In The Wild Frontier of Venture, you play as a crew of drifters, roaming a rugged, weird world with purpose in mind and gun in hand. On Venture, you can't run away from your problems—but that just means they can't run from you, either.
On Venture, you lead a crew—marshals, mystics, agents, or outlaws—fighting for survival and power in a ruthless frontier. Corrupt officials, profiteering companies, and warring factions tear the land apart, while an unseen darkness creeps from the north. Bloodstone, the strange mineral that fuels industry and war alike, is both a blessing and a curse.
Lurking behind it all is the occult—the hidden, supernatural truths the people refuse to see. Not just the forces at play, but the hell that’s coming for them.
Venture is a powder keg. Will you strike the match or snuff the fuse?
This B2-sized (20×28") map, printed on high-quality microfiber, delivers exceptional detail—perfect for your table or wall. Previously a day 1 only backer reward, now every physical pledge will include the map for free as we hit our day 1 goal! Plus illustrator Per Janke will create a second, stylized isometric map for the book’s endsheets. Both maps will also be available as high-resolution downloads.
The Wild Frontier of Venture is a character-driven, cinematic weird west RPG.
Venture is a world built for weird west mayhem—troublemaking companies, a corrupt government, the aftermath of a worker’s rebellion, and the eerie power of bloodstone. All powered by a fast, cinematic narrative rules system—the Moxie Cinematic Toolkit, the same system behind our game Grimwild (which you can download here, free). It’s a mid-crunch, narrative RPG with plenty of grit and high-stakes action. With Moxie:
The rules are concerned with the dramatic over the realistic, and minimize detailed tracking.
It's low-prep for GMs, with fiction seamlessly mapping to rules on-the-fly.
Characters earn meta-currency for chasing their own goals, driving the story their way.
GMs geta clear, structured framework of principles and moves to run the game.
Player buy-in is strong with the crew creation system and creative freedom to add details.
Action is fluid and fast, ditching the mechanical slog that plagues many systems.
What we're here to make.
This campaign brings Venture to life with a collection of books and accessories designed for immersive play:
The Wild Frontier of Venture: A 200-page hardcover RPG book with a clean layout, over 100 evocative illustrations, and a focus on easy reference and cinematic storytelling.
NPC Builder Deck: A 40-card tarot-sized deck featuring illustrated NPC archetypes with prompts for instant and dynamic NPC creation.
Venture Dice: A hand-painted, engraved resin dice set with color-coded results for fast readability, housed in a wooden box for a thematic touch.
Tracking Tokens: A set of wooden tokens for tracking in-game resources, designed for up to five players and packaged in a canvas bag styled as in-world currency.
Smoke 'Em Out (Module): A 32-page sandbox adventure where Western meets noir. Investigate arson cases, navigate political intrigue, and race against time using new GM moves and rising tension mechanics.
Strange Tales of Venture (Module): A 32-page zine packed with interconnected occult mysteries, new monsters, and an emergent faction weaving secrets throughout the world. Play as standalone one-shots or link them into a larger mystery.
The Wild Frontier of Venture is built on our Moxie Cinematic Toolkit, which powers our first game Grimwild. It's built for fast, cinematic action and character growth. Here's an overview of some of the big-picture stuff we've added in Venture to make gameplay on it unique.
Moxie Gameplay Basics
Character-Driven Play – Earn spark (bonus dice) by leaning into your character’s traits, story arcs, and tough choices.
PC Bonds – Your relationships with other PCs evolve dynamically, shaping roleplay and mechanics.
Fast Dice Pool System – Roll d6 pools, keep the highest. The GM adds thorns (d8s) for difficulty—on a 7-8, they cut your result down. Crits always beat thorns.
Player-Driven Details – Players can shape the world by adding details to scenes, gear, and NPCs, reducing the need for heavy tracking.
GM Moves & Suspense – The GM uses flexible moves to guide play and earns suspense by delaying direct consequences, cashing it in later for dramatic impact.
Moxie gives players the power to shape the story, while the GM has the tools to pace and manage the game smoothly—keeping every session engaging and dynamic.
Venture Gameplay Additions
Lifepath Character Creation: Build your character’s past with a lifepath system that fleshes out their upbringing, professions, and defining traits. (Or freeform your character if you prefer!)
Shootouts: Differing from the normal initiative-less pace of play, when a real gunfight breaks out, everyone grabs tokens they spend to act, helping pace the fight, giving all players spotlight time, and making pistols, shotguns, and rifles each feel distinct.
Gunshot Die: A d12 that determines how a shot lands—grazing, wounding, bleeding out, or dead. Gunfire is unpredictable; your roll decides success, your narration sets the hit location, and the die defines the wound. This doesn't change success, though! A grazing headshot still means they high tail it out of there or throw down their weapon.
Showdowns: High-stakes moments, from duels to poker games, play out in a structured sequence. Tension (and a dice pool) builds through three vignettes before the final decisive move.
Raise the Stakes: When facing a consequence, a PC or NPC can spend spark or suspense to escalate the conflict. Words turn to violence, fists to knives—on Venture, you can always turn up the tension before giving in.
NPC Builder System – Setting NPCs start as simple roles with flexible goals. You can pair them with archetypes or create your own to make Venture feel truly yours. Pairing "The Warden" role with "The Colonel" archetype will have drastically different fiction than with "The Headmistress" achetype.
Talents – 50 unique abilities let you customize and refine your character. Each one embraces classic western and weird west tropes.
Crews: Choose a crew type and carve out your place in Venture. Play as Marshals, Outlaws, Mystics, or Agents. Answer prompts together to customize your crew and the fiction around them.
Story Kits: Fifteen low-prep, evolving scenarios filled with evocative prompts and timers. These are story toolkits, not railroads—fuel for telling your own tales.
Heist Kits: Fifteen low-prep heists (from railroads to banks, prison raids and more!) with adjustable scenarios, letting you play on both sides of the action.
Ritual magic: PCs have no supernatural powers of their own, but rituals offer a rare path to the mystique. Simple rites are common knowledge amongst old souls, but major rituals are secret and dangerous.
Locales: Major regions are laid out like characters themselves, helping GMs paint vivid scenes. They're packed with sensory details and imaginary flora and fauna that feel both western and unique.
Wildlings: Twenty mystical cryptid-like creatures, shaped by folklore and the raw power of the frontier.
Empirical Sciences: A framework for inventing wondrous contraptions without tedious mechanics, covering things from steam tech and clockwork to bloodstone crafting.
Bloodrot: The bloodstone so many seek brings with it a creeping corruption. The more exposure you have, the worse its traumatic effects become.
Even More Gameplay
In last chapter of the book, Extras, designer J.D. Maxwell explores some further thoughts and ideas that didn't quite slot into the main game, but allow you to extend gameplay with additional campaign options.
Four more crew types: Play as saloonhands and run a tavern, railjacks guarding the Northerly or Southerly trains, a carnivale traveling the land, or spelunkers heading deep into rends to find bloodstone.
A Life of Mystique: A lifepath for supernatural characters, from spellslingers to witches, as well as rules for these PCs to use magic outside of rituals.
Bloodrotten Characters: Harness the power of corruption and use it towards your own ends before it ultimately overtakes you.
Back from the Dead: When your PC dies, opt to return as a Ghost or Revenant to settle old scores. Just hope your crew is okay with such a nefarious creature around.
Frontier Vocabulary: A guide to Wild West slang to add flavor to your games.
Narrative Inspiration: A dive into Western tropes and how to weave them into your stories.
A backwater planet cut off from the rest of the Astralis Reach, Venture is a battleground of factions fighting over scarce resources, with corporations squeeze the land—and its people—for all they’re worth. Settled a century ago via the Wayline from Reverie, every move here meets resistance, and carving your own path is bound to get messy.
Pillars of Fiction on Venture
A Wild Frontier! Nature is ruthless, resisting human settlement at every turn. Folklore speaks of wildlings—mysterious creatures that stalk the land, unseen but ever-present.
Government in Disarray! The world is lawless, left to fend for itself as robber barons seize power. They set the rules, and breaking them comes at a cost.
An Isolated World! There’s no way off Venture, no outside help coming. Survival depends on grit, luck, and whatever you can scavenge.
Recovering from War! A brutal worker’s rebellion nearly shattered Venture two years ago. The bloodshed has stopped, but the scars remain—and peace is a fragile illusion.
The Silver Standard! Silver is the backbone of trade. A fistful of coins can buy you a horse, a rifle, or a ticket out of trouble—if you’re lucky. There’s no gold to be found on this world.
Bloodstone is Priceless! More valuable than gold, this rare crystal powers miraculous machinery—but at a cost. Its energy is tainted, warping those who rely on it too much.
Science is Empirical! Steam, spark, and clockwork run on trial and error. Inventors wonder not why things work—it only matters that they do!
Clanks are People! The first settlers built mechanical workers from bloodstone. Over time, these Clanks won their freedom and claimed personhood.
The Mystique is Real! The supernatural is everywhere, woven into the land itself. Even bloodstone—touted as a "scientific miracle"—draws its power from this inexplicable source.
Souls Hide the Truth! Most people have new souls, blind to the mystique—seeing the truth would shatter their minds. Only old souls, like the PCs, can perceive reality for what it truly is.
An Anti-Canon Sandbox
Venture is built for player-driven chaos—a world teeming with conflict, shifting alliances, and plot hooks waiting to be set off. The story doesn’t unfold on its own; it reacts to your choices. Maps, NPC roles, and events are friction points to push against, remix, or ignore. The core pillars hold, but you connect the dots.
Story Kits are scenarios that provide a core plot idea and a series of flexible prompts, allowing you to integrate them into various situations.
Setting NPCs are roles, not fixed characters. The Governor, the Senator, the Warden—each has an agenda you define. Pair them with NPC archetypes like The Colonel or The Headmistress to create a cast unique to your world.
Players create a crew and carve out their place in Venture. Character creation ties them to the setting, ensuring their actions leave a lasting mark.
The Wild Frontier of Venture is a 200-page B5 (~7x10") hardcover RPG book with a clean, concise layout designed for easy reference. It features clear rules with examples and minimal fluff, keeping the page count efficient while remaining highly accessible. The book is fully indexed, and the PDF version includes internal hyperlinks for seamless navigation.
Specs: The book is printed on 120gsm uncoated paper for a classic, old-fashioned feel. It features a matte cover with a cloth spine binding, accented by two-color debossed foil stamping. Inside, readers will find over 100 evocative illustrations by Per Janke, along with beautifully illustrated endsheet maps.
NPC DECK, Tarot-size Cards
This 40-card deck of NPC Archetype cards provides an easy way to create flexible yet deep characters on the fly. Each card features an evocative illustration and an archetype name on the front, while the back offers prompts to define their personality, strengths, and flaws. By combining these with the Setting NPC Roles, you can craft dynamic major characters that fit seamlessly into your version of Venture.
Specs: The deck is tarot-sized and comes in a stylish magnetic lid box for easy access and storage. Printed on high-quality cardstock, these premium cards are designed to withstand regular use at the table.
VENTURE DICE, 15-dice set
This set of engraved, hand-painted dice is designed for instant readability, with colors that map directly to roll results in the system. The color-coding makes each roll an event, pulling you further into the action with every throw. Comes with 8d6, 4d8, and 3d12. The d6s and d8s are used for base Moxie mechanics, while the d12 is called the Gunshot Die and used to see how wounded people are.
Specs: Each die is 16mm and crafted from engraved resin, then handpainted. The entire set comes in a custom wooden box.
TRACKING TOKENS, 35 token set
This set of wooden tokens adds a tactile element to gameplay, making it easy to track and use in-game resources. Designed for up to five players, the set includes 10 Spark tokens (two per player), 10 Story tokens (two per player), and 10 Brass tokens (two per player). Additionally, five GM Suspense tokens—shaped like small TNT plungers—help bring the tension to life. Holding physical tokens in your hand not only makes them more fun to use but also serves as a thematic reminder to spend them when the moment is right.
Specs: Each token is crafted from 25mm wood, designed to feel like a stack of coins straight out of a bank vault. The set comes in a canvas bag labeled with a "$" and "Silverton Savings & Trust," an in-world bank, adding an immersive touch to your games.
SMOKE 'EM OUT, 32-page Module
Tensions rise, buildings burn, and the cities prepare to fight for their independence. The pressure cooker that is Venture is threatening to burst and it's your job to part the veil and bring to light those stirring up conflict. Western meets noir in this delve into Venture's shady underbelly. Smoke 'Em Out is a sandbox adventure where a team of investigators work to uncover the truth behind mysterious cases of arson and the chaos they bring to the politics of Venture.
Inside:
Inferno Clock: A clock simulating rising tension, creating escalating threats, and keeping players on their toes as they fight against time to solve the case.
Mystery Moves: Raise the stakes by using 5 new GM moves designed specifically to up the intrigue and keep players guessing.
Major Players: Take a deeper look at the motivations, desires, and dirty secrets of some of the important players in the world of Venture.
Indeterminate Route: Use a combination of clues, rumors, consequences, and NPC drama fuel to weave together a naturally evolving mystery as players carve their own path to the truth.
Specs: 32 page saddle stitch zine. Full color illustrations.
STRANGE TALES OF VENTURE, 32-page Module
A collection of adventures which explore the weird underbelly of The Wild Frontier of Venture. These tales may be played as stand-alone games suited for one-shots or they may be woven together into an overarching campaign: Investigate who the mysterious Cult of Dusk really is, how they’re orchestrating things from behind the scenes and just why they’re leaving breadcrumbs for the drifters to find…
Inside:
Eight Story Kits: From machine cults to witchcraft murders, mischievous godlings to child oracles… These eight interconnected short stories will have everything you need to add a strange, occult flavor to your Venture.
Four New Monsters: Learn about The Great Machine, The Red Caballero, Old Bessie, or the mysterious Wild Palomino, with rules that permit them to be used even outside the pages of this book.
A New Faction: A full description of The Cult of Dusk, including NPCs which you can pepper into your stories, the resources they have at their disposal, and a list of goals they’re working on to change the face of Venture itself.
Specs: 32 page saddle stitch zine. Full color illustrations.
For digital rewards, you should be receiving them in April 2025. For physical rewards, they should arrive in October 2025. These are estimates. Take a look below to see our current timeline.
Here's an overview on the current progress:
Core Game Design: 85%. The core game mechanics are done and Venture-specific mechanics are prototyped. Now we just have a few months of playtesting before finalizing everything.
Art & Layout: 75%. A large portion of the art is already finished and we're happily adding more as we expand the book. Layout is done directly during the design process, so it adds no time.
Module Design: 40%. The bulk of the work remaining lies here, which needed the final system before it could move forward.
The timeline towards completion and delivery of rewards looks like this:
Q2 2025: Updates to the preview document sent out to get testing and feedback on the entire game before heading to print.
Q2 2025: Full game PDF of Venture, Smoke 'Em Out, and Strange Tales of Venture finalized and sent to backers. Print order placed.
Q3 2025: Printer ships books and fulfillment begins
Q3 - Q4 2025: Game arrives at your house.
The Team
We're a small group, but we all wear a bunch of fun hats.
J.D. Maxwell, Designer of The Wild Frontier of Venture. J.D. is a freelance layout designer from Portland, Oregon. He's bummed around tabletop and board game design communities for a decade and is now putting those skills to good use. He makes a mean pizza and is always covered in cat hair.
Per Janke, Artist for The Wild Frontier of Venture. Per is a Berlin based freelance Illustrator and Concept Artist who makes an above average espresso and has a passion for books, history and TTRPGs. He’s always on the hunt for weird settings and lore to visualize. (Insta)
Zach LaBounty, Designer of Smoke 'Em Out. Zach is a game designer, teacher, and avid storyteller from New York that lives in Korea. He's always using his free time to try new games and convince his friends that other TTRPGs exist.
Taylor Dodson, Artist for Smoke 'Em Out. Taylor is an illustrator currently based in Austin, Texas. They run on a deep passion for Westerns and other dark, gritty things, and aim to depict haunting worlds through their pieces. Can often be seen playing homebrews with their friends or working on their webcomic.
Mynar Lenahan, Designer of Strange Tales of Venture. Mynar is a game designer and writer based, primarily, on the internet. He’s best known for creating TTRPG systems like Goncharov Must Die, Apocalypse Roadtrip, Let Justice Be Done, and One Last Dollar. When he isn’t writing, he’s enjoying well-earned time off.
Zi Xu, Artist for Strange Tales of Venture. Zi is a freelance illustrator and cover artist based in the United States who creates a lot of stuff for movie, game, and comics studios. She spent years thinking she would never do any art for TTRPGs before joining a DnD campaign two months ago, and now she wants to do all the art for TTRPGs.
