Colin Le Sueur has a real talent for distilling pop culture into neat bits of RPGs. We’ve seen that with how he integrated Dark Souls videogame mechanics into Wardensaga, now we’re checking out his riff of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, We Deal in Lead (2022).

As with Runecairn, the mechanical core of the game is Cairn, but it’s heavily modified in service of its theme. Mainly for guns. And a little bit for hats. OK, unlike tomorrow’s game, there’s no mechanic for hats aside of a random table for determining the one you own, but still. Characters are classless; rather they are defined by their firearm of choice, their animal companion (if they have one) and their quest, which can only be resolved through sacrifice. While several gunslingers may band together, their quests and what they are willing to sacrifice are just as likely to put them at odds as external antagonists.

The guns are interesting. Every attack not involving an heirloom firearm automatically hits and lowers health (Grit) after being reduced by the Defense attribute. Gunslingers, on the other hand, don’t always hit, but when they do, their damage bypasses Defense. A suite of rules for firearm care, modification, special attacks and misfire all contribute to the sense that these artifact guns are powerful, finicky and on the verge of having their own personalities. That’s pretty neat — you don’t see this sort of thing for magic swords in other games, after all.

Rounding things out are brief rules for drifting between worlds, a tarot-based oracle for solo play and a system for magic rituals that’s free-form, tricky and pretty dangerous. And a bunch of other stuff, all wrapped up in another lovely Le Sueur designed package. Oh, I really love how Goran Gligovic’s cover echoes King’s Dark Tower to such an extent I would believe it was a cover of one of the books if you told me. Is it? It’s so right on the money, it should be!