Level Up (A5E) Sunset Riders Fantasy Western! (Campaign Setting thoughts)

[GuyBoy]

Love the images!
We’ve talked on Discord, but I’m reading this thread now and a couple of extra things spring to mind:
A sinister “not-Pinkerton” agency, perhaps working for one of the robber baron-Dragons, with ears and agents everywhere, foiling the PCs and espousing wickedness.
Country and Western bards has to be a thing!
The “American Gods” concept could be played a little, with the first wave of integrated settlers having, via their own stories, “brought” some of their legends with them, which have, in turn, “integrated” into the West, for good and ill?

As with all your work, this setting looks awesome.

 

[Steampunkette]

Awwww! Thank you, @GuyBoy! You are, ever, sweet and supportive and I appreciate it!

Xaveor'll definitely have a Pinkertons group and stuff. And yes! BANJO BARDS!

 

[GuyBoy]

New monster(s):

Railboss Lich (unique) aka Old Spiker
In the earliest days of railroad building, no boss was as rapacious, greedy, cruel and brutal as Cassius Johannes.
He was a man as strong and violent as he was vicious, and he would often beat his workers, sometimes to death, for the tiniest infractions, using his mighty hammer.
Eventually, the terrified workers gathered their courage and attacked him one night as he lay drunk. They slew him and finished this act by driving a golden rail spike through his chest. A spike that he had been saving for the completion of his current contract.
Johannes died. But he did not!
Now he haunts the railroads by night, travelling by ancient pump trolley, with a coffee of iron rail spikes, and seeking prey. Any living being he sees from his handcart, will be stalked, attacked and slain, with a final blow driving an iron rail spike through their heart. This causes them to rise, the next night, as Rail Revenants.
It is said that Johannes can only be truly slain if the golden spike in his chest is removed and melted down.

Rail Revenants:
These grim undead originated from the evil of Old Spiker. Ghoul-like, they haunt the railroads by night, attempting to slay any people they find. If a Rail Revenants slays a victim, they remove the iron spike from their own chest ( thereby achieving final rest) and drive it into their dead victim, causing them to rise as a Revenant the next night.

 

[Steampunkette]

I'm into it.

One of the ideas hubby and I are kicking back and forth is Death as a pale rider who can sometimes be seen when you're riding dusk. And when it's time to die, he'll come to take you if you don't come willing. Legends tell of a quickdraw expert who wasn't ready to go and challenged Death to a duel at midnight... and won.

Stuff like that. So adding in more undead is cool!

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Legends tell of a quickdraw expert who wasn't ready to go and challenged Death to a duel at midnight... and won.

that's the most wild west way to become a lich that i've ever heard...

 

[GuyBoy]

Two folk-hero type NPCs to act as aids to PCs, possibly asking them to undertake perilous missions, or otherwise aiding for goodly purposes:

Tammy Sawyer; growing up on the banks of the Old Man River, with only her aunt Polina as a career, Tammy was always a wild one. Trouble either followed her, or she sneaked up behind Trouble and kicked it up the ass! Cannibal catfish, undead cats and drowned spirits were all defeated by Tammy’s combination of dashing luck, lethal knife and fast-shooting.
Eventually, she visited the class-ridden cities of the East coast, aiming to raise awareness of darker perils of the West, and began a passionate ( and scandalous to high society) relationship with.....
Serafina Huckleton-Berryfield; the heiress to one of the wealthiest and oldest families on the continent, so rich that their gilded bird cages were not actually gilded, just gold. The pampered Serafina fell madly in love and the pair eloped, for a life of dashing do-gooding and general heroism in the wilder lands.

Serafina’s vast resources, coupled with her skill in fencing and with small pistols, meld with Tammy’s luck, likeability and lethality (with both pistol and knife) make the couple a terror for those of foul intent and a source of hope for ordinary folk.

 

[Steampunkette]

Just changed the Thread Title to be a little easier to find...

Hubby is on 2 weeks of vacation. Hubby insists on helping to come up with concepts and write up stuff for Sunset Riders.

The books are just getting fatter, at this point.

Currently going over a few important sections.

1) Omens. Not something you -typically- fight with, Omens are going to exist in the setting as creatures because you just -know- someone is going to try and shoot the White Hart or a Midnight Crow.

2) Psychopomps. With death and souls being a core conceit of the setting, we need plenty of entities looking to take you to the Sunset Lands ... whether you want to go or not. From the Pale Rider to the Lone Gunman you'll have company along the way to where you belong.

3) Death. Just all on their lonesome. Death itself as an entity you can attempt to beat in games, shootouts, riddles, or combat.

4) Your Soul and Using it! Setting up the soul tracker and the different levels of soul loss. But also looking for various folkloric ways people have sold their souls, in whole or in part. Ever heard of Freischütz? You trade your soul for 7 bullets that cannot miss their targets... 6 go exactly where you want them to go. The 7th hits the devil's target.

5) Soul Restoration. How one recovers pieces of, or their entire, soul!

6) New monster grouping: Soultraders. The Gambler and the Crossroads Demon, of course. But also the more esoteric Well Crawler and the infamous Davy Jones who will trade a piece of your soul to spare you the locker and set you to shore...

It's gonna be a long 2 weeks and I'm here for it.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Just changed the Thread Title to be a little easier to find...

Hubby is on 2 weeks of vacation. Hubby insists on helping to come up with concepts and write up stuff for Sunset Riders.

The books are just getting fatter, at this point.

Currently going over a few important sections.

1) Omens. Not something you -typically- fight with, Omens are going to exist in the setting as creatures because you just -know- someone is going to try and shoot the White Hart or a Midnight Crow.

2) Psychopomps. With death and souls being a core conceit of the setting, we need plenty of entities looking to take you to the Sunset Lands ... whether you want to go or not. From the Pale Rider to the Lone Gunman you'll have company along the way to where you belong.

3) Death. Just all on their lonesome. Death itself as an entity you can attempt to beat in games, shootouts, riddles, or combat.

4) Your Soul and Using it! Setting up the soul tracker and the different levels of soul loss. But also looking for various folkloric ways people have sold their souls, in whole or in part. Ever heard of Freischütz? You trade your soul for 7 bullets that cannot miss their targets... 6 go exactly where you want them to go. The 7th hits the devil's target.

5) Soul Restoration. How one recovers pieces of, or their entire, soul!

6) New monster grouping: Soultraders. The Gambler and the Crossroads Demon, of course. But also the more esoteric Well Crawler and the infamous Davy Jones who will trade a piece of your soul to spare you the locker and set you to shore...

It's gonna be a long 2 weeks and I'm here for it.

Oh! So you are seriously doing this

It's not just some noodling around

Cool

 

[Steampunkette]

Oh! So you are seriously doing this

It's not just some noodling around

Cool

Right now it's a bullet list.

7 pages long.

Broken across 2 books.

 

[foxblade]

Sunset Riders is a rad name.