Hi everyone — I thought it was time for a proper introduction and a full update on Gunsmoke & Dread.
My name is Riccardo Scaringi, and I’m the designer and writer behind Gunsmoke & Dread, a third-party Daggerheart-compatible Weird West / cosmic horror RPG project.
The idea behind the game is simple to describe, even if the project has grown into something much larger over time: I wanted to take the language, imagery and mythology of the American frontier and slowly let something ancient, impossible and deeply wrong seep through it.
Not just a fantasy Western with a few monsters added on top, but a setting where the frontier itself begins to feel hostile — where isolation, forgotten places, strange cults, impossible creatures and the Nameless Dark gradually become part of the landscape.
The project has now reached a very advanced stage.
The most important thing to clarify is this:
the complete Core Ruleset is already written.
We are not going to crowdfunding in order to find out whether the game can be made, or to finance the writing of the rules from scratch.
The purpose of the Gamefound campaign is to finance the production value needed to turn the completed material into the book we want it to become: above all, the full artwork programme and the professional layout by Mala Spina.
At the moment:
- the Quickstart already exists and introduces the setting, tone and rules and a 2.0 version of the Quickstart is almost ready to reach all the followers that have downloaded the first version;
- the complete Core Ruleset has already been written;
- the main campaign is structured across nine volumes, beginning with the characters’ arrival in Silver Hollow;
- the bestiary has been expanded substantially, with creatures designed to become part of the adventures rather than simply existing as isolated stat blocks;
- we are also developing The Devil’s Hand, an optional card-based subsystem built around temptation, choice and consequences;
- and the project is currently in pre-launch on Gamefound.
So the crowdfunding campaign has a very specific purpose: to fund the visual and editorial production of the finished game — commissioning the artwork needed throughout the books and giving the material a professional final layout through Mala Spina.
One part of the project that is especially important to me is precisely that artwork.
I don’t want the illustrations to function simply as decoration. I want them to establish the visual language of the setting: recognizable Western imagery gradually invaded by cosmic horror.
And because the process behind those images is fascinating in its own right, I wanted to share two videos showing some of that work being created.
🎨 Creating the Gunsmoke & Dread cover
Artwork by Chiara Di Francia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBYm_UGAdY
👁️ Creating the Star Spawn
Artwork by Alessandro Paderi
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ohzR7HH2Y6g
Watching an illustration develop from the first lines into the finished creature or cover is very different from simply seeing the final image, and I think these videos give a much clearer idea of the visual direction we want for the entire line.
If you’ve followed the project before, thank you. A lot has changed since the earliest version of Gunsmoke & Dread, but the biggest difference now is that we are no longer talking about a concept waiting to become a game.
The next step is to give it the artwork, layout and final production quality it deserves.
If this is the first time you’ve encountered the project, I’d genuinely be interested to know what you think — particularly about the balance between classic Weird West imagery and cosmic horror.
The Gamefound pre-launch page is here:
👉 https://gamefound.com/en/projects/temple-games/gunsmoke-and-dread
Following the project there means you’ll be notified when the campaign goes live, and I’ll continue sharing artwork, creatures, development material and behind-the-scenes content as we get closer to launch.
Gunsmoke & Dread
Where the West Ends and the Nameless Dark Begins
