Hi all!
I’m a new member who’s been looking to start up a MotW game for some friends for a while now. It’s finally happening, and the theme I finally settled on is the Wild West during pioneer expansion. I’m looking for fun monsters to use that fit the setting. I’m hoping to keep it really intense and high-stakes, so I’m looking for monsters that are actually dangerous and scary rather than some of the more “folksy” monsters like Bigfoot or Nessie. For example the first monster I’m using is going to be an adaptation of the Fiend monster from the Witcher series that gets summoned by a vengeful pastor. Looking forward to seeing if anyone has any suggestions!
You can mine the Witcher for lots of things. I liked Noonwraiths, for example, because you have to learn things about the deceased and gather things from their life to dispel them.
Pretty much any monster can work in a “wild west” milieu. Be sure to check the Discord channel for ideas, too (https://discord.gg/t6T2u5).
discordapp.com – Discord – Free voice and text chat for gamers
Check the movie Ravenous. It’s in that time, and puts the characters in a very MotW type of scenario.
A lot of the fun of MotW also comes about during character creation – depending on the playbooks the Hunters select, and the choices they make within each playbook, you might find that they are interested in specific kinds of enemies.
I would definitely put together inspirational ideas right now, but i wouldn’t plan too far ahead until the Hunters have started poking around. that let’s you be flexible and responsive.
A few ideas about unsettled lands:
were-creatures appropriate to the region
elemental forces (i.e. a fire elemental run amok, or a wind elemental, etc.)
A fallen angel/deity/djinn lost in the wild and injured; dangerous because it needs to prey upon the locals to regain its power.
A wagon train of unsuspecting victims led by a vampire/occultist who plans to feed off of them or sacrifice them
A crazed Valkyrie who has come to the unsettled west to continue the battle by hunting “savages” and anyone who gets in her way (a la Predator)
Sounds good I’ll check it out!!
Skinwalker! One of the better villains in the Dresden Files. Check out Turn Coat, if you haven’t already.
One of the Final Fantasy games from eons ago had a sequence where a dying companion’s soul had to be rescued from the train to the afterlife. I always thought that would be a fun idea to run in a fantasy-western setting, in case of unexpected player mortality…
There a game called deadlands a wild west horror has a load of horrors you can recycle
Maybe consider the Dullahan. It’s an Irish monster that’s essentially a type of Headless Horseman, but I’m sure you could work it into the Wild West theme.