The Worldbuilding of David Orange

Writing Deadlands and Doomtown

Step into the world of David Orange, where desert landscapes, historical influences, and a touch of the supernatural merge together. As a writer for Deadlands and Doomtown, Orange has mastered the art of blending the real and the fantastical to build rich, immersive tales in the Weird West. Read on and check out how he brings this unique genre to life.

Where are you from and when did you first start writing?

I’m originally from Massachusetts near the historical (Revolutionary War era) towns of Lexington and Concord.  I’ve always enjoyed writing letters to my friends and family and have a B.A. in English Literature (among many other pieces of academic alphabet soup). 

What started your interest in the weird west?

My dad has an extensive fiction library, westerns (along with sci-fi, maritime, aviation, etc.) among them. 

Pops is a geophysicist, and has done field work/exploration throughout the American west.  As a youth, I got to go with him on some of his field trips, hang with the roughnecks/crews and walk the landscapes. I also earned a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, specializing in desert lizards. Thus, during the late 80s (undergrad) and 90s (grad school and beyond) I traversed about 50,000 miles of deserts and other arid/semi-arid landscapes.  I’m mainly a ‘settings guy,’ but one doesn’t cover that kind of ground without meeting a few interesting characters along the way.

The ‘weird’ came along with my playing and then involvement in writing fiction for the Deadlands: Doomtown card game.

What kind of western stories do you enjoy writing?

What I LIKE to write are slow, languid, drifting through the landscapes ‘settings pieces.’  Most of my writing is supporting the Doomtown card game and falls into the category of micro fiction or short-short stories. So I have to quickly get to the point and generate some action and conflict. That said, I enjoy ‘setting the scene’ and creating a sense of place for my stories. I also have a technical writing background, so I enjoy describing the structure and function of various steampunk gadgets and the nuts n bolts of ‘mad science’ in action. 

How did you get into writing for Doomtown ? Were you a fan of the game first? 

As I got into ‘eurogames’ I discovered Tanga, a ‘deal of the day’ game site where they offloaded overstocked and out of print games. One was a ‘dead’ CCG called ‘Firestorm.’ – I had had bad experiences of board games with expansions where I’d go ‘all in’ just as everyone else was ‘getting out.’  Back in ’94 or so, a friend of mine introduced me to a card game that was like D&D, only with cards. And the best thing is, you can buy more cards and expand the game… Expansions – hard nope.  And that folks, is how I avoided Magic: The Gathering.  But a defunct game? Where there were no more cards being printed? Sign me up! I loved the story aspect of ccgs where the play of the cards created a self-contained narrative. From there I got into other dead CCGs, mainly AEG’s Legend of the Burning Sands and yes, Deadlands: Doomtown. Yep, definitely a ‘fan first, writer second’ progression.

So I followed an online site devoted to Doomtown and ongoing attempts to revive the game (Harrowed Entertainment Group run by Tim Meyer).  Realizing that the site could use a strong editorial hand, I volunteered my services to help clean up the site’s content.  When Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) did revive the game as Doomtown: Reloaded, Tim and I were brought on as part of the story team.  For Doomtown: Reloaded, I did a mix of proofreading/editing and writing. I also assisted with conventions and demos for the game. During this time frame, yet another fan site (Gomorra Gazette and Alex Wirges) sprung up. Like HEG, the Gazette was informative and well-intentioned, but could also use editorial assistance, so I took on editorial duties for that along w/ my AEG/Doomtown roles.

What are the unique challenges of writing in a shared universe? Are there timeline settings, or a timeline that you follow? Is the world large enough that it’s uncommon to step on each other’s toes? Are there unique challenges for writing for a card game specifically?

Doomtown loosely follows the time frame set by Pinnacle Entertainment’s Deadlands RPG setting. Currently, the Doomtown card game is set in the early 1880’s and moves at a slow pace.

Each story arc takes place over roughly three expansion sets that cover about 2 years of ‘real time’ and about six months to a year of ‘in game time.’ PBE’s story editor, David Hogg, lays out a general outline. From there, he and I assign particular pieces to particular writers. Ideally, each writer is responsible for a specific narrative track and its associated characters and events.  My work fills in gaps or storylines not covered by the other writers. Most of Doomtown’s fiction has loose ties to plot points laid out in the Deadlands RPGs published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group (PEG).  PBE’s version of the game started with a general omnibus set and then moved to Tombstone, Arizona where players could control or encounter the legendary Earps or Clanton/Cowboys. The current arc is set in Deadwood, South Dakota.

The challenge for writing for a card game is that the fiction (along with the cover and card artworks) serves as a marketing tool to engage the players and have them become invested in the characters and events portrayed by the cards. As such, the fiction tends to have cliffhanger moments and open-ended narratives where players can ‘game out’ those scenarios and events.  Also as noted, these fictions tend to be mico/flash fiction length of a few hundred to a few thousand words where a lot of detail and action gets conveyed in a limited space.  One shortcut or copout is that players can see or refer to the cards and artworks, so there is a tendency while writing to skimp on physical descriptions and character development and get right into the action.

What is Pine Box Entertainment? Can you tell us a little about it?

I’m going to cheat a bit and refer readers to Pine Box Entertainment’s (PBE) introductory statement:
https://pineboxentertainment.com/about-us/

In addition to Doomtown and 7^th Sea: City of Five Sails, PBE’s upcoming games retain an emphasis on thematic and immersive gameplay.

How do you balance historical accuracy with creative license when writing in the weird western genre?

Doomtown is part of the greater Deadlands universe that postulates an alternate history of the western North American continent than the one that frames our world. Doomtown’s players will recognize many of the historical figures, places, and objects that populate the game via playable cards.

For me, the key to fictionalizing a historical figure is to retain the ethos and sensibility of a character.  As Doomtown contains steampunk/science fiction elements, I consider a five year window for bringing ‘new technology’ into play. For AEG’s version, one of the main storylines was a sort of zombie plague sweeping through town. The local scientific consortium (Morgan Research Institute) brought in the famed scientist Louis Pasteur to identify the source of the plague and develop a cure. By training, I am both a technical writer and biologist. So I used my background to round out the fictional version of the famed Dr. Pasteur. 

In the storyline, the plague had four stages or components which I chose to illustrate in a non-linear manner.  Using the five year window (e.g. tech available/invented by the late 1880’s) I had Pasteur utilize advanced (for the Weird West early 80’s) microscopes as well as then novel techniques such as gram staining to identify the source bacteria.

For PBE’s Tombstone arc, we had ‘our’ established characters interact with the historical Earp brothers and Doc Holliday as well as opposing the Clantons/Cowboys. The former were heroic defenders of law and order, while the latter sought to remove the obstacles to their nefarious schemes. I’ll admit that in this case, we didn’t delve into the nuances of the real-life tombstone feuds. Likewise, the current Deadwood arc brings famed lawman Bass Reeves into the Doomtown milieu. Our storyline focuses on the dedicated, ‘always gets his man’ fearless heroism of Bass’ character.  Historical figures such as Al Swearengen and E.B. Farnum and Jack McCall also feature in the game and its accompanying storylines.

When writing, do you find yourself pulling heavily from your own life, or do you find yourself trying to escape it and write something completely different?

As noted above, I’m a ‘settings guy’ – so I do utilize the landscapes and locations that I’ve traveled through over the years.  Personally, I’m a bit of a dweeb and nerdy to the max, so the characters I write about tend to be quite different from myself and my own personal experiences.

Are there western tropes that people are always getting wrong?

I HATE the cartoon/illustrated tropes of ‘saguaro cacti in Monument Valley’ of cartoon infamy. I think over the years, the western in film and print has gotten more nuanced and cognizant of the actual history and settings of the era.

People often view the ‘West’ through contemporary lenses. The westernmost states are California, Oregon/Washington, and to some extent Arizona and New Mexico. It helps to consider that for a long time, ‘west’ meant ‘west of the Mississippi,’ e.g. what we’d today call the Midwest. So ‘western’ towns such as Dodge City and Deadwood, South Dakota occupy the areas west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains (called the ‘Great Divide’ for a reason). Several of the ‘western writers’ I’ll honor below wrote of life on the plains and prairies of the mid-west – but are very much in the Western genre.  

Do you feel the pressure of the “weird west” aficionados?

Doomtown’s fans and readers are aware that the setting is historical fiction and accept the licenses that we take with our writing. It helps that I and the other writers are well versed in the lore for both the original Deadlands: Doomtown card game and the Deadlands RPG game and honor the ‘history’ of those (fictional) legacies.

What resources do you use for researching details of the Old West?

For settings, personal experience and travels inform much of my background. Seeing the actual landscapes and preserved buildings and structures helps me visualize and describe background details.  I have met and talked with folks who were ‘born in the territories’ of New Mexico and Arizona.  Apparently, the demarcation of the ‘old west’ and ‘new west’ turns on some combination of the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, the Interstate Highway System, and widespread utilization of air conditioning. So folks born and raised before say 1960 lived a ‘western life’ akin to that of the working cowboys and townspeople of the 1870s and 1880s. Indeed, for a very long time, horses and wagons were the preferred mode of travel.  Even in the 1980s, one of my dad’s field crews out in Wyoming relied on a muleskinner and his trusty team to get in and out of places that 4WD vehicles (and even helicopters) couldn’t access.

PBE and PEG have hosted ‘destination events’ in both Tombstone and Deadwood. I enjoyed and took advantage of the opportunities to have ‘boots on the ground’ during the various tours and interpretive talks and events at those places.

Are there any particular authors or works within the weird western genre that have inspired or influenced your writing?

I’ve read the ‘classics’ of Zane Grey and Luke Short among others, but my dad (and now myself) really loved Louis L’Amour. While L’Amour was a writer of Western (among other genres) FICTION, I took to heart his famous quote “…that spring is there and the water is good to drink” in taking the time to describe the settings of his works. And yes, I’m a huge Sackett fan.  I’d also like to give a shoutout to Les Grande Dames of western fiction, Willa Cather and Edna Ferber, along with Laura Ingalls Wilder for their abilities to create distinctive characters while telling a good, descriptive story.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers interested in exploring the weird western genre?

Remember that while the west can be ‘weird,’ it still needs to have logical consistency and a basis in ‘our reality.’  Steampunk gadgets should have recognizable analogs in both structure and function to devices and contraptions familiar to the reader. Magical spells, blessings, and cantrips should have costs or risks scaled to their benefits and overall effectiveness. Besides reading western fiction, aspiring writers of the ‘weird’ genre should have an awareness of horror fiction as well as general fantasy and science fiction to sort the possibilities of what constitutes ‘weird.’  And as often quoted, “Writers write…”  

What are you working on next?

I’ve recently completed a trio of short Doomtown fictions set in and around Deadwood.  One centers around E.B. Farnum, hewing closer to the Deadwood TV series character than full on historical version. Another features ‘two rivals meet again’ which involves a gunslinger dueling a spellcaster. The third story centers around a shopkeeper who deals in bric-a-brac acquiring a cursed item that merges him with an avian spirit, causing him to gain flight and see through bird eyes and enter the Spirit realm. Very trippy and lots of scenery to describe.  I’m also editing the other pieces to support the upcoming Doomtown and 7^th Sea: City of Five Sails expansion sets.