Oxventure plays Deadlands, a western-themed RPG based on the Savage Worlds system.

Oxventure: Deadlands

Hunker down and cozy up to this list of the best vibes in the RPG hobby.

The Best Cozy RPGs

Hero Squad plays through Ryuutama, a cozy, heartwarming, natural fantasy RPG about feeding stories to dragons who control the seasons.

Ryuutama: Roleplaying With Dragons

A cast of podcasters and comedians convenes to play Wanderhome, a game of traveling animal-folk searching for home.

Dreamstream: Wanderhome

Books and movies set on farms, like Charlotte's Web, Babe, and Field of Dreams are a great place to start. Video game farming simulators like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon are also a popular implementation of the rustic subgenre. Many animated movies from Hayao Miyazaki, like My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle, prominently feature rustic settings.

Rustic media also sometimes takes a bent toward horror, in movies like The Wicker Man and The Witch.

Players in rustic RPGs might own and operate a farm or other small business, travel around the countryside solving problems or going on adventures, or play out the daily lives of characters in a rural community. Depending on the stakes of your game, you might face interpersonal struggles and character drama, challenges from the land and nature itself, or external threats like big businesses or even monsters.

Primarily a rural setting. Rolling countrysides and farmland are the hallmarks of the rustic subgenre, so those big, wide, open landscapes and pastoral settings are perhaps the most important element. A attendant focus on living a simple life, solving problems, harmony with nature, and building and maintaining a small community completes the picture.

Not always! While the rustic genre usually implies a slower pace and lower stakes, there's plenty of instances of a rural setting and idyllic tone forming a contrasting backdrop for stories of horror or war. 

The Shire in the Lord of the Rings not only inspires its protagonists to go into danger, but they also fight to restore it from the ravages of war in the books. And there are too many horror stories to count set on farms and rustic landscapes. So while it's not necessarily cozy, a rustic setting usually does come with the expectation of a smaller-scale story, about a small group or community facing some kind of challenge or threat.

Rustic

Rustic is a subgenre that describes a rural setting. Idyllic countrysides, sprawling farmland, and pastoral landscapes are hallmarks of a rustic setting or tone. Rustic media emphasizes simplicity, slower-paced storytelling, and lower-stakes conflict than average, often focusing on slice-of-life stories and character drama. The land and animals, including farm animals, feature heavily, and the setting is frequently a character unto itself. Even so, the rustic subgenre might potentially apply to more action-oriented media or even horror that happens to be set in a rural area.

Rustic tabletop roleplaying games tend to follow suit, with less conflict and combat, and more interpersonal narrative revolving around simple life in rural areas. Players in these games might be farmers or small business owners in a small community, or travelers wandering the countryside stopping by in settlements only temporarily. Sessions and conflicts are often character-driven, telling small-scale stories about people's emotional lives, or otherwise fixing everyday problems. In some cases, while the setting is rustic, the action of the game might contrast, for rustic adventure fantasy or horror.

Browse Rustic TTRPGs Explore one-shots, campaigns, and homebrew adventures run by expert GMs across Roll20, Foundry VTT, Discord & more. Find your perfect game on StartPlayingGames!