I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about the history of the period. I still managed to learn a lot. Its well written, with humor and a genuine love of the period. The "Events" section of each chapter is almost worth the price of the book alone. Someone just starting a game in the genre without knowing much about it could run an entire campaign out of this book alone. Its that detailed.
I've been reading Western novels and history as long as I've been able to read. I love the movies also. The Cowtown Creator explains some of the background, the hows and whys of the cattle business, the railroad, the stage lines, and the different types of saloon. This book gives a great feel for "how it really was". Maybe its not 100% accurate but its damn plausible.
There is also a lot on typical characters. I can see this going a long way toward believable NPCs. I was really impressed, and my strength as a GM is believable NPCs. So there. Its in here.
The first part of the book is nearly all forms. I'm not sure about if or how I'll actually use those. For one thing, I'd hate to damage my book to copy the forms. Maybe they could have been placed towards the back? I know I don't want to rip up the front of my book. I suppose I could put it in a ring binder, but...
I would have also loved to see Boot Hill stats instead of just Deadlands. I figure if you can re-use the encounter tables from Boot Hill... just sayin. Then I realize if I've got the Boot Hill rules... Yeah, I can just use the stats from there. It also includes some D20 stats and Fudge. I don't play either of those, so I can't say how well done they are. If its anything like the quality of the rest of the book, they are superb.
In all, it was 30 bucks well spent. I'll use this a lot.
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