#western dnd

[zephyrbug]

Secret satan time!! Here’s the piece I did for @//meadow_cryptid (insta) of their character Reykur!🥀🌅♦️

Thanks as usual thanks to @leidensygdom for running the event! 

[colinarcartperson]

A portrait I had the pleasure of drawing for the always wonderful Ross, his characters are always so delightful!

[yeoldenews]

For all my fellow name nerds out there, I am very pleased to present the second annual "Gloyd Roberson Memorial List of Actual Human Children Who Wrote Letters to Santa in 1920s/30s Oklahoma".

These aren’t all necessarily “weirder than Gloyd” but fall into three rough categories which I’ve dubbed: “that’s got a nice ring to it”, “if I used this in a novel it would be considered too unrealistic” and “you’ve got 5 seconds to name a character that lives in 1920s Oklahoma, GO!”:

Selvyn Atteberry

Dyer Banfield

Bert Baxter

Hilda Bender

Imogene Berry

Heloise Blakely

Burl Boyer

Clyda Pearl Boyington

Okal Brooks

Vada Jo Bricker

Deverett Brumley

Lee Roy Buck

Vivian May Burdue

Donnie Buster

Elmarie Button

Junior Buzzard

Melchor Caldex

Tycene Calhoun

Tiny Bell Callison

Dapalene Caywood

Edney Clopton

Buster Combs

Georgia Countryman

Vantruba Crockett

Alto Day

Buddie DeWayne

Violet Divine

Elwanda Downing

Cletys Durham

Thurlo Epps

Apple Fields

Floyd Fleetwood

Metherine Franklin

Ula Fay French

Wanda Jo Fronterhouse

Irline Fuller

Jack Gritzmaker

J. D. Grizzle

Billie Jean Gulley

Joline Hardcastle

Kaloolah Herrill

Thelias Hatfield

Elva Heavins

Coleman Hewlett

Helen Hillhouse

Virgil Holderby

Katymae Houston

Myree Huffstutlar

Estelline Hurrypack

Blondie Huhm

Lila Lou Jackson

Denver Jones

Vernell Lambert

Sonny Boy Lockart

Dinkey Long (autocorrect really wanted this to be Donkey Kong)

Bamma Lynn

Rep Madden

Standford Mann

Jack Mattingly

Goldia McGee

Madge Messinger

Mauzell Mullins

Jeffie Wayne Muskrat

Archibald Neighbors

Hazel Nickerson

Eulah Oakley

Lyle Oyler

Milburn Partain

Jackson Payne

Montana Phillips

Bobbie Dean Phoenix

Toots Putman

Madonna Mae Rickey

Cyprine Robertson

Juanelle Schneeberger

Billie Jean Sparks

Texanna Smith

Pansy Stetson

Patsy Ruth Stubblefield

Eldon Sweezy

Hoy Trotter

Pearl Vandorien

Leland Weems

Joe Bob West

Wayness Whitely

Buster Wyatt

John Ira Youngblood

Domby Zinn

[bajingoarts]

A stranger crosses your path in the desert.

My monster man oc Tex. A gunslinger cowpoke.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you have any recommendations for games in the western genre? Or western fantasy/sci-fi? Absolutely can’t get enough of the combination of cowboys and six shooters, steampunk, and magic fantasy. I’m considering writing my own setting for DnD5E that combines these elements.

Theme: Fantastic Westerns

Friend, I think I've collected a real tight bunch of winners here, so I'm confident you'll find something that really scratches that itch you've got!

Wicked West, by Finch Edmund.

Wicked West is a PbtA game by Finch Edmund (they/them) about paranormal cowboys. It combines classic monsters with the backdrop of the old west and is meant to be played with at least two players with one player taking the role of Game Master. Wicked West is made to tell stories similar to the westerns of the 1940s-1960s about small towns and the struggles of life with a horror twist.

If you like combining monsters with your westerns, this is the game for you. It looks like you combine a couple of different options to make your character playbook, which is something I’m personally pretty jazzed about when it comes to creating characters. One interesting thing about Wicked West is the relationship your cowboy has with their horse: a vampire might feed off of their steed, while a witch can cast spells on their horse to run faster. If you don't mind a bit of a horror flavor to your Western, this might be the game for you.

Wizards of the Wild West, by ckellyrpg.

Wizards of the Wild West is an action-oriented TTRPG that combines fantasy magic with classic Wild West themes. It is powered by the LUMEN system, and takes heavy inspiration from looter-shooter games such as Destiny.

LUMEN is still a game that I’m excited to try out, so seeing it tagged onto a western game about wizards made me take a second look. This is a game for a raucous good time; you’ll be pulling off sweet character combos, with easy-to-understand breakdowns of each character class. Right now the game is still in development, but it’s still considered playable, so if you get it now it might have more content for you down the road!

We Deal in Lead, by Odin’s Beard.

You look to those closest to you, fellow gunslingers of the Order of the King. The arduous trek across the bleached desert is over and now you stand before a slip door. Though tested, the fellowship of your Order stands true.

You grasp the worn sandalwood grip of your artefact gun and twist open the door. You gasp as the sharp sea air hits your lungs. Gulls caw and the foam sprays your face like a baptism. You step through to another reality.

After all, there are other worlds than these.

We Deal In Lead comes highly recommended to me by folks who like the OSR scene. It’s based off of Cairn, a well-beloved fantasy system, and if you got the TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Florida bundle, you already have a copy!

The setting is meant to be somewhat post-apocalyptic, but the barriers between your world and others are thin, causing threats (and allies) from other dimension to have a chance to enter your world. The game focuses on combat, exploration and survival, and it’s almost completely compatible with anything released for Cairn.

If you like what you see so far with this game, you might also want to check out Omega City, a weird west city setting, still in ashcan form.

Vampire Cowboys, by Maddy Searle.

You are a gang of outlaws in the Wild West. You have a lot to contend with: enemy gangs, law enforcement, wild animals, and… did I mention? You’re also vampires. You must figure out how to survive in this harsh land, where “justice” is often swift and violent. Will you blend in with the crowd, and hide your vampiric side in an attempt to live as a gun-toting cowboy? Or will you give in to your monstrous urges and use your supernatural powers, making yourself known as a vampire? It’s entirely up to you. 

This game premise is simple and easy to describe: you are vampires who are also cowboys. You live in a world where everything wants you dead, and you’re constantly fighting the parts of you that make you monstrous. The mechanics are very familiar if you’ve every come across a Lasers & Feelings game: a couple pages to read and you’re off to the races, ready to play.

Reboot Hill, by Groovy Dad Games.

REBOOT HILL is a sci-fi Western TTRPG set in the "Future West" of the far flung Hill-Ceballos System. When a war back on Earth results in a cyber-attack that frees all of the bots in the Hill-Ceballos, things go bad for the humans right quick. In the aftermath, bots have got to rely on their shooting irons and their processors to make their way in this new, post-human frontier. 

REBOOT HILL is a card-driven tabletop role-playing game in which players portray "Aces"--bots with advanced AI that find themselves on the right or wrong side of the law. 

Finally, a space western! Here’s a card-based game with a plethora of character options, including mechanical upgrades, as well as weapons and vehicles. You’re mainly going to be bounty hunters, chasing after varmints and villains so that you can scrape together a living. If you want a game whose game mechanics make you feel liked you’re sitting at a poker table, you should check out Reboot Hill.

Clink, by Technical Grimoire.

Clink is a tabletop RPG about drifters, the creeds that bring them together, and the history that drives them apart. This game uses coins to tell a story inspired by spaghetti westerns, ronin tales, and shows like Firefly or Supernatural.

Characters begin as rough sketches of the shifty sort you’d see in an old Western or Noir film. They all start as blank slates, their histories unknown. Tell stories about their past and create your character as you play.

I’m a big fan of Technical Grimoire, especially their expertly-designed Troika setting, Bones Deep. Clink isn’t Troika - it uses coins as a storytelling mechanic - but it’s very setting-flexible, as seen in the variety of the starting scenarios provided.

The game is also non-linear: throughout play your characters will experience flashbacks, which will help flesh out who they are as you play, and tell us something about who they used to be. You’ll start the game with two coins, which you can spend to gain a flashback, but you can also flip them to try and succeed at various tasks. As you play, you’ll also gain coins using a mechanic called a Trigger - bad habits that get them into trouble.

If you want a fresh set of rules to play around with in a flexible setting that stays true to the woes of outlaws and other Western tropes, I heavily recommend Clink.

Boondock Cartomancy, by Hookline & Sinker.

The consequences of westward expansion rear their head. Desolate, inhospitable, and unpredictable - the Outbacks are a ravaged desert, a wild tundra, an ancient tomb. Host to a plethora of unknown variables and formed from the corpses of failure, it’s a hotbed for the lawless, the corrupt, and the lost. Conditions for growing a corporate empire couldn’t be more ideal.

BOONDOCK CARTOMANCY is a tabletop roleplaying game about personal growth in a cruel and inhospitable wasteland, backlit with Western cowboys wielding powerful and unpredictable magic. It’s a game about reflecting upon the world and systems of exploitation we live in, and using ancient spells to blow up a caravan of criminals in a climactic shootout. It’s a game about interfacing with the human condition, and feeling cool as shit while doing it.

This game looks so cool! You are brokers, going on dangerous jobs in a hostile frontier, giving your characters objectives to complete while also exploring the way colonialism forces so many folks to act as simply cogs in a larger, uncaring machine. The game also gives you a fantasy to explore, by granting your characters card-based magic skills, and replacing their hit points with a luck meter. The game itself also has a really clever layout, presenting itself like an old-fashioned newspaper, with pieces of advertisements sprinkled throughout to give you bits of lore about the world. All in all, definitely worth checking out.

Former Rec Posts to Check Out

Rootin’, Tootin’ and Shootin.

Space Westerns.

[midnigtartist]

Need to post Wild West SpellBomb here

VP by @primnosemc ❤️

[ghoulgeists]

your ticket to hell :)

[r0tt13]

HE WHO MAKES A BEAST OF HIMSELF GETS RID OF THE PAIN OF BEING A MAN

[c-kiddo]

at one point i didn't like caduceus' epilogue, that he just stayed home for a long time and eventually travelled again and eventually calliope joined him too. but i think actually i love it. something so gentle about him returning home to a temple that was once empty and lonely but is now healing and full of family who he loves so much. and to not have anything particularly asked of him apart from tending the garden and his small routines. especially thinking about how tired and sad he is by the end of the campaign, compared to the beginning when hes so giddy to just be interacting with people and seeing things he's never seen before and to have guidance from the wildmother. and then later, after aeor and so many more horrible things have happened, he admits to calliope that its too much and the outside world is scary and big and he's so so tired and he keeps saying how tired he is. so basically ideal ending that he gets to go home and get better and heal enough to be excited when he heads out into the world again

[romeofantome]

Yee to the haw

[2minutetabletop]

The Wild West High Street Battle Map

Our new battle map makes our Wild West town even bigger! You can now download the whole thing on our website. But what will you name it?

→ Download it here today!

[nite0304]

The deadeye has two main features: Duels, and Trickshots.

Duels allow you to mark a creature for a duel. You gain a small bonus to attack and damage rolls against it, and if you fulfill one of the conditions (reduce the creature to 0 HP or kill it, frighten it, have it run away, etc) you win a duel, allowing you to pick one of several rewards.

The subclasses each iterate on duels, either by adding more ways to win, more rewards to choose from, or just increasing the bonuses against creatures you are in a duel with.

Trickshots are this class's fighting style. You can use them a certain number of times per short or long rest, and when you do, you improve the effects of your ranged attacks of your choice.

Added effects include stuff like allowing you to attack again, pushing creatures away, ignoring cover, or having disadvantage, but if you hit, it becomes a critical hit (this is useful for one of the subclasses, the sniper)

You can get this class right now through DMsGuild or by joining on my patreon!

[brewerssupplies]

I have too many ideas for characters I want to play. Time to slap some of them together and just write a book.

[theresattrpgforthat]

hello! long time fan, second time asker! any fallout/fallout-esque ttrpg recommendations? esp. styled after 1, 2, and new vegas. could be recommendations based on setting, vibe, mechanics - whatever you like :) i did already get after the bombs fell by the illustrious aaron king on your recommendation, and am very excited to play! if you've already answered this kind of ask before, then maybe some recommendations for trigun-esque ttrpgs - i love the setting of trigun, and i think it would lend itself well to an rpg. anyways, thank you so much for all you do, and for opening my eyes to so many fun games! happy adventuring to you!

THEME: Trigun!

Alright so for Fallout games, I think I did a really good job in my Fallout Recommendation Post, and I also reblogged this post a while back that has a few more hits involved. I might also have a few more recs at the end of this post. So I guess what we’re going to try to do today is find some games that would lend themselves to running a Trigun-style game!

I haven’t seen Trigun, so I did some research about it. From what I understand, it’s about Vash, a superpowered outcast who’s being hunted by people for a big bounty, despite his vow to never take another person’s life. The series seems to be an examination about the choice to act or not, and the characters all seemed to be flawed or haunted in one way or another. What’s really interesting to me is that this feels to have a lot of overlap with the themes of Cowboy Bebop, especially since the creators of Trigun appear to be inspired by westerns as well.

With that in mind, I’ve got a lot of space - western ttrpgs here; the settings of all of these can probably be altered to reflect more closely the setting of Trigun, without doing that much harm to the way the rules work.

BXLLET, by Rathayibacter.

The world was broken, a long time ago. We've fought hard to build something better in the aftermath, but we're haunted by the ruins, weapons, and monsters of the past. Will you scratch out a corner of paradise, or will you give in to the temptations of the gun on your hip?

[BXLLET> is a game about systems of violence and power in a world rebuilding itself. As wandering gunslingers, you'll travel the world and do what you can to help the people you encounter. You'll become more powerful the more bullets you carry, but you'll also struggle with the responsibility that power carries with it. Violence will come easily to you, but can you feed crops with rivers of blood?

This game deals with issues of gun violence, exploitation, and apocalypse, and those sensitive to those issues should go into this fully aware. It's not a game for fascists, bigots, capitalists, or their lackeys, and shouldn't be approached from a perspective that boils the complexities of the world into "good guys with guns vs bad guys with guns."

If you want a game that directly tackles the uses of violence and the weight that comes with the decision to kill, I definitely recommend checking out BXLLET. One of the most poignant mechanics of this game revolves around the storage of bullets, and the way your bullet hoard gives you powers. If you spend a bullet, someone will die - you won’t have to roll for it. But if you spend your bullets, you’re also spending your XP. I think it’s very interesting that you only gain the use of special powers if you choose not to spend your killing resource - and by using your bullets to kill, you also lose special, very effective powers.

Even though BXLLET isn’t necessarily a space western, I think it definitely communicates the themes of Trigun in a very interesting way, and I definitely think it’s worth checking out.

Orbital Blues, by Soulmuppet Publishing.

This is the rock and roll future of yesteryear that never was—and nobody wanted.  It is an intergalactic age of cowboys, outlaws and bandits playing on an interstellar stage. It is a time of hyper-capitalism and a cut-throat gig economy. Unreliable trash-heaps carry scrappy underdogs to their next gig, and corporation freighters lumber across the horizon laden with an empire’s bounty. These are the music-fuelled, moon-age daydreams of a rebel space age.  These are your ORBITAL BLUES.

ORBITAL BLUES is a lo-fi space western roleplaying game from SoulMuppet Publishing, written by Sam Sleney & Zachary Cox.  A roleplaying love-letter to off-beat sci-fi, vintage music, and cooperative old-school styled roleplay, Orbital Blues allows you to play out rules-light tabletop adventures in the style of space westerns. Stepping into the shoes of Interstellar Outlaws, players band together to form Crews, and navigate a hard-going, gig-economy living on the fringes of a space-faring society.

Orbital Blues is more in the style of Firefly and Cowboy Bebop, but from what I gather about Trigun, that somewhat sad western feel rings true for that series as well. As sad space cowboys, each of the players chooses a Gambit - a special ability that is special to your character - as well as a Trouble - something that haunts your character, a problem that just won’t go away. Playing into your Trouble grants you a Blues, a measure of how much of your past sins weigh down on you. Should your Blues get too high, you’ll have to confront your Trouble, but this also allows you to spend your Blues like a resource, and at the end of the scene, you can gain new abilities, restore health, or increase a stat by 1.

If you want a game where wrestling with your past and your worries is what fuels your character’s story, you want Orbital Blues.

Clink, by Technical Grimoire Games.

Clink is a tabletop RPG about drifters, the creeds that bring them together, and the history that drives them apart. This game uses coins to tell a story inspired by spaghetti westerns, ronin tales, and shows like Firefly or Supernatural.

Your past is a mystery, but your Creed drives you forward.

Characters begin as rough sketches of the shifty sort you’d see in an old Western or Noir film. They all start as blank slates, their histories unknown. Tell stories about their past and create your character as you play.

You can play Clink in the setting of your choice, but what remains true about the characters is that they are competent, and they drift from place to place. As a group, all of you have the same Creed, a commitment that the group promises to follow - perhaps that they will seek revenge, or that they will never kill someone in their search for peace. Your characters will also have personal Triggers - certain situations or actions that prompt them to do something that puts them and the group in trouble. Your backstory isn’t written at the beginning of the game, but rather unraveled through moments called Flashbacks, which do double duty as exposition as well as the reason why your Drifter is good at roping, shooting, piloting, and more.

Finally, Clink uses coins, two of which are flipped every time you attempt something difficult or dangerous. As long as one of those coins comes up heads, you’ll do alright - but get double tails and your success comes at a cost - a Scar. Scars are dark moments from your part, moments you wish you didn’t have to relive. Gain too many Scars, and your group may splinter, bringing the story to a bitter or sorrowful end.

Dubious Pursuits, by Nested Games.

Dubious Pursuits is a short, PbtA RPG  for 4-6 players about Bounty Hunters in pursuit of their target, emulated stories like Cowboy Bebop. Your pursuit will be propelled not by violence, but by learning personal details about your bounty and what brought them to this point. What will you do when you finally catch up with them? 

Dubious Pursuits credits Cowboy Bebop as a source of inspiration, but I think it has the ability of delivering an emotional story that challenges your players to face the complexities of chasing down someone while learning things about them that might make bringing them to justice harder and harder to do. I don’t own the game so I’m not sure how much control the table has over the truths of the target, but I wonder if it might be possible to use this game to approach a super-powered bounty from the perspective of someone like Meryl Strife.

24BB: The Mud, The Blood, & The Beer by Calvin J’onzz.

You are a sinner. You are wicked. You have taken human life, first in self defense but then because it felt good. You have stolen from those in need, first to survive but then because it was easy. You have treated humans as objects and property because they were less powerful and could not stop you. But now you have stopped doing those things. You are still that person—you still want to do those things—but you are trying on a different approach to life. You have realized a new ethos, and you feel deep camaraderie with any who share it.

A Western. The world presented here aims to reflect the weirdness of Trigun and the energy of The Mandalorian without losing the tension of For a Fistful of Dollars. The gravitas of Clint Eastwood's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or the schlock of Patrick Swayze's Steel Dawn is optional. 

The rules for MBB are pretty easy to pick up - different size dice that scale up with your skill and a simple threshold of 4 to beat for any given roll - and the setting is minimalistic, allowing you to flavor or fill it as you like. Trigun is listed directly in the series of references for this game, which tells me that you’ll be able to create a character similar to Vash without any trouble.

A unique mechanic to this version of 24XX is your character’s edge. Edge is a meta-resource (that could have a physical manifestation) belonging to your character that can give you a boost when you need it, or that can help you avoid some kind of consequence. Edges are one-use items that are erased when tapped, although they can be gained again during play. You can take an edge when you play into your one redeeming virtue, such as never harming kids, taking others’ burdens, or aiding in forgiveness. The game comes with a whole roll table to inspire your personal edges, and I think these virtues make this game an homage to Trigun more than anything else.

Magitech Space Western, by ApexCity.

Welcome to the Beyond, pard. Beyond what? Beyond hope or help, beyond safety and security. Unfortunately, not beyond the reach of the Law or the Civ, or the ever avaricious Corporations. Beyond just about everything that you’ve been told is necessary to survive, though. But that’s ok. Dust yourself off, pick yourself up, and let’s take a stroll…

Magitech Space Western is a card-based hack of Powered by the Apocalypse, using a standard set of playing cards to determine the outcomes of actions instead of dice. It also includes variants of Poker and Blackjack to abstract player conflict and vehicle action, respectively.

While this game comes from the PbtA design school, the use of cards instead of dice leans into the themes of the genre, asking the players to build their characters according to two card suits of their choice. These card suits represent different aspects of a character’s personality. The staggered successes of PbtA show up here as the values on the cards you draw and play - 7-10 for a mixed success, Jack-Ace for a full success, and a 6 or lower for a a miss. However, since you’re playing from a hand that you might have, you may occasionally get to choose what you play - and playing cards that align with the suits you’ve chosen give you something extra to spend down the road.

Since you’re playing from a deck, you can to some extent plan around what’s already been drawn as you play. I think this might also allow an ebb and flow as you tell the story - a string of bad luck should lead to something good, and a string of good luck means that there’s trouble down the road.

When it comes to setting, you’re all existing in a capitalistic world that ignores the troubles of the marginalized and the backwater folks. Expect to attract trouble from the rich, the powerful, and the desperate - and expect that things are never going to go completely your way.

Other Games I Recommend….

Check out my Post Apocalypstic Community Recommendation Post!

I also did a Nuclear Radiation Recommendation Post a while back.

I’ve got a Space and Stars Recommendation Post that might have some funky settings.

I also have another Space Western Recommendation Post that have some overlap with what you see here, but also have more options!

[ghoulgeists]

another artfight revenge, this time for @punkforkos!! YEEHAW

[the-quackeroos]

moments before a battle between Montague and his army, Tobias, and his legion of heroes offscreen. special guests include a gnoll I played in a D&D campaign and a Mongol-type orc.

making redraws of Tobias & the Half Pariah is so much fun. ^^