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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.

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Otherworldly Patron: The Bound Demon | Let's be honest, 'the fiend' patron is just 'the devil'

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here!

Anyone else dislike how the patron in the core rule book is called "The Fiend" when its totally 100% a devil? I did, but since we're all about sealing things this week, let's be a bit anime about this and bind demons inside of children and grant them unfathomable power. This would be different from a part demon which is more of a sorcerer situation.

This was slightly tricky considering canonically, each demon is different (even though mechanically there's only like 5 of them) and that of the few demons there actually are, they share very few properties. Originally I was going to make this subclass customisable, but considering this is customisation: the class, I chose against that. But considering that the high level demons are: demon lords, which are way too specific, and the balor, goristro, and marilith which are melee beat sticks, I needed to go for a more generic form of the sort of 'power' a demonic entity would give.

Demonic Endurance

A little something from our friend, the draconic sorcerer. A consistent throughline of demons is their resilience, considering they need to survive the abyss, so hit points!

Unnatural Presence

This is fun, I like the idea that animals are more innately aware of demons. I extended this to humanoids because while we may not understand it, we generally can feel something is off. But for extra flavour, there is some demon (literally, not in a my great great great great grandpappy was a demon way) in you therefore you should ping as a demon.

Envenomed Blood

Not an ability demons really have, but I felt like I needed to give more than just poison resistance since immunity to poison is the demons' thing, and devils too for some reason, but I'm just going to ignore them, so make the poison resistance from the fact that the blood is literal poison :)

Magic Resistance

I hesitated in giving a form of magic resistance, because not even the devil patron gives it while definitely having it, and I avoided telepathy for the same reason (and because it's the GOO's thing) but here we are. That said, most enemies still like to beat you to a pulp rather than to use spells even at high levels, so it's not that powerful

Abyssal Transformation

And this is me giving in and giving your the big smash, but trying my best not to invalidate any path but bladelock. But all high level demons are big and smashy, so I give you the big hurt.

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

It's a Trap!

Judgement Domain

The Greatwyrm Patron

Breaking and Exiting

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

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I scribed all the spells my wizard learned in our last D&D campaign!

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Pact of the Coin by SitkaPad on reddit

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Watermill [20x30] During the party's travel, the one with the sharpest nose (usually the dwarf, but better not tell them) caught the smell of freshly baked bread. Half a mile ahead, an old watermill emerges, with a hard-working family baking the bread of the flour leftovers.

Patreon

Roll20

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CORROSIVE TOUCH Transmutation Cantrip

Casting Time: 1 Action Range: Touch Components: V, S Duration: 1 round

Your hand becomes coated in acid that corrodes anything it touches. You force a creature within 5 ft. of you to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 1d4 acid damage. Additionally, until the end of your next turn, the creature has a -1 penalty to their armor class and weapon attack rolls.

The spell's damage and the penalty increases by 1d4 and -1 when you reach 5th level (2d4, -2), 11th level (3d4, -3), and 17th level (4d4, -4).

Commission for @edumacatedgiraffe. My Commission information can be found here. Thank you for commissioning me!

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Campaign Starter: Tales from the Bonecart

Whether it's due to superstition or a distaste for a toilsome and muddy trade, folk tend to pay little attention to gravediggers. This makes for an awfully convenient cover for your travelling troupe of tombrobbers as they tour around the realm's backroads filling their pockets with mementos purloined from the dead.

Planning adventures for "evil" campaigns can be tough, but sometimes you and your players just want an excuse to get your hands dirty. What better opportunity to get DEEP down in the dirt than to hand out shovels and have them start out as a group of travelling undertakers/thieves?

Setup: A handful of crews have run the bonecart scam over the past several generations, tempering their skullduggerous actions with a bit of honest gravemaking. This dichotomy is no better represented in the current heads of the operation: Dour and hardworking Heliana, who minds the cart's reigns and keeps the crew on track, and the knavish academic Benjamin Eelpot who loves delving into things that should best stay buried. These two have taken the party on for a series of jobs that will likely require a cold heart and a strong stomach, stealing from both the living and the dead and hoping not to get caught in the meantime.

Adventure Hooks:

The party's first outing on the bonecart should be a meat-and-potatoes sort of job, used to set the tone of the campaign, which happens to sound like "Someone old and rich and lonely has died, leaving their house haunted and their valuables unguarded".

While being stewards of the dead is a great cover, it sometimes attracts the wrong sort of attention, such as when a nobleman offers the party a great reward to investigate an abandoned necropolis and the source of the terrifying dreams that haunt him. Gold is gold though, and surely this couldn't have too many long reaching complications for them.

Irony of ironies, Shortly after one of their scores the party is setupon by a group of bandits disguised as dead men, who manage to make off with a good portion of their illgotten gain. There's no way to recover their goods through official channels, so they'll have to do it themselves.

Throughout their early adventures the party will need to avoid the attention of the heavy handed sheriff hired by the local nobility to quietly and brutally dispose of criminals like themselves.

You get a lot of weird jobs being a gravedigger, but "limo service" is not usually one of them. Still, money is money, and when a bloodsoaked countess offers to pay the bonecart well to defend and transport her coffin across the lands so she can attend a gathering of the great and the ghoulish who are they to say no?

Heliana will eventually approach the party once they've gotten enough shared time , experience, and nightmarish close calls under their belts. She's got some personal matters to attend to, which involve a list of names belonging to an old secret society and a series of graves across the countryside that may contain clues to the locations of some great treasure. Its a bolder job then the crew usually pulls, and will draw unwanted attention, but they can rely on eachother to pull through, right?

Art 1 Art 2 Art 3

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multiclass your...  RANGER!!

~In a future post, I’ll discuss the best multiclassing options for the Unearthed Arcana “Revised Ranger,” because I get the sense that many groups opt for the UA model or combine traits from both~

As a ranger, your skillset is…skills. You are knowledgeable, with a little bit of weapons work and a little bit of casting–but the majority of your spells are utility, with a handful of strong combat options. You have a favored enemy and a favored terrain, which come in handy under selective circumstances.

NOT SO USEFUL:

Ranger + Paladin

Ranger and Paladin have a lot in common, but the biggest reason this multiclass isn’t ideal is because unfortunately, you don’t have ability scores in common. For this multiclass, you must have at least a 13 in Dex, Wisdom, Strength, and Charisma, and since you’ll be a target much of the time, you’ll want a good Constitution too…which means your stats must be excellent to make this work. If you can get past that, it’s a decent combination that can offer more combat-oriented spells, light healing, and a bonus fighting style. 

Ranger + Sorcerer or Ranger + Wizard

I’ll admit, you can get some dope stuff as a sorcerer or a wizard. But unfortunately, these two classes are so casting-heavy that unless you choose a strong subclass at first or second level, you’re going to make it that much harder on yourself. The additional cantrips and low-level spell slots are a nice perk, but sadly that’s about the only perk you’ll get, and other classes can, quite frankly, offer you more. The nicest part is that those cantrips will scale their damage according to your total level, not your level in the casting class, so at Ranger 10/Sorcerer 1, Booming Blade (for instance) will deal 3d8 thunder damage instead of 1d8. 

STRONG CHOICES:

Ranger + Barbarian:

The barbarian might require a good strength, but if you have that, this is an excellent choice. Your AC can get a boost from Unarmored Defense, and it doesn’t cancel out the defense fighting style you may have chosen as a ranger, plus you’ll get rage and, at second level, reckless attacking. Now, these require strength-based melee attacks for their best perks, but with a good strength score, you’ll do great. In addition, second level also brings you Danger Sense, which gives you advantage on Dex saves against effects you can see. Since you’ll have your Extra Attack, this works particularly well for you.

Ranger + Cleric

Clerics don’t have much as a whole that offers benefits to you, but it’s still a very doable multiclass, depending on your divine domain (which you choose at first level). Go for Knowledge if you want to enhance your ranger’s skillset (more languages, more utility spells, and more skill proficiencies), Tempest or War for combat prowess (damage boosts and spells for damage), and Life or Grave if you favor using spells to heal.

Ranger + Druid

This multiclass works if you’re seeking more spellcasting–it relies on your Wisdom modifier, which is good for you, and wild-shape is nice because you can take two attacks–but be aware that if you’re a beastmaster ranger, this won’t work, as you have to verbally command your animal companion. Choose your druid circle wisely–I recommend circle of the Shepherd or circle of Dreams, but it’s best to choose based on your needs and those of your party.

Ranger + Warlock

This is where that scaled-cantrip thing really comes in handy. As a higher-level PC, the Eldritch Blast cantrip produces additional “beams,” each one dealing 1d10 damage (as opposed to typical cantrips, which use d8s) Furthermore, you’ll get a bonus from your patron right away and a new spell slot (just one, sadly). Pushing to second level, though, you can make your eldritch blast more impressive or select other Eldritch Invocations to make your ranger even more skilled, combat-ready, etc. (choose invocations based on what your existing skills cover and what combines well with what you have)

BEST OPTIONS:

Ranger + Bard

Your ranger won’t have many bonus action options, so it’s always nice to have a tried-and-true Bardic inspiration on hand. Furthermore, being a bard will get you cantrips, new spells, and extra spell slots! At second level, you gain post-combat healing and best of all, the Jack of All Trades feature. This lets you add half your proficiency bonus to skill checks you’re not proficient in…and since proficiency goes by total level rather than bard level, that bonus is a major perk to a skill-oriented class like Ranger.

Ranger + Fighter

As long as you aim to be a dex-based fighter, get hype for this class! You’ll get second wind, which adds HP for you, as well as a new fighting style! At second level, you would attain an Action Surge, which with your Extra Attack gives you 4 total attacks per turn (and if you’re a dual-wielder, use that bonus action for a 5th attack!). If you were inclined to pursue a subclass, I recommend Samurai, Arcane Archer, or Battlemaster, but any one of them could suit you well. 

Ranger + Monk

This is the top multiclass option for you, hands-down. Unarmored defense and unarmored movement grant you excellent bonuses, complemented by the use of ki points to dodge, disengage, dash, or make bonus action attacks. Be cautious, though, because your ranger fighting style can work for or against this multiclass (dueling or archery work the best for you). Monks won’t bring you much in the way of skills or casting, but so long as you do at least some melee work, you can make the most of those ki points.

Ranger + Rogue

If you’re not going for Monk, perhaps Rogue is more your style. The perks of a rogue at early levels are excellent, from Expertise to the thieves’ tools proficiency to Sneak Attack, and the Cunning Action feature you’ll get at second level. It’s essentially the stabbier version of Ranger, but there are enough differences in these two classes that you won’t have an excess of overlap.

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“Reality is only as indisputable as we believe it to be, and sometimes when our perception of its unquestionable and solid nature is undermined or shattered, it leaves a hole – a fracture in its wake."

Check out our whole Homebrew Archive with over 400 brews.

If you like our work, please consider supporting our Tavern on Patreon, you will also get a ton of exclusive rewards, such as Handout Cards, Compendium and Adventure PDFs, Encounter Maps, Tokens and more.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Otyugh is the best D&D monster, but what if someone turned all the dials up to 11 and made it a big stinky zombie? And what if that someone was me?

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We made a Smoke Mephit paper miniature and some VTT tokens!

→ Grab the FREE printable PDF and the VTT tokens here!

If you like our work and want to see more consider supporting us for as little as $1 and get immediate access to 500+ minis and VTT tokens!

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The Valley Temple by Hilary Purnamasari

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Free Preview! Skeleton Ancestry

We've all got those spooky one shot adventures on the calendar this month, so spice up yours by playing a spooky boi! This skeleton ancestry goes right out of my Ancestry supplement on DMs guild, Azivar's Ancestral Almanac. enjoy!

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Recently made this asset pack for making Dungeon maps! Maybe good for a future role play?

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DnDoggos - #272 “Sneakers”

With her quick wit, Zoey comes up with a plan to sneak away from the dragon.

I’m so thankful I’ve gotten to spend another year on this comics adventure. Thanks for supporting me and the doggos!

Tell me, what are you looking forward to in 2024?

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425. Katherine Lawrence - Dungeons & Dragons, Episode 25: Citadel of Shadow (October 12, 1985)

In his episode Sheila gets a new girlfriend (and maybe more than just a friend, as there are definite vibes going on here with Karena) and goes on an adventure separate from the rest of the gang who must retrieve her if they want to get a special set of rings which can send them back home.

This episode is fun but also feels a bit all over the place, as there is a bit of a discontinuity with previous episodes and the overall story of the series. As we wait to know more about the relationship between Venger and the Dungeon Master, that seems to have been completely dropped and out of nowhere comes Karena who is Venger's sister and apparently not the daughter of the DM.

I know it's a bit too much to expect coherent storytelling from a Saturday Morning Cartoon, we would have to wait for another 7 years or so to get shows like the Batman Animated Series and then X-Men which would have more complex continuities and storytelling, but it feels like a lost opportunity to plant some fascinating seeds that then seem to go nowhere. Oh well.