D&D Western - Every D&D boxed set blended with King's Dark Tower. Serve chilled.

Paka · Jan 2, 2004

Some dudes just charge out on their horses, fire their guns and take folks' stuff. Others take their time by the fire, enjoy a good yarn-spinnin'. The west takes all kinds.

West, as in west of Sigil, is the word for where big Wizards ain't been to yet. There's uncharted frontier worlds, some call 'em homebrews on account of it could be your new home, just brewing there, waiting on you to come stake a claim.

You can take the Planerails to damned near anywhere east of Sigil nowadays. From Deepwater to the Land of Red Steel to certain parts of Heaven and Hell. Some parts of civilization ain't so civilized if ye ken my meaning. Some nations are still ruled by nobles, men and women who believe its their Birthright to sit on some throne, telling others what's what.

Planerail companies are hiring. Frontier towns always need someone trusty with the irons to wear the old tin star. Some see it all as a big dungeon crawl with treasure ripe for the taking. Some intrepid explorers are looking for a lost world under a Dark Sun where no rail will take you.

I know this is not new, pard, no idea under the sun is. Still, if you care to sit a spell and make palaver, tell me your story and what's brought you here to the west and let's pass some time together.

Take every D&D boxed set ever made and blend thoroughly, add in a splash of Stephen King's Dark Tower novels and serve chilled on a beautiful summer's day.

Cevalic · Jan 2, 2004

Actually working on a Dark Tower themed mini-campaign. Most of it was just going to be set in my home world, but a swing into Sigil might help with a few things I've been trying to work out.

Paka · Jan 3, 2004

Vecna, the Crippled Evil.

The never ending feud between the Githyanki and the McZarai clans.

Dwarvish shotguns and Elvish rifles.

Paladins with six-guns and white hats.

Missionary Clerics.

Rogue/Sorcerers with a deck of cards and a hustle.

Piratecat · Jan 3, 2004

This is really interesting. The only real problem I see is that D&D has a certain. . . flavor, and that's not always compatible with westerns. Don't you think?

Mathew_Freeman · Jan 3, 2004

I don't know. King's Dark Tower series comes perilously close to 'multi-genre' fiction, with planar crossings, robots and cyborgs mixed in with ancient story telling traditions, mysticism and the power of ka. Maybe you'd need to mix in some D20 Modern Elements with the D&D magic...

Then again, spell users aren't that familiar in the Dark Tower. Certainly no fireball chucking mages or clerics using raise dead. It's odd.

But a D&D western? Sounds like fun to me.

Sir Osis of Liver · Jan 3, 2004

I'd think it would depend on how close you want to stick to the Dark Tower theme. If you wanted to stress that setting more then blending it with D&D then i'd say d20 modern with Urban Arcana would be the easier rules set to adapt. If you want something higher magic, but with a splash of the westrn thrown in, then D&D should work. There's enough sets of rules for firearms out there. You might want to come up with a replacemnt set of equipment tables and make a few other tweeks. It probably would work fine.

Halivar · Jan 3, 2004

Tallarn said:
Then again, spell users aren't that familiar in the Dark Tower. Certainly no fireball chucking mages or clerics using raise dead. It's odd.

Umm... actually, I believe the first book does, in fact, feature raise dead ("He was touched by God.").

Incidently, my current campaign is borrowing elements from the books to explain our homebrew multiverse, with a connective nexus of power. One of my players is currently reading The Dark Tower, though, so I have to use something other than a "dark tower." Maybe something with illithid. They're always trying to take over the universe.

Paka · Jan 3, 2004

I'd think the Dark Towerness is only a splash in a cocktail that would mostly be flavored by the geek mythology of D&D Boxed Sets.

I think a D&D western would work well, taking well-worn themes and ideas of fantasy gaming and applying them to a good ole fashioned western. "Hey, your peanut butter's in my chocolate, your chocolate's in my peanut butter. Mmmm."