Grab your cross, conjure bag, and your copy of Hoyle’s, because we’re takin’ us a trip down to Hexarcana! Hexarcana is a supplement from Pinnacle Entertainment Group for the multiple award-winning Deadlands: the Weird West detailing new hexes, miracles, and favors for the more mystical of the core Weird West Arcane Backgrounds (in other words, the ones found in The Weird West Player’s Guide). Yes, Mad Scientists get the shaft here, except for the Metal Mages, but they get their own supplement in The Collegium: Perils of the New Science, which brings the popular Doomtown faction into being as a more fleshed-out part of the overall Weird West canon. Hexarcana also details three new Arcane Backgrounds- sort of.

You see, the three new ABs come from the boxed sets PEG has put out for the Weird West. City O’ Gloom gave us Metal Mages, which are basically characters who have taken both the Huckster and Mad Scientist Arcane Backgrounds. River O’ Blood gave us the Voodooists, followers of the Voodoo religion who are able to call upon the loa (individual spirits of great power) to work some heavy ju-ju. Finally, The Great Maze (a boxed set that didn’t sound Irish) gave us the popular Martial Artists. These aren’t just any kung fu fighters, though. These are Enlightened kung fu fighters, able to pull off moves you’d see in Chinese movies from cheap Hong Kong flicks to big-budget smashes like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If you have the boxed sets, then these character types should be familiar to you already. However, they were written pre-Revised, so they needed a bit of a fix-up job to ease the transition.

First, I’ll discuss the original Arcane Backgrounds. There were notes on the ones that needed notes for the transition to Revised Edition, but mostly the sections on them were used for new powers. The Blessed got new Miracles, Gifts, and Divine Interventions. One I liked in particular was Ashes to Ashes, which is only really useful if your holy soldier has a decent Fightin’ skill, but if you can get it to work, it’ll put undead beasties- at least, many of your normal, garden-variety type- down faster then you can say “Hail Mary”, crumbling them to the ground as completely lifeless as they’re supposed to be. All it takes is a called shot to the head, a la a televangelist giving someone the old, “Yew are HEEEEEEALED!” routine, though in this case it would be more like, “Yew are DEEEEEEAD!”

Hucksters got some very useful new hexes, including a rather interesting one called Stayin’ Put, which allows the Huckster to plant himself firmly so as to resist being moved out of the way by physical force. If your Huckster managed to pull a Royal Flush, he’d end up getting a total of +23 to his opposed Strength roll! With a lot of luck, you might even be able to stop a speeding train with this hex! Bear in mind, though, that the hex only helps you resist being moved. It doesn’t say anything, mind you, about impact damage! This section also details the Metal Mages. We’re treated to an explanation of how they came about, as well as hexes relating to Mad Science, not to mention some rather nice combat-oriented hexes such as Magazine, which effectively turns you into a character out of a John Woo movie (basically, you don’t run out of ammo), and Scrap Storm, which creates a whirling cyclone of razor-sharp debris around your Hexslinger. Talk about a card sharp! Metal Mages are an interesting concept, and can be rather interesting to play if done right. I included one as a pregen character in my test run of Ghost Busters, and the character was a rather effective. He had the new A Glass Darkly hex, which could potentially be of use in investigations- though poor Cyrus just couldn’t get it to go off (he got backlash twice!)- as well as Decrypt and Steganogram, both useful hexes for the rare hexslinging Agency spook..

Shamans also got their nod in the book, with new favors for each medicine way as well as three new guardian spirits. The Thunderbird Guardian Spirit is a rather potent one, allowing your Shaman to use the Cleanse Portal or Lightning Strike favors. However, this Guardian Spirit costs twice its value to buy! Still, for what you receive, both in power and prestige (you gain a bonus to social rolls involving other Shamans who know that Thunderbird watches over you), you can’t go wrong with Thunderbird. The Remedy favor (Earth medicine) allows a Shaman to cure diseases and poisons, even those caused by Abominations. Truth of the Crow (Trickster) allows your Shaman to assist in interrogations by creating a bitter taste in the subject’s mouth every time he tells a lie. In true Trickster fashion, this isn’t a very direct route, but it sure can be fun!

Now, on to the two entirely new (assuming you don’t have the booklets that came with the boxed sets, anyway) Arcane Backgrounds. First, I’ll discuss the Voodooists. I’ll preface this with the caveat that Voodooists are not a character type to play if you’re the sort who prefers playing flashy, whiz-bang characters. This is largely due in part to the fact that most of their spells are slower than than a bayou turtle in the middle of the Mojave. Voodooists are a slower, much more subtle character type to play if you want to try playing a character with a lot of flavor for a good role-playing challenge. That being said, Voodooists have some pretty useful stuff at their disposal. For instance, the spell Bite of Arignee is used to coat a weapon or piece of ammunition with a glaze of melted sugar, into which is carved the symbol of Arignee, a minor loa. The weapon, when used, causes one less die of damage on impact, but it continues to do one extra die of damage as long as it’s still in the wound. Ouch! For those of you concerned about the ability to heal as well as harm, Conjure Doctor is the requisite healing spell for a Voodooist. Granted, if the wound is life-threatening, you’ll probably want to have a Blessed Lay on Hands, but like I said, this ju-ju don’t work fast; it’s about flavor.

Finally, we have the Enlightened Martial Artists. These guys will bust some Taoist philosophy one minute, then the next bust a head from across the room using Ten-Foot Punch. MAs got the biggest workover of any Arcane Background in this update to Revised, being switched over from their Ch’i system to a Strain-based system like the Sykers and Doomsayers of Deadlands: Hell on Earth. This system is much simpler to use than the Ch’i system, plus it doesn’t inhibit character growth the way Ch’i did (you had to spend Fate Chips to regain Ch’i, and since Fate Chips are also your experience, you couldn’t really use your powers much and advance at the same time). Martial Artists have a slew of new Aptitudes to handle, the lion’s share of them relating specifically to Fu powers, such as Throwin’: Flying Guillotine (quote: “Only martial artists who want to identify themselves as Pure Evil on a Stick use the dreaded flying guillotine.”). Fightin’: Chinese Sword and Throwin’: Bullet. Throwin’: Bullet isused with the power Sieze the Pearl of Death, which allows the MA to pluck a projectile of any sort- most impressively a bullet- out of the air and throw it right back at his assailant, though if you’re going to throw a bullet back you can’t use a standard Throwin’ concentration; you must use Throwin’: Bullet. You’ll probably recognize the power Monkey Goes to the Mountain from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If those characters were in Deadlands, that’s the power they would have been using to fly around all over the place. Devastating Ape Strike, which adds to your hand-to-hand damage (not with a weapon, though), can be seen in The Matrix where Agent Smith misses Neo and takes out a chunk of a subway support pillar. Merciful Sparrow can be an interesting power to see players use just to see what they’ll try to grab from the environment around them in an attempt to block bullets/knives/what-have-you.

Overall, Hexarcana is a good book for people looking to supplement their more occult-themed characters. However, I do feel compelled to mention the interior art. The pieces for the chapter openings are great, but the rest of them, for the most part, tend to be rather, shall we say, not good. Still, I don’t tend to buy RPG books for the artwork. Granted, it’s nice if it’s good, but looking at bad art is still a bit of a letdown, especially from Pinnacle. In all, the book isn’t really a tremendous necessity for people who are just looking to flesh out their collections- tracking down a copy of Law Dogs (for guns and gunfighting info, as well as info on some famous lawmen and outlaws, as well as more hexes for Hexslingers, a more gun-oriented type of Huckster) or Rascals, Varmints, & Critters 2: the Book of Curses (just for more nasty things to throw at my posse, plus each of the Hanginj’ Judges fleshed out in detail and given individual personalities and powers) would be a bit higher on my list of priorities were I in those shoes- or if you already have all the boxed sets. However, if your posse is looking to expand its arcane sights, look no further than the ranges of Hexarcana- it’s got some great info and it’s sure to put some life back into those old, worn-out cards your Huckster’s been using. Come on down, y’all!