Devotion & Desire: A Shadow of the Demon Lord Campaign

This is a new campaign I am starting up.

I've been interested in Shadow of the Demon Lord for quite a while now. The pared down streamlined nature of the game is very appealing. The boon/bane mechanic works really well with doing a sort of flat math thing better than 5e achieved. I'm always a fan of random tables and the suite of them to help guide character creation is a brilliant move.

In the ongoing struggle for playing games that really dig in and focus on the story first, a friend and I have put together a home group. The plan, I believe, is to do some short-term campaigns that will tell a full story rather than grinding on endlessly until we all become too busy to keep playing. I volunteered to be on deck first and after a bit of discussion, the group opted to go with Demon Lord.

For most of the shop games, I tended towards running modules. I prefer doing my own thing, but modules are a convenience in some ways. I always tried to shake those up, change things and organically grow from them based on the players' decisions, but in the end, it was still somebody else's story. For this campaign, I wanted to design my own thing from the ground up. So while keeping the standard setting the book has, I took an area on the map that didn't have much going on, sliced it out and zoomed in with detail.

Specifically, I looked towards the sort of open region in the eastern portion of the Northern Reach. The land that nestled between Mirror Lake and the Dark Forest while rising to just shy of the Bone Marsh. Other than these iconic landmarks, the map was devoid of detail other than marking a few major settlements. Zooming in there I crafted a sort of frontier region to play around with. Art has never been my strong point, so I utilized the excellent Hexographer program to do up a small map of the area we're concerned with.

With that squared away, what follows is the short rundown of the key locations in the region that I distributed to players.

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General Info
This area is still predominantly considered untamed wilds. The main center of civilized activity is the City-State known as Chester located in the northeastern portion of the map. What civilizations are found beyond this hub exist as rural farming communities or newly founded settlements. To date, it has known relative peace in comparison to the rest of the continent.

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The Dark Forest
Taking up the central portion of the region, these woods were once considered a part of the Mistwood which lies far off to the west. Over the ages changes in the geography of the Northern Reach left this portion disconnected. Despite the ample supply of lumber, its evil reputation has prevented any of the neighboring settlements from considering it a resource worth tapping into.

Beastmen gather in these woods and some say they have a settlement in the deepest part of the forest where they gather about a massive sinkhole offering up mortal sacrifices to the dark gods they claim to serve.

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Mirror Lake
The largest freshwater body in the Northern Reach, just bordering the western region of the map, Mirror Lake spreads out from the base of the Fall, where the Silver River spills over the top and crashes into the waters below. No one knows just how deep the lake is—no bottom has ever been found.

Several caves lead below the cliffs into a vast system that spreads out beneath much of the region, which is home to troglodytes, gnomes, and other dwellers in the deep places.

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Bone Marsh
Bordering just off the north of the region, the Bone Marsh covers a sizeable area along the Reach’s northeastern coast. A place of brackish waters, vermin, and unusually large reptiles, it takes its name from the salt-encrusted wood that covers much of the terrain like bones.

At least one tribe of lizardmen live in the swamps, and lights from their fires can be seen from miles away. The tiny settlements on its borders are filled with backward, strange people, many of whom display reptilian characteristics.

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Chester
The City-State of Chester can be considered the seat of authority for this region. A vast walled city built at the base of imposing mountains with a large castle central to everything. Ruled by the benevolent King Kerunos, their vast military has done much to settle this region. The smaller settlements contribute crops in as a tax which is then traded to fund both the city's growing opulence and to help further stabilize the lands.

Off the map, far to the east, resides one of the largest and oldest cities of all the Northern Reach, Gateway. Located along the Auroral Ocean, it acts as a major hub of commerce and trade. A majority of exports from Chester follow the lonely trade road snaking east towards Gateway.

The Cult of the New God has a very prominent presence within the city and their charity work has become something of a legend. Based in their Cathedral of the Rising Dawn, the Cult has done much to provide both assistance to the peasants of the land as well as taking up the role of teachers and offering education to all.

In recent years, the grim turn of Empire has reached even Chester. Fond of speaking to the people directly, King Kerunos has fallen ill and become bedridden sealed away from the public eye. The Queen, Amalia, remains distant and seemingly occupied leading rumors to brew about an affair. Various nobles argue over the proper manner of succession, fearing the worst since the King has no heir. There exist those within the Cult of the New God whose interests and sermons have begun dwelling on the chaos of the land and the rumors of a surge of demonic activity in the lands to the south.

Where once peace and understanding were the talks of the day, they are now replaced with judgment and the warning of impending war. At the center of it all Duke Tellryn, a former knight captain and much beloved by the peasantry works at his wits end in an attempt to maintain some semblance of order.

The City-State is slowly becoming a powder keg ready to explode.

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Zellinin
Of note primarily to historians, bordering the blighted lands on the northwestern part of the map is Zellinin. Several generations ago this was intended to act as the capital of the region as it began to be settled. However, a great catastrophe occurred bringing about the complete ruin of the city. Some say this event also began the slow spoiling of the surrounding lands.

The true nature of these events is lost to time though rumors suggest the scholars of the Cult of the New God based in Chester hold records concerning the incident.

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The Order of the Divine Blade
This holy temple, located at the base of the northern end of the mountain range just above the Dark Forest, was actually the first settlement throughout this region several generations ago.

Founded by an order of paladins within the Cult of the New God based in Gateway, these warriors and accompanying scholars desired to found a place among nature where they might find both solitude and a sort of closeness with the natural world the New God forged. The Divine Blade is their founder's philosophy for a warrior to be sharp of both mind and body, but to only brandish this skill in the protection of life; never to willfully take it. They worked closely with both the church and the settlers to found Zellinin and their Order still bears the pain of the loss experienced with its fall. Nowadays, they operate closely with the church based out of Chester readily dispatching their paladins to push back Beastmen incursions or help settle rural troubles with marauders or bandits.

The Order exists as perhaps the one absolutely true force of good within the region.

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Greenfield
Named thus for the open rolling plains that surround it. This settlement is located to the west of The Order of the Divine Blade. Predominantly a farming village, it stands on its own within the region as its people fully embrace the Old Faith. Despite some insistence from the Cult of the New God, they have been primarily left alone on the issue due to their openness to welcome Cult Priests and Order Paladins as openly as any other. They are known to host a great harvest festival every Fall season where they venerate the Queen of Summer.

In recent years, the town has been gripped with ominous rumors of foul things sighted to the north through the truth of these claims have never been verified. Many of its citizens refer to the ruins of Zellinin as a cursed place that acts as a home to any number of hideous creatures. Children are forbidden from going too far north of the settlement and stories of the old capital act as chilling tales around evening campfires.

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Rawlinswood
Formally the first settlement established in the region. Named thus due to originally being founded just on the edge of the Dark Forest. The area was quickly deforested and the city found itself troubled by hordes of Beastman launching savage raids in anger at their presumed trespassing. It was only with much support from Gateway back east and the Cult of the New God that the Beastmen were beaten back within the dark depths of the woods.

It was thus their success and the push of resources into the region that led to Chester being founded to the north just across the river. Since then the city has known relative peace. The home of many inventors, Rawlinswood has become known for being a major exporter of Clockworks and other cutting-edge discovering of the Empire.

In recent years, the city has faced some turmoil as a divide has worked its way between the people. There are many who wish to further cut back the Dark Forest and expand their settlement, yet they are opposed by those who fear once more incurring the wrath of the Beastmen who lurk within. It has been so long since such an encounter occurred, some argue the race of savage creatures have surely died off and there is no longer anything to fear.

Thus, Rawlinswood is poised as a rapidly developing city with its swift march of progress now blocked by fear and superstition.

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Lenville
Located in the southwestern portion of the map, nestled between Mirror Lake and the Dark Forest, this is the newest settlement in the region. Named for the great hero Len (originally Len's Village and later shortened), who first settled the area, its remote location keeps it from having much trade proper back towards Chester. What trade does head that way must make a long journey north and then east to avoid braving the dangers of the Dark Forest. Thus, much of their trade is sent in a straight shot south to the various cities of the neighboring Lowlands region.

Like most of the settlements in the region, Lenville operated predominantly as a farming village. Given their location, they have enjoyed an abundance of produce and many also make use of Mirror Lake for a small fishing trade. At the founder's order, citizens were forbidden from entering or attempting to log within the Dark Forest as a means to curtail any interest its Beastmen might take with the settlement.

Since the passing of Len, one of the elders in the village has acted as a mayor of sorts upholding the way of things as set by their founder. Peaceful and scenic, Lenville exists as an idyllic location hidden away from the wider chaos tearing throughout Rul.

As such, mortals of all Ancestries have found their way to this community. Whether looking for a fresh start, a place to go missing in or simply just passing through all walks of life can be found here without much disdain between them.

Lenville will be the starting area of play.

A Level 1 Weird West Bestiary & Wilderness Encounter Table

So here is the final bit of content I have made for the Weird West RPG that I thought about sharing. The adventure I am running my play-by-post game through is set around a town named Ridgewood. A significant portion of the module involves tracking a gang through the wilderness surrounding the town so I whipped up a small listing of antagonists for the area along with an accompanying wilderness encounter table to roll off of. I have always been a fan of such tables and I had a lot of fun designing one myself.

I was a bit reluctant to share this here since I know my players are aware of this blog. However, I have always felt that one of the truly lacking areas of Weird West was that there were no pre-made enemies presented for new people that were interested in playing to make use of . Since I imagine only about one or two will actually scope out this post and they tend to be the responsible type of players, I feel like it's more important to put this out there and share than keep it under wraps until the adventure concludes; play-by-post tends to run pretty slow.

So what follows is just a collection of enemy write-ups presented in alphabetical order. They are all pretty much geared around level 1 adventurers; though some are supposed to be considerable threats and are thus higher (one always needs to know when to fight and when to flee). Following that you'll find the wilderness encounter table I drafted up. The listing might be light on the "weird" element, but that is intentional. The adventure I am running is designed to mostly be straight spaghetti western barring the rare roll on the table and one forced encounter around the middle of the module. It is simply meant to slowly ween the party into the weirder elements that can appear in the setting before going full blast down the line. To give a bit more context, the adventure takes place in the Arizona Territory during the time of the civil war.

If you've stumbled across this blog or were referred here by someone and have an interest in running Weird West feel free to make use of these enemy write-ups and the encounter table. They are my own interpretations and I feel like they are pretty solid, but if they don't suit your tastes or needs then go ahead and tweak them to your liking:

Amateur Sharpshooter
Level: 1
Stamina: d8
Fighting: 2
Skill: 1
Magic: 0
Grit: 1
Attack: Rifle (d10) or Knife (d4)

Chupacabra
Level: 4
Stamina: d6
Fighting: 4
Skill: 2 (5)
Magic: 1
Grit: 4
Attack: Bite (d8) or Claw (d6)
Special: Quick Critter (Defense is +3)

Ghoul
Level: 1
Stamina: d4
Fighting: 1
Skill: 1
Magic: 1
Grit: 1
Attack: Bite or Claw (d4)
Special: Characters killed by a Ghoul will arise as a Ghoul themselves in 1d4 days.

Outlaw
Level: 1
Stamina: d6
Fighting: 1
Skill: 1
Magic: 0
Grit: 1
Attack: Handgun (d8) or Knife (d4)

Ronin
Level: 1
Stamina: d8
Fighting: 1
Skill: 1
Magic: 1
Grit: 1
Attack: Katana (d8)
Special: Iaido (Has "Fastest Gun in the West" Ability).

Wolf
Level: 1
Stamina: d4
Fighting: 1
Skill: 2
Magic: 0
Grit: 1
Attack: Bite (d6) or Claw (d4)

As mentioned, below is my wilderness encounter table designed to work alongside the above list of antagonists. In the adventure I am running, I have abstracted the wilderness movement merely requiring X number of checks on this table as the "distance" between important locations. Originally a 12 resulted in nothing happens, but it seemed to me that in a game like this something wild or interesting should always happen. The dice rolls notated after combat encounters denote what you should roll to determine the size of the enemy party. If you have particular ideas in mind you can always feel free to hand wave and pick an exact number. The Chupacabra, if encountered, is intended to be a pretty frightening experience so I would suggest maxing its Stamina rather than rolling for it.

A number of the results are difficult tasks and most are pretty straightforward from their description; with the required check notated in parenthesis. The only one that might need some context is number 6. I also happen to have a rumor table for the town (might share that down the line, but much of it is module specific and wouldn't be much use on its own) and one rumor talks about a confederate company active in the area that people say forcibly conscript anyone they come across. If used in your own games that could always be flavored as something else or swapped out entirely for a different difficult task:

Ridgewood Area Wilderness Encounters
1) Combat: Wolves (1d6)
2) Difficult Task: Desert Heat & Exposure (Grit 2)
3) Combat: Outlaws (1d6)
4) Difficult Task: One Party Member (chosen at random) is bitten by Rattlesnake (Grit 2)
5) Combat: Ronin (1d4)
6) Difficult Task: Hide from Confederate Company (Skill 1)
7) Combat: Outlaws (1d6) + Amateur Sharpshooter (1)
8) Difficult Task: Track Directions (Skill 2)
9) Combat: Ghoul (1d10)
10) Difficult Task: Clear Debris Blocking the Trail (Fight 1)
11) Combat: Chupacabra (1)
12) Wandering Merchant (Will sell mundane goods/supplies and/or gamble cards at Skill 5)

House Rules for Weird West

As mentioned, I am now going to post some more original content for the Weird West RPG. I really love this game and after some pretty heavy searching on the web, I feel like it's pretty sad that there's not a lot of fan content out there for it; so let's change that. The first one is pretty simple. We all wanted there to be a random element with regards to initiative so it was just a matter of adding back in a rolling mechanic to things and using level as a means to scale it. The second house rule we are using is the far more interesting one of the two, in my opinion.

When everyone happened to still be creating characters, the question came up about having a duel with someone. I spent some time mulling over it and came up with a house rule to cover it. It mostly plays out like standard combat, which I think fits the motif of trying to stay simple, but makes things much more fast and deadly. In my mind, that is how a duel between two gunslingers should feel. The dueling mechanic was pretty well received by my players. I might post a more detailed play report down the line, but the house rule saw use right out of the gate.

The party turned up in a small town all gathering there to seek out a man that had a bounty placed on his head. His gang had been terrorizing said town and demanding a cut of all the profits from every store in town as well as the nearby mines. The party happened to arrive on a day the gang and their leader came to collect and one of the players rather boldly challenged their current "Big Bad" to a duel. It was an interesting turn of events and the kind of thing that excites me; having the players throw you a curve ball. Unfortunately, some of the other players interrupted and forced things into a shoot out instead. 

It was likely for the best, the antagonist happened to have the "Fastest Gun in the West" ability. Though it would have been interesting to consider what would happen if he had missed and the player struck the killing blow forcing me to drastically change how the story progressed. So here are the two house rules we are currently running in our game. Feel free to use them or even take them and change/expand upon them. If we happen to add more as our game continues, I will be sure to share them:

House Rule #1: Initiative
This is what the book says on Initiative: "Higher-level characters act first, and players go first in case of a tie." I suppose I am just a fan of having an element of random luck so here is what we will be doing:

1) At the start of combat everyone rolls a d20+their level to determine initiative. You can feel free to delay your turn and act at a lower spot in the order (much like D&D). I'll treat enemies like D&D: generics of the same type will key off together.

2) "Fastest Gun in the West" works as written. If you have this Weird Ability you go first. If other combatants in the fight have it then you all are at the top of the order ranked by Fighting stat. If there is a tie with the fighting stat then a d20 will be rolled on both sides to see who goes first.

House Rule #2: Duel
A staple of the Western genre. A duel is a noble showdown between two people. A stand-off where only one walks away the victor. To initiate a Duel both characters involved (be they two PC's or a PC and an Antagonist/NPC) must agree to having a Duel and the terms involved. If this condition is not cleared then no Duel will occur. Once a Duel has been set, carry it out with the following steps:

1) The two characters taking part in the Duel roll for initiative as per House Rule #1. "Fastest Gun in the West" functions as normal and ties are resolved as listed in House Rule #1.

2) The first to go calls where they are shooting and makes an attack roll. If they hit the effect of where that shot is placed will occurs. If the shot was intended to be non-fatal aiming for an area such as the hand or leg then the natural effect of being shot there would take place and the target is dealt regular damage. If the shot was at the other person's gun, for example, they would be disarmed. If the shot was intended to be fatal then the other character is dead. In either case, a successful hit ends the Duel.

3) If the first character misses, then the second gets to make a shot. This resolves as per the previous step. If the second character misses as well, then play rotates back and forth until someone has scored a hit.

Having Fun with the Weird West RPG

I stumbled upon Stuart Robertson's Weird West RPG several months ago when browsing DrivethruRPG. For one buck, it is an excellent deal. I immediately fell in love with the vague style/setting implied by the game and being a stripped down version of D&D meant the game plays really fast; fitting for a western. I have started a slower paced play-by-post game for some of my friends at my forum and it has been going great so far. It is mostly drawing a lot from the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns as well as Jonah Hex. Thus far falling decidedly more in the supernatural/horror-side of things with the weird west genre over science-fiction. 

However, as far as my players have gone things have mostly been played straight as a western. I am hoping to bring in the "weirder" elements slowly before going full blast. I have been working up a lot of original content for use in the game. In any case, I have also designed some new weird abilities for the game based on things the players have requested or mentioned would be interesting to see in the future. I thought I would share these here:

Aeromancy – You can direct razor sharp gusts of wind against your foes.
Requires: Magic 2. 3 times/day. Ignores Armour. Weapon: d12

Cryomancy – You can direct shards of ice against your foes.
Requires: Magic 2. 3 times/day. Ignores Armour. Weapon: d12

Dead Eye – Roll 1d6. You can attack that many times this turn.
Requires: Magic 2 and Skill 2. 1 time/day. Only usable with Handgun. Must have ammo for each attack.

Legendary Gambler – Skills is +3 when gambling.
Requires: Magic 1. Difficult Task.

Pyromancy – You can blasts of fire against your foes.
Requires: Magic 2. 3 times/day. Ignores Armour. Weapon: d12

Quick Trigger – You can reload as a free action.
Requires: Magic 1 and Skill 2.

Two-Handed Gunslinger – You can fight with a weapon in each hand and attack with both in one action.
Requires: Magic 1 and Skill 2 . The off-hand attack suffers a -4 penalty.

Vampiric Attraction – Skills is +3 when dealing with humans.
Requires: Magic 1. Difficult Task.

I have also given some thought to later game progression. I toyed with the idea of creating Advanced and Master versions of power. For example, the Advanced and Master versions of something like Pyromancy might add more uses per day. Advanced and Master Two-Handed Gunslinger might progressively scale down the off-hand penalty. My own game is still merely starting so there's some time before I need to tinker or consider such things. Odds are we may never get that far; there's probably a good reason there are more adventures and content for the lower levels in most roleplaying games.

As a final little bonus, here is the sole piece of new equipment I have added to the game in honor of Fistful of Dollars:

Breastplate: +1**
**Flat +1 that's applied on general attacks or ones aimed specifically for the chest. If the attack is aimed/called anywhere besides the chest then this +1 is ignored. Can be concealed under clothing.

I have considered the fact that by adding so much it is a little against the spirit of the game as it is designed. Still, I really love how simple the core rules are and it makes for very fast play; even in a play-by-post format. We have had a lot of fun out of the new content so I feel like it is worthwhile. Among my players, we have jokingly made reference that eventually as things continue we will have "Advanced Weird West".

If you happen to be playing the Weird West RPG or intend to feel free to make use of the above content in your own games. I have some house rules and other fan-made content for Weird West which I will likely post up in the future for anyone to make use of. The adventure I have the players currently going through is written up mostly in notes/short hand at this point. It might be a bit far fetched, but I would eventually like write it up as a formal adventure for people to play with. 

The Weird West RPG is an excellent roleplaying game that is sadly somewhat overlooked among the sea of OSR content.