Death Valley – A Horror Western TTRPG

by Critical Kit Ltd

A multiplayer TTRPG where you take on the role of an undead resident of Bardo’s Bluff. Whether you desire to exist in peace or seek out revenge for your wrongful killing, there is always something or someone determined to make your life hell.

Based on a modified Year Zero Engine, Death Valley is quick to learn for new and seasoned players alike (requiring only a pool of six-sided dice), whilst also containing plenty of mechanics, options and lore to support long-running narratives.

Presented in an A5 hardcover format, the book evokes the nostalgia of the pulp western novel. The inner pages are printed on uncoated 100gsm Munken paper to give it an authentic feel and it contains over 200 pages of lore, rules, evocative artwork and a multi-session scenario to get you started (a further campaign book is planned for 2026!).

In Death Valley, not only do you experience the horror, you also bring it. As an undead resident of Bardo’s Bluff, neither alive nor fully dead, there are plenty of warmbloods and even those of your own kind who are hellbent on destroying your peaceful life-in-death. Your days are spent negotiating the trials and tribulations of a ruthless environment alongside seeking out answers to what it means to be undead.

The game is based on the Year Zero Engine with added mechanics that lean into the storytelling aspects of play. The maths are simple and quick, but the narrative opportunities are without limits. 

Below is a summary – by no means exhaustive – of the core elements of gameplay:

• Play as the Undead, taking on the roles such as revenants, skeletons, ghouls, or other deceased denizens of Bardo’s Bluff, each with unique boons, banes, and cultural quirks. Use the bonds and banes rules of character creation to form a narrative history with your fellow players. There’s no “you all meet in a tavern” here. Each undead has it’s own horrific way of restoring lifeforce. If you’re healing, someone’s gonna pay.

• Skill checks that don’t hold up the story. Keep the complex maths out of the game. Roll a number of d6 equal to the skill being tested and each 6 rolled is one success. Additional mechanics allow you to push rolls, but that always comes at a cost!
  
• Exciting and quick combat that can be run as theater-of-the-mind or on tactical zone maps with environmental features (dust storms, thorny terrain, slippery ground). hundreds of options for weapons magical abilities and good ol’ fashioned hand-to-hand scuffles.

• Resolve is a key resource for your undead character. It can be spent on pushing rolls, using magic and in combat. There are ways to regain your resolve, but it also has its limitations. Run out of it and your character becomes irreversably feral and falls out of your control.
  
• Bonds & Burdens. During character creation, you have the opportunity to develop a history with your fellow players. What brings you together and what sets you apart. There is no “you all meet in a tavern”. In Death Valley, you all have some history with each other, even if only in passing. There are rollable tables to facilitate this, but you can also work with each other and the Law Master to develop these ties.
  
• Post-mortem questions. During character creation and play, there are questions that come up about you as a character. These questions will help shape your character, drive change and generate introspection and conversation about what it means to be undead. The answers to these questions may also form a part of a deeper quest for you.
  
• Cinematic chase sequence mechanics with mounts and vehicles. Check out the stretch goal for Nightmares to add some horrific mounts into the mix!
  
• Rich lore. Throughout the valley many factions attempt to gain and wield power. Whether it be the vampyric church of the Black Veil who desire to coral the undead into obedient citizens or the Thanatos Guild who are hell-bent on destroying every last undead creature that walks the valley, there is a deep seam of lore to mine in the shape of other inhabitants of the valley along with its history and landscape.

Estimated Shipping date : July/August 2026

Backerkit Link : Death Valley – A Horror Western TTRPG