material. A casting of this trick creates a single, non-steam powered, hand tool.

Common tools created by the trick are hammers, screwdrivers, awls, and the like. The trick doesn’t create the tool from thin air, however; it needs raw material to work with. For instance, a rock could be transformed into a hammer, a jagged piece of metal could become a saw, and a stick could be turned into a awl.

The tool can weigh up to one pound for every level of the caster’s Hex Aptitude.

Hexes

Hexes have five entries: Trait, Hand, Speed, Duration, and Range.

Trait is the Mental Trait used to cast the hex. Unlike normal Aptitudes, hexes are always tied to a specific Trait.

Hand refers to the minimum poker hand the huckster must draw to empower the hex. Better hands usually mean the hex is stronger, although depending on the hex it may affect the duration, range, and so on, instead.

Speed is the number of actions it takes to complete a hex. A few hexes, such as helpin’ hand, fortune teller, or rainmaker, take much longer and are not really suitable for most combat situations. These hexes have their speeds listed in minutes, hours, or days as appropriate.

Any hex that takes a minute or longer to cast requires complex crafting to be effective. The caster must spend the entire casting time envisioning the hex’s final form and effect. Any interruption to this effort ruins the hex, which makes sitting down and trying a longer hex in the middle of a fight darn near impossible.

If the hex has “(Vamoose!)” beside the number, this means it must usually be used in response to another action, and it requires the huckster to vamoose, much like using the dodge Aptitude.

This requires the huckster to have Action Cards available. The spell’s description explains the procedures for this type of action.

Duration is the length of time the hex stays in effect.

“Concentration” means the huckster must maintain concentration to keep the hex working. Meanwhile, he can take only simple actions, such as moving or talking. Breaking the hexslinger’s concentration immediately ends the hex. Other hexes may require Wind to maintain, while a few use a combination of both. This means that as long as the huckster maintains concentration or pays the required amount of Wind, the hex stays in effect.

Range is the maximum distance at which the hex can take effect. For area-of-effect hexes, this is the maximum distance from the huckster to the center of the hex’s effect.

The Hexes (H&H)

Ace in the Hole

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 10 minutes

Duration: 1 day/hex level or special

Range: Touch

Hucksters don’t usually play well with others. When they do, the effects can be spectacular.

This hex allows the caster to provide another person with a magical “Ace in the hole.” The huckster links a hex he can cast to a small focus of some sort, usually a playing card, which can then be given to another. The holder of this focus can cast the hex just as if she were the huckster.

When this person triggers the link, she rolls the huckster’s skill with the hex but substitutes her Trait dice for the huckster’s. If successful, she draws the cards indicated by the roll. Of course, this means she suffers any backlash as well. Going bust on the hex Aptitude roll and drawing any Joker, in this case, regardless of either person’s skill, causes backlash.

There are a few limitations on Ace in the hole. First, the link only lasts 1 day per the huckster’s level in Ace in the hole. Second, any hexes which could only be cast on others (helpin’ hand, etc.) cannot be cast on either the original huckster or the person holding the Ace—they must target a third person. Any hex which can normally only be used on the huckster, can now be used either on the huckster or the person holding the Ace.

Finally, while a hex is linked to an Ace in the hole, the huckster cannot cast that hex himself.

Achilles’ Heel

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard/hex level

Often is the time when a posse finds itself confronted with an abomination they’re just not quite sure how to defeat. Not surprisingly, quite a few of these posses get eaten by that same monster. A huckster with the hex Achilles’ heel can sometimes gain a supernatural glimpse into the weak spot of a seemingly invincible foe.

For this hex to be effective, the huckster must be within range of the target at the time he casts it—not always a good place to be. If the hex is successful, the hexslinger has a short vision or feeling which reveals something about the target’s weakness—if it has one! The better the huckster’s hand, the better the information she gets about the target’s vulnerability.

Achilles’ heel is only effective against animate targets and is normally only useful against supernatural beings, since regular folks usually have only minor weaknesses in comparison.

However, if cast on a normal person, this hex reveals any Hindrances worth 4 or more points that the target may have.

Air Bubble

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

This is a handy little hex if your hexslinger takes an unexpected dip or his pals have been hitting the beans a little too hard.

This hex creates a small bubble of air around the huckster’s head. The air within is replenished throughout the duration of the hex, ensuring the huckster has a constant supply of fresh air.

The bubble is able to maintain its integrity against various liquids and gases, depending on the hand drawn, making it effective in environments ranging from a smoke-filled room up to, and including, underwater areas.

Hand Environment

Ace Smoke

Pair Poison gases, swamp gas hex

Jacks Water

Bash

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Instant

Range: 25 yards/hex level

Few things make a manitou madder than being forced to serve a huckster’s whim, if even for an instant. On the other hand, nothing makes an angry manitou happier than outright, unadulterated destruction. That’s exactly what bash is all about: bashing things all to Hell.

Unlike soul blast, this hex is capable of damaging inanimate objects—exclusively. It can’t directly hurt a living being, but the hex gives your huckster something to knock down doors with or to chuck at the big, armored steam wagon which is about to squash him flat. It can also be used to damage a rifle in someone’s hands or even destroy a gizmo. Any animate thing attached to the damaged piece is unharmed by the hex (at least directly).

When cast, bash appears as a swirling ball of spiritual energy that flies toward the target and slams into it with devastating force.

As with soul blast, not only must the huckster successfully cast the hex, he needs to actually hit his intended target with an attack roll. Use the bash roll used to cast the hex as the huckster’s roll to hit the target. There are no range modifiers, and called shots are possible (as long as they’re called in advance, just like a normal). The damage caused depends on the hand drawn.

Bash moves a bit slower than soul blast, so if the target sees it coming and has a card left, the target may try to vamoose out of the way. Add +3 to his dodge (or drivin’, if your huckster has taken to throwing the hex at passing vehicles) roll for this.

Hand Damage

Pair 1d6

Jacks 3d6

Two Pairs 4d8

Three of a Kind 5d8

Straight 6d8

Flush 7d10

Full House 8d10

Four of a Kind 9d10

Straight Flush 10d12

Royal Flush 10d20

Beast Master

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: 5 yards/hex level

With call o’ the wild, a huckster can summon animal allies to his aid. Sometimes, however, he may find there is no need to summon the animals—they’re already there. Beast master lets a huckster mentally command animals within range of the hex.

Unlike call o’ the wild, this hex doesn’t give the huckster much choice over what animals he gets. He’s limited to what’s on hand when he casts the hex. The affected animals do his bidding as long as he continues to concentrate. As soon as he stops, however, the animals revert to their normal actions.

Beast master doesn’t impart any intelligence to the animals it affects. The caster shouldn’t expect a squirrel to read a note over the bad guy’s shoulder. Controlled animals must still make guts checks when faced with supernatural opponents.

If the animals the huckster targets are trained or under the control of someone with the animal wranglin’ Aptitude, it’s a little tougher to manage. Make an opposed roll between the two attempting to control the varmints, the caster’s beast master skill versus the other’s animal wranglin’. Characters on horseback use their horse ridin’ instead. If the huckster loses this contest, the hex fails.

The number of animals the huckster can control is based on the hand he draws.

Hand Number

Pair 1

Jacks 1d4

Two Pairs 1d6

Three of a Kind 2d6

Straight 3d8

Flush 4d10

Full House 5d12

Four of a Kind 6d20

Bedazzle

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant (see below)

Range: 5 feet/hex level

On Mississippi riverboats, bedazzle is a favorite hex flamboyant hucksters use to escape a card game gone bad. It causes the huckster’s fan of cards to produce a bright burst of light. The light duplicates the colors on the cards, so the truly flashy carry gaudy, multicolored decks just for this hex.

The hex affects anyone looking at the faces of the cards the huckster’s holding—friend or foe.

Of course, they must be within range of the hex as well. All in the area must make Cognition checks against a TN determined by the huckster’s hand. The base TN for the minimum hand is a 3, it increases by +2 for each hand above this.

Those that make the check close their eyes and are not affected. Those who fail are blinded and suffer –4 to all Trait and Aptitude checks requiring sight. The blindness lasts for 1 round per level of the caster’s skill with the hex.

Black Lightnin’

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Some folks are said to have an electric personality, but a huckster with the black lightnin’ hex puts truth behind that phrase.

This hex charges the huckster’s hands and arms with a strange, dark electricity he can throw on later actions. The caster receives a “charge” of a number of dice, depending on the hand drawn. He retains this charge for 1 round per level he has in black lightnin’.

As long as the huckster has some charges left, he can hurl a bolt on each of his actions. As the caster throws each bolt, he decides how many damage dice are in it. The only limitation is the number of dice can’t exceed the huckster’s hex level. Subtract the dice in each bolt from the huckster’s charge. If the charge is exhausted, the hex ends.

Hitting a target with the lightnin’ requires a Fair (5) throwin’: black lightnin’ roll The target gets the benefit of cover, but there are no range modifiers. Worn armor does not protect against the bolt’s damage. Also, called shots are not possible with black lightnin’.

If the huckster makes a fightin’: brawlin’ attack against a target, the target takes all the damage dice remaining in the huckster’s charge.

If a bolt is cast by a wet huckster, the caster takes the damage himself.

Velvet has 3 levels in black lightnin’. He cast the hex and gets a Straight. He rolls 3d6 for his charge and adds them for a total of 12. He looses his first bolt (which he charges to 4d10) at a hapless gunman. Whether he hits or not, he’s still got 8d10 worth of bolts to throw—at least until the hex runs out after the third round.

Hand Damage Die Charge Dice

Pair d4 d4/hex level

Two Pairs d6 d4/hex level

Three of a Kind d8 d4/hex level

Straight d10 d6/hex level

Flush d12 d6/hex level

Full House d20 d6/hex level

Bloodhound

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

A favorite among hexslinging bounty hunters, this hex allows a huckster to put a ghostly tag on someone, allowing him to track the victim like a bloodhound.

The target must be in range of the hex at the time of casting, but afterward the range is unlimited. Depending on the hand the huckster draws, he can tell the direction, distance, exact location, or even what the target is doing. (Higher hands give all the information of awarded by lower hands too.) This hex is extremely useful for leading posses after bandits or just keeping tabs on a suspicious character.

Bloodhound even works on a huckster who’s using the ghost trail hex. See the description of ghost trail for details on how this works.

Hand Information

Ace General direction

Pair Rough distance

Two Pairs Direction of travel

Three of a Kind Exact location

Straight Current activity

Bodyguard

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: Touch

Hucksters can’t heal their own wounds—it’s a fact of life. But there are a number of ways to keep from getting injured in the first place, though. Missed me! is one example, but what if a Weird Western wizard is facing a Maze pirate wielding a cutlass? Huckster shish-kabob, that’s what!

With bodyguard, the huckster conjures a form of magical protection for himself which absorbs some of the damage meant for the huckster.

This defense is far from perfect and breaks down rapidly under attack—but, hey, it beats a kick in the head. Lots of kicks to the head, actually.

Bodyguard absorbs a number of wound levels determined by the hand the huckster draws, preventing not only the damage itself but also the effects of the damage, like Wind loss, wound modifiers, and even getting pushed back. The huckster cannot control which wounds are absorbed by the protection—the hex stops all wounds received while it is in effect.

Once the maximum number of wound levels have been absorbed by the hex, it dissipates and the huckster is vulnerable to further attacks.

The protection afforded by bodyguard is effective against all types of physical damage, both magical and non-magical. It does not provide any protection against suffocation, drowning, or wounds caused by excessive Wind loss (like from massive bleeding).

A huckster can have only one bodyguard at a time. Until the first hex ends, any further castings automatically fail.

Hand Wound Levels

Ace 1

Pair 2

Jacks 3

Two Pairs 4

Three of a Kind 6

Straight 8

Flush 10

Full House 14

Four of a Kind 20

Brimstone

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

With hexes like this, it’s no wonder hucksters have gotten a bad reputation with God-fearing folk. Brimstone allows the huckster to summon up a bit of brimstone from Hell itself. The thick, yellowish vapors it puts forth choke and blind everyone in the area. Once the huckster has summoned up the brimstone, he can drop it, throw it, or carry it around if he wants, though he’s not immune to its effects.

To cast the hex, there must be a source of burning coals. The huckster reaches into the flames (which some maintain actually channels his hand straight into the Pit) and plucks out a piece of brimstone, causing 1d6 Wind damage to him. The brimstone immediately begins to smoke, causing sickly, vaguely yellow vapors to billow forth over a circular area equal to 10 feet in radius per hex level. A blowing wind, whether of natural or magical origin, is ineffective in dispersing the Hellish fumes. Living beings within the cloud suffer burning eyes, skin, and lungs.

Until the hex’s duration has expired, all Trait or Aptitude rolls made by anyone within the smoke are at –2, and they also lose Wind at the end of each round depending on the hand drawn (see the table below, amigo). The modifier applies as long as a target remains within the area and for two full rounds after leaving the cloud. The Wind loss ends immediately upon exiting the cloud and can be recovered normally.

Call o’ the Wild

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 1 mile/hex level

You can assemble quite a menagerie with this hex. Call o’ the wild lets your huckster summon and control critters and varmints. He can’t talk to monstrous abominations, only natural animals. The call goes out to specific types of creatures such as bats, rats, wolves, bears, etc.

This hex doesn’t magically transport the animals to the caster, so it may take some time before the critters put in an appearance.

When the animals do show up, they do the caster’s bidding as long as he continues to concentrate. The moment he lets go, vermin and lesser varmints vanish. Wolves, bears, and the like either flee or attack the closest target depending on the situation.

Varmints aren’t too smart. They do whatever the huckster wants to the best of their abilities, about like a well-trained dog. Don’t expect them to figure out how to fire a weapon or start speaking Portuguese.

The varmints still have to make guts checks against supernatural opponents, just like anyone else. That’s why it’s not much use to throw wolves at some shambling creature from the grave. They’d likely just run away with their tails between their legs.

The hand the huckster draws determines the type and number of creatures he can call upon. The huckster doesn’t actually summon the varmints—he just calls to them. If there’s none around, nothing happens, even if he draws a Royal Flush. The Marshal has to decide if the type of creatures the huckster is calling are within his range. If not, the huckster can try another animal type, as long as it is available to a lower hand.

Hand Varmints

Pair 2d4 mice, squirrels, small birds

Jacks 1d4 house cats, skunks, raccoons

Two Pairs 3d6 rats, bats, snakes

Straight 2d6 wolves, mountain lions

Flush 1d4 bears

Clear Out!

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: Self

Sometimes a fellow just needs some elbow room. This hex can get you some, right quick. With clear out! a huckster causes an invisible spherical wall of force to push outward from himself. The radius of this wall is equal to 5 yards per hex level.

Objects in the area of effect—animate or inanimate—are automatically pushed away from the caster if their weight is equal to or less than the weight indicated on the table below. Bullets and the like overcome the effect of the hex by sheer velocity, so don’t count on this hex to make a huckster bulletproof. People or creatures attempting to resist the force or push forward against it must make a Strength roll versus a TN from the table.

If a creature encounters a wall or similar obstruction while being pushed by this hex, it must make a Strength test versus the TN from the table or be held fast.

Each hand above Three of a Kind adds 2 to the TN and 50 pounds to the weight moved.

Hand Wind Loss/Round

Ace 1d4

Pair 1d6

Jacks 1d8

Two Pairs 2d6

Three of a Kind 2d8

Straight 2d10

Corporeal Tweak

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Time to engage in a little self-improvement. This hex alters a target’s physical abilities, making him stronger, faster, nimbler, tougher, or more dexterous. The huckster decides on which one of the target’s physical Traits he wants to tweak before channeling. A subject can only be affected by one corporeal tweak at a time. Any further corporeal tweaks cast on a target while one is still in effect automatically fail.

Hand TN to Resist Weight

Ace 3 50 pounds

Pair 5 100 pounds

Jacks 7 150 pounds

Two Pairs 9 200 pounds

Three of a Kind 11 250 pounds

Confound

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

A huckster using confound cannot only make something harder than it looked, he can make it harder than it is!

This hex causes the Target Number for any single Trait or Aptitude roll to increase in difficulty. Raises for this roll are figured from the new adjusted TN. It is effective against even magical Aptitudes like hexes, rituals, and even a blessed’s faith rolls.

Confound only affects the next action made by the target. If the next action the target makes doesn’t involve an Aptitude or Trait roll, the hex is wasted. Additionally, if a full round elapses without the target taking an action, the hex is wasted.

The increase of the Target Number is based on the hand drawn by the huckster. The minimum hand increases the TN by +2. Each hand above the minimum required adds an additional +2 to the TN.

Hand Bonus

Pair +1 step

Two Pairs +2 steps

Three of a Kind +3 steps

Straight +4 steps

Flush +5 steps

Corporeal Twist

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Corporeal twist is the opposite of corporeal tweak. It lowers one of a target’s physical Traits by one die type for each of the hands listed under corporeal tweak. Once the die type has dropped to a d4, the Coordination drops by 1 for each level, down to a minimum of 1d4. A subject can only be affected by one corporeal twist at a time. Any further corporeal twists cast on a target while one is still in effect automatically fail.

Critter Ward

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 5 minutes

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Touch

Tired of waking up with members of the local wildlife sharing your bedroll?

This incantation allows the caster to erect a stationary magical barrier that normal animals can’t willingly cross. Hucksters often use this hex to safeguard their camps at night. Critter ward affects a spherical area with a radius of 5 feet per level of the hexslinger’s skill in the hex. After casting the hex, the huckster may leave the area without affecting the critter ward.

No normal animal can willingly enter the area protected by a critter ward. A bear ousted from its den, for example, may prowl angrily at the edge of the ward, but it can’t cross it.

Animals controlled by others (by a Harrowed’s varmint control, a familiar Edge, or a call o’ the wild hex) must make an Onerous (7) guts check to enter the area. Those that succeed suffer a –2 to all Trait and Aptitude checks while within the critter ward. Either way, these animals seek to escape the area as soon as they are freed from the control. This hex has absolutely no effect on abominations.

Deadly Creepers

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 15 yards/hex level

Heard of carnivorous plants? This hex can’t make a sapling nibble toes, but it might make it lash out and bash in someone’s brainpan. With this hex, the huckster gives malevolent life to plants of all sorts.

Assuming there are saplings, tall weeds, or other substantial flora within a circular area equal to 10 feet in radius per hex level, any creature that enters this area is attacked. The plants attack everyone—friend or foe—including the huckster.

The maximum size foliage a huckster can affect is determined by the hand he draws. The size of the plants also determines the amount of damage done. If the huckster draws a hand higher than needed for the plants he’s trying to affect, they don’t do any additional damage.

The damage shown for each entry represents the blows of many vines, thickets, trees, branches, etc. Roll only once per round for everyone within the area, regardless of how many trees are there. Weeds, tall grass, and the like can also entangle. Anyone attempting to leave an area that contains entangling flora must make a Strength check TN (5) to escape the entwining plants. Remember that even if your huckster is going for redwoods, he might still affect any nearby vines and weeds. If there’s any doubt what’s around, the Marshal decides.

A huckster can only affect foliage that is actually in the area, regardless of the hand.

Hand Foliage Damage

Ace Grass 0

Pair Thorn bushes 1d4 Wind

Jacks Thickets, vines 1d10 Wind

Two Pairs Saplings 1d6

Three of a Kind Small trees 2d6

Straight Medium trees d6

Flush Large trees 4d8

Full House Redwoods 4d12

Deuces Wild!

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Double your pleasure, double your huckster. Deuces wild! creates an illusory double of your huckster. The double must remain within range and sight of the huckster at all times, but she can move the illusion around as she likes. The double appears in all respects identical to the huckster, and anyone attempting to pick out the real huckster must make an Onerous (7) Cognition roll. Anyone within three feet of the double need only make a Foolproof (3) Cognition roll to spot a certain shimmer to the fake.

The double is only a visual illusion, so its actions have no effect on physical objects. Additionally, creatures which have keen senses of smell are not fooled by the illusion—use this against a pack of wolves, and your huckster is lunch. Anyone touching the double instantly realizes it’s an illusion. Physical objects pass right through it!

If the huckster draws Three of a Kind or better, she can also throw her voice so the double appears to speak.

Disrupt

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Sometimes other hucksters can be downright unneighborly. Disrupt lets your huckster dispel the effects of an ongoing hex, Harrowed power, or black magic spell.

This hex has no effect against favors or miracles. There’s not much that manitous can do against the sources of their power. Disrupt isn’t much use against instant spells or hexes like soul blast or howl or hexes with a permanent duration like helpin’ hand or vittles, either. What it is good for is stopping hexes or spells with a duration, like Texas twister or siren song.

Some hexes have both an instant and a longer-term effect, like frostbite. In this case, disrupt doesn’t remove the damage from frostbite, but it does negate the doubled wound- effect modifiers. If it’s unclear whether an effect has a duration or is instant or permanent, the Marshal has final say.

To disrupt a hex (or a power or spell), check the table below and compare the huckster’s hand with the foe’s level in the hex, power, or spell he wants to disrupt. If the hand drawn equals or exceeds the opponent’s skill, the target hex is cancelled. Disrupt only affects the specific hex targeted, the opponent may recast it on his next action if he so desires.

Earlier, Velvet was trapped in spirit coils by an opposing huckster. Physical strength was never his forte, so it’s doubtful he could muscle his way out. Instead, Velvet decides to cast disrupt. He is successful and draws Two Pairs. His opponent’s skill in spirit coils is 3, so Two Pairs is enough to dispel the hex. Velvet is freed from the coils and is looking to teach his opponent a lesson.

Hand Opponent’s Level

Ace 1

Pair 2

Jacks 3

Two Pairs 4

Straight 5

Flush 6

Full House 7

Four of a Kind 8

Straight Flush 9

Royal Flush Any level

Diversion

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1 (Vamoose!)

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Traveling the Weird West alone is a dangerous proposition. This hex lets your huckster keep his trail mates alive and kickin’.

Diversion lets the hexslinger deflect physical attacks—and even some hexes—aimed at his friends. The effect is to add +5 to the Target Number of anyone trying to shoot the target of this hex.

Explosives, fire from a flamethrower, and other area-effect attacks cannot be deflected, but ranged magical attacks such as soul blast and black lightnin’ can be pushed aside. The Marshal may determine that other supernatural effects may be affected as well.

Draw!

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 round

Range: 10 yards/hex level

A clear head and fast hands gives a huckster an edge over his opponents. If your huckster doesn’t have either of these, he’d better think about learning this hex. This hex gives the huckster additional actions which he may give to himself or any other character within range of the hex.

The target gains additional Action Cards according to the huckster’s hand. Any cards the huckster draws that are higher than the current Action Card must be used immediately (though one could be put up the sleeve).

Hand Bonus Action Cards

Ace 1

Pair 2

Two Pairs 3

Three of a Kind 4

Straight 5

Earthwrack

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Earthwrack channels the energy the huckster taps from the Hunting Ground directly into the very ground underfoot. The destructive forces this unleashes cause the earth to buckle and crack and can make permanent changes on the local terrain.

The devastation wrought by this hex depends on the draw. Each effect is detailed below, along with the minimum hand necessary to cause it. The exact effect depends on caster’s hand, but the hexslinger can select any one effect equal to or less than the hand drawn.

Hand Effect

Ace The earth churns itself into an area of rocky, broken ground. This area is a square with sides 10 yards long per hex level. Running across this terrain is impossible.

Jacks The ground rolls into a mound of earth 1 foot wide, 2 feet high, and 10 feet long per hex level.

2 Pair Tremors do 4d12 to all earth and stonework structures in the area of effect.

3 of a kind A wall of solid rock 1 foot thick, 2 feet high, and 5 feet long per hex level erupts from the earth.

Straight A chasm 8 feet wide, 20 feet deep, and 10 feet long per hex level opens.

4 of a Kind A minor earthquake occurs. The Marshal decides on the effect this has on the area.

Royal Flush A major earthquake rocks the area, collapsing mines and knocking down buildings.

Earshot

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 1 mile/hex level

This hex is a longtime favorite of busybodies and muckrakers everywhere. It allows a huckster to hear through someone else’s ears. The subject can be a human or any other mundane creature—it does not affect abominations. The caster can only hear as well as the subject can, so if he picked a target with bad ears, she may be out of luck! On the other hand, a keen subject might enable her to catch something she’d have otherwise missed.

If the victim makes an Onerous (7) Spirit roll when the hex is first activated, he knows something’s wrong. At this point, he can try to eject the huckster by engaging her in a contest of Spirit versus the huckster’s earshot Aptitude level each round. The huckster can cast this spell on an unseen target if she can get her hands on an object the subject has touched within the last week.

Eye Spy

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: Self

While folks often speak of a fellow having eyes in the back of his head, a huckster can go him one better. When this hex is cast, a circle of faintly visible eyes rings the huckster’s head.

These eyes provide her with 360° of vision and make her tough to sneak up on. She gains +5 to all Cognition rolls made for surprise purposes while maintaining eye spy.

Unfortunately, the human mind is not constructed to process a 360° viewpoint. Most folks find it disorienting after a very short time. A huckster maintaining eye spy for long periods must make a Fair (5) Vigor check every 5 minutes or end the hex due to nausea.

Filibuster

Trait: Mien

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: 2 yards

Some folks have the gift o’ gab. Others just don’t know when to shut up. This hex makes the huckster a conversationalist that would make a Boston debutante green with envy.

When the huckster casts the hex, she must focus her attention on a single target. Guards, deputies, and rich gamblers are common victims. If she’s successful, her voice becomes absolutely mesmerizing.

As long as she continues to speak to the target, he finds it difficult to pay attention to anything else. The huckster can stop speaking only for short, natural pauses for breath— anything longer than this ends the hex. At the end of the hex, the target has a feeling of disorientation, as if his mind had wandered during a tedious conversation.

To notice anything outside of the huckster and her voice, the target must make a Cognition roll against a Target Number determined by the huckster’s hand. The base Target Number is 3 for the minimum hand of Ace. Each hand the huckster draws above this increases the TN by +2.

The target only gets such a roll when something may affect him or something he considers important. Examples include a deputy’s set of jailhouse keys or a gambler’s pot of winnings. The Marshal has final say on what the target may or may not consider vital.

Flypaper Fingers

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: Touch

Preachers claim angels bear the faithful to Heaven when their time comes. A huckster can’t always wait that long.

With flypaper fingers, the palms of the huckster’s hands and the soles of her feet suddenly become incredibly adhesive. This allows her to climb almost any surface—only the toughest require even a Foolproof (3) climbin’ check. This new ability works even through shoes and gloves.

The hex can also be used to help the huckster hold onto objects or people in hand or even lift smaller things without actually grasping them. In an effort or a contest to maintain a hold on something, the huckster adds twice his hex level to any rolls.

Foil

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1 (Vamoose!)

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Foil lets your huckster prevent others from doing unto him that which he’d like to do to them. It allows the huckster to disrupt another’s hex as it is being cast!

He does so by forcing his manitou to attack his rival’s. The more skilled the opponent, the harder this is to do. This hex is only useful against black magic, a Harrowed’s power, or another huckster’s hex. It has no effect on either favors or miracles.

To use foil, the huckster must vamoose.

After spending his Action Card, the huckster makes his foil roll and compares his hand with his opponent’s level in the hex, power, or spell being countered. The chart below tells the hand necessary to beat each level. If the huckster is successful, the opponent’s hex, power, or spell fails. The opponent must still check for backlash (or misfires for black magic), as usual. If the foil fails, the hex or spell is resolved as normal.

This hex only prevents a single casting attempt. The opponent is free to cast the same or other hex again in later actions.

Velvet is facing a cultist who’s about to send an icy bolt o’ doom right through his favorite green velvet suit. The huckster has no card up his sleeve, but he does have one Action Card remaining. Velvet spends it and casts his hex. He’s successful and draws a Pair of Jacks.

Fortunately, the cultist only has a skill of 2, so the bolt o’ doom fails, and the cultist can only check for a misfire.

Hand Opponent’s Level

Ace 1

Pair 2

Jacks 3

Two Pairs 4

Straight 5

Flush 6

Full House 7

Four of a Kind 8

Straight Flush 9

Royal Flush Any level

Forget

Trait: Mien

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1 (special)

Duration: Permanent

Range: 1 yard

This is a favorite hex with the rare Pinkerton huckster. It allows the devious hexslinger to erase—or even modify—the memories of some poor sod.

The length of memories the caster can erase depends on the hand drawn. The memories are not completely destroyed; they are simply made very difficult to recall.

Remembering anything from a period of time that’s been affected by this hex requires an Incredible (11) Knowledge roll. Even if successful, the recovered memory is hazy and may contain inaccuracies.

Should the huckster wish to alter the subject’s memory—rather than simply erase it—the time required to cast the hex increases dramatically.

This is because it’s necessary to root around in the subject’s mind and find material with which to build the false memory.

When altering memories, the speed of the hex increases to 10 minutes plus another 10 minutes for every hand needed above the minimum hand. At the end of this time, the huckster must make a Hard (9) Smarts roll to build the memory desired.

If this Smarts roll is failed, the memories are only erased. If the huckster goes bust on this roll, the false memory is badly flawed, and within 1d4 days the subject regains all memories the huckster had erased with the hex. The target also remembers the caster mucking around in his mind, and he’s not likely going to be very understanding about it.

Hand Erased/Altered Time

Ace 1 round

Pair 1 minute

Jacks 5 minutes

Two Pairs 10 minutes

Three of a Kind 1 hour

Straight 6 hours

Flush 1 day

Full House 1 week

Four of a Kind 1 month

Straight Flush 6 months

Royal Flush 1 year

Fortitude

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

With fortitude, the huckster calls on the manitou to give any target other than herself a momentary increase of supernatural vitality, even above his normal limit. This hex increases a target’s Wind by an amount determined by the hand drawn. Any Wind lost comes first from that gained from the fortitude. When the hex ends, any of the extra Wind still left fades.

This hex can be used to return consciousness to a Winded companion. However, at the end of the hex, he is again disabled unless some other method is used to heal him.

Hand Wind Gain

Ace 5

Pair 10

Two Pairs 15

Three of a Kind 25

Straight 40

Fortune Teller

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 5 minutes

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard

With this hex, your huckster can make a living as a traveling sideshow or just be a creepy prognosticator who utters cryptic remarks.

Fortune teller gives the huckster supernatural insight into the future of the hex’s target, which must be a person. The hex reveals information about the possible future of the target in the form of a brief vision. The vision is likely to focus on events such as dangers to the target or influential people. The better the hand, the more knowledge is revealed, but this information is almost always hidden in cryptic images.

The target is normally a willing participant in the casting, but this isn’t always the case. Should she attempt to resist the casting, the target and the huckster make an opposed test of Spirit. If the target wins, the huckster gains no information, but if the huckster wins, the hex functions as normal.

Gambler’s Luck

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1

Duration: Permanent

Range: Touch

Pay your money, and take your chances.

This hex allows a huckster to gamble with her destiny. Anyone casting this hex must pay at least one white Fate Chip to start the hex. This is the ante for the manitou’s game.

If successful, she wins some control over future events. The gain is dependent on the hand drawn and is represented by Fate Chips.

Should she go bust, not only does she suffer backlash, but she also loses all her Fate Chips. If she has no Fate Chips remaining, the Marshal gets to draw three Fate Chips from the pot.

Hand Chips Gained

Jacks 2 white

Three of a Kind 2 white, 1 red

Straight 2 white, 1 red, and 1 blue

Gateway

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 2 miles/hex level

Often a huckster finds herself without a horse, and the old heel-toe express just won’t get her where she needs to be fast enough. With a little preparation, a huckster can use this hex to return to a spot she’s chosen beforehand.

To cast gateway, the huckster must first select a doorway of some sort as the return portal.

This doorway can be no greater than 5 feet wide and 10 feet tall.

Once the portal has been selected, the hexslinger places a unique mark of her choosing on the side of the doorway she wishes to emerge from. This mark can be as simple or as complex as the huckster wants. The mark does not have to be actually inscribed on the door, it merely need touch it (many hucksters use a playing card).

The whole process of setting up the return portal usually takes no longer than a single action. It’s important to choose the return doorway carefully because the huckster can only have one prepared at a time. Also, a locked return portal causes the hex to fail (and can be awfully embarrassing for the hexslinger).

When the huckster wants to use the gateway, she must find another doorway, although this one can be of any size, as long as it is a constructed portal. For some reason, natural archways or openings do not work with this hex; only handmade ones.

If she successfully casts the hex and draws at least the minimum hand, she can step through one doorway and emerge from the return portal. Anyone watching either portal sees it temporarily fill with an inky blackness, and the huckster either disappears into the darkness or emerges from it.

Only the caster can make use of the portal, and she can only carry as much as she can lift. No matter how strong she may be, she cannot carry another person through the doorway.

Attempting to do so causes the hex to automatically fail.

One word of caution. Backlash with this hex can be very dangerous. A number of hapless hexslingers have stepped into one end of a gateway and never emerged from the blackness. Where those unlucky hucksters ended up is anyone’s guess (and the Marshal’s call).

Geyser

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 3

Duration: 1 round

Range: 20 yards/hex level

Why travel to Yellowstone? A huckster with this hex can summon up a geyser nearly anywhere.

A hexslinger using geyser sends the power he obtained from the manitou deep into the earth to force boiling water to erupt at a spot he designates. The hex works even in areas without any apparent water, like deserts. In these places, the manitou just has to dig a little deeper than usual.

The geyser erupts with superheated water and steam in a roughly circular area, 1 yard in diameter and 5 yards high. Everyone in that area at the time of eruption takes scalding damage according to the huckster’s hand, while all within 3 yards of the center of the geyser take half damage.

Due to the rumbling which precedes the eruption, people in the area of effect who have cards remaining may vamoose to reduce the damage they take. This requires an Onerous (7) Nimbleness roll. If the roll is successful, the target moves one damage level further from the center of the geyser, so someone in the full damage area moves to the half damage area, and someone in the half damage area moves out of the hex’s area of effect.

Damage from the geyser is applied like damage from an explosion: Figure the total number of wounds and roll for the location of each separately.

Armor does not protect against the damage from geyser. Completely waterproof clothing, like a Smith & Robards diving suit, halves the damage taken from this hex.

Hand Damage

Pair 4d4

Two Pairs 5d6

Three of a Kind 6d6

Straight 6d8

Flush 7d10

Full House 8d10

Four of a Kind 9d10

Straight Flush 10d12

Royal Flush 11d12

Ghost Rider

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1 minute

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Touch

Living in the Hunting Grounds as long as they have, the manitous possess a small amount of power over animal spirits. With ghost rider, the huckster is able to use this power to temporarily procure herself a mount. This hex summons a horse spirit for the huckster to ride. No one except the huckster can ride the horse. No horse ridin’ roll is necessary to ride; the spirit takes care of its rider.

The mount provided is always a ghostly gray with coal-black eyes, mane, and tail. It has the same exact Traits given for an average mount in the Equipment section of the Deadlands rulebook, except that its Spirit is 2d8 and its Pace is 24.

The horse can usually only perform feats a normal horse is capable of, although its tracks are indistinct and give anyone tracking it a –2 to his trackin’ rolls. The spirit can’t fight, even to save itself, and it’s dispersed if it takes even one wound. At the end of the hex’s duration, the mount dissipates like smoke in a breeze.

If the huckster’s hand is high enough—Three of a Kind or better—the caster gets a superior mount. This mount takes damage like a normal horse, has a Pace of 30, and can fight. It attacks with its front hooves for STR+2d6 damage.

Any cowpoke with animal wranglin’ who makes a Fair (5) Aptitude test knows there’s something spooky about the huckster’s horse. Hucksters who plan on riding a mount summoned by this hex into town had better be ready to ride it back out in a hurry!

Ghost Trail

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Touch

Occasionally, a mob on the trail of a huckster is befuddled when the quarry’s tracks just disappear. Most likely, he’s caused his tracks to vanish by means of ghost trail.

Ghost trail erases the trail left by the huckster and one other person per hex level. Ghost trail works against many forms of tracking, depending on the hand drawn.

As the hands increase in value, the huckster gains protection against visual tracking (humans) and then scent (animals and some abominations). Finally, if the huckster draws well enough, the hex actually produces a false trail leading the pursuers in a random direction away from the huckster for 1 mile/hex level in ghost trail.

If a huckster using ghost trail is the target of a bloodhound hex, he and the huckster casting bloodhound must make an opposed roll using their respective hexes. Should the huckster casting the ghost trail hex win, the bloodhound hex fails.

If the huckster casting bloodhound wins, she gains information on the huckster’s whereabouts as normal. Ghost trail is still effective against more mundane methods of tracking, however, even if defeated by bloodhound.

Hand Tracking Protection

Ace Visual

Pair Scent

Two Pairs Creates false trail

Graveyard Mists

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 10 minutes/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

There’s nothing like a good, thick fog to hide someone who doesn’t want to be seen. A hexslinger casting graveyard mists calls up a dense ground fog to cover an area designated by the huckster. This circular area’s radius cannot exceed 40 yards per hex level, and the height of the mist cannot reach more than 30 feet above the ground.

Within the area, vision is severely limited, and sound and smell are also muted. The maximum range of sight is determined by the hand drawn, and all Cognition rolls, vision or otherwise, receive a –2 modifier.

Used with proper discretion, graveyard mists seldom appear supernatural in origin. Certainly, a thick fog on a dark night keeps most sane folk indoors, but few are liable to connect its use with a hexslinger.

Graveyard mists is most effective on heavily overcast days or at night. If exposed to sunlight, the mists burn off quickly, limiting the duration to 1 minute per hex level.

Hand Maximum Sight Distance

Ace 20 yards

Pair 10 yards

Two Pairs 10 feet

Three of a Kind 5 feet

Straight 2 feet

Hard Water

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 50 yards/hex level

This hex causes water to become thicker than molasses on Christmas. The water becomes thicker and thicker, eventually becoming almost solid if the huckster draws well enough. It affects an area equal to 10 feet in diameter per hex level.

With an Ace, the water becomes slow moving and more buoyant, giving a +3 to anyone making a swimmin’ roll in it. Ships or other vessels lose one quarter of their movement in this water.

With a Pair, the water is so viscous that swimmin’ rolls are unnecessary unless the cowpoke is underwater when the hex is cast. In this case, the unlucky swimmer needs to make a Fair (5) swimmin’ roll to push his way up through the thick syrupy water. Waterborne vessels lose one half of their movement.

With Two Pairs, the huckster makes the water almost gelatinous. Anyone underwater when the hex is cast must make an Onerous (7) swimmin’ roll to surface. Ships have their Pace reduced to one quarter their normal movement.

With a Straight, the water becomes almost solid. Anyone underwater at this point, must make an Incredible (11) swimmin’ roll to fight his way to the surface. Ships are stopped for the duration of the hex.

If used on quicksand (natural or magic) or thick mud, count the hand as two levels above its actual value.

Helpin’ Hand

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 10 minutes

Duration: Permanent

Range: 1 yard

Helpin’ hand allows a huckster to heal a suffering companion’s wounds (not his own). Each successful casting reduces the wounds in all areas by 1 level each. During this time the caster can take no actions other than sitting near the patient and waiting (a good time to brush up on one’s solitaire).

The hand needed depends on the victim’s highest wound level. Note that helpin’ hand can’t heal more than 1 level of wounds at a time. The huckster can treat several wound levels by casting the hex more than once, however. Helpin’ hand also can’t restore maimed limbs. Only the divine favors of shamans and the blessed can pull off that trick.

Undead, like the Harrowed, cannot be affected by this hex. To fix their wounds, the huckster must use the reanimate hex.

Hand Wound

Ace All Wind

Jacks Light

Two Pairs Heavy

Three of a Kind Serious

Straight Critical

Hex Sense

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 25 yards/hex level

With all the strange things going on in the Weird West, it’s good to be able to keep tabs on what magic is floating about.

Hex sense enables the huckster to detect magical emanations and enchantments. She may be able to tell the type of magic and its purpose, as well. For hex sense to be effective, the huckster must be able to see the effect or source of the magic. In other words, this spell is blocked by walls or other opaque substances.

She can examine an arc up to 90° wide and out to the limit of the hex’s range each round the hex sense is in effect.

The huckster’s hand determines how much information she can learn.

Hand Information gained

Ace Magical effects/sources within area are known.

Pair Type of magic (relic, favor, miracle, hex, favor, black magic, or abomination)

Two Pairs General effect of magic (protective, damaging, informational, etc.)

Straight Exact hex or black magic power in use.

Flush Remaining duration on subject magic.

Home Ground

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Self

In the wilderness of the Weird West, it pays to be as familiar as you can be with the territory you’re traveling through. As any good scout can tell you, there are times when not knowing something can get you killed—or at least ambushed.

Home ground gives the huckster a mental map of the surrounding area. It shows him all major terrain features such as hills, valleys, watercourses, and the like. It also conveys a knowledge of lesser features like cliffs, passes, watering holes, and all major regions of vegetation.

The game effect is to provide the huckster with the area knowledge Aptitude for the territory he is in. For the hex’s duration, this is equal to his home ground level. The exact size of the area that he gains a familiarity with is based on the hand drawn.

When the hex ends, all knowledge of the area, except that which the hexslinger has seen for himself, is lost.

Hand Radius of Effect

Ace 100 yards

Pair 500 yards

Jacks 1 mile

Two Pairs 2 miles

Three of a Kind 5 miles

Straight 10 miles

Flush 20 miles

Full House 50 miles

Howl

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

Who said words can never hurt you? A huckster using this hex lets out an unearthly scream, affecting everyone within 10 feet of him. Anyone within the area of effect must immediately make an Onerous (7) guts roll.

Those who succeed shake off the effects of the hex. Those who fail, however, lose Wind according to the hand drawn by the huckster.

Characters with mild bad ears get a +2 on their guts check, while those fortunate enough to be stone deaf are immune to this hex. It does not affect abominations, either. They’re just not as easy to scare as normal folks.

This is not a subtle hex—the huckster’s scream can be heard for the better part of a mile in open territory, a side effect that can sometimes be used as a signal as well.

Hand Wind

Ace 1d4

Pair 1d6

Two Pairs 2d6

Three of a Kind 3d8

Straight 4d

Hunch

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 10 seconds

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

A huckster can gain insight into the past with the hunch hex. To cast this spell, the huckster places her hand on a person, place, or thing and closes her eyes. If the hex is successful, the magician has a brief vision, feeling, or “hunch” about some event that happened in the target’s past.

The better the huckster’s hand, the better the information she gets about the target’s history. The Marshal decides just what information is imparted.

In any case, the target has absolutely no way to “know” about events that did not happen in its presence.

Hunger Pangs

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Hunger is nothing to laugh at—just ask any pioneer who’s been short of food in the middle of a Montana winter. Usually, however, hunger’s a little slow to use for a weapon in a gunfight.

With hunger pangs, the huckster speeds up the natural process quite a bit.

The target and huckster make an opposed test of Spirit. The huckster gains +2 for each hand above the minimum. If the huckster wins the contest, the target creature loses the difference in Wind. This hex cannot take the creature below 1 Wind. Any creature brought to 1 Wind in such a manner immediately loses interest in all non-life-threatening situations in order to search for food—not to mention becoming an easy target for a sucker punch!

This hex has no effect on abominations or the Harrowed.

Hurry Up!

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 1 yard

Occasionally, discretion is the better part of valor. Or maybe the huckster doesn’t have to outrun the wendigo chasing her—just the guy beside her. Whatever the reason, hurry up! gives the subject a little extra speed.

The subject (which can be a mount) can now add to its move a number of yards determined by the hand drawn. These bonus yards are in addition to any gained by running or rolling a pick up die (see the Gitalong Table in the Deadlands rulebook), although it isn’t necessary to pick up the pace to get the bonus from hurry up!

Hand Bonus Move

Ace 4 yards

Pair 8 yards

Jacks 12 yards

Two Pairs 16 yards

Three of a Kind 20 yards

Impostor

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: Touch

Maybe your huckster is wanted for a crime, or possibly there’s someone in the saloon she’d just rather not talk to. Either way, being able to change your appearance on command is a handy ability.

This hex allows the huckster to alter her looks to appear as just about anyone else she chooses. The alteration isn’t limited to just the face, but encompasses the entire appearance. While the hex does allow for change of apparent sex, drastic alterations in size aren’t possible, so petite hucksters probably shouldn’t attempt to impersonate bareknuckle fighters. The hexslinger can only impersonate people she has seen before—in person or otherwise.

The hex gives the huckster a +5 to her disguise roll. Provided she doesn’t go bust, this guarantees at least one success, and often that’s more than enough! Each hand above a Pair provides an additional +2 to the roll.

Incognito

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: Touch

Edgar Allen Poe would approve of this hex. It allows you to hide in plain sight, just like his “Purloined Letter.”

This hex hides the subject behind a veil of magic that makes most folks (and things!) likely to just ignore him. It doesn’t truly make the target invisible, just hard to notice. This concealment is totally dependent on the hex’s magic, so no amount of stealth can assist it.

Since incognito affects the observer and not the subject’s sneak Aptitude, the Spirit roll to notice the hexslinger is a straight roll versus a TN determined by the hand drawn. This roll is automatic whenever an observer is in visual range of the hex’s recipient. Anyone who succeeds at this roll can see the caster (and point him out to others, giving them a +5 on their Spirit rolls).

If the huckster casts this hex while the target is under direct observation, it may not do much

good. Anyone watching the subject at the time the hex takes effect receives a +5 to her Spirit roll. The same holds true if the subject makes blatantly overt actions while under the hex.

These include, but aren’t limited to, firing a gun, making a physical attack, casting a loud or flashy hex, or talking above a normal voice.

Those types of actions also give an immediate +5 to the Spirit roll. Some things you just can’t ignore!

If the huckster casts this hex on someone else, he can still see her normally.

Hand Spirit TN

Ace 3

Pair 5

Jacks 7

Two Pairs 9

Three of a Kind 11

Interpret

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 5 minutes/hex level

Range: Self

When sailors of the Mexican Armada have a gun to your head and are excitedly asking you questions in Spanish, it’s not the time to try out those few words of the language you picked up in the saloon. You’re never quite sure what that señorita was calling you, after all.

A huckster using this hex gains insight into the meaning of an unknown language. Interpret works for either spoken or written languages, although the huckster must choose one or the other at the time of casting the hex.

If the huckster chooses spoken communication, she gains the ability to speak the language at the level indicated by the hand drawn. If written communication is chosen, the duration of the hex becomes 1 hour per hex level.

The amount of understanding gained is determined by the hand drawn. At a Pair or higher, the huckster is able to understand the language well enough that an actual Aptitude equal to the level indicated in the appropriate language is gained for the duration of the hex.

This hex does not help the huckster in any way with a language she already happens to know.

Hand Understanding

Ace General intent (greeting, warning, and so on)

Pair Language 1

Two Pairs Language 2 Three of a Kind Language 3

Kentucky Windage

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 1 yard

Sometimes a bullet has your name on it, and if it doesn’t, a huckster with Kentucky windage might just put it there! This hex offsets penalties and guides bullets to their targets. Many a huckster has used this hex to pass himself off as a trick shot.

The hex can be cast on either the huckster or a companion. Kentucky windage doesn’t provide any bonus to hit. It only negates penalties to its subject’s shootin’ rolls. The size of penalty negated is dependent on the hand drawn. The minimum hand negates a –2 penalty. Each hand above this negates a further –2 penalty.

Additionally, since the bullet is supernaturally directed, flesh wounds are less likely. The subject can reroll any 1s on the damage dice. One casting affects all the subject’s shootin’ concentrations for the duration of the hex. It has no effect on the fannin’ Aptitude.

Velvet is facing down an angry Harrowed. He doesn’t want to expose his hexslinging abilities to the crowd which has gathered to watch the fight, so using soul blast is out of the question. Velvet casts Kentucky windage and draws Three of a Kind—enough to negate 10 points of penalties. On his next action, Velvet whips out his derringer and takes a shot at his opponent’s head from a distance of 15 yards. This is normally a penalty of –9 (–6 for head, –3 for the range), but Kentucky Windage negates the entire penalty—Velvet hits his opponent square between the eyes on a 5! He rolls 3d6 for damage and can reroll any 1s which come up.

Lethargy

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 5 minutes/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

This hex comes in handy for cooling off a poker game gone bad or stalling a lynch mob. It instills a feeling of intense laziness among all those afflicted.

Lethargy affects everyone in a 5-yard radius of the huckster’s target, except the huckster himself. Anyone in the area must make a Spirit roll against a Target Number determined by the huckster’s hand. The base TN for an Ace is 3.

Each hand above the minimum increases the TN by +2. Those who fail just don’t find the gumption to take any drastic action and most likely just find a spot to sit a spell. While it can’t convince anyone to do anything, lethargy might convince someone to do nothing. And often, that’s just what the huckster wants.

Unfortunately, high levels of adrenaline completely negate the effects of lethargy, so the hex is useless in combat or life-threatening situations that have already developed.

Looking Glass

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 5 minutes

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 5 miles/hex level

This is a favorite of nosy hexslingers. With it, they can look in on almost anyone with a little preparation. Looking glass allows a huckster to use an ordinary mirror as a sort of crystal ball, though there is a catch. There must also be a mirror in the place he is trying to observe. If there’s no mirror or reasonably reflective surface (windows don’t usually work), the hex fails.

In effect, this spell opens a junction between the two mirrors. Only the huckster can see or take advantage of this link. The huckster, by looking into one mirror, can see out of the other just as if he were looking through a window into the other location. He can only see what can be seen from the mirror’s vantage point.

Looking glass doesn’t provide any special visual abilities. If the huckster can’t see in the dark, he’d better hope there’s a light on where he’s looking.

Higher hands improve the link between the mirrors. First the huckster gains the ability to hear through the mirrors, as well, although the sound is slightly muffled. At a very high hand, Full House or better, the junction allows him to actually physically pass through it. An average mirror allows the huckster to stick an arm through. It takes a fairly large mirror to actually step through to the other location. Only the huckster and items in his possession can pass through the mirror. The link remains for the duration of the hex, so the huckster could cross, perform a few actions and return, all before the connection breaks.

Some caution is needed when travelling via mirror. If the mirror at either end is broken the huckster can end up stranded. If the mirror is broken while the huckster is passing through it (requiring his opponent to use a held action), he takes 4d8 damage to the guts.

Hand Effect

Two Pairs Visual observation of area.

Three of a Kind Audio observation also.

Full House Huckster can physically pass through mirrors.

Long-Winded

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 1 mile/hex level

This is a handy little incantation for those times when you just can’t seem to find a telegraph office. Having a huckster with this hex around is better than owning stock in Western Union.

With this hex, the huckster can convey mental messages over vast distances. Depending on the hand drawn, the message can vary from simply a vague feeling all the way up to full two-way communication.

The huckster decides who she is trying to contact at the time of casting. If the target is out of the hexslinger’s range, the hex is still cast, only the message is never received.

The hex does not let the huckster know whether or not the target is within range, although if two-way communication is achieved, the huckster can probably figure it out for herself.

Hand Message

Ace Simple emotion

Pair One sentence

Two Pairs Detailed message

Three of a Kind Two-way communication

Martyr’s Mirror

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 rounds/hex level

Range: Self

There’s a saying that goes the best defense is a good offense. Martyr’s mirror turns an opponent’s offense into the huckster’s defense. This hex deals a like amount of damage (not wounds) back to anyone or thing who damages the caster. There is no range limit to this effect.

The damage is dealt to the same hit location on the opponent where the huckster was wounded. Martyr’s mirror can only do as much damage as was dealt to the huckster. If the huckster reduces the damage to herself through Fate Chips, the bodyguard hex, or any other means, the damage dealt by martyr’s mirror is also reduced.

Furthermore, the damage a huckster can inflict on her opponent with this hex is limited by the hand she draws. The amount indicated on the table below is the maximum amount which can be reflected each round. The mirror affects the first damage received each round until the maximum damage has been reached that round.

This is magical damage, and as such, it does affect creatures immune to normal sources of damage, such as nosferatu or hangin’ judges.

Armor does not provide protection. Note that this hex reflects damage, not wound levels. A fatal wound to a huckster may only scratch a Mojave rattler!

Hand Maximum Damage Inflicted

Ace 6

Pair 12

Two Pairs 18

Three of a Kind 30

Straight 42

Flush 48

Full House 60

Mind Tweak

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Mind tweak is the mental version of corporeal tweak. The huckster can affect any Mental Trait with this handy ritual. This can come in handy for those times when you need just a little more brain power or even peace of mind.

A subject can only be affected by one mind tweak. Any further mind tweaks cast on a target while one is still in effect automatically fail.

Hand Bonus

Pair +1 step

Two Pairs +2 steps

Three of a Kind +3 steps

Straight +4 steps

Flush +5 steps

Mind Twist

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Mind twist is the opposite of mind tweak. It lowers one of a target’s mental Traits by one die type for each of the hands listed under mind tweak. Once the die type has dropped to a d4, the Coordination drops by 1 for each level to a minimum of 1d4.

A subject can only be affected by one mind twist. Any further mind twists cast on a target while one is still in effect automatically fail.

Mirage

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Many a cowpoke has been misled by a mirage. Not all of these are natural phenomenon—some sprang from a hand of cards!

This hex allows a huckster to create an illusion of a place or inanimate object. For the purposes of this hex, normal plants such as grass and trees are considered inanimate.

The effects of the hex are limited to an area equal to 200 square feet per hex level. This is the equivalent of a 20’ x 10’ rectangle, although the huckster can modify this area into any shape, as long it does not exceed the limit. If needed, the huckster can move the illusion as appropriate within the range of the hex. Note, though, that any illusionary objects created with this hex must be three dimensional. Your huckster can’t extend the size of his illusion by making a locomotive which appears normal from the side but which is only 1” wide.

The illusion produced by the hex is very realistic. So much so, in fact, that anyone viewing it must first have a reason to doubt its existence—and then make a Hard (9) Cognition roll—to recognize it for false. Anyone attempting to touch an illusion realizes it to be false without having to roll. Also, since it is visual, it has absolutely no effect on the blind or creatures that do not use vision as their primary sense.

The precision of the hex is limited by the hand the huckster draws. Initially, only simple objects can be reproduced, but with higher hands he can produce very intricate illusions.

Hand Complexity

Ace Single uniform object (blank wall or mound of dirt)

Pair Single simple object or area (door, empty room, muddy pond)

Jacks Single moderately diverse object (wagon, rifle, single dead tree)

Two Pairs Single complex object or multiple simple objects (Gatling gun, sparsely furnished room, single live tree)

Three of a Kind Multiple moderately diverse objects (furnished room, garden)

Straight Multiple complex objects (complete building, train)

Flush Extremely complex objects (interior of a gizmo)

Missed Me!

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: Self

There are hexes which absorb damage and ones which reflect damage, but often it’s best not get hit in the first place!

This hex forces a manitou to deflect bullets and other physical projectile attacks that would otherwise hit the huckster’s body. The effect is to add +5 to the TN of anyone trying to shoot the huckster. Explosives, fire from a blazing flamethrower, and other area-effect attacks cannot be deflected, but ranged magical attacks such as soul blast and black lightnin’ can be pushed aside. The Marshal may determine other supernatural effects can be affected as well.

Necromancer

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 1

Duration: 5 rounds/hex level

Range: 1 yard

Generally, hucksters aren’t too good at healing and the like, but the effects of this hex may make it appear that the caster can raise the dead—with good reason. Necromancer lets the caster restore life to a recently fallen comrade.

At least for a very short while.

With this hex, the huckster can, with the aid of the manitou, temporarily call a departing soul back to its body. The huckster can only affect a person who has died within 1 round per hex level. The hex automatically fails if the subject died as the result of a Maiming head wound. For obvious reasons, this hex does not work on characters who are already Harrowed.

If successful, the subject is returned to his body for the duration of the hex. While under the effects of the necromancer, the subject is fairly insensitive to pain. She completely ignores 2 levels of wound modifiers and normal Wind loss, just as if she were Harrowed—which for all intents she is for the length of the spell. She also completely ignores the wound modifiers from the wound which killed her.

A character temporarily brought back to life by this hex cannot be healed by any means— even reanimate—so it is not possible to save someone’s life by use of necromancer, but there are enormous possibilities otherwise.

Finally, the manitou occasionally “gets a taste” for the body and decides to keep it even after the hex expires. To reflect this, anyone who is the subject of a successful necromancer draws two additional cards when checking to see if she becomes Harrowed.

Nightmare Realm

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 15 yards/hex level

Nightmare realm subtly warps the world around the huckster into a place straight from a bad dream—something manitous are very familiar with! Corners become darker, thickets deeper, and plants appear to wilt. Exactly why a huckster would want to actually make a place more foreboding, it’s not easy to say, but nightmare realm lets her do it, at least for a short time.

Nightmare realm affects the entire area within range of the huckster at the time she casts it, and it actually raises the Fear Level there. The exact bonus is determined by the huckster’s draw. With a high enough hand, she can turn a children’s nursery into a Deadland.

This hex is particularly despised by Texas Rangers and Pinkertons, and any huckster they catch using it isn’t too likely to get a chance to explain herself.

Hand Fear Level Increase

Ace +1

Pair +2

Jacks +3

Two Pairs +4

Three of a Kind +5

Old-Timer

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1 day

Duration: Permanent

Range: Self

What good is all the power and knowledge in the world if you’re just going to die of old age someday? Right? Wrong! Not if that knowledge includes this particular gem: the very secret of eternal youth.

With this hex, the huckster can prolong his life indefinitely. Every time the hex is cast, it effectively extends his life by one year. And that’s not one of those wrinkly, old, arthritis years. No sir, that’s a year right now!

When he casts old-timer and draws at least a Pair, the huckster prevents himself from naturally aging for the coming year.

Unfortunately, the hex does not protect the huckster from unnatural causes of aging, like magic, curses, or a particularly bad fright.

There is one possible drawback. If the caster suffers backlash, in addition to any other ill effects, he immediately ages one year.

Parch

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 15 yards/hex level

Parch dehydrates a single target and withers and kills plant life in the surrounding area. The hex itself is invisible, but the effects of it are quite startling. The target of parch first begins to sweat profusely and becomes visibly pale. Then the skin becomes drawn and withers as the victim weakens, faints, and perhaps even dies.

The huckster’s hand with the hex determines how much Wind is lost by his chosen target. The hand also determines the effect on the nearby vegetation. The huckster cannot choose to leave the local flora alone—it’s going to wither. Wind lost to parch can only be regained by drinking water, and each quart of water (about a canteen- full) swallowed restores 1d6 lost Wind. The victim can only drink this quantity about once an hour.

Creatures who don’t need water, like undead, machines, and most unearthly abominations, are immune to this hex.

Pardners

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1

Duration: Special

Range: 3 yards

Poker’s a whole lot better when there’s more than one person playing, and with pardners, so is casting a hex. Pardners allows a huckster to get some magical assistance from, well, his partners.

With this hex, a group of hucksters combines skills to cast a hex, called the “primary hex,” to greater effect than a single huckster can usually expect to achieve.

First, all the hucksters to participate in the group hex must be within range of the huckster casting pardners. The caster of this hex becomes the central person, or dealer, in the group’s primary hex. Everyone participating in the group must know the primary hex, but only the dealer needs to know pardners.

As soon as pardners is cast, the members of the group individually cast the primary hex. If this occurs during rounds, the mages must all cast their hexes on the same Action Card. This means some might put cards up their sleeves and be patient.

Each huckster rolls her own Aptitude in the primary hex and, if successful, draws her own cards, but only the dealer must be successful in casting the primary hex.

If the dealer fails, the primary hex fails. If only the dealer succeeds, the hex is only as effective as his hand indicates. However, for every other participant besides the dealer that succeeds and draws at least the minimum hand, the dealer’s hand is increased by one level.

For purposes of ongoing hexes, the dealer is considered the caster of the primary hex. For example, if the hex lasts as long as the caster concentrates, only the dealer must concentrate to maintain it. Ranges are also measured from where the dealer happens to be, not the rest of the group.

Obviously, pardners makes it easier for a group of hucksters to cast devastatingly powerful hexes. But before you rush to your copy of Hoyle’s, there’s one drawback. And it’s a doozy.

If any one in the group suffers backlash for any reason during the casting of the primary hex, the entire group suffers backlash. On results that cause failure of the hex if the caster loses consciousness, the primary hex fails only if the dealer passes out.

If backlash occurs during the casting of the pardners, only the dealer suffers any ill effects.

A group of three hucksters using pardners attempts to cast bash at a marauding steam wagon. The dealer successfully casts pardners and draws the minimum hand. On the next action, the three hexslingers all cast bash. The dealer draws a Pair of Deuces, enough to cast the spell. One of his companions pulls a Pair of 5s, while the other gets an incredible Full House (which, by the way, only counts as 1 success). The dealer’s hand is increased by 2 levels on the chart to Three of a Kind, and the group lets rip with a 5d8 bash.

Penetratin’ Gaze

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 25 yards/hex level

Penetratin’ gaze is an extremely handy hex for bodyguards, bouncers, and those who want to see what Miss Daisy is hiding under all those petticoats.

Penetratin’ gaze allows a huckster to see through things which would otherwise obscure normal vision. It works against both normal and supernatural effects—such as the fog produced by graveyard mists or the like—if the huckster draws well enough. The caster’s vision is as clear as that of a sunny day, out to the range of the hex.

The caster can ignore all penalties to see through objects and environments listed for the hand drawn. A huckster can ignore cover modifiers for light materials if she can see through it. Additionally, the vision is cumulative, so a huckster who can see through smoke can also see through smoke in the dark.

Hand Effects Ignored

Ace Darkness

Pair Fog

Jacks Smoke, murky water

Two Pairs Thick cloth (curtains, overcoat, and so on), magical illusions

Three of a Kind 2 inches of wood

Straight 1 inch of metal

Penny Ante

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Penny ante is a favorite of gambling hucksters.

They bet some poor dupe they can perform some nearly impossible feat, and then they pull it off via this hex.

This hex is the opposite of confound. It causes the TN for any single Trait or Aptitude roll to decrease in difficulty. Raises are figured from the new adjusted TN.

The hex only affects the next action made by the target. If the next action the target makes doesn’t involve an Aptitude or Trait roll, the hex is wasted. Additionally, if a full round elapses without the target taking an action, the hex is wasted.

The decrease of the target number is based on the hand drawn by the huckster. The minimum hand reduces the Target Number by –2. Each hand above this reduces the TN by another –2. The Target Number can never be reduced below Foolproof (3).

Phantasm

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

If anything knows what scares a fellow, it’s the manitous. This hex puts this knowledge to use. It conjures up images from a target’s nightmares and confronts her with them. Only the target can see the visions, but to her they seem frighteningly real.

Anyone affected by this hex must make a guts check against the Terror score indicated by the huckster’s hand. Characters who fail the check roll on the Scart Table in the Deadlands rulebook. Those who succeed may be a little shaky but are otherwise unaffected.

Harrowed are particularly susceptible to this hex and suffer a –2 to the guts roll.

Phantom Fingers

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Hucksters often use this hex to cheat at cards or pull an enemy’s gun from his holster. It allows the caster to manipulate objects from a distance. Objects affected by this hex have a Pace equal to the huckster’s Smarts. Phantom fingers can perform relatively complex manipulations with an object (such as turning a key or firing a gun), but this taxes the huckster and causes him an additional 1d4 Wind.

If the huckster tries to snatch an object away from someone, the attempt is automatically successful if the target’s owner is surprised.

Otherwise, the huckster must make an opposed test of Spirit versus his opponent’s Strength. The huckster gets a +2 bonus for each hand above the minimum needed to affect the target.

Even if the huckster doesn’t draw a sufficient hand to lift his target, he may still be able to effect it in a minor way. The huckster can jostle objects up to 2 hands above his draw. By bumping the target, he may be able to topple a carefully balanced object or spoil an opponent’s aim. The exact effect is up to the Marshal, but as a guide, jostling a gunman gives a –4 to his shootin’ skill.

Finally, a huckster can lift himself (levitate) if he draws Three of a Kind or better.

Hand Size/Weight

Ace Baseball

Pair Pistol

Jacks Rifle

Two Pairs Gatling gun

Three of a Kind Person

Straight Iron safe

Flush Wagon

Full House Oak tree

Four of a Kind Freight car

Straight Flush Manor house

Royal Flush Train

Playin’ Possum

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 10 minutes/hex level

Range: Touch

Often times a dude might wish he was dead.

With playin’ possum, he can at least look it.

When a huckster casts this hex, he appears to keel over deader than a doornail. He’s really fine, but covered by a convincing illusion. A mortal wound corresponding to the last damage taken appears on his body, and anyone examining him is not able to detect signs of life unless they win an opposed test of medicine: any versus the huckster’s Smarts. The huckster gets a bonus of +2 to his roll for every hand above the minimum. During this time, the huckster can hear and can even see—barely—from his eyes.

Obviously, successful use of this hex requires a little planning. Dropping dead before you’re even shot tends to make folks suspicious—most canny hexslingers keep a card up their sleeve to use for this bit of deception. The huckster can end the hex at any time he chooses.

Poltergeist

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 10 yards/hex level

A hexslinger with this particular hex can make one heck of a mess.

Poltergeist sweeps up objects within its area of effect and hurls them violently about. Anyone within the area is battered by the tiny tempest. Fragile objects within the area are invariably damaged or destroyed. All damage done by poltergeist is treated like as brawling damage.

The amount of damage done by poltergeist is determined by both the huckster’s hand and the objects in the area. After drawing her hand, the huckster gets the maximum effect for the available objects. If there are no suitable objects within the area, the hex fails.

Velvet casts poltergeist in a small Denver book shop about to be robbed by a desperate gunman. He rolls a 6 and draws five cards. True to form, Velvet draws well and gets a Pair of Jacks. Unfortunately, the only things suitable for the poltergeist to hurl are books, so Velvet is limited to 3d6 damage. He rolls and gets 13 points of damage. This causes the bandit 6 points of Wind and 1 real wound level.

Hand Objects Hurled Damage

Ace Shot glasses 1d6

Pair Small stones 2d4

Jacks Large books 3d6

Two Pairs Cordwood 5d6

Three of a Kind Light furniture 5d8

Straight Bookshelves, desks 6d8

Flush Large rocks 8d8

Full House Anvils, boulders 8d10

Power Struggle

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/hex level

With this hex, a huckster can cause a Harrowed no end of difficulties. It’s a little harder to cast than most because he has to affect the manitou already in a Harrowed. If he is successful, he swats a hornet’s nest with a stick—in a spiritual sense.

By aggravating the manitou inside a Harrowed, the huckster is able to force it and the person it’s animating into a fight for control. On each of her actions, the Harrowed must make an opposed Spirit test against her manitou. If she’s successful, she can act normally. If she gets a raise or better, she wins a Dominion point back from the manitou. However, if she fails, she is locked in a struggle of wills with the manitou and is unable to act that action.

The same applies to the manitou. If it wins the Spirit test and gets a raise, it wins a Dominion point from its host. This contest of wills continues for as long as the huckster is willing to keep it going.

The huckster may side with one of the participants in the struggle if he so chooses. Each hand the huckster drew above the minimum adds +1 to the Spirit roll of the combatant the mage aids.

This is not a hex to use lightly. Even if the Harrowed beats the manitou and wins control, that doesn’t mean that the next time it’s in charge the manitou won’t remember the person who aggravated it!

Private Eye

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 1 mile/hex level

Private eye allows a huckster to see through another’s eyes just as if they were her own. The subject can be either human or any other creature, although it does not effect abominations. This means that the huckster can see as well or as poorly as her target can, and she suffers from any penalties the target has. On the other hand, she also gains any bonuses the target has.

This works identically to earshot. See that hex description for all the gory details.

Quicksand

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Permanent

Range: 10 yards/hex level

Quicksand enables a huckster to turn otherwise stable ground into a deadly mire. The hex is only effective in a natural environment and does not work on solid rock.

The spell affects a circular area with a radius of 5 yards per hex level. The huckster’s hand determines the depth of the quicksand.

Any creature caught within the newly formed muck is slowed to one quarter its normal Pace if the depth is less than its height. If the depth exceeds its height, the creature must make an Onerous (7) swimmin’ roll each round it is in the quicksand. If the roll is failed, the creature takes double the difference between the TN and the roll in Wind.

The quicksand, once created, lasts until it naturally solidifies. It’s the Marshal’s decision as to how long this takes. Until then, not even a disrupt can return the ground to normal.

Hand Depth

Pair 3 feet

Jacks 5 feet

Two Pairs 7 feet

Three of a Kind 10 feet

Straight 15 feet

Flush 20 feet

Rainmaker

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 10 minutes

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: 1 mile/hex level

There’s no shortage of snake oil salesmen rolling around the Weird West in brightly colored wagons proclaiming they can call down rain from the sky. A few of them can actually do just that! Rainmaker does just what it claims: It can bring rain to an otherwise sunny day.

The change in the weather affects the entire region within range of the hex, 1 mile per level of the hex. The exact strength of the weather is dependent on the hand the huckster draws.

Look on the Rainmaker Table and find the prevailing weather conditions in the area (the Marshal has the final say on this). Drawing the minimum hand shifts the weather one line down the chart toward Tempest. Each hand above the minimum, shifts the weather an additional line.

The caster has no real control over the storm so called, and he always receives the maximum effect drawn. Although the hex has a duration of 1 hour per hex level, if a rainstorm or higher is indicated, the storm continues until it is spent— which may be more or less than the usual duration depending on the ferocity of the storm, and, of course, the Marshal’s (maybe this time) kindly whim.

The shaman’s favor lightning strike can be used with rainmaker, provided at least a thunderstorm is indicated. Also, any huckster casting a Texas twister during a rainstorm or better that was raised by this hex receives a +5 bonus to the hex roll.

Current Weather

Scorcher/Drought Sunny

Mostly sunny Partly cloudy

Drizzle Rain

Rainstorm Downpour

Thunderstorm Tempest

Raisin’ the Pot!

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1 (Vamoose)

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

By raising the pot, a huckster can make a good thing better. The huckster forces the manitou to give himself or a companion a supernatural “leg up.”

The hex is only effective when cast immediately after another Trait or Aptitude roll has been made successfully. To do this, the huckster must spend his highest card, just as if he were vamoosin’. He then casts raisin’ the pot! and draws his hand. Based on the hand drawn, he increases the number of raises on the original Trait or Aptitude roll.

If the huckster goes bust on his roll or draws a black Joker, not only does he suffer backlash as normal, but the original Trait or Aptitude check fails regardless of the roll.

Rapid Fire

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

There’s no need to lug a Gatling gun all over creation when you’ve got this hex in your arsenal. Any hexslinger who makes frequent use of this hex should know the reload trick.

A huckster casting this hex gives someone using a firearm a supernatural assist by increasing a weapon’s rate of fire. The weapon’s mechanism is operated magically, so the firer need only aim her shootin’ iron and pull the trigger. Although the firer can use her full skill on each shot, she sacrifices some control. All shots from a weapon under the effect of a rapid fire hex are considered to be fired from the hip (–2).

Since most firearms weren’t designed to be used in this way, the weapon gains a Malfunction number equal to 20 minus its rate of fire. In other words, a pistol enchanted by rapid fire to a rate of fire of 3 would have a Malfunction number of 17 for the duration of the hex.

This hex is only effective on personal firearms, such as pistols, rifles, and shotguns. It has no effect on gizmos (even Gatling pistols), artillery pieces, or the like. Rapid fire in no way alters a weapon’s number of shots, so a pistol with a rate of fire of 3 can empty mighty fast!

usable, but the wound level remains at maimed until healed further, either with subsequent castings or naturally healing. The reanimate hex can’t help a maimed head wound. The victim’s just plain out of luck. As with helpin’ hand, a Harrowed huckster can’t heal his own wounds with this hex.

The origins of this hex are shrouded in mystery. It isn’t found in any of Hoyle’s books, but it seems to have originated somewhere in Europe. Now it is passed along only by “whisper” of mouth.

Hand Rate of Fire Bonus

Ace +1

Pair +2

Two Pairs +3

Three of a Kind +4

Straight +5

Reanimate

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 5 minutes

Duration: Permanent

Range: 1 yard

Reanimate is another of those hexes which contributes to the bad reputation hucksters have among ordinary folk. They generally feel the deader the dead are, the better!

This hex heals the dead. It doesn’t raise them—it just heals their wounds. Raising undead from scratch requires more knowledge of the black arts than is healthy for most hucksters.

Reanimate allows a huckster to heal the wounds of a Harrowed or another form of undead. If the huckster is attempting to restore the creature’s Wind, a successful casting restores all Wind. Otherwise, each successful casting reduces the wound in a specific hit location by 1 level.

The hand needed depends on the victim’s highest wound level in any part of his corpse. Note that reanimate can’t heal more than 1 level of wound at a time. The huckster can treat several wound levels by casting the hex more than once, however.

Reanimate can restore maimed or even severed limbs. If the limb is severed, treat the wound level as if the limb is maimed. A success reattaches the limb or makes it otherwise

Hand Wound

Ace All Wind

Pair Light

Jacks Heavy

Two Pairs Serious

Three of a Kind Critical

Straight Maimed

Rust

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Permanent

Range: 20 yards/hex level

A rusty weapon is a flawed weapon. And every advantage a huckster can get in the Weird West is worth its weight in ghost rock.

This hex causes a single metal item of no more than 5 total pounds per hex level to instantly rust.

On mechanical devices and the like, the hex increases the likelihood of malfunctioning, and adds a modifier to the Malfunction toll for the item. The modifier depends on the hand drawn. (See the Rust Table on the next page.) If the item does not already have a Malfunction number, it gains a base of 20.

Metal objects like manacles, bars, or nails become more likely to break. Anyone attempting to break such items receives a bonus to any Strength Aptitude roll to bend or break it. This is equal to twice the modifier listed below. Multiple castings of this hex on a single object automatically fail after the first successful hex.

The effects of rust are permanent and immune to even disrupt, although a successful tinkerin’ test against a Fair (5) TN removes one level of modifier for each success. Such repairs require an hour per modifier removed.

implies—crack a safe. The hand the huckster draws determines exactly what type of bonds or locks the hex can defeat. The huckster can defeat one type of lock or bond for each hex level, but all must be on the same object or person to be affected by a single casting of this hex. The Marshal may determine that particularly difficult or complex knots or locks count as one or more levels higher.

Safecracker

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: Touch

Many a town marshal has found his jail emptied by this hex.

Safecracker allows a huckster to magically untie knots, pick locks, and even—as the name

Hand Type Defeated

Ace Knots

Pair Simple key locks (skeleton-key locks or handcuffs)

Jacks Complex key locks

Three of a Kind Combination locks

Straight Magical seals including spirit coils

St. Elmo’s Fire

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Touch

St. Elmo’s Fire generates a pulsing globe of pale green light. While it may resemble the trick will o’ wisp, St. Elmo’s fire is much more useful.

The light provides sufficient illumination to negate any penalties for darkness within a 10- foot radius. The globe remains stationary at a height of 4 feet unless the huckster chooses to move it. To do so, she must carry the ball in her palm. There is no ill effect to doing this, as the globe generates neither heat nor electricity.

The magical light generated by St. Elmo’s fire is not visible beyond 50 feet from its source. This is helpful for hucksters seeking to avoid notice by traveling at night.

Sandstorm

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 25 yards/hex level

Sandstorm is a hex often used by raiders along the portion of the Ghost Trail that snakes through the Mojave Desert. They use it to approach the target caravan undetected and get right in among the guards.

This hex allows the huckster to whip up a nasty grit-filled wind. The wind covers an area with a radius of 20 yards per hex level.

Everyone within this area is buffeted by winds and blasted by sand. The unfortunates must then make Fair (5) Vigor rolls each round or lose 1 Wind. All Trait and Aptitude rolls made within the sandstorm are at –2. Each hand above the minimum adds an additional –1 to Trait and Aptitude rolls.

Sandman

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 15 minutes/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Nightmares and dreams are familiar stomping grounds for manitous, so is it any surprise that hucksters have a hex to send a person to the land of Nod? Sandman causes a single target to become drowsy and, if he fails a Vigor check against a Target Number determined by the huckster’s hand, fall into a deep sleep. The target may be awakened by any normal means—if he survives his unwitting slumber.

The base TN for the Vigor check is 3. Each hand above the minimum adds 2 to the TN.

If the target still slumbers at the end of the hex, he may roll a Fair (5) Vigor check to awaken. If he fails this roll as well, he’s down for a good night’s rest and should awaken after about 8 hours. Once he rises, whatever the means, the effects of the hex are ended.

While sandman can be used in combat, keep in mind that gunshots have a tendency to make a bit of a racket. This hex has no effect on Harrowed or other creatures or abominations that don’t sleep in the normal sense.

Sculptor

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Touch

Whether you need to tunnel through the jailhouse wall or make an extra place setting for an unexpected guest, sculptor is a handy hex.

While this hex is in effect the hardest stone turns to soft clay beneath the huckster’s touch. At the end of the spell’s duration, the stone returns to its original hardness, although it retains any shape the caster may have molded.

The caster can shape or mold the stone into rough tools or weapons, but fine work isn’t possible due to the relatively short duration. The huckster can also use sculptor to carve a small tunnel or even handholds for climbing. The maximum amount of stone which he can affect each round is a cubic foot—the huckster won’t be digging any railroad tunnels with this hex.

This is a very taxing hex to use and keep going, and even the most robust hexslingers have difficulty maintaining its effect for more than a minute.

Sheep’s Clothing

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: 1 yard

While a huckster can’t quite hide a wolf with this hex, he can hide things even more dangerous. Sheep’s clothing takes a small object and disguises it as something else. Usually, a huckster uses this hex to camouflage a weapon or the like as something harmless. The largest such item that can be so concealed is dependent on the hand drawn. With a hand of Three of a Kind or better, the huckster can actually affect small living creatures—like a rattlesnake, a stray cat, or even the family dog.

Anyone closely examining the disguised item must make an opposed roll of Cognition versus the huckster’s hex skill. If the examiner wins the contest, she finds a flaw in the deception. When this happens, the illusion crumbles instantly.

Otherwise, the illusion is complete until the hexslinger decides to end it.

A successful illusion affects all five senses, but it can’t withstand internal contradiction. Use of the item in its original function (or substantial movement if it is an animal) immediately reveals the illusion.

Hand Item Disguised

Ace Key, playing card

Pair Small knife, derringer

Jacks Stick of dynamite

Two Pairs Pistol, Bowie knife Three of a Kind Snake, tomahawk Four of a Kind Small dog

Sirocco

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 1 yard

This hex calls forth a legendary desert wind: the sirocco. The sirocco originates in front of the huckster and blows in a rectangular area 20 yards wide by 40 yards long in whatever direction the huckster faces.

Anyone approaching the huckster against the force of the wind must make a Foolproof (3) Strength check or be stalled. This test can be made on each action and once made does not have to be made again that round. However, for every 10 m.p.h. over 30 m.p.h. velocity the wind has, the roll suffers a –1 penalty. Anyone who goes bust on this roll is knocked to the ground and must make another Foolproof (3) Strength roll to regain his feet.

Flying creatures and gizmos entering the sirocco must make appropriate flying tests against a Fair (5) TN, +2 for every 10 m.p.h. over 30. Failure usually means a crash. A kind Marshal might give them another chance depending on the circumstances.

The strength of this terrific wind can be used to increase or decrease the speed of a sailing ship within its area of effect. Each 10 m.p.h. of wind velocity adds (or subtracts) 24 to the ship’s Pace.

If the wind velocity exceeds 30 m.p.h., the ship must make Reliability checks each round (non- gizmo ships have a Reliability of 20) to see if the rigging can handle the strain. Add 1 to the roll for every 10 m.p.h. by which the wind’s velocity exceeds 30 m.p.h.

A failed roll indicates that the masts and rigging have been seriously damaged by the sirocco, so halve the ship’s Pace. A second failed roll means the rigging has collapsed—the ship is dead in the water.

Hand Wind Velocity

Pair 10 m.p.h.

Jacks 20 m.p.h.

Two Pairs 30 m.p.h.

Three of a Kind 40 m.p.h.

Straight 50 m.p.h.

Flush 70 m.p.h.

Full House 90 m.p.h.

Shadow Man

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: Self

This is the favored hex of serious skulkers everywhere.

Shadow man creates a pocket of shadow around the huckster. It does not make him invisible, but it does add to his sneak rolls. A Pair adds +5 to the huckster’s roll. Better hands add an additional +2 per level.

The huckster must still attempt to move stealthily. Nothing stands out quite like a pocket of shadow moving across main street at high noon! Such actions negate the bonus.

Shadow Walk

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

Did you ever wonder why many hucksters like to hang out in dark, shadowy saloons? This hex may have something to do with it.

Hucksters can use shadow walk to step into one shadow and emerge from another. The shadow he enters and leaves from must be large and dark enough to engulf his entire form.

The Marshal gets the final call as to what works and what just makes your hombre look silly.

The maximum distance the huckster can shadow walk is determined by the hand he draws. Regardless of the hand, the huckster has to be able to see the shadow he wants to emerge from.

Hand Distance

Ace 2 yards

Pair 5 yards

Two Pairs 10 yards

Three of a Kind 20 yards

Straight 50 yards

Flush 100 yards

Full House 200 yards

Four of a Kind 500 yards

Straight Flush 1 mile

Royal Flush Line of sight

Silver-Tongued Devil

Trait: Mien

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: Touch

This hex makes a huckster’s words slicker than snake oil. A huckster with this hex could not only sell, but actually rent ice to Eskimos—at a good price too. A Pair of Jacks adds +5 to every persuasion, bluff, or ridicule roll she makes. Every hand increase adds an additional +2 to the roll.

Siren Song

Trait: Mien

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/round

Range: 10 yards/hex level

Most gunslingers have probably never heard of Ulysses, but that won’t stop then from falling prey to this hex.

Siren song creates a mesmerizing sound like the legendary voice of the Greek Sirens. Anyone within range at the time it is cast, except the huckster, is drawn to the sound and must make a Spirit roll to avoid succumbing to the music. The base TN of this roll is 3. It’s increased by +2 for each hand above the minimum.

All those affected by the hex become hypnotized by the sound, losing all interest in their previous actions. They begin walking toward the source of the sound, which at the time of casting is centered on the huckster.

As long as the hex is maintained, those who fail the initial Spirit roll remain under the effect of the song. However, any attack or damage negates the song’s effect, so be ready for a fight if you bushwack your listeners.

The huckster can move the source of the siren song while he concentrates. Victims follow the song until it leads them into danger—such as to the edge of a cliff—at which point the subjects make a new Spirit roll against the original TN, this time with a +3 bonus.

After the hex is cast, others may move into range of the siren song without any adverse effect. The hex only influences those in the area at the time it is initially cast. Finally, anyone with the Hindrance bad ears receives a +4 bonus on her Spirit roll to resist. Those who are stone deaf or otherwise unable to hear the hex when it is cast are immune.

Skinchange

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 5 minutes

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Self

Skinchange is actually four different hexes (which must each be learned and purchased separately), but each has the same basic effect: The huckster takes on the form and abilities of another creature. The four versions of this hex are: skinchange: black cat, raven, serpent, and wolf. The abilities gained by each form are detailed below, however the general effects of the hex are the same.

The caster takes the size, form, and many of its physical abilities of a normal animal of the type she’s selected. Unfortunately, the hex changes only the caster; no gear or clothing are transformed. She gains the animal’s score in all Corporeal Traits and also the animal’s Mien. The rest of her Mental Traits remain her own.

The caster cannot speak or cast any hexes, though she retains all her memories and Aptitudes. She can return to human form at anytime, but doing so ends the hex. She cannot change back and forth between human and animal form without casting the hex again.

Finally, if the huckster draws the black Joker while casting skinchange and the hex is successful after the effects of backlash, the huckster takes on the mentality of the animal as well for the duration of the hex. Each type of animal and its abilities are detailed below.

Black Cat

Corporeal: D:1d4, N:3d12, S:1d4, Q:2d12, V:2d6 Climbin’ 4d12; dodge 2d12; fightin’: brawlin’ 2d12; sneak 5d12

Mental: M: 1d6; rest as caster

Size: 2

Special Abilities: Claw: STR

Night Vision: Can see in all but total darkness as if it were daylight.

Raven

Corporeal: D:1d8, N:3d8, S:1d4, Q:2d10, V:2d4 Fightin’: brawlin’ 2d8, sneak 2d8 (5d8 from air)

Mental: M: 1d6; rest as caster, except that Cognition is increased by one die type Size: 2

Special Abilities:

Flying: Pace 20

Beak: STR. Suffers no modifier for called shots with beak attack.

Superior Vision: Gains +4 on all Cognition rolls to spot something at a distance.

Alert: Always rolls Cognition against a Foolproof (3) TN to avoid surprise.

Serpent

Corporeal: D:1d4, N:1d6, S:1d4, Q:4d12+2, V:2d4 Fightin’: brawlin’ 4d6

Mental: M: 1d8; test as caster Overawe 2d8

Size: 2

Special Abilities: Bite: STR

Poison: If a bite causes a wound, the victim must make a Hard (9) Vigor roll. If he is successful, the bitten area swells painfully. If it’s a limb, it cannot be used for 1d6 days. If it’s the guts or noggin, the victim must spend the next 1d6 days in bed resting. If he fails the check, however, he dies in 1d4 hours unless someone else makes a Hard

(9) medicine roll before then.

Flexibility: A serpent can crawl through spaces as small as 2 inches in diameter.

Wolf

Corporeal: D:1d4, N:3d8, S:3d8, Q:3d10, V:3d8 Fightin’: brawlin’ 4d8, sneak 2d8

Mental: M:1d8, Rest as caster. Trackin’ 5 (caster’s Cognition Trait) Size: 4

Special Abilities: Bite: STR+1d4

Pace: 18

Snake Oil

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 1 yard

While manitous aren’t particularly skilled (or overly enthusiastic) when it comes to healing, they are masters of illusion. Snake oil at least gives the target the illusion of good health. This illusion only affects the subject. Everyone else in creation can clearly see the effects of any wound or illness on him.

The hex is effective even if the subject knows he’s under its influence. It affects not only the target’s vision, but all his senses—touch and specifically pain reception included.

The game effect of this hex is the subject can ignore wound effect modifiers to Trait and Aptitude checks. Snake oil affects all current wounds and any the subject receives for the duration of the hex. He still suffers the actual wounds and loses Wind. The subject just doesn’t feel it until the spell ends or he drops dead.

With a high enough hand, the subject may not even be aware he has lost a limb. Although he can’t actually use the maimed limb anymore, he may believe it is still intact.

Note that the subject may not even be aware of a wound if the illusion is strong enough. This could be deadly if the wound is something like a snakebite!

The number of wound levels the subject can manage to ignore is determined by the hand drawn by the caster. Drawing the minimum hand allows the subject to ignore a single wound level. Each hand above the minimum allows the subject to ignore an additional wound level.

Even if a wound modifier is more severe than the hex can negate, the penalty is still reduced by this number of wound levels. So if the subject can ignore 2 wound levels and takes a serious wound, his rolls only suffer a –1 penalty.

Multiple castings of this hex on the same person have no effect.

Soul Blast

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 50 yards/hex level

The hexslinger’s best friend is the soul blast hex. When cast, an almost invisible stream of ghostly white energy races from the huckster’s palm toward his target. The stream slams into the victim like a bullet. Unlike a bullet, however, soul blast has no effect on inanimate objects (Harrowed, Walkin’ Dead, and other abominations are very animate, by the way!) because it is purely spiritual energy. The blast can only damage things which have a spiritual component to them—people, animals, undead, Harrowed, etc.

Just because the hex comes off doesn’t mean it hits its target. Determine the Target Number like a gunshot, starting with a Fair (5) TN. Ignore range, but figure other penalties such as cover, size, etc. The caster can even attempt a called shot if he wishes.

Roll the huckster’s soul blast skill, and use that result as both your attack roll and to figure how many cards you get to draw. Remember that the Target Number to determine if the spell succeeds is not affected by modifiers for called shots or other target modifiers, except wound effects. It is possible to successfully cast soul blast and still miss the target.

If the hex hits, damage depends on the hand drawn, as shown on Soul Blast Table on the next page. Soul blast does receive bonus dice according to hit location: one die for hits to the gizzards and two dice for head shots. Armor does not protect against the damage from a soul blast, nor does cover. The soul blast just goes right through it.

For some reason, a Dead Man’s Hand (two black Aces, two black 8s, and a Jack of Diamonds) causes automatic death.

Velvet hurls a soul blast at a scoundrel threatening a young lady with a pistol. The hex has no range increment, but Velvet wants to target the ruffian’s gun hand (+6 TN), so the TN is 11. The TN to cast soul blast remains a 5 however. Velvet rolls an 11, just what he needed to hit the cad. Also, he received a raise on the TN he needed to cast the hex, so he gets to draw one extra card to figure the hex’s effect.

Hand Damage

Ace 1d4 Wind

Pair 1d6

Jacks 3d6

Two Pairs 4d8

Three of a Kind 5d8

Straight 6d8

Flush 7d10

Full House 8d10

Four of a Kind 9d10

Straight Flush 10d12

Royal Flush 10d20

Soul Burst

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Instant

Range: 25 yards/hex level

If soul blast is a huckster’s best friend, then soul burst is the friend he takes to parties. Much like soul blast, a nearly invisible stream of white

energy streaks out from the huckster’s palm to the target. Then it releases a burst of translucent ghostly bolts which explode outward in an area of effect equal to a sphere with a radius of 1 yard per hex level. Every creature within the sphere takes damage according to the hand drawn by the huckster. This hex has no effect on inanimate objects.

Just like an explosion caused by dynamite, determine the total number of wounds received by each creature. Then roll to see where each wound is applied. Hits to the noggin and gizzards don’t do extra damage. Armor does not protect against this damage.

Hand Damage

Pair 1d4 Wind

Jacks 2d4

Two Pairs 3d6

Three of a Kind 4d8

Straight 5d8

Flush 5d10

Full House 6d10

Four of a Kind 6d12

Straight Flush 7d12

Royal Flush 8d12

Spirit Coils

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 rounds/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

This useful little hex can be used to keep your opponent busy while you make an escape or whip up something really nasty to use on him.

Spirit coils binds a single target creature with ethereal bands of energy. These bonds wrap around the creature, just as if the target had been tightly bound with ropes. To free itself, the struggling target must make a Strength test on its next action against a Target Number determined by the huckster’s hand. An Ace is a TN of 3, each hand above this adds +2 to the Target Number.

If the target is successful, it is freed and able to move normally. If it fails, it must wait until the next round (not action!) to try again. Should the unfortunate subject go bust on the Strength roll, he’s hopelessly entangled and held fast for the duration of the hex.

Spiritual Disfavor

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1 (Vamoose!)

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Gaining the approval from the spirits to work a favor is often the hardest part of a shaman’s job. When a huckster casts spiritual disfavor, she makes it even tougher for the poor sod. This hex sends a devious manitou to corrupt a shaman’s rituals, making it more difficult to win the approval of the nature spirits.

In game terms, the hex causes the Appeasement Point cost of a favor to increase according to the huckster’s hand. Spiritual disfavor must be cast as the shaman asks for a favor—the huckster cannot wait until after the shaman has performed his rituals and then bushwack him. This means the huckster must vamoose.

Hand Appeasement Point Cost Increase

Pair 1

Jacks 2

Two Pairs 3

Three of a Kind 4

Straight 5

Swamp Gas

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: 25 yards/hex level

There’s not much that smells worse than the odor of a fetid bayou. That rotten stench can curl the toes on a dead man—no offense intended to anyone that remark may apply to. Swamp gas releases a small cloud of putrid methane gas over a spherical area with a radius of 5 yards per hex level.

The stench from this causes a –6 modifier to all Cognition rolls based on smell. In addition, everyone within the cloud suffers a negative modifier to all Trait and Aptitude checks. The exact amount depends on the hand drawn.

The real danger of swamp gas lies in a fact of science even the most lackluster school boy knows: Methane gas is extremely flammable.

If swamp gas is exposed to an open flame, either one already in the area when the hex is cast or one applied later during its duration, it ignites explosively, causing damage to everyone in its area of effect. Due to the speed of its burning, it generally does not ignite other objects unless they are extremely flammable.

The level of modifier to Trait and Aptitude rolls, as well as the damage done should the gas be ignited, is dependent upon the huckster’s hand.

Hand Damage Modifier

Ace None 1

Pair 1d4 Wind 2

Jacks 1d6 2

Two Pairs 2d4 3

Three of a Kind 2d6 3

Straight 3d6 4

Flush 4d6 5

Full House 5d8 5

Four of a Kind 6d8 6

Straight Flush 7d10 6

Royal Flush 8d10 8

Talisman

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Three of a Kind

Speed: 2 days

Duration: Permanent

Range: Touch

For those not familiar with the term, a relic is an item somehow empowered with magical energies. There are a number of ways this can occur. Some things are charged by being carried by a person of stature, like Wild Bill’s six shooters or Wyatt Earp’s badge. Sometimes a Harrowed may drag a powerful relic with him when he claws his way back from Hell. A rare few are intentionally enchanted by hucksters.

This is no easy process. First, the item itself must be special in some fashion—and that doesn’t just mean it’s decorated with rhinestones. It must have been involved in some near-legendary act, such as John Wilkes Boothe’s pistol or the pen which signed the Emancipation Proclamation. As you might guess, simply acquiring an item suitable for a talisman hex is often the hardest part of the process.

After the huckster has procured a suitable object, he must decide the basic effect that he wants the talisman to have on the item. For example, he may want a weapon to do more damage or a deck of cards to assist him in his hexslinging. The only limit to this hex’s potential is the imagination of the huckster (and the Marshal’s sense of game balance). Whatever effect the caster desires, he informs the Marshal of his intent for the item prior to casting the talisman. The Marshal then decides the hand needed to successfully enchant the item (the mad scientist’s Theory Table is a good guide on hands and the power of artifacts, Marshal).

The process of enchanting a talisman requires three full days of seclusion with the item.

During this time, the huckster plays a complicated and seemingly endless game of solitaire, breaking only to eat or take a short nap. Leaving the game for more than an hour causes the hex to fail. At the end of the three days, the huckster makes his Aptitude roll and, if successful, draws his hand.

Assuming the hand meets at least the minimum required, the talisman gains some form of supernatural power. The exact power is up to the Marshal, but she should come to an agreement with the huckster as to the effect of the talisman. Drawing a hand better than the minimum increases the power of the relic accordingly.

If the huckster draws a Joker, the relic also acquires a taint of some sort. This occurs regardless of the color of the Joker or the huckster’s skill. The exact effect of the taint is up to the Marshal, but it should be connected in some way with the background of the item and equivalent to the power of the relic.

The huckster has no special bond with the item so enchanted unless such a connection is part of the relic’s power. Otherwise, anyone can use the item once it has been empowered.

Tall Tales

Trait: Mien

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: 5 yards/hex level

This hex is a favorite of Texas Ranger hexslingers!

Tall tales allows a huckster to twist another’s words to make even the most reasonable statement sound like a Texan’s exaggeration. No matter what the subject says, it sounds like a wild claim to the listeners. This makes it easy for already outrageous claims to sound ridiculous.

Anyone listening to the subject must make a Cognition test against a TN determined by the huckster’s hand. Success indicates he’s able to pick out the truth from the magical exaggeration, although this doesn’t necessarily mean he believes the subject.

If the huckster’s hex roll fails, he sounds like he’s been sniffing ghost-rock fumes.

Hand T N

Pair 3

Two Pairs 5

Three of a Kind 7

Straight 9

Flush 11

Temptation

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/hex level

Although your huckster may get away with casting this hex in the here-and-now, he’s going to have to answer for it in the ever-after.

Temptation allows the huckster to call forth an image which tests the faith of the target. It may be her greatest secret desire or the memory of a hidden sin. Whatever the image, only the target can see it. Even the huckster doesn’t know what he’s conjured up.

The subject must immediately roll a faith test against a TN determined on the table below. If she’s successful, she overcomes the image. If she fails, her will has succumbed to the temptation of the vision. As a result, her personal faith is shaken, and she loses 1 level of her faith Aptitude.

Once a person has successfully resisted temptation, she receives a +2 to further rolls to overcome the hex. Obviously, this is only of use against folks who take their religion seriously. If the target lacks the faith Aptitude, the hex fails.

Hand T N

Pair 5

Two Pairs 7

Three of a Kind 9

Straight 11

Texas Twister

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 20 yards/hex level

This hex conjures up a minor whirlwind. In the great outdoors, a Texas twister kicks up dirt and sand, blinding everyone within a 10-yard radius.

Those in the twister’s area must make a Hard (9) Vigor roll each round to do anything besides take simple actions. Of course, if they move outside of the twister’s effect, they are free to act normally. Due to the dust and high winds, any attacks that cross the twister’s area of effect suffer a –2 penalty.

Indoors, the twister is limited to tossing about papers and the like. Everyone within the area indoors suffers a –2 penalty to all actions unless they leave the area or make Vigor rolls as above. The twister also makes one hell of a mess.

The huckster can move the twister in any way she likes, as long as she concentrates and keeps it in sight and within the hex’s range. It has a Pace of 20.

Thunderclap!

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Instant

Range: 25 yards/hex level

Ever have trouble getting the attention of a saloon full of rowdy drunks?

This hex causes a loud peal of thunder to erupt at a chosen point within the hex’s range. The thunder detonates with a forceful concussion in a sphere with a radius of 5 yards per hex level. Everyone within this area must make a Vigor check against a TN established by the hand drawn. The base TN is 3. Each hand above the minimum increases the TN by +2.

Anyone failing the test is stunned—just as if injured—and must make a Vigor roll (against the same TN) on each of his actions until he recovers. Additionally, anyone who fails the initial Vigor test is deaf for 2d10 rounds. Those who succeed are deaf for 1d6 rounds.

Cowpokes with bad ears receive a bonus to their Vigor rolls equal to the value of the Hindrance. Even deaf folks aren’t totally immune to the concussion of a thunderclap!

Timeslip

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: See below

Range: Self

This hex gives new meaning to the phrase, “I gave him the slip.”

Timeslip lets a huckster momentarily step outside the normal stream of time and escape from dangerous situations. The huckster disappears only to reappear sometime later.

When the hex ends, the huckster reappears exactly where she disappeared. If some object is now occupying that space, the huckster’s appearance displaces it if the huckster has the greater mass. Otherwise, she appears as close to her departure point as possible. However, in this case, she must make an Onerous (7) Vigor test or be stunned until she makes the roll.

No movement or action is possible for the huckster between the period of disappearance and reappearance. However, during this period, nothing can affect the huckster either. For all intents, the huckster does not exist during the timeslip.

The maximum amount of time a huckster can skip is determined by the hand drawn. The huckster must decide how long the slip lasts when the hand is drawn. She cannot change the duration once the slip has begun.

Hand Maximum Duration

Jacks 1 round

Two Pairs 2 rounds

Three of a Kind 5 rounds

Straight 1 minute

Flush 10 minutes

Full House 1 hour

Four of a Kind 1 day

Straight Flush 1 week

Royal Flush 1 year

Touch o’ Death

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: Touch

This hex allows a hexslinger to magically squeeze some poor sod’s heart and give him an old-fashioned heart attack.

The murderous huckster has to touch the target to pull this off. While a sly mage can often sneak a brush with her target, a wary target will do his best to avoid her. In that case, she must make a successful fightin’: brawlin’ roll to touch her victim. It isn’t necessary to touch bare flesh—even a bulletproof vest can’t stop Death when he comes calling.

After the hex has been cast, the target must immediately make a Vigor roll against a TN determined by the huckster’s hand. The base TN is 7. Each hand above the minimum adds +2 to the TN. If he succeeds, his heart stutters but doesn’t stop, and he suffers 3d6 Wind.

If he fails, however, there’s a world of hurt waiting just around the corner. First, the victim suffers 3d6 Wind, and his Vigor is permanently reduced by 1 step. If his Vigor is already a d4, its Coordination drops by 1. At 0 Coordination, he drops stone cold dead.

Assuming the sap is still alive, he must make a second Vigor roll against the same TN—this time with the reduced Vigor score. If the subject fails this roll, he has a full-blown heart attack and dies within 2d6 rounds unless someone else makes an Incredible (11) medicine roll.

Trinkets

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: Touch

Whether you’re cheatin’ at cards or find yourself without a weapon at an inopportune moment, trinkets is the hex to have. It also comes in handy for stage magicians.

The trinkets hex allows the huckster to reach into a pocket, pouch, or bag of some sort and pull forth a minor mundane object. The item available depends on the hand obtained. Money can be conjured with this hex, but like anything else created with trinkets, this lasts only 1 round for every level the huckster has in the hex. If the huckster creates a firearm, the weapon is fully loaded, but no extra rounds are created.

Hands higher than Two Pairs are required to get very special trinkets—such as a key to open a specific lock. The Marshal must set the hands for these items himself.

Hand Type of Item

Ace Match, penny

Pair Scarf, random playing card, nickel

Jacks Derringer, knife, two bits (25¢)

Two Pairs Pistol, $5 coin, specific playing card

Truthsayer

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 rounds/hex level

Range: 10 feet

Hucksters who know this spell make fine judges. Sadly, most hexslingers don’t apply this hex to such noble pursuits.

A huckster who casts this hex gains an uncanny ability to detect exaggerations, tall tales, and lies. Truthsayer only lets the huckster know a lie has been told, not what the truth actually is.

A really clever liar can sometimes confound this hex with omissions of important facts rather than outright lies, so the huckster has to be careful what questions she asks.

Two of a Kind

Trait: Smarts

Hand: 2 Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: See below

Range: See below

There is no 11th commandment that says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s hexes.” It’s a good thing, too—otherwise a huckster casting two of a kind is committing a sin. Of course, some folks would argue that casting any hex is a sin, but that’s another subject.

This hex allows the huckster to duplicate another hex just cast within 5 yards per level he has in two of a kind. Thus a huckster with 3 levels in two of a kind could attempt to duplicate a hex that was cast within 15 yards of him. The hex can only duplicate those hexes which were cast in the same round in which two of a kind itself is cast.

The effects of the other hex are duplicated exactly, with the exception that the target of the hex is chosen by the huckster casting two of a kind. Also, any dice rolls, such as those made for damage, must be rolled again. Rolls which are based on the initial hex Aptitude roll, such as soul blast’s attack roll, are based on the huckster’s roll to cast two of a kind.

The effects of the duplicate hex are based on the hand drawn for the original hex, not the hand drawn for two of a kind. Otherwise, the range, area of effect, duration, and so on, are all based on the copied hex. Two of a kind can only duplicate hexes, not favors, miracles, or black magic. The hex duplicated by two of a kind must have been successfully cast—if it was somehow foiled, it cannot be copied.

Velvet has hooked up with a posse that’s just cornered a band of particularly nasty desperadoes. Among them is a huckster who just cast a very successful soul blast, drawing a Full House for a whopping 8d10 damage and turning one a posse member into trail mix.

Velvet sees a perfect opportunity to try two of a kind. He has a skill of 3 in the hex, and the enemy huckster is only 10 yards away. Velvet targets the other huckster and successfully casts his hex with a roll of 9. He draws Two Pairs and duplicates the soul blast. His skill roll of 9 hits the other huckster, and he rolls 8d10 to determine the damage done.

Vittles

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 10 minutes

Duration: Permanent

Range: Touch

Now here’s a hex many a traveler in the Weird West has wished for—especially in the famine- stricken Maze. Vittles lets a huckster create meals, including drink, for himself and his companions. The number of meals is determined by the hand drawn. An Ace gets you a single meal; each hand above that increases the number of meals by +2. Horses and similar animals require a minimum of four such meals a day in absence of grazing or feed.

The quality of the meal isn’t five-star fare, but it beats starving—just ask one of the Donner party. The meals created by vittles have the flavor and consistency of wet cardboard, but they provide adequate nourishment. The drink provided is water, but no container is created with the hex, so if the huckster lacks a canteen, all he’s liable to get is a sad little puddle.

The meals, while filling, don’t completely offset the effects of malnourishment. If a person consumes the created meals for a number of days equal to the huckster’s skill level in vittles without additional nourishment, he begins to suffer the effects of starvation. At that time he loses 1 Wind each day, which can only be recovered by three meals of real food.

Warnin’ Bells

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 10 yards/hex level

One of the best ways to get graveyard dead in a hurry is to get caught with your pants down. Figuratively, that is. Bushwhackers count on surprise to give them an edge on their victims, and they’re seldom disappointed. A huckster with warnin’ bells can help his less alert companions recover quickly from the effects of surprise.

The number of people the huckster can affect is determined by the hand drawn. A minimum hand allows 2 people to be affected. Each hand above the minimum increases this number by +2. Those who are alerted by the warnin’ bells are snapped out of their surprise and may even be able to act in that very round.

Everyone affected by the hex immediately rolls a Fair (5) Quickness test and draws cards just as if it was the beginning of the round. Any cards which have already passed are immediately discarded, and the actions lost—no slipping one up the sleeve. Any cards remaining can be acted on normally when their actions are called. The following round, those affected roll their Quickness normally.

Ronan and Velvet are attacked by a band of Sioux. Although Velvet makes his surprise check, Ronan doesn’t. Velvet rolls his Quickness, and gets 2 actions—10 of Hearts and 7 of Spades. Realizing Ronan is a good man to have beside him in a fight, Velvet casts warnin’ bells on the 10 of Hearts. He’s successful and draws a Pair. He only needs to affect one person, so he’s in good shape. Ronan snaps out of his surprise and rolls his Quickness, getting 4 cards. His draw is the Ace of Spades, Jack of Diamonds, 9 of Clubs, and 5 of Clubs. The Ace and Jack are lost, because they’ve already been passed in the round, but Ronan can act normally on the 9 and the 5.

Watchdog

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Pair

Speed: 5 minutes

Duration: 1 hour/hex level

Range: Touch

Watchdog, along with critter ward, is a favorite of hucksters brave (or foolish) enough to travel alone in the Weird West.

This hex erects a magical alarm system around a stationary point. Should any person, creature, or abomination larger than a normal- sized insect enter the area without whispering the activation word, watchdog mentally alerts the caster, no matter how far away he might be. The activation word is chosen at the time of the casting. The huckster can reveal it to whomever she chooses so that others can enter the circle without triggering the alarm as well.

The area of effect is a circle with a radius of up to 10 feet per level of the huckster’s skill in the hex. If watchdog is triggered, the huckster must make a Fair (5) Cognition roll, with a bonus of +2 for every hand above the minimum. If she is successful, she is able to act normally—even if she was asleep at the time! Should the huckster fail, she must check for surprise as normal.

Whirlpool

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 25 yards/hex level

Like the name suggests, this hex creates a single whirlpool in water anywhere within range. This particular incantation is a favorite among Maze-running hucksters, because with a good enough hand the whirlpool can sink even an ironclad!

The whirlpool’s diameter starts at 40 feet and increases by up to 20 feet for each hand drawn above the minimum.

A whirlpool can affect any ship with a length of up to one half the whirlpool’s diameter. The pilot of any ship caught in the area of a whirlpool created by this hex must make an Onerous (7) drivin’ roll if the whirlpool is of sufficient size to affect the vessel. If the roll is failed, the ship is caught in the vortex. The TN increases by +2 for each hand drawn above the minimum necessary to affect the ship. Any ship caught in the vortex is pulled rapidly down and takes 2d6 flooding damage per round until it escapes or sinks. Escaping the whirlpool requires the pilot to make a roll against the original TN and score at least one raise. He can roll once per round.

Anyone unlucky enough to be swimming in the area of even a small whirlpool produced by this hex, must make Incredible (11) swimmin’ rolls each round.

The huckster must concentrate and remain within range of the whirlpool to maintain the hex. Failure to do either immediately ends the spell.

Wildfire

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 10 yards/hex level

The rumors that hucksters who make a habit of using this hex have met their ends beneath the claws of a large grizzly bear remain unsubstantiated.

This hex causes a miniature prairie fire to erupt in a circular area up to 5 yards in diameter. The fire ignites flammable materials within its area, and these continue to burn normally unless extinguished.

The huckster has no special control over any fire started by wildfire (although a sirocco hex might help push the blaze along in the right direction). Any other objects or creatures within the area suffer normal flame damage from the fires begun by the hex. The exact type of material ignited is dependent upon the hand drawn.

The fire created by this hex has no special properties and can be extinguished with ordinary water.

Hand Material Affected

Pair Dry grass, paper

Two Pairs Twigs

Three of a Kind Small sticks, light cloth

Straight Branches, hair, heavy cloth

Flush Furniture

Full House Large logs

Four of a Kind Live trees

Straight Flush Animal life

Royal Flush Anything flammable

Widow’s Web

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 5 rounds/hex level

Range: 5 yards/hex level

This hex erects a strong, sticky barrier between two objects. It isn’t really a wall; it’s more like a giant spider’s web. The silken wall is a plane 10 feet by 10 feet per level of the hex. The widow’s web must be cast so as to contact at least two parallel surfaces, but can be oriented either vertically or horizontally.

The web is only about 2 inches thick and doesn’t appear very strong, but breaking through it by simple brute force is quite difficult, requiring a Strength roll against a Target Number based on the huckster’s hand. The base TN is 5. Each hand above the minimum adds +2 to the TN. Any creature coming in contact with the web must make a Fair (5) Strength roll to pull itself free of the glue-like substance coating its strands. Anyone stuck to the web may make another Strength roll each action to escape, but the TN is increased by +2 for each successive roll—struggling only further entangles the victim.

The web is very flammable, and the mere touch of an open flame the size of a torch causes the entire wall to be consumed in a single round. Anyone trapped in the web when this occurs takes 2d12 fire damage.

Finally, due to its nature, the widow’s web in no way obscures sight. Nor does the wall prevent bullets or similar items from passing through its many gaps. Larger missiles, such as spears or thrown tomahawks, receive a –4 modifier to the attack roll if the target is behind the web. Any missile which misses its target due to the modifier is stuck in the web and requires a Fair (5) Strength roll to pull loose.

More Hexes (Hexarcana)

A Glass Darkly

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: 5 yards

This hex lets the huckster and his companions view psychic imprints left in a window pane by events occurring on the other side of the glass.

When cast, the viewers get a shadowy replay of an act or other occurrence that took place on the other side of the glass. In effect, the huckster rewinds time to view events of the past through the window.

Details are very hard to make out, as the images are little more than shadow plays and blurry; for example, a murderer’s face can’t be identified, but

the fact she was in a dark robe or light-colored pants and shirt can. The viewers might see a figure move to a mantelpiece and take something but not exactly what it was.

Anyone on the same side of the glass as the caster and within the hex’s range can see the images unfold in the glass. Folks on the opposite side can see nothing but the long-necked gawkers staring out the window.

The hex targets the most psychically powerful event (murder is always a safe bet for this one!) in the period searched by the huckster. Subsequent castings of a glass darkly by the same cardslinger don’t review the same scene, but instead move to the next most potent event in the period.

Hand Time Period Scanned

Pair 1 day

Two Pairs 1 week

Three of a Kind 1 month

Straight 1 year

Flush 5 years

Full House 10 years

Black Cat

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: Vamoose

Duration: Instant

Range: 5 yards/Hex level Every so often a cowpoke just plain beats the odds and pulls off the impossible. And sometimes, your huckster may have rather seen him fail. Black cat lets your hero twist probabilities at the last second.

With this hex, your cardslinger can force another character to immediately reroll a Trait or Aptitude check he’s just completed successfully. He—and your huckster—are stuck with the results of the second roll, for better or worse.

Beware, this can be a double-edged hex!

To cast black cat, your huckster must make a vamoose and spend her highest remaining Action Card, with sleeve cards going first. If she can’t vamoose, she can’t cast black cat.

If she gets the requisite hand, the victim has to immediately roll the Trait or Aptitude again against the same TN and with the same modifiers he had on the original roll; however, due to the effect of the hex, he actually gets a +2 bonus on the second roll.

Obviously, then, your huckster doesn’t want to cast black cat on relatively easy tasks. She’s better off slinging a confound hex instead.

However, it’s great for foiling a one-in-a- million shot.

Finally, since the target has to succeed in the first place, your hero can’t use the hex to give someone a second chance at a failed task.

Cardsharp

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: Self

Cardsharp is pretty true to its name; with it a huckster can create his own dead man’s hand!

This hex works a little different than most, because the value of every card in the five the huckster uses to make his final hand matters. If you’ll remember, a hand of cards magically appears in the huckster’s hand before he casts any hex. With cardsharp, those cards remain, imbued with energy from the Hunting Grounds

Assuming he makes the minimum hand to cast the hex, each card of the final five he keeps becomes a razor sharp weapon he can hurl at his foes. Doing so effectively takes the throwin’: balanced Aptitude. The cards have a Range Increment of 5, and a maximum range equal to the caster’s Hex Aptitude level times 5 yards.

The amount of damage done by the card is the huckster’s Strength plus a bonus amount based on the value of the card itself. Deuces do +1d4, values 3 to 8 get +1d6, 9s to Jacks do +1d8, Kings and Queens are +1d10, and Aces inflict +1d12. Jokers do damage based on the card value they’re copying (usually an Ace, unless your hero needs them to improve his hand!). However, the suit of the card doesn’t matter for damage purposes.

Your hero can hurl one card on each of his Actions.

For every hand above the minimum required, each card gets an additional +2 to damage. Occasionally, your huckster may opt to not take a higher- ranking hand so he can use other, more potent cards.

The damage dealt by these cards is considered magical, by the way.

The hex lasts until your huckster has chucked all his cards or the duration expires. Any cards he has left in his hand at the end of that time fade quickly to nothing, as do all he’s thrown.

Velvet, faced by a threesome of gun-toting henchman, casts cardsharp. He draws an Ace, two 3s, two 5s, a Jack, and a King. He isn’t lucky enough to pull a flush, so he opts to keep the two 5s, Ace, Jack, and King. While the other pair would have boosted all his cards’ damage by +2, he decides to take the higher damage dice and hope for good rolls. He slings the Ace first, and hits with a 6 on his throwin’: balanced Aptitude. He rolls a Strength check and gets a whopping 4 as his highest die—after all, he’s a gambler and a gentlemen, not a brute! He now rolls 1d12—getting an 8— and adds it to his Strength roll for a total damage of 12. He’s still got 4 cards to throw too.

Cold Snap

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 5 rounds/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

It’s hard to be light-fingered when subzero temperatures are freezing the blood in your veins. Cold snap lets the huckster bring a supernatural spell of winter weather down over an area, causing everyone a lot of grief—and numb appendages!

Everyone in range has certain Corporeal Traits lowered for the duration of the hex as the uncanny chill settles into their bones. Even undead and other abominations suffer these effects. Except, of course, those that are native to frosty climates or are otherwise resistant to the effects of cold.

All in range have their Deftness, Nimbleness, and Quickness Traits lowered by a die type. For each hand the huckster gets above the minimum to cast the hex, those Traits are dropped by an additional step as well. Once the die type reaches d4, the Coordination is reduced instead, to a minimum of 1d4.

Once the Trait reaches 1d4, the poor sap is as cold as he can get, short of a permanent visit to the undertaker!

The cold radiates out from the cardslinger, so she’s affected as well. While it doesn’t give much offensive advantage, cold snap is a good defense, if your hero has the guts to take a little chill herself.

Fifty-Two Pickup

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: Touch

If tinhorn shuffle catches folks’ attention, fifty-two pickup grabs it, clubs it over the head, skins it, and sells the pelt for a profit!

This hex was no doubt developed by some cardslinger who felt the trick didn’t go far enough with its effects.

Instead of a seemingly clumsy spray of cards that flutter into the air, fifty-two pickup fills an area with a swirling mass of tumbling, spinning cards.

The hex effects originate from the huckster, who, just as if he were casting tinhorn shuffle, must have a deck of cards in his hand to begin with. The cards explode up, out and around him, multiplying their number a hundredfold or more. They whip about in an area up to 5 yards across for every level your hero has in the Hex.

Anyone in the area, or attempting to look at, shoot, or otherwise affect targets in it suffers a -2 to all vision- based rolls, whether they be purely Cognition-related, like search, or tied to another Trait, like shootin’.

For every hand the huckster gets above the minimum of an Ace, this modifier is increased by an additional -2.

A word of warning, however: While fairly effective, this is a truly obvious hex. Your hero is going to be hard pressed to explain it off as anything but “black magic” to a rope-toting lynch mob of peace-loving townsfolk.

Hell’s Bargain

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

With all the deals hucksters cut with—or, more correctly beat out of— manitous, it was only a matter of time before one of them figured out how to stack the deck with the spirits. At least as far as convincing one into bringing a cowpoke back from the other side, that is.

In short, Hell’s bargain makes it more likely for a fellow to come back Harrowed. This is actually one of the easier hexes for a cardslinger to sucker a manitou into powering, since the confounded things are prone to reanimate the dead anyway.

It has to be cast on the body of a character who’s died in the last round. For obvious reasons, a huckster can’t cast it on herself.

The target of Hell’s bargain draws an additional number of cards according to the hand the huckster gets when casting the hex. These cards are on top of any the poor sap might already get for a high Grit or other reason. The exact number of cards is indicated on the table below.

As you might guess with a hex named Hell’s bargain, there’s a catch.

First, if the target does come back from the grave thanks to Hell’s bargain, roll for Dominion normally. The manitou gets a bonus to its roll equal to the number of extra cards granted by the hex. At low levels, that’s not too bad, but it can be a killer later on!

Second, if he doesn’t come back Harrowed, there’s a pretty good chance the manitou still decides to animate the corpse—but as a walkin’ dead. Without reshuffling the deck, the target draws an additional number of cards equal to the bonus he got from Hell’s bargain.

Don’t count his Grit for these draws.

If a Joker comes up in the second batch, his corpse becomes a walkin’ dead in the next round. Now, keep in mind it’s awful hard to tell a Harrowed from a walkin’ dead—until the zombie starts trying to eat a brain or two!

Hand Extra Cards

Ace 1

Pair 3

Two Pairs 5

Three of a Kind 7

Straight 11

Flush 13

Full House 17

Four of a Kind 19

Straight Flush 23

Royal Flush 27

Hell’s Fury

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 Wind/round

Range: Self

If your hero is tired of getting her kiester kicked around by barroom thugs or those fancy-pants Shan Fan kung fu types, Hell’s fury is just the hex for her.

Hell’s fury summons up flames from, well, probably the fires of Hell itself.

These wrap the huckster’s body like an unholy shroud, but don’t so much as singe a hair on her head or even a thread on her duds.

Folks that touch her, on the other hand, are in for a world of hurt. The hex does damage to the body part that comes in contact with her, based on the hand she gets when she casts Hell’s fury. If the hex causes so much as a single wound to the cowpoke, that hit location catches fire and burns for an additional 2d8 damage each round until extinguished.

Fires started by the hex can be doused or smothered normally.

It’s important to note that the folks must touch the huckster, whether punching, kicking, or prodding. If she touches them, the fires do no damage, nor can she use Hell’s fury to ignite combustibles, except as noted above.

Like fifty-two pickup, this is a fairly obvious hex, what with the wreath of unearthly flame and all. A huckster would be advised to take care when using it to avoid hemp neckties.

Hand Damage

Pair 1d6

Two Pairs 3d6

Three of a Kind 4d6

Straight 5d8

Flush 6d8

Mirror, Mirror

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Here’s a hex that’s handy for evening up the odds in a stacked fight—at least as far as your huckster is concerned.

Once mirror, mirror is successfully cast, your hero chooses a target within range. Usually, it’s an opponent, but it doesn’t have to be.

Next, she has to win a contest of Spirit with her intended target, and for every hand she gets above the minimum for the hex, she gets a +2 bonus to her roll. If she wins, she and the target temporarily swap a single Trait, Corporeal or Mental, of her choice for the duration of mirror, mirror.

Now, bear in mind, she usually has no idea exactly what another cowpoke’s Traits are, but, with a Fair (5) Smarts roll she can usually make a good guess—at least about Corporeal ones. Mental Traits take a bit more exposure and the Marshal decides when your character knows enough about an individual to make that sort of educated guess.

Finally, this hex can only swap Traits between human or nearly-human targets (Marshal’s call). Animals and other nonhuman creatures are too alien to make the exchange.

Sleeve Card

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: Self

A good gambler doesn’t need to cheat to win, but sometimes having the right card up his sleeve makes all the difference—unless he gets caught with it, that is. Sleeve card lets a huckster tweak time to a minute degree, stacking the odds in a fight slightly in his favor.

When a huckster casts this hex, it allows him to discard an Action Card and draw a new one to replace it immediately after he rolls Quickness at the beginning of a round. If his hand is good enough, he can do this more than once. The exact number of times your hero can discard and redraw is determined by his hand and shown on the table following sleeve card’s description.

The huckster actually doesn’t gain any Action Cards through this hex; those are determined by his Quickness roll as usual.

Each discard and redraw is done separately, so it’s possible for a huckster to discard a card he received on a previous redraw. He doesn’t have to use the discard/redraw ability during a round if he doesn’t want and he can chose to discard/redraw less than the total number allowed by the hex.

Since he’s basically running a cheat on the laws of nature, there is a chance he can get caught. If he pulls the black Joker on a redraw, not only does he lose it and his hole card (if any), but he also suffers backlash, just as if he’d drawn it while casting the hex.

However, it’s a little easier to take the second time around, so the roll to determine the result gets a -4 modifier, to minimum of 1.

Velvet casts sleeve card and gets two pairs, letting him discard and redraw up to three cards at the beginning of each round. On his next Quickness roll he gets a total of two cards. Drawing, he comes up with a Jack and a Three. He chooses to keep the Jack, but discards the Three. His redraw is only a Five, and so, since he has two more discard/redraws remaining, he decides to discard it and draw again. This time he gets a Nine. Although he could discard one more time and redraw, Velvet decides to stick with the Nine and forfeits his remaining redraw. He can repeat this draw/redraw process each round until the hex’s duration expires.

Hand Discard/Redraw

Ace 1

Pair 2

Three of a Kind 3

Straight 4

Flush 5

Stayin’ Put

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/ round

Range: Self

This hex makes the caster tougher to budge from a spot than an Arizona mule on Sunday morning. It puts down magical “roots” that help hold the huckster in place.

While stayin’ put is in effect, the huckster gets +5 to all her Strength rolls to resist being pushed, pulled, tugged or even lifted. For every hand above the minimum, she gets an additional +2 to the roll. Stayin’ put makes a huckster a great doorstop!

She also gets this bonus to any climbin’ roll made to hang on or avoid falling. The hex doesn’t help her actually climb, just stay stuck to a spot once she gets there. Any climbin’ roll to move up or down a surface doesn’t get this bonus.

On the other hand, even she has to fight against the hex to some degree. Her Pace is lowered by 2 while she maintains stayin’ put.

There is a benefit to the hex’s supernatural restraint, as well, however. As long as stayin’ put is effect, your huckster gets a +2 to all guts checks. In addition, if she fails the check, she can choose to stand her ground if the result of the failed check forces her to flee. In effect she gains the Edge nerves o’ steel, although in this case it might better be called Feet o’ Lead.

She still suffers any other effects, though. The hex only prevents her from having to flee; however it doesn’t protect her from Wind loss, negative modifiers, or more lasting dementias.

The Demon’s Eye

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 10 yards/Hex level

A huckster casting this hex forces a manitou to give him a tiny glimpse of the immediate future. In effect, he sees with a “demon’s eye,” hence the name of the hex. He can’t make out exact details or discern the outcome of events; his vision is limited to a snippet of the next few seconds only.

What this means in game terms is that when your hero casts this hex, the Marshal has to reveal some of the Action Cards for the opponents your hucksters are facing. Better yet, she has to show the highest cards first down to the lowest, so even with a minimal success, at least you know when the soonest she can shoot your hero is!

The total number of cards revealed is based on the final hand your huckster gets when casting the demon’s eye. She also has to let you know which of your hero’s opponents have which cards, in case she tries to get sneaky.

Cards up an enemy’s sleeve don’t count against this total, but even the minimum hand lets you know from round to round which opponents are holding Action Cards and which aren’t.

The table below shows how many cards your huckster can reveal according to his hand.

Hand Cards Revealed

Ace 1

Pair 2

Jacks 3

Three of a Kind 4

Straight 6

Flush 8

Full House 10

Four of a Kind All

The Metal Hexes

As with tricks, we’ve already given you the lowdown on what all the entries under each description mean, so let’s just get to the hexes themselves.

Analyze

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: Special

Duration: Special

Range: 1 elixir

Sitgreaves dabbled in alchemy while at Smith & Robards. One of the most aggravating problems he faced was figuring out what someone else’s formulae was made of. If he could come up with a spell to do the work for him, he could come up with new elixirs in half the time. Analyze finally gave Sitgreaves the break he needed.

This hex automatically reveals the components of an alchemical formula (or an ordinary chemical formula if a more mundane use is ever needed). The hand needed to understand the formula is 2 ranks lower than would normally be needed to invent the device to a minimum of an Ace (use the Elixirs table in the Smith & Robards sourcebook).

The time it takes to glean the theory is equal to 5 minutes times the rank of the original hand needed for the gizmo..

The huckster must be able to perform some basic chemistry tests to cast this spell. That means he needs a few beakers, test tubes, and powders. He doesn’t really need an entire lab— the process is magical after all, but it takes a bit of swirling, bubbling, and distilling to help the mind understand what the manitous are telling it.

If the huckster is a mad scientist and the spell is successful, he may now brew this elixir himself. If he is not a mad scientist, he can relate his formula to someone who is, within a number of hours equal to his Smarts die type.

After that, the formula fades from his mind and the knowledge is lost.

Once related, a mad scientist must still make an Incredible (11) Smarts roll to understand the process and make use of it. The listener may only make this check once. If he wishes to try again, the huckster must cast analyze again for a “fresh perspective.”

Barricade

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Using the principles of thaumaturgical diffusion, barricade conjures up a temporary wall of metal shards and other junk for your huckster, and her pardners to hide behind.

The wall stands only 3’ high and is 3’ long for every level your hero has in the Hex. Barricade provides Armor levels against ranged attacks for any hit location covered by it (see the combat section in the Weird West Player’s Guide). It gives no protection against melee attacks whatsoever; the attacker can just reach over it to wallop your cardslinger, although if she casts it between them, it might slow him down if he has to clamber over the mass of metal to get to her!

Like most creations of Sitgreaves’ “thaumaturgical diffusion,” the material summoned by the barrier hex does not remain after the duration of the hex. It seems to almost instantly corrode and crumble to dust. In moments, even the dust dissipates, leaving nothing behind.

The exact toughness of the wall—in other words how good it is at saving your metal mage’s hide—depends on the hand she pulls when casting the hex.

Hand Armor Level

Jacks Light (-4)

Two Pairs 1

Three of a Kind 2

Straight 3

Flush 4

Blast Furnace

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration

Range: 10 yards/Hex level

Technology, weird or otherwise, relies heavily on metalworking. Just because an inventor can’t afford a full smelting operation doesn’t mean she doesn’t need one. This hex provides a huckster with a pocket-sized forge no larger than her deck of cards.

Blast furnace causes metal items to heat up and eventually melt. The huckster can affect a single metal item of up to 10 pounds per level of her Hex Aptitude.

The strength of the hex’s energy depends on the huckster’s hand. The hex begins to heat the metal immediately, although it doesn’t usually reach full potency for a few rounds.

Whatever the power of the blast furnace, the energy begins at the level generated by the lowest hand (a single Ace) and increases one level up the table per round until it has reached the level indicated by the huckster’s hand.

Metals melt after the necessary level of energy has been maintained for 2 rounds per level of the minimum hand necessary to affect it. For example, it takes 4 rounds for the energy to reach the level necessary to affect aluminum, and then another 8 to actually melt it. Steel, on the other hand, takes 18 rounds, and tungsten a whopping 20!

The hex has no direct effect on nonmetal items or creatures; however, either of these may suffer damage if they are in contact with an item affected by this hex. Most energy from the hex stays within the metal itself, but some does leak out as heat. This leakage is nowhere near the level of energy affecting the target item, but it is high enough to cause severe damage to less resilient substances—like human flesh!

Any character touching an object affected by blast furnace takes damage at the beginning of each round to the hit location(s) in contact with it. Since the hex takes a moment to reach damaging levels, usually only cowpokes intent on injury—or a bit short in the smarts department—suffer from this.

However, touching an item after it’s had time to heat up does do the listed damage to the body part contacting it.

Even if the hex is insufficient to melt the item, it does still heat the metal, and anyone or thing touching it takes the damage indicated by the huckster’s draw hand. Flammable items may catch fire as well.

Once the hex ends, the metal, melted or not, immediately cools to room temperature. Any fires or other damage resulting from the metal’s heat continue until dealt with normally.

Curiously, ghost steel doesn’t even get warm unless the huckster draws a Dead Man’s Hand (2 black Aces, 2 black Eights, and the Jack of Diamonds). If this happens, the ghost steel actually spontaneously combusts causing 3d6 damage to anyone touching it.

Hand Metal Damage

Ace None 1d6

Pair Lead 2d6

Two Pairs Zinc 3d6

Three of a Kind Aluminum 4d6

Straight Silver 5d8

Flush Gold/Copper 6d8

Full House Nickel 7d10

Four of a Kind Iron 8d10

Straight Flush Steel 9d12

Royal Flush Tungsten 10d12+2

Bullet Proof

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 5 rounds/Hex level

Range: 10 yards

Sitgreaves was intrigued by Dr. Gash’s augmentation process. His first attempt to mimic some of Gash’s enhancements produced an ugly but useful effect—a bullet-proof vest that “grew” from the subject’s own skin.

This hex causes rusted, scalelike metal growths to form on the subject’s skin. If the hex is cast successfully, the subject gains 1 level of armor. For every hand over the minimum, the armor protection increases by an additional level to a maximum of 5 levels.

These scales provide protection against most forms of damage, but also impair the subject’s ability to move freely. Every level of armor gained by this hex reduces the subjects Nimbleness Trait by 1 die type, to a minimum of d4.

The hex always produces the full amount of armor indicated by the huckster’s hand. The caster can’t choose a lesser effect for the hex.

Bullet proof characters have a disturbing and distinctly unnatural appearance. As a result of the visual effects, all persuasion rolls made while under the effects of this hex receive a -5 modifier. Conversely, the bizarre

appearance is rather intimidating, and the subject gains a +2 modifier to overawe attempts.

Bullet-Stopper

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 10 yards/Hex level

Some folks were just born unlucky and some folks get that way with a little help. This hex is one of the ways to get someone on the bad side of Lady Luck.

Any cowpoke standing too close to a target in a gunfight has a 1 in 6 chance of catching a stray round meant for the other fellow. If your cardslinger gets at least an Ace on her draw hand to cast bullet-stopper, she ups that chance to 2 in 6.

If, for some reason, the odds of the poor sap getting hit by a misplaced bullet are already higher than normal, the hex increases them by one.

She also increases the distance at which her target is likely to catch a stray shot, detailed on the table below.

Note this spell doesn’t do a thing for shots aimed at the cowpoke in the first place; it only increases the chances for a bullet that missed other targets to hit him. In a heated gunfight, the target isn’t likely to walk away unscathed— especially if the participants are poor shots to begin with!

Hand Bonus Distance

Ace +1 yard

Pair +2 yards

Two Pairs +3 yards

Three of a Kind +4 yards

Straight +5 yards

Caustic Glop

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Special

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Working so close to the toxic goop that is the City o’ Gloom’s Sludge Creek, it’s really no surprise that Sitgreaves eventually turned his efforts to a more chemically-based hex. As with many of his first hexes, this one is decidedly offensive in nature—but, with a monster from the pits of Hell hunting the man, who can honestly blame him?

Caustic glop produces, well, pretty much exactly what its name says.

When cast, a fist-sized blob of acidic goo flies from the huckster’s hand to his target. As with soul blast, the huckster has to not only cast the spell, but also hit the target with it.

Use the same Hex roll to determine both the hex’s success and if it hits. The glop requires a Fair (5) TN, but receives no range modifiers. The TN to hit is affected by factors such as cover, called shots, lighting, and so on.

The hex does the damage listed when the glop strikes its target, but it continues to burn the target at the beginning of each following round.

Each round, drop the damage die type drops a level and it does damage again. Once the die type falls below d4, the goo does no further damage, although it does leave a nasty stain on clothing or walls. That means on the minimum hand (a Pair) the hex does no further damage after the initial hit.

Unlike soul blast, this hex’s effect is affected by inanimate objects, so if the target’s wearing armor or behind cover, she might escape damage. On the other hand, caustic glop does damage to inanimate objects as well.

Caustic glop can burn through armor in this fashion, lowering its protection permanently in that hit location. The initial round has no permanent effect on Armor levels, but each round following, provided the glop is doing at least d6 damage or better on that round, the target’s armor is lowered by a level permanently as the acid scores it. In other words, the minimum hand to do lasting damage to armor this way is Three of a Kind.

Hand Damage

Pair 2d4

Two Pairs 3d6

Three of a Kind 3d8

Straight 4d8

Flush 5d8

Full House 5d10

Four of a Kind 6d10

Straight Flush 7d10

Royal Flush 8d12

Decrypt

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: Self

This hex comes in handy for breaking codes and ciphers. Sitgreaves developed this hex as a result of his work on encoding hexes into the Smith & Robards catalog.

Decrypt pulls coded and/or hidden messages out of texts, or rather it greatly assists a huckster in doing so. This hex gives a cardslinger a +5 bonus to his professional: cryptology rolls while it lasts. Each hand above a Pair gives him an additional +2. The hex works just fine if your hero is using it to boost her default in this Aptitude.

Decrypt does provide its bonus to breaking a message hidden by the hex steganogram. However, obviously your huckster has to know there’s something concealed in a message in the first place! After all, it’s pretty much impossible to look for something if you don’t know it’s there.

Rumor has it this hex was developed either by the Union’s top-secret service, the Agency to monitor the Confederacy or by the group’s foes to break its own secret messages.

Dementia

Trait: Mien

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Few folks understand the human mind as well as a mad scientist—at least the failings of the human mind, anyway. Sitgreaves has studied mad science and the entities responsible for its students’ seemingly inevitable insanity.

The result is a hex that lets the caster simulate a mad scientist’s “madness” for a short while. Not surprisingly, given the manitous’ nature, this was a particularly simple hex for Sitgreaves to develop!

Dementia saddles the subject with the effects of a short-term mental illness. The exact type of madness and its effects depend on the huckster’s hand and are depicted on the table following this description.

The caster may suggest possible effects for a result of delusion or phobia, but it’s the Marshal’s decision as to the exact consequences of those outcomes. He’s encouraged, however, to draw on the circumstances at hand to shape any delusions or phobias the subject may suffer while under the effects of the hex.

Hand Hindrance

Pair Mild delusion: Subject believes some basically harmless, but bizarre, idea, like horses can perform higher math problems, or dirt is a nutritious food additive.

Jacks Absent minded: Subject must make a Fair(5) Smarts check to remember important facts—such as what she is doing.

Two Minor phobia:

Pairs Subject gains a fear of something nearby. He is -2 to all actions involving the item/creature.

Three of a Kind Paranoia: Subject has an unnatural distrust of everyone else. She will allow no one, even trusted friends, nearer than 5 feet.

Straight Major Phobia: Subject gains an overpowering fear of something nearby. He is -4 to all actions involving the item/creature and must make a Hard (9) guts check to directly affect the source of fear.

Flush Delusion: Subject gains a dangerously false misconception. Possibilities include “I can fly,” sulfuric acid is a good after-dinner cocktail, or that it’s a known fact that a surefire way to calm a ravening werewolf is to scratch its ears.

Devil’s Workshop

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1 hour

Duration: Special

Range: 1 yard

It’s not enough to simply have an idea for some outlandish device—somebody’s got to build it! Sitgreaves is a lazy inventor, so this was one of the first spells he created when he worked at Smith & Robards. This hex provides some supernatural help around the workshop by making the tinkerer faster, more efficient, and “insanely inspired.”

The huckster can cast this hex on herself or any other character with arcane background: mad scientist. The hand drawn reduces the construction time as shown on the table below.

This hex must be cast on a tinkerer when he first begins construction of a project. It is “permanent” thereafter, until the item is built or dismantled.

Hand Time Reduction

Pair 10%

Two Pairs 20%

Three of a Kind 30%

Straight 40%

Full House 50%

Four of a Kind 60%

Royal Flush 75%

Grenade

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

There are few problems in life that can’t be solved with a big enough explosion. Grenade proved this when one of Sitgreaves’ associates tried it against a pack of young rattlers. He himself hopes it will do the job when the gorgon finally comes for him.

This hex does just what you probably think it does: summon up a metal shell filled with explosives. It detonates on impact with any surface, even if it’s dropped. This isn’t a hex for butterfingered hucksters!

The huckster can throw the grenade just like dynamite. It has a burst radius of 5, and causes damage as shown on the table below. And, again just like dynamite, this hex causes massive damage which means it loses a step in its damage dice with each range increment and its damage is spread randomly over a victim’s body. The details for all of these effects can be found in the Weird West Player’s Guide in the Blowin’ Things All to Hell chapter.

Hand Damage

Pair 1d6 Wind (total)

Jacks 2d4

Two Pairs 2d6

Three of a Kind 3d8

Straight 4d8

Flush 4d10

Full House 5d10

Four of a Kind 6d10

Straight Flush 7d12

Royal Flush 7d20

Haywire

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: 20 yards/Hex level

One of the problems with weird gizmos is that your enemies can make them too. Haywire hurries along that inevitable malfunction to make sure your gizmo wins the day and the other guy’s blows up in his face. Sitgreaves has run afoul of Hellstromme’s goons more than once, and his protection is this handy spell.

The hex affects a single gizmo within range chosen by the huckster. Haywire affects any type of gizmo, from acid guns to flapjack machines to maze runners. It has absolutely no effect, however, against normal devices.

If the hex is used against a complicated device made up of more than a single component gizmo, such as a submersible boat or an air carriage, your huckster must choose one of the component devices for the hex. He can’t affect the entire system of gizmos with a single haywire.

A gizmo affected by this device acts like it’s been ambushed by a whole posse of gremlins. Haywire can cause the device all manner of trouble— ranging from a simple malfunction check all the way up to a Catastrophic Malfunction. The exact effect depends on the huckster’s hand.

This hex has no effect on alchemical elixirs or tonics.

Hand Effect

Pair Reliability Check (+2 to the roll)

Jacks Reliability Check (+4 to the roll)

Two Pairs Minor Malfunction

Three of a Kind Major Malfunction

Flush Catastrophe!

Infernal Machine

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Two Pairs

Speed: 1 minute

Duration: 1d4 Wind/round

Range: Touch

Sometimes a hero needs a weird gizmo in a hurry. If a horde of prairie ticks are descending on you, a quickly conjured flamethrower might be just the infernal device you need to save your soul.

Infernal machine lets the caster take a bunch of junk and turn it into a marvel of mad science. The huckster must have roughly the same amount of scrap metal, wood, and other basic components of the device in question within reach.

Your huckster must describe the device and its difficulty before casting infernal machine; no waiting until you see how good a hand he drew to decide!

On casting the spell, he “works” with the materials for a minute, and, if successful, has the device he so desperately needs in hand. The cost is high, though: It takes 1d4 Wind per round to keep the device from falling apart. (Don’t reroll any Aces when checking for this hex’s Wind requirement.)

This hex has no effect on existing gizmos. Also, the huckster gains no knowledge of what might be required to build the infernal machine for real later.

The device created by infernal machine isn’t perfect. The gizmo has a reliability of 10 plus your huckster’s Hex Aptitude level. For every hand above that needed to create the device, it gains an additional +1. No matter how many bonuses the device has, its reliability is never greater than 18.

One last note: The manitous who grant this power do not provide “mundane” devices to the huckster. Infernal machine can’t be used to summon up a simple pistol, for example. It can only conjure up weird gizmos.

It’s almost as if they want these dangerous and unpredictable devices falling into the huckster’s hands—which bears out Sitgreaves’ suspicions nicely.

Jerry-Rig

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: Touch

One thing about machines that’s almost a universal truth is they all break down at some point. Few things are as disappointing as having a gizmo fail when your cowpoke’s life depends on in.

This hex allows your huckster to quickly, but temporarily fix a gizmo. It also works on normal devices and equipment as well, but the effects on those are just as brief.

There are two ways to employ jerry- rig to repair damaged equipment. In both cases, the repair only lasts a short while—but if the posse needs the machine working right away, often that’s long enough! They can worry about long-term fixes if the heroes can pull their fat out of the fire!

The first method repairs structural damage for a short time. The hex can replace lost Durability points to a single device or item. Jerry-rig even patches damage to structures like walls and buildings, but in this case, the hex only affects a 2’ x 2’ section at a time. The total number of Durability points gained is based on the huckster’s hand.

The second method repairs functional damage to any device. Used in this fashion, jerry-rig raises the Reliability of any gizmo or device that’s been lowered due to damage or even a magical effect like the hex rust or the Harrowed power devil’s touch. The amount of improvement in Reliability depends on the huckster’s hand.

Jerry-rig won’t improve the mechanism beyond its original Durability or Reliability—it only repairs damage done to it. Also, at the end of the hex, the item returns to its damaged state, so the posse had better have a mechanic nearby!

The exact effects of the hex are listed on the following table. Remember, only one of the effects can be chosen each time the hex is cast, although the hex may be cast on any given item as often as the huckster wants.

Jerry-rig has no effect on gizmos or equipment that have not suffered damage or otherwise had their Reliability or Durability reduced below the starting levels. In other words, your hero can’t use it to beef up faulty engineering or to make “cheap” goods more reliable. He should invest a little more time or money to correct those.

Hand

Description

Item

Two Pair

Slight (10%) improvement on existing technology

Armor piercing ammo, 10% longer range rifle, shooting knife

Three of a Kind

Major (25%) improvement on existing technology

Air catcher, silencer glove, 25% faster locomotive, leverage bow

Straight

Relatively simple, but new use of technology

Chain saw, rocket boots, flamethrower

Full House

New use of cutting edge technology

Sound telegraph, steamwagon, electrostatic gun

Four of a Kind

Entirely new but “realistic” technology

Rocket pack, auto-gyro, submersible boat

Straight Flush

New technology that flaunts the laws of science

Heat or freeze ray

Royal Flush

New technology that alters the laws of science

Mind control ray

Hand Reliability Durability Repair Repair

Pair 1 5

Jacks 2 10

Two Pairs 3 15

Three of a Kind 4 25

Mad Insight

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard

This is the hex that started it all. Sitgreaves actually stumbled onto it accidentally, then later came back and refined the process. This hex works like a beacon to draw manitous to the mad scientist (or alchemist).

The huckster can target himself or someone else with mad insight.

When successfully cast, the hex allows a mad scientist to draw an extra card when devising her blueprint. For each hand above the minimum level needed to cast the hex, mad insight grants her an additional card.

The real drawback to this hex is that if your huckster suffers backlash while casting the hex, the manitou is liable to get a swipe in at the scientist working with her as well! The huckster takes the normal effects of the backlash and a “research mishap” occurs as well. The Marshal should roll on that table in Smith & Robards if he has it. If not, he should devise some bizarre flaw for the device.

Magazine

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/Round

Range: 1 weapon within 10 yards Nothing spoils the fun of a good

shoot-out like running out of ammunition. Sitgreaves’ research has provided a near perfect solution to this dilemma.

This hex affects a single hand-held weapon. It works on pistols, rifles, and shotguns—including Gatling versions of the same. Magazine is ineffective for weapons like full-sized Gatling guns and cannons of any sort. It also doesn’t work on more exotic weapons like flamethrowers or acid guns.

While the weapon is under the effects of the hex, it has an effectively infinite supply of ammunition—the hex creates a new round for every one fired. Characters should note the shots left in the weapon at the beginning of the hex. After the hex ends, that’s how many shots are left in the weapon.

This hex does not increase the weapon’s rate of fire or otherwise affect it, except as noted above.

Magic Bullet

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 rounds/Hex level

Range: 5 yards

Sitgreaves lives in Junkyard where crime is rampant. He carries a gun when he goes out late at night, but knows he isn’t a gunslinger.

Fortunately for him, he doesn’t have to be quick as long as he’s got a magic bullet.

Magic bullet turns one ordinary pistol or rifle round (no other type of shell) into, well, a “magic bullet.” Assuming the bullet hits its first target, it bounces out of the first victim and flies toward

another target. If it hits that victim, it might go on to hit a third, and so on up to a number of victims determined by the spell, shown on the following table.

Figure the shot as fired from the last victim to the other. The range increment is 5 regardless of whether it was fired from a pistol or a rifle, and instead of rolling another shootin’ roll, use your huckster’s Hex (based on Smarts) to see if the bullet hits.

Regardless of the hand drawn, the magic bullet stops when it misses a victim.

Magic Bullet

Hand

Extra Targets

Pair

Jacks

Two Pairs

Three of a Kind

Flush

Royal Flush

Magnetize

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: 10 yards/Hex level

Much like the name implies, this hex magnetizes a metal item. Since just about every technological device from Army revolvers to mechanical mules are built at least in part with metal, if your huckster has this hex she can find endless potential for mischief.

The target item can weigh no more than 25 lbs per level of the hex. Other metal items stick to the target and require a cowpoke to make a Strength roll to pull them loose or even just resist having them pulled from his grasp.

The TN for the roll is based on the huckster’s hand. The TN starts at Foolproof (3) with an Ace (the minimum) and increases one level of difficulty for every hand above that, including Jacks.

The target item draws any other metal objects to itself, provided they weigh less. If they weigh more than the magnetized item, it is pulled to them instead. The magnetism attracts any metal objects within a number of feet equal to the TN for the Strength roll. So, an item that takes a Foolproof (3) Strength roll to pull loose affects metal objects within 3 feet of itself.

The magnetism persists for the duration of the hex and additional Strength rolls should be made each round if any other metal objects are within the range of attraction.

Power Leak

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 rounds/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level Gizmos come in all shapes and sizes.

They do everything from let a man walk on the bottom of the ocean or fly around the clouds. But, no matter how diverse they may seem, most of them have one thing in common—a power source of some kind or another. And no matter how fancy the doodad is, without power it won’t work.

This hex takes advantage of that fact by siphoning energy from a non- magical power plant. The power source can be as complex as a steam engine or as simple as a wind-up spring. Even boilers fueled by ghost rock are considered non-magical for the purposes of this hex.

Only items which are powered solely by the effects of magic, such as relics or other hexes, are unaffected by power leak.

When successfully cast, power leak begins to drain energy from the power source and weakens the effectiveness of any device relying on it. The base effect of the hex lowers the device(s) effectiveness by 10%, and each hand increase (Jacks included) lowers this by another 10%.

The energy drained by the hex is dispersed harmlessly into the surrounding area. A really powerful energy source, like a locomotive engine, may temporarily raise the air temperature by a few degrees while it’s being drained, but lesser ones aren’t even noticeable.

The exact effect this power loss has depends on the device itself.

Locomotives affected by power leak lose a corresponding amount of speed, whereas a flapjack machine produces fewer flapjacks, and Gatling pistols fire slower. When figuring the effects of the hex, remember the golden rule—round down. So, for example, a 20% reduction is necessary to lower the rate of fire on a steam Gatling to 5.

The hex reduces the power of explosive devices, like dynamite, flamethrowers, or even bullets— reducing the damage inflicted by the appropriate percentage. In this case, each bullet or stick of dynamite is considered a separate power source for targeting purposes.

The effects of the hex end completely when the duration runs out; power plants instantly return to full operating capacity.

Purely chemical reactions not functioning as a power source, like those of an elixir or acid, are not affected by this hex. Likewise, magical effects, except the hex power surge, are not adversely affected by power leak.

Power Surge

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 2 rounds/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Hindering an opponent is all well and good, but sometimes it’s more important to your hero to improve his own situation. This hex is the opposite of power leak. It increases the power output of an energy source.

An Ace increases its energy production by 10%, and each additional level (including Jacks) adds another 10% to it.

As with power leak, the exact affect depends on the device. Steam wagons gain a boost in speed, mechanical skeletons become more powerful, and dynamite does more damage. See power leak for more details.

Increasing the power output does have a downside. A device affected by power surge consumes a greater amount of fuel. The increase in consumption is equal to the bonus production. For energy sources that don’t consume fuel, like spring loaded Gatling pistols, each 10% increase in efficiency reduces its Reliability by -1.

As with power leak, pure chemical reactions that aren’t serving as power sources, like elixirs and acids, aren’t affected by this hex. Power surge can help offset the effects of a power leak, but otherwise magic is unaffected as well.

Razor Coils

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Ranchers have been using barbed wire for years to keep their herds in line. Binding a human up with this stuff is just plain cruel. But it’s effective. This is one of the first of the

“thaumaturgical diffusion” hexes Sitgreaves invented and its relatively simple—but nonetheless effective— design shows that.

Razor coils appear as rusted wire with pointed barbs laced throughout. They materialize around the target and entangle it immediately.

Anyone caught by razor coils can attempt to break free by making a Nimbleness roll against a TN determined by the huckster’s hand. The TN starts at Foolproof (3) for the minimum hand (an Ace) and increases one level for every hand above that, including Jacks.

If successful, the victim can free himself and act normally on his next action. Otherwise, he’s held fast until his next action, when he can attempt the roll again. If the victim goes bust on the roll, he’s trapped for the duration of the hex.

Struggling against the barbed wire isn’t a pleasant prospect. Every action a victim attempts to break free and fails, she suffers Wind equal to the amount by which she failed her Nimbleness roll. If she’s successful, however, she still takes 1d6 Wind, but she’s loose of the hex.

Reflect

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Special

Speed: Vamoose

Duration: Instant

Range: Self

There’s a saying that goes the best offense is a good defense...or is that the best defense is a good offense?

Whatever the case, this hex makes an opponent’s magical offense the huckster’s defense.

This hex causes a jagged piece of highly reflective, magically-charged metal momentarily appears in the air to the front of your huckster. The mirrorlike metal substance is intangible to physical objects—bullets, fists, broken bottles, and so forth pass through it without any effect.

However, the substance has a reflective property that affects not only light, but also some forms of magic.

Hexes, black magic spells, voodoo spells, and Harrowed powers that have a targeted and ranged effect can be deflected with this hex. Area-of-affect spells or attacks cannot be reflected unless the caster is foolish enough to target it directly on the huckster.

Because the hex has an instant duration, the huckster must cast reflect in response to her opponent’s spell. To do so, she must spend her highest action card—and a card up her sleeve is considered her highest—just like she’s taking an active defense, like dodge.

If reflect is successful, the original caster suffers the effects of the spell or power he had intended for your hero.

The opponent’s level in Hex, conjurin’, black magic or the specific Harrowed power determines the hand necessary to successfully reflect the attack. The following table lists the hand necessary for each level.

Hand Opponent’s Power Level

Ace 1

Pair 2

Jacks 3

Two Pairs 4

Three of a Kind 5

Straight 6

Flush 7

Full House 8

Four of a Kind 9

Straight Flush 10

Royal Flush 11+

Reverse Engineer

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: Special

Duration: Special

Range: Touch

It’s getting harder and harder for an inventor to come up with an original idea. With all the mad scientists running around these days, sometimes it seems like just about every good

gizmo has already been invented. Some less scrupulous inventors have taken advantage of the brain sweat of other, more creative individuals for their own creations. Reverse engineer is a godsend for those folks.

This hex allows your huckster to understand the theory behind a weird gizmo built by someone else. The hand needed to understand the gizmo is 2 ranks lower (including Jacks) than would normally be needed to invent the device (use the mad scientist’s Gizmo Construction Table in the Weird West Player’s Guide). A minimum hand of an Ace must be drawn.

It takes your huckster five minutes times the rank of his draw hand to “get” the theory behind the gizmo.

Your hero must be able to touch and inspect the device to cast this spell. If he is a mad scientist and the spell is successful, he may now construct such a device himself.

If he is not a mad scientist, he can relate his theory to another mad scientist within a number of hours equal to his Smarts die type. After that, the supernatural imprint of the blueprint fades from his mind and the knowledge is lost.

Once the information is passed on, a mad scientist must still make an Incredible (11) Smarts roll to understand the theory your hero has described and make use of it. The listener may only make this check once. If he wishes to try again, your huckster must cast reverse engineer again for a “fresh perspective” on the theory.

Ride the Rails

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Three of a kind

Speed: 1 minute

Duration: Special

Range: Self

Sitgreaves occasionally has to travel to get components for his devices and formulae. This was inconvenient (and dangerous) until he read about a group of mystics known as druids. Centuries ago, across the Big Pond in England, these folks developed sites of power along routes of mystical energy called “ley lines.” Druids would travel along these lines from site to site.

The closest Weird West equivalent of those are the rail lines crisscrossing the frontier. Sitgreaves figured he could use these to transport himself quickly along these modern day ley lines.

Ride the rails allows your huckster to use a railroad track as a fast method of transport—and she doesn’t even have to buy a ticket. All she has to do is cast the hex while physically touching the rails (so it can’t be cast while already on a train).

Next your hero determines where she wants to go, and the Marshal figures out the distance.

A good rule of thumb is to measure the straight line distance on one of our maps (or a more detailed “real” map if you have one), and multiply by 1.5 to account for all the different spurs, detours, and so on. Finally, look up the distance on the table below to see how far a single hand gets you, and how long it takes to get there.

The huckster remains visible and tangible for the first 50 feet of her travel as he suddenly races toward her destination. Then she vanishes in a flash, becoming nothing more than energy along the rail line until he reaches his destination.

If the track has been broken or destroyed—not an uncommon occurrence with the Rail Wars going on—the huckster’s trip is abruptly ended. The rough and unexpected stop deals 3d6 Wind to the hexslinger, and she winds up on the ground at the site of the obstruction.

The same happens should she reach the end of a rail line, even if she knew it was coming! The Marshal might want to roll randomly to determine if the rail lines have been cut somewhere along the way. The chance is 2% for each hand needed to reach the chosen distance.

Fortunately, encountering a train while riding the rails has no effect on your hero. She’s actually melded into the track itself, so she may get her teeth rattled a little, but nothing else.

Ride the Rails

Hand Distance Time

Ace 10 miles 1 minute

Pair 25 miles 5 minutes

Jacks 50 miles 10 minutes

Two Pairs 100 miles 20 minutes

Three of a Kind 200 miles 30 minutes

Straight 300 miles 40 minutes

Flush 400 miles 50 minutes

Full House 500 miles 1 hour

Four of a Kind 750 miles 2 hours

Straight Flush 1000 miles 3 hours

RoyalFlush 2000 miles 4 hours

Scrap Storm

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 2

Duration: Concentration and 1d4 Wind/round

Range: Self

Scrap storm is a good example of what happens when a Texas twister touches down in the City o’ Gloom. There are a lot of ways to describe the event, but they all spell bad news!

This hex causes a fierce, supernatural cyclone to whirl about your huckster, with a 5 yard diameter. A 1 yard diameter “eye” sits around your hero while she maintains the hex, which is a good thing, since the rest of the cyclone is filled with shards of razor-sharp metal flying nearly faster than the eye can see. A cowpoke walking through a scrap storm usually ends up looking like he went running through a field of barbed wire wearing a blindfold!

Keeping the unearthly winds blowing and maintaining the sorcerous shrapnel whizzing within them is very taxing— possible the most tiresome hex your huckster can attempt in a combat situation! Scrap storm requires not only that your hero concentrate on the hex to the exclusion of all but simple actions, but it also costs him 1d4 Wind each round he keeps it in effect!

Just like with a Texas twister hex, any attacks crossing the cyclone suffer a -2 penalty and doing anything while within the area of effect requires a character to make a Hard (9) Vigor roll— as much to ignore the stinging bite of the metal fragments as to work against the howling wind.

However, unlike Texas twister, your cardslinger can’t move the scrap storm around; because it sits in a deadly circle around her. She can walk about at half her normal Pace, though, and the storm moves with her if she does.

The metal fragments do damage to every cowpoke who’s within the storm based on the draw hand the huckster pulls. The damage from scrap storm is considered massive—similar to an explosion—and may affect more than a single hit location.

Scrap Storm

Hand

Damage

Jacks

1d4 Wind

Two Pairs

2d4

Three of a Kind

3d6

Straight

4d6

Flush

4d8

Full House

5d8

Four of a Kind

6d8

Straight Flush

6d10

Royal Flush

7d12

Shard

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 10 yards/Hex level

Soul blast has long been a staple hex for hucksters. However, the mystical energy produced by the hex can only hit a single target at a time. If the hexslinger’s outnumbered by his foes, he’d better have a back-up plan!

Sitgreaves realized his magic bullet spell was only useful if he could actually get to his gun, so he invented shard.

Shard makes one or more jagged metal nails and hurls them at the designated targets. The nails last only a few moments, crumbling to rust moments after they’ve been fired.

The huckster decides how many projectiles he wants to create before casting the hex. Each dart does the full damage indicated by the hand he draws. He can only create as many nails as he has Hex levels. Every dart he conjures after the first raises the TN to cast the hex by +2. So, to create 3 darts with shard, your huckster must roll his Hex against a Hard (9).

Just as with soul blast, the huckster’s Hex roll to cast the hex is also his roll to hit with the darts. Normally, your cardslinger rolls against a Fair (5) TN. While this isn’t adjusted for range, cover does affect shard. Movement, lighting, wound modifiers, and the like may also apply.

Your hero can choose to fire darts at more than one target as well. Each target after the first gives him a -2 penalty to his roll to hit.

Finally, he can target specific hit locations with the darts produced by this hex. He can even choose different locations on each target! These receive the standard modifiers for called shots. Since each target of a multiple dart hex may have different modifiers to the huckster’s roll, it’s very possible some of the darts hit while others miss.

Although the projectiles are created by magic, the damage dealt by them is not, so certain abominations may be immune to the effects of this hex.

Shard

Hand Damage

Pair 1d4 Wind

Jacks 2d6

Two Pairs 3d6

Shocker

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

This hex creates a buildup of static electricity in a metal item. The effect is similar to that of an electrostatic weapon. The first creature to touch the item during the duration of the hex suffers the effects of the discharge.

Shocker causes Wind loss to the victim according to your huckster’s hand. Also, the sudden burst of energy may startle and even momentarily stun the subject. The powerful jolt raises the usual stun check to an Ornery (7).

The hex immediately ends when a character triggers the discharge.

Otherwise the energy dissipates at the end of shocker’s duration harmlessly.

Hand Wind

Ace 1d4

Pair 2d4

Jacks 2d6

Two Pairs 3d6

Three of a Kind 4d8

Flush 5d8

Full House 6d10

Sliverspray

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Jacks

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: 1 yard/Hex level

When this hex is cast, a spray of small metal splinters flies from your huckster’s hand, shredding anyone unfortunate enough to be in the area.

The splinters created by sliverspray shower a wedge shaped area in front of your hero out to the hex’s maximum

range. The wedge fans out to a width equal toits length. Thus, a four-yard sliverspray would widen from a width roughly equal to your character’s palm to a maximum of two yards at its farthest point.

Every creature within the spray takes the full damage indicated by the huckster’s hand. This damage is massive damage, just like an explosion: see the Weird West Player’s Guide for more information on massive damage. For this reason, called shots aren’t possible with sliverspray.

If a rolled hit location is covered by an object or otherwise blocked from being hit by the slivers, any damage dealt is simply lost. Armor works against sliverspray normally.

Hand

Damage

Jacks

2d4

Two Pairs

3d4

Three of a Kind

4d4

Straight

5d6

Flush

6d6

Full House

7d6

Four of a Kind

8d6

Straight Flush

9d8

Royal Flush

10d8

Steganogram

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 5 days/Hex level

Range: Touch

Steganography is the technique of hiding a message so that no one outside of its intended recipients even knows the message is there.

Technically, Hoyle was practicing steganography when he hid the hexes in his book, not cryptology, since most readers don’t have a clue there’s any secret message there at all. Sitgreaves used the same technique when hiding these hexes in Smith & Robards’ catalog, but before he got the hang of the actual skill itself, he developed this hex for passing messages.

When cast, steganogram completely conceals a message written by your huckster so that it appears as something completely different from what he inscribed. Only the intended recipient can see the true message under the false script. Your hero must name the recipient(s) of the message at the time he casts the hex, although they need not be present. He can name one recipient for each level of his Hex Aptitude.

Others see an apparently innocent missive on butterfly collecting, an aunt’s favorite recipe, the weather, business dealings, or whatever else your character wants the cover story to be.

If a suspicious reader scrutinizes the hex looking for hidden code, she has to make an Onerous (7) professional: cryptology roll based on her Cognition to even catch a hint something’s amiss. If she makes it, she only knows there’s a message other than the obvious one hidden in the text. To pull out what the note really says, she has to make an Incredible (11) professional: cryptology roll, this time based on Smarts.

Each hand above the minimum your huckster gets when casting steganogram increases the TN by +2 This applies to both the roll to spot the message as well as the one to actually decipher it once identified.

Your hero can hide a message up to a single letter-sized page in length with each casting, so really long-winded hucksters may have to make multiple castings for a single correspondence.

The magic of steganogram works even if transmitted over a telegraph, by the way, but the telegraph operator must send the exact wording of the cover story for the encoded message to make sense to the recipients. Beware of gremlins when doing this—a single misplaced word can wreak havoc on a steganogram.

At the end of the hex’s duration, the message, both hidden and cover story become a jumbled mess of scrambled words and completely undecipherable to anyone, including the original recipient and even the caster.

Transcribe

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 5 minute/Hex level

Range: 5 feet/Hex level

Some inventors, like Sitgreaves, need to pace the floor and just can’t be bothered to jot notes as they’re brainstorming. As a result, many a good idea has died of loneliness before its owner got around to writing it down.

This hex creates a magical recorder to transcribe the spoken word onto paper.

Transcribe writes every word spoken within a range of 5 feet/Hex level onto a normal writing surface, whether it be paper, canvas, chalkboard, or whatever. It will even provide simple punctuation. Although it can’t identify speakers, it does use varied types of “handwriting” to differentiate between them.

The hex writes only in your hero’s native tongue and doesn’t provide any translation for foreign languages.

Instead, it phonetically spells words spoken in any language other than her native one. Punctuation for other languages is spotty at best.

Your huckster must have a writing instrument and surface in order to cast this hex. Although it was originally intended to help Sitgreaves track his research, of late the hex has found use as a tool for magical spying. As such, the Agency and Rangers find it useful.

Tweak

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration or 1 Wind/ Round

Range: One gizmo

Sometimes it’s critical that a weird gizmo do what it was devised to do. This hex boost the dependability of a mad scientist’s invention.

Tweak provides a temporary improvement in the Reliability score of a gizmo. A Pair (the minimum hand) provides a +2 bonus to a gizmo’s Reliability; it has no effect on “cheap,” normal goods. Each hand above the minimum gives an additional +1 bonus.

On Three of a Kind or better, the hex has an additional effect. If the gizmo does fail a Reliability check, roll twice to see what kind of malfunction it suffers (Minor, Major, or Catastrophe) and take the best result.

Upgrade

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Special

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: Touch

Not only did Sitgreaves’ background allow him to develop a hex or two to garner the assistance of the manitous with the creation of gizmos—or to repair them when they break—he’s even found a way to force the hateful spirits

to help him make an existing one more effective. Or at least more complicated, at any rate.

Upgrade only works on gizmos. It does so by adding even more of the manitous’ illogical concepts to an existing design. In game terms, it bumps a gadget one level of the mad science Gizmo Construction Table in the Weird West Player’s Guide.

Exactly what that entails is up to your huckster, but it must fight within the framework of the gizmo design rules. In other words, your cardslinger still has to come up with a concept of exactly what and how he’s modifying the gizmo to do. A blueprint is unnecessary, however, thanks to the manitou’s (unwilling) assistance.

The hand required to cast the hex is equal to two levels below the one to which the upgrade will boost the device. So, if your hero is modifying a steam wagon (Flush), that means the level he’s upgrading to is a Full House. To cast the hex, then, he needs to draw at least a Straight.

Remember, upgrade can only boost a gizmo one hand rank. Your hero can’t turn a Gatling pistol (Three of a Kind) into a freeze ray (Four of a Kind) with upgrade but he very well could temporarily boost that pistol to a Gatling shotgun (Straight).

Now, just because a device sits a single hand above the gizmo your hero has to work with, it doesn’t mean he can make the conversion. For example, it’s pretty difficult for even a manitou to upgrade a bullet-proof vest to a flamethrower! It might be possible to make that bullet-proof vest AV 3—or maybe even AV 4.

The magic of the hex makes all the modifications to the device. Through thaumaturgical diffusion principles, the hex even provides the material necessary to conduct the upgrade.

The drawback—and you just knew there was one didn’t you?—is that this process is inherently unstable. The gizmo enhanced in this manner has a Reliability of 10, +2 for every hand above the minimum needed to cast the hex. It can be enhanced with other hexes like tweak, but it can never have a Reliability greater than 16 or that of the original gizmo, whichever is lower.

Your huckster doesn’t really gain any true insight on how his newly upgraded gadget works; most of that is the work of the manitous. All he does is come up with the basic idea. So, as a result, he can’t rush to the drawing board and come up with a blueprint for the new gizmo.

If he wants to do that, he has to follow the “accepted” procedures of mad science—or, in other words, the rules from the Weird West Player’s Guide.

Waste Product

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Permanent

Range: Touch

Of all Sitgreaves’ hexes, waste product gives him the most hope that his methods may eventually provide a method to oppose whatever scheme the manitous are cooking up for humanity.

Waste product turns fuels of any kind into ash except ghost rock— without any combustion or other discernible chemical reaction. As soon as the hex is cast, the target matter is converted to plain old ash.

What gives Sitgreaves hope is the fact the hex also works on explosives in exactly the same fashion. Dynamite, nitro, even gunpowder—all turn instantly to ash when waste product is cast.

For normal fuels like coal or peat moss, the hex needs only a simple Pair to be effective. Your hero can affect ten pounds of fuel for each level she has in the Hex. Note that waste product only works on wood specifically prepared as firewood, not all wood.

For explosives, the hand is based on the damage die type of the explosive or bullet propelled by it in the case of gunpowder, as shown on the table below. Your huckster can defuse a single stick of dynamite, one bullet, or

8 oz. of other explosives for every level she has in the Hex.

Hand Die Type of Explosive

Pair d4

Jacks d6

Two Pairs d8

Three of a Kind d10

Straight d12

Flush d20

Weird Science

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 minute/Hex level

Range: Self

This hex applies the “unique” approach of mad scientists to more than just simple inventions. Weird science uses insight straight from the Hunting Grounds to boost any science Aptitude roll, albeit in a roundabout and often illogical fashion.

For the duration of weird science, your huckster gets to make two rolls whenever he uses any of his science Aptitudes and take the best result.

For each hand above the minimum to cast the hex, he also gets +2 to the roll.

The catch is if he goes bust on either roll, he suffers the effects of that catastrophe. Worse, he’s convinced his whacked theory is completely sound!

Wire Tap

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Concentration

Range: 20 yards/Hex level

The fastest method of sending messages over distances is the telegraph, but it’s not the most secure. And with wire tap, it’s even less so.

This hex lets your huckster tap into telegraph wires and messages. A cardslinger armed with wire tap can intercept, send, and modify messages sent over telegraph lines.

Wire tap creates a barely visible ghostly white line from your huckster’s ears to a nearby telegraph wire. Through this he can monitor the electrical impulses traveling along the wire. Even though the signals are sent in Morse code, your cardslinger can understand the messages even if she doesn’t know a dot from a dash.

Your huckster’s draw hand shows exactly how much control she has over the lines and messages. The effects of each hand are cumulative.

Hand Effect

Ace Listen to all messages sent and received

Pair Send a message Jacks Stop a message from

being either sent or received

Two Pairs Sift through the wire

for any message sent within the past day

Zilch

Trait: Spirit

Hand: Special

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/Hex level

Range: 5 yards/Hex level

Sitgreaves rightly figured if the manitous could warp science enough to make a strange gizmo work against the laws of physics, they could warp it back to stop the same device for at least a little while. Zilch proves that theory true.

With this hex, your hero can stop a mad scientist’s gizmo from functioning temporarily. The draw hand to cast the hex is two less than the hand to create the device in the first place (see the Gizmo Creation Table in the Weird West Player’s Guide). The gizmo is complicated, but useless junk for the duration.

A mad scientist can try to jump start her gadget prior to the end of the hex by beating your cardslinger in an opposed test of her tinkerin’ versus your hero’s Spirit.

Gun Hexes

All for One

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: 1 yard/hex level

Someone once said ignorance is bliss. Well, in the Weird West, that sort of bliss can get you dead fast, especially if we’re talking about ignorance about different types of guns. If you’ve run out of ammo for your revolver, and the only gun nearby is a Gatling gun that you don’t know how to use, you’re gonna wish you’d saved that last bullet for yourself when those zombies you’ve been shooting at come after you.

But not if there’s a hexslinger with this hex around. All for one allows anyone with a shootin’ Aptitude to use any type of gun he does not have the Concentration for just as well as if he’d trained to use it. It eliminates the standard –2 penalty for using a type of weapon you haven’t learned how to use (see the Deadlands rulebook), but it requires that the person on whom the hex is cast know how to use at least one type of gun. If the subject has no shootin’ Aptitude at all, this hex does nothing for him.

Ammo Whammy

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 10 minutes/hex level

Range: Self

Nothing’s going to ruin a gunfighter’s day like running out of bullets. Fortunately for hexslingers who know this hex, they don’t have that problem. It gives the hexslinger the power to create bullets (of any caliber) out of thin air. The minimum hand nets the hexslinger three bullets. Every hand above that creates an additional three bullets. The bullets last for 10 minutes per hex level, then fade away into mist. Happy hunting, partner.

Argent Agony

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Pair

Speed: 2

Duration: 10 minutes/hex level

Range: Self

Funny thing about some of the critters running around the Weird West—they aren’t affected by normal bullets. Maybe they can’t be touched by them, or maybe they eat them for lunch. Whatever the reason, you might as well throw your Colt away and cry to Colonel Momma when you face some of these abominations, soldier.

Unless, of course, you know argent agony.

This hex allows the hexslinger to change ordinary bullets into enchanted silver bullets. These silver bullets stay the same caliber and type as the original bullets. By drawing a Pair, the hexslinger can change one normal bullet into an enchanted silver bullet. The bullet can be fired from any gun that shoots bullets of that caliber. For every hand above a Pair, an additional bullet is transformed. The transformation lasts 10 minutes per hex level, after which the bullets change back into normal rounds if they haven’t been used.

Argent agony bullets can affect night haunts, ghosts, spooks, other intangible creatures, Harrowed using the soul flight power, werewolves and other shapeshifters, and similar abominations as if those creatures were normal men or beasts. A werewolf or night haunt, for example, doesn’t get its usual immunity to attacks. Isn’t that a shame?

Of course, there’s no guarantee the bullet is going to hurt the abomination that is breathing down your neck. Some, like hangin’ judges, can only be wounded by a very specific item. Others only take Wind from magical attacks, bullets or otherwise. A good rule of thumb is if a soul blast affects the creature, a bullet changed by argent agony also works.

Bullet with Your Name on It

Trait: Knowledge

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Self

If a bullet’s got your name on it, there’s no way you can hide from it, no matter what you do. Hexslingers use this hex to “name” a bullet for a target who’s trying to hide from them.

This hex eliminates penalties for cover or called shots (against the named target), starting at +2 with an additional +1 for every hand above the minimum. The hexslinger must know the persons first or last name.

Bullseye

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Touch

You say you can’t hit the broad side of a barn—from the inside? Well, friend, find yourself a hexslinger and get him to cast a bullseye hex on you. Soon you’ll be shooting pumas in the eye from a hundred paces—while the puma is at a full sprint!

Bullseye makes the recipient (the hexslinger herself or someone she touches) a much more accurate shot. Nearsighted or not, this spell is a one-shot, one-kill miracle for any gunfighter. It grants +2 to all shootin’ rolls made for the duration of the spell. This includes multiple shots made in a single round, such as by using a gun in each hand. It does not, however, apply to shootin’: automatics or shootin’: flamethrowers Aptitudes (or similar Aptitudes), nor does it apply to shots made by fanning.

Hale ’n’ Hearty

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 minute/hex level

Range: 1 yard/hex level

It’s mighty tough to shoot straight when your blood’s leaking down into your boots. This hex helps the hexslinger get a handle on that problem. The minimum hand eliminates one level of wound effects. Every hand above the minimum eliminates another level. So, if the hexslinger draws Jacks, he overcomes the effects of 3 wound levels (a serious wound).

The hex doesn’t heal the damage though. It just makes your aim steadier while you bleed to death. Hale ’n’ hearty doesn’t overcome the physical effects of actual injuries, so if your trigger finger’s busted up real bad, overcoming the wound effect isn’t gonna help you shoot any better.

Iron Fist

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 round/hex level

Range: Self

Lots of big guys are said to have fists like hams. A hexslinger using this hex has fists like sledgehammers. Iron fist makes the hexslinger’s fists do much more damage than an ordinary fist. The minimum hand adds +3 Wind to the damage caused. Every hand above the minimum adds an additional +3 Wind.

Knife through Butter

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Self

Some hexslinger up Utah-way came up with knife through butter recently after reading about Smith and Robards newfangled “armor-piercing” bullets. This hex converts the ordinary bullets in a gun into AP bullets, but without any of the reliability problems or loss of damage associated with manufactured AP cartridges (see Smith & Robards). Armor-piercing rounds lower the value of any armor they strike by –1. Every hand above the minimum means the bullets lower the Armor by an additional –1. The effects of this hex last as long as the hexslinger pays Wind, or until the gun he casts the hex on runs out of bullets or is taken away from him. If he wants to use it on another gun or another cylinder full of bullets, he needs to cast it again.

Loaded for Bear

Trait: Cognition

Hand: Ace

Speed: 2

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Self

When some huge, fanged, scaly thing is charging after your hide, pistol bullets just won’t do the job for you. Maybe even rifle bullets aren’t enough. But they are to a hexslinger who knows this hex, which makes a bullet bigger, more powerful, and faster after it leaves the gun. The minimum hand increases the die type rolled for damage from the bullet by +1 step. For example, a Colt Peacemaker would do 3d8 damage instead of 3d6. Every two hands above the minimum hand increases the damage of the weapon by another die type.

Load ’Em Up

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: Instant

Range: Touch

This hex is an improved version of the reload trick used by hucksters all over the Weird West. It loads bullets into a gun, but it requires that bullets be available (whether you bought them or made them with ammo whammy). The minimum hand reloads six bullets into a gun the hexslinger touches. Every hand above that reloads another six bullets.

Longbarrel Special

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Touch

You can see things a long way off out on the prairie or in the desert, and sometimes it’s nice to be able to take a shot at a target you can see a ways off before it can shoot at you (or claw you, eat you, or suck your soul out). This hex lets you do just that, by increasing the Range Increment of any gun. The minimum hand adds

+5 to a gun’s Range Increment. Every two hands above the minimum adds another +5 Range Increment. Put this together with bullseye, and you’ve got yourself a long-range shootin’ match.

New Slugs for Old

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: Permanent

Range: Touch

Ever been in a situation where you needed shotgun shells, but all you had were a few .45 bullets? Not a very healthy situation to find yourself in, is it? New slugs for old transforms any type of bullet, slug, or shell into any other type. The change is permanent. The new bullets can be saved and used at any time. The minimum hand transforms three bullets into the ammunition of the hexslinger’s choice. Every hand above the minimum transforms three more bullets.

Skinnin’

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Pair

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Self

Before a hexslinger steps out into the street to throw down with some desperado, he uses this hex to give him an edge in getting his gun out and pointed at the other fellow before his opponent can do the same.

The minimum hand increases the hexslinger’s quick draw rolls by +1 (1d6 becomes 1d6+1, and so on). Every hand above the minimum increases the quick draw roll by an additional +1. Of course, this hex is useless if the hexslinger doesn’t know how to quick draw in the first place.

Vim ’n’ Vigor

Trait: Smarts

Hand: Ace

Speed: 1

Duration: 1 Wind/round

Range: Touch

Don’t you just hate to see a cowboy cry? Some folks can’t seem to handle pain. Shoot them a couple times, and they decide to curl up and die. Well, not with this hex helping them.

The minimum hand adds +1 to the Coordination of a character’s Vigor for purposes of resisting or recovering from stun. Every hand above the minimum adds another +1 to the Coordination. This hex may be cast on the subject before he’s injured (so long as it’s maintained until he is injured), or it can be cast on him after he’s gotten himself hurt.

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