Brainstorming: A Wild-West D&D game...
- Thread starter Remathilis
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Aris Dragonborn
First Post
A good book to use as source material for a D&D/Wild West campaign might be Rifts New West, if you ignore all the mechs and advanced technology it presents. Spirit West, the companion book, highlights the Indians and their culture as well as their shamanistic traditions. New West is a pretty good book, but I don't have Spirit West so I'm afraid I can't help with that one.
Are you looking to port D&D directly into a Wild West setting, or are you going for a merging of the two (i.e. D&D with a Wild West feel or vice versa)? I would second the recommendation of the Red Steel setting, and if your looking for a way to bring trains and the like into the campaign, take a look at the Eberron setting. It has a few elements that might work in a Wild West setting, such as the Lightning Rail, Airships, Eternal Wands (an Eternal Wand of Magic Missiles might be comparable to a six-shooter, though the wand is only usable a certain number of times/day, IIRC), the Sentinel Marshals of House Deneith (think U.S. Marshals or Texas Rangers), and probably more that I can't think of right now.
Hmmm. A Wild West-feel campaign in Eberron. I need to look into that.
Are you looking to port D&D directly into a Wild West setting, or are you going for a merging of the two (i.e. D&D with a Wild West feel or vice versa)? I would second the recommendation of the Red Steel setting, and if your looking for a way to bring trains and the like into the campaign, take a look at the Eberron setting. It has a few elements that might work in a Wild West setting, such as the Lightning Rail, Airships, Eternal Wands (an Eternal Wand of Magic Missiles might be comparable to a six-shooter, though the wand is only usable a certain number of times/day, IIRC), the Sentinel Marshals of House Deneith (think U.S. Marshals or Texas Rangers), and probably more that I can't think of right now.
Hmmm. A Wild West-feel campaign in Eberron. I need to look into that.
Klaus
First Post
Red Steel has a barony called Cimarron County. Unlike other baronies (which spoke "spanish" or "portuguese"), Cimarron County spoke common (i.e. English). It was arid, with most of it taken by El Grande Carrascal, a big Mojave-type desert populated by the native-americanesque gnolls (who rode hardy horses). In my brief Red Steel campaign I had an NPC (mother of a PC) sheriff. She was a honorbound paladin (wheellock pistol + longsword) by the name of Patricia "Pat" Garrett.
Aris Dragonborn
First Post
Klaus said:
That's great! That ranks right up there with the NPC Sir John of the Wains (IIRC).
Chaldfont
First Post
Here are some crazy ideas off the top of my head (since we are brainstorming):
Replace the gold rush with a rush for a different kind of precious commodity--maybe something that powers magic spells. For instance, add xp as a spell component which can be completely offset by using the substance. Maybe this substance has been completely used up in the Old World, making wizards pretty rare (though there is a huge upsurge in wizardry in the New World).
Make the act of mining the substance very harmful to the environment. That way you rile up the elves and set up conflict between the wilderness and civilization.
Have sorcerers be able to cast their spells without the substance, but make it a requirement that sorcerers must have been born & raised in an area rich with the substance.
Make clerics be hard-core, right-wing, religious conservatives. They want to convert everyone to The Faith.
Dragons are the robber-barons of the New World.
Modify the paladin class to be a righteous gunslinger like Roland in SK's The Dark Tower.
This is a great idea for a campaign setting! Cool thread!
Replace the gold rush with a rush for a different kind of precious commodity--maybe something that powers magic spells. For instance, add xp as a spell component which can be completely offset by using the substance. Maybe this substance has been completely used up in the Old World, making wizards pretty rare (though there is a huge upsurge in wizardry in the New World).
Make the act of mining the substance very harmful to the environment. That way you rile up the elves and set up conflict between the wilderness and civilization.
Have sorcerers be able to cast their spells without the substance, but make it a requirement that sorcerers must have been born & raised in an area rich with the substance.
Make clerics be hard-core, right-wing, religious conservatives. They want to convert everyone to The Faith.
Dragons are the robber-barons of the New World.
Modify the paladin class to be a righteous gunslinger like Roland in SK's The Dark Tower.
This is a great idea for a campaign setting! Cool thread!
If you ask me pardner, your stereotypical DnD game has a lot more in common with Wild West movies than the Middle Ages.
I'm surpised some one didn't think of putting the Orcs as the Native Americans ... do you really think Orcs randomly attack human settlements just for violence's sake? Perhaps an orc "massacare" is just an orc camp defending itself.
I think I also read somewhere the author of the Red Steel Boxed set based his game on the Spanish Period of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico so the simlarites go deeper than you think.
And check out Fantasy Flight's Spellslinger. Great ideas to steal, especially around the gold rush idea.
I'm surpised some one didn't think of putting the Orcs as the Native Americans ... do you really think Orcs randomly attack human settlements just for violence's sake? Perhaps an orc "massacare" is just an orc camp defending itself.
I think I also read somewhere the author of the Red Steel Boxed set based his game on the Spanish Period of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico so the simlarites go deeper than you think.
And check out Fantasy Flight's Spellslinger. Great ideas to steal, especially around the gold rush idea.
Jondor_Battlehammer
First Post
Dungeons could be replaced with mines, filled with gold/silver/material X. Naturally there would be ancient dragons slumbering under the great mountains of the world, and digging one up could present a problem.
It would actually encourage a lot of the old standbys of D&D. A dungeon crawl, clearing out an old fort, gaurding a caravan from one town to another. The idea that humans would be expanding into areas beyond their immediate control would open up a lot of mercenary work. A boy who was a farmer one day could become a gunslinger the next just by having the guts to strike out on his own.
Steampunk would probably be the way to go. Clockwork crossbows could dish out large numbers of powerful ranged attacks, but take time to reload.
Armor proficiencies could be replaced with dodge bonuses, so fighter typs would still have a combat advantage.
Armor itself should provide some sort of DR, but anything beyond a breast plate would'nt be worthwhile.
Steamworks and alchemy could be the great powers of the new frontier, as those that use such powers are persecuted by the Wizard cast of the old world. This would keep wizards rare, and might make it easier to keep a frontier feel. Clerics would be busy keeping new settlements afloat, and druids would be trying to stop the spread of new settlements. Get arcane magic out of the way for the most part, and the world would have survive on blood, sweat, and tears.
It would actually encourage a lot of the old standbys of D&D. A dungeon crawl, clearing out an old fort, gaurding a caravan from one town to another. The idea that humans would be expanding into areas beyond their immediate control would open up a lot of mercenary work. A boy who was a farmer one day could become a gunslinger the next just by having the guts to strike out on his own.
Steampunk would probably be the way to go. Clockwork crossbows could dish out large numbers of powerful ranged attacks, but take time to reload.
Armor proficiencies could be replaced with dodge bonuses, so fighter typs would still have a combat advantage.
Armor itself should provide some sort of DR, but anything beyond a breast plate would'nt be worthwhile.
Steamworks and alchemy could be the great powers of the new frontier, as those that use such powers are persecuted by the Wizard cast of the old world. This would keep wizards rare, and might make it easier to keep a frontier feel. Clerics would be busy keeping new settlements afloat, and druids would be trying to stop the spread of new settlements. Get arcane magic out of the way for the most part, and the world would have survive on blood, sweat, and tears.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
In a genre that routinely features people killing others, or even committing mass or serial murder for mining rights, not even the mined ore itself, you have to ask where dwarves fit into this setting? 
Go watch "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," and imagine Gimli starring in it.
Go watch "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," and imagine Gimli starring in it.
Aris Dragonborn said:That's great! That ranks right up there with the NPC Sir John of the Wains (IIRC).
That's DUKE John of the Wain.
And the red steel setting can be a good place, with some slight modifying, to run a "wild west D&D" setting. You have the spanish colonies, and Cimmaron County, and the gnoll natives, etc etc.
Nisarg
Narfellus
First Post
Fantasy Flight's Horizon series recently did a wild west/fantasy take off called SPELLSLINGER. I'd buy anything from those guys, they're one of my favorite companies.
Here's the link: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/hr04.html
Here's the link: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/hr04.html
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