Haunted West Core Book

2022 Silver ENnie for Best Rules
2022 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming nominee

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
—Frederick Douglass, 1857

Haunted West is about hope through struggle. It is a role playing game that amplifies the voices of the often overlooked people of the Old West, the people who have been whitewashed by history. Venture into an alternate history that imagines a post-American Civil War world where Reconstruction flourishes for many years, instead of meeting its abrupt end, and imagine a new reality with greater opportunities for all who inhabit the United States.

Step out of your door into the Haunted West.
But, beware! It isn't for the faint of heart.

HISTORY BELONGS TO ALL OF US.
This corebook has everything you need to explore the Old West, including:

An extensive historical account from prehistoric times through the last stagecoach robbery
The Ouroboros System, a modular three-tiered system powering your adventures using d100, degrees of success, and a unique Jacks mechanic
Haunted West: Reconstruction, an imaginative alternate history
Robust Weird West content including magicks, creatures, mechanics, and more
The Night of the Aerostat, a thrilling adventure set in the Weird West
An in-depth city-building process for creating the setting you want
Lifepath character creation to build characters firmly entrenched in the world
Twelve Paragon categories enabling you to create any type of player character you choose
Haunted West World, a Powered by the Apocalypse hack
WEIRD, WEIRDER, OR WEIRDEST?
Make your West as Weird as you want the way you want (if you want). Plug in magic, the Mythos, steam tech, mad science, dinosaurs, or even aliens and flying saucers. Haunted West gives you the tools you need to make your definition of "Weird West" a reality.

Battle traitorous rebels as a Black gadgeteer with your rifle and jetpack, rustle cattle as a Chinese drover while keeping the dinosaurs at bay, combat a legion of undead monsters as an Indigenous gunslinger, or traverse the Oregon trail as a Jewish homesteader while being haunted by the specters of those who perished along the way. You have the power to tell your story; you have the power to tell the American story.


"I didn’t expect an independent company to produce an eight-hundred-page masterpiece of history, setting and game mechanics that marshal so many people’s talents." — Game Industry News