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Frontier Scum
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
— William Blake
FRONTIER SCUM is a rules-lite Acid Western roleplaying game. An auto-destructive, violent and LSD-infused take on Spaghetti Westerns, about wanted outlaws making their mark on an unreal Lost Frontier. Probably getting shot before having the chance to shoot. A rough-and-tumble world of insatiable greed where scum live one slug from the grave. Inspired by such things as El Topo, Dead Man, and Bone Tomahawk.
Inside you will find all the rules you need to play, guidelines for creating characters along with their guns and stolen horses, an introduction to the Lost Frontier, a complete adventure 'Escape the Organ Rail', and tons of inspiration tables & tools for NPCs, hunting, carousing, bounties, odd jobs, loot and strange relics.
Written & designed by Karl Druid.
Setting text by Brian Yaksha.
Additional art by Chalkdown and Skullfungus.
Edited by Walton Wood.
A5 raw hardback mounted on an exposed binding, 64 pages, high-quality print and paper.
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
— William Blake
FRONTIER SCUM is a rules-lite Acid Western roleplaying game. An auto-destructive, violent and LSD-infused take on Spaghetti Westerns, about wanted outlaws making their mark on an unreal Lost Frontier. Probably getting shot before having the chance to shoot. A rough-and-tumble world of insatiable greed where scum live one slug from the grave. Inspired by such things as El Topo, Dead Man, and Bone Tomahawk.
Inside you will find all the rules you need to play, guidelines for creating characters along with their guns and stolen horses, an introduction to the Lost Frontier, a complete adventure 'Escape the Organ Rail', and tons of inspiration tables & tools for NPCs, hunting, carousing, bounties, odd jobs, loot and strange relics.
Written & designed by Karl Druid.
Setting text by Brian Yaksha.
Additional art by Chalkdown and Skullfungus.
Edited by Walton Wood.
A5 raw hardback mounted on an exposed binding, 64 pages, high-quality print and paper.
64 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 28, 2024
Frontier Scum is a rules light, flavor heavy acid western TTRPG that fits closely in the niche carved into the world by games like Mork Borg. It's fast, darkly humorous, bleak, and a hell of a lot of fun.
The rules are similar to Mork Borg, Death in Space, Pirate Borg, etc. in the D20 resolution mechanic for most checks, but goes more the Into the Odd and Cairn route for combat, with unique tweaks added. The skill system is also very freeform, which opens up tons of absurd and fun possibilities.
There are multiple sprinklings of quirky, unique little rules that enhance the experience, such as the rules on being drunk, going on benders, hat rules, exploding damage dice (a la Shadowrun , West End Games D6, or Savage Worlds), a system for rerolling dice called an Ace (similar to Bennies or Fate Points, but with its own feel), clever progression system (based on either surviving wounds and death, or getting natural 20s in rolls), etc.
The acid western setting is described with a fantastic layout that looks like newspapers of the classic western era drenched in amusing and dark weirdness, and it's both super flavorful and sparse in places, designed to give you the idea to run with it however you want. It also has a lot of tools and tables to help you create stuff on the fly.
Character creation is hilarious and quick, and the rules make the game fast moving at the table.
The layout is phenomenal, the rules simple but with depth, and the bottom line is that it is fun as hell to play.
Also, externally, the book has an awesomely raw, almost unfinished look. Absolutely love it.
So, if you like games with rules that you can get into quickly, that you can just rip into in a few minutes yet have a bit of depth to make sessions stand out, Frontier Scum is a good choice to pick up.
I've read this book multiple times in pieces, but this week I sat down and read it cover to cover. Enjoyed it even more on a consistent reread this time around. Damn love it.
The rules are similar to Mork Borg, Death in Space, Pirate Borg, etc. in the D20 resolution mechanic for most checks, but goes more the Into the Odd and Cairn route for combat, with unique tweaks added. The skill system is also very freeform, which opens up tons of absurd and fun possibilities.
There are multiple sprinklings of quirky, unique little rules that enhance the experience, such as the rules on being drunk, going on benders, hat rules, exploding damage dice (a la Shadowrun , West End Games D6, or Savage Worlds), a system for rerolling dice called an Ace (similar to Bennies or Fate Points, but with its own feel), clever progression system (based on either surviving wounds and death, or getting natural 20s in rolls), etc.
The acid western setting is described with a fantastic layout that looks like newspapers of the classic western era drenched in amusing and dark weirdness, and it's both super flavorful and sparse in places, designed to give you the idea to run with it however you want. It also has a lot of tools and tables to help you create stuff on the fly.
Character creation is hilarious and quick, and the rules make the game fast moving at the table.
The layout is phenomenal, the rules simple but with depth, and the bottom line is that it is fun as hell to play.
Also, externally, the book has an awesomely raw, almost unfinished look. Absolutely love it.
So, if you like games with rules that you can get into quickly, that you can just rip into in a few minutes yet have a bit of depth to make sessions stand out, Frontier Scum is a good choice to pick up.
I've read this book multiple times in pieces, but this week I sat down and read it cover to cover. Enjoyed it even more on a consistent reread this time around. Damn love it.
October 17, 2024
What an excellent Western themed version of Mörk Borg! This I will definitely run!
I would have preferred the setting to be at least quasi historical. And more proper art would have been nice. But those were the only two things I didn’t like.
I would have preferred the setting to be at least quasi historical. And more proper art would have been nice. But those were the only two things I didn’t like.
March 15, 2025
Based on the Mork Borg system, this is a really cool Jodorowsky/Jonah Hex acid western.
It ditches the Deadlands 'alternate history' route in favour of a genre-specific storytelling, allowing the GM and players to explore really trippy ideas without the obvious baggage.
It ditches the Deadlands 'alternate history' route in favour of a genre-specific storytelling, allowing the GM and players to explore really trippy ideas without the obvious baggage.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews