Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Gunslinger and the Warlord

I finally get to showcase the Gunslinger, which I'm glad was present in the Dungeon World Compendium as so many fantasy RPGs are allergic to firearms. In my setting's case, they're still available but are either slow and expensive (in the case of recently-made crude guns) or extremely expensive ancient weapon. A class centered around the possession of a unique gun is a good way to get around the medieval motif of firearms being powerful but very rare. In the case of the Gunslinger, their gun is an atypical artifact with several special features that nobody else knows how to use.

The class is obviously a take on the wild west outlaw, but here it ends up feeling like a ranged version of the Fighter (the standard weapon-focused one from the rulebook) with a set of personal edicts that also gives it a strong Paladin feel. I just wish I could find artwork examples that weren't either straight-up cowboys, post-apocalyptic raiders, or just tacky steampunk cosplay.

I ended up including the Warlord mostly on a whim, partly due to how little needed to be redesigned and partly for another combat-focused player option but one focused around hirelings, which is often overlooked in most campaigns. Despite the low populations in most settlements, being able to rally them together for a common cause should make for climactic battles.

While i'm at it, I should go over some of the items I revised for this setting, especially the armor options. A lot of characters included fantasy-specific racial food items, which inspired me to rename them:

Bluesmoke: Also known as magik smoke, or tek smoke (or tek-magik smoke?), it's made using self-igniting mechanical components within a metal pipe. You get a bonus to Parley with when you share some bluesmoke with someone.

Hulder Mead: The wild Hulder tribes are skilled in brewing strong drinks meant for all-night festivities. You can open a keg and share it to celebrate your recent victories for a Carousing bonus. Or you can keep it all for yourself and get extremely drunk.

Demiurge Hardtack: Easy-to-carry, difficult-to-chew travel rations, containing all the nutrition of human food without any of the flavor.

For some reason, lighting options were left out of the rulebook; I assume the Adventuring Gear isn't meant for this as you'd be expending uses just to pull a candle or torch each time you enter an underground ruin.  I may modify the starting equipment to include torches, candles, lamps and electric lanterns, or just provide some for free when the players first set out.

Since I felt the original armor options were too derivative of modern RPGs, I revised them with a flair of verisimilitude, while keeping in line with the light ruleset. The most common armors that are still produced and traded in the wastelands:

Padded, Leather: This mainly includes gambesons woven from various linens and wool (some settlements maintain hydroponic gardens which produce hemp or flax-like materials, otherwise animal or even human hair is a common material). For hunter-gatherers, rawhides are typical while  padded leather vests and coats are often made in communities living off of tended animals (or plain old cannibalism!). Hardened leather and full suits of leather are an expensive and very rare use for such material. Armor value: 1

Scale Mail: Scrap metal plates linked together into various armor components. This is a cheap option for solid full-body protection, as steel is an easy material to find and shape. It is not so easy to move around in and can be exhausting to wear over time. Armor value: 2

Chain Mail: A more expensive improvement over scale mail, chain links are crimped together into a tightly-woven mesh. Typically made into a knee-length long-sleeved vest known as a hauberk. It is less clumsy than scale armor. Armor value: 2

Plate Mail: A full suit of metal carefully shaped and fitted to the wearer's body. The best protection and most expensive option. Armor value: 3

Next time I'll try to share share some more general world information to hopefully pinpoint down what kind of setting I'm going for by making this an urban dying earth fantasy.