D&D Wild West style!

[tecnowraith]

I am about to design a world where it is a typical D&D but with a twist. I want to add the themes of the wild west like societies, culture and profession to a typical D&D fantasy world, examples would be half-orc cowboys or eleven spirit warriors (these might change). I do not want anything too cliche with mixing of themes. Think how Eberron has a pulp style where my world Wild West style to a D&D fantasy world.

So far the things am asking myself are as follows:
What would be a cool D&D creature/monster to domesticated as a riding beast besides dragons and dinosaurs? What would be good item to replace guns in this world besides wands?

Any suggestions or ideas is welcome.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd keep it simple and have the hand crossbow be the standard sidearm.

I wouldn't mess with horses beyond adding the magecraft template to them.

 

[Herobizkit]

Mounts: Steampunk horses, or lizards. Also, there was some crazy featherless bird-like creature from an older 1e supplenet that was kinda like an ostrich/lizard that shot fireballs out of gill-like sockets on either side of its head... those could be fun.

Guns: How about... guns? Either the traditions six-shooter or maybe even energy weapons could be fun. The hand crossbow's a nice idea too. You could also pull a Dark Sun-esque twist and have primitive ranged weapons like the bola, sling, boomerang, and so on.

I've always wanted to run a D&D/Steampunk/Western. Or Brave Starr. Look it up; it's like if He-Man and his world was Native American...

 

[Kwitchit]

Mounts- the Arms and Equipment Guide has some cool mount ideas. Deinonychus, worgs, Undead horses, horse-shaped golems, giant vermin, or even wyverns.

 

[smootrk]

You could take a few cues from the Deadlands D20 game:

Have Arcane casters use decks of cards as somatic materials for spells.

Have an Artificer class that operates a little more like mad scientist (like crazy contraptions like in the old TV show/movie "Wild Wild West").

And you must replace the term 'inn' with 'saloon' and always have those signature saloon doors for the entry, just inside from the hitchin posts.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Repeating hand crossbows - maybe even firing magic missiles. Magical-powered steam trains (but not the Lightning Rail). Sorceror Pony Express riders (hmm no fly spells?). Elves and/or orcs as natives. Druids are the native shaman. Rogues are gamblers. It's a cool idea. Good luck with this!

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Look at TSR's Savage Coast/Red Steel cmapaign setting. Generally it was heavily influenced by Spanish/Portugese colonial New World, however there were two nations that were direct analogs of themes found in Wild West archetypes. Revolutionary Mexico, and Texas. The material is now avaiable online for free download.

In an earlier iteration of the Savage Coast (pre-AD&D) the nation of Cimarron (M-Texas) used repeating hand crossbows. However, later on, under the AD&D iteration, the region developed a magical "smokepowder" that was used to create primitive rifles and handgun.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I've always wanted to run a D&D/Steampunk/Western. Or Brave Starr. Look it up; it's like if He-Man and his world was Native American...

One of my favourite cartoons from my youth. The tagline for this poster originally was something like: "They needed 1000 lawmen. They got one. He was enough."



As to the OP, this is a pretty cool idea. I'd say make sure to capture some of the larger setting points for the old west: small towns in a wild frontier that nearly ran themselves; sherrifs being the local law (not hard since that is a medieval position anyway); the federal marshals; wealthy and powerful cattle barons (nobles); outlaws; aboriginal peoples fighting for their land and way of life (elves); saloons, gamblers and prostitues; crazy prospectors up in the hills (dwarves..."Thar's goooold in them thar hills!"). As far as mounts go I'd say have a few options maybe; giant flightless birds, celestial horses, nightmares, or those creatures from darksun that served as mounts and beasts of burden (mekillots, kanks, etc...). For the gunslingers/ guns I'd say the most important part of maintaining the theme is just having duels: you don't necessarily need a ranged weapon. Instead of gunslingers you could have swordsmen dueling in the street at high noon; arcane duels would be cool too (sorcerors would make interesting "gunslingers"). But hand crossbows or handle-mounted wands would be cool too. Come to think of it, I think I have an old issue of Dungeon with an adventure set in a wild-west-themed fantasy setting. I'll see if I can figure out which issue....

Cool idea!

 

[Klaus]

Precisely. Cimarron County had orders of Honorbound (2e kit) that were pretty much US Marshalls (whereas the rakasta honorbound from Bellayne were samurai).

The "native Americans" of Cimarron County were the gnoll tribes from El Grande Carrascal.

Me <heart> my Red Steel and Savage Baronies boxed sets.

 

[Stormborn]

Spellslinger will have some ideas on this, although it has its own classes.

My take:

Setting: A newly opening frontier (open for whatever reason you want, the defeat of an ancient evil necromancer, improved modes of transportation, etc.) being settled after a war. The war sets up a situation similar to the wild west, in which people with the training that only war brings and the upheval in lives that only war brings move to the frontier. This gives you a reason to have adventurers with training beyond that of the ordinary person. In this frontier resources are discovered - mines would be the obvious choice but in a DnD wordl it can just as easilly be ruins of a past civilization.

Mounts: Keep horses, it will be easier on you in the long run and it will be one less setting detail for your players to keep up with. Perhaps there are wild magical horses that are highly sought prizes. Herd animals, on the other hand, might be different with a little more variety.

Natives: Gnolls, Minotaur, Lizardfolk, orcs, or goblinoids all are possibilities. Depends partly on what you want the "civilized" lands to be like. Any race you want to leave out of there you can add in here.

Guns: Magelocks. A handheld clockwork device in which a crystal is placed. These crystals are charged with magical energy. A small hammer stikes the crystal when the trigger is pulled, discharging the energy. Requires a ranged touch attack to hit. Damage is 1d6x spell level expended to charge the crystal. A full round action is required to change crystals, rapid reload drops it to a move action. A feat tree allows a caster to charge it without removing the crystal, first as a move action then as a free action around the time they can cast 5th level spells. A natural "1" cracks the crystal and it cannot be recharged. A confirmed critical failure (two "1"s in a row) causes it to discharge in the weapon, ruining it and damaging the weilder. Another feat allows spontaneous arcane casters who can aquire a familiar to bond with the magelock instead. Typically these weapons are only used by spell casters (allowing them to focus spells known on more utilitarian spells), creating sorcereous "Shooters" as the most notorious gunfighters. Most other people would use crossbows, or if you want to add that element, regular guns.

Other Ideas: Paladins as Imperial Marshalls. Bards as gentleman gamblers. Rogues as local sheriffs as well as notorious outlaws. Warmages and Sorcerers who foughts in the hardest combats in the war, now mustered out and regretting the horrors they caused in the war, Wizards few and far between out in the wilds but a few as mad inventors shunned back "east", Asian classes brought out to build the new frontier, Barbarians,Druids, and Scouts only in the "savage" races.