D&D 5e Horizon (Zero Dawn & Forbidden West) Thoughts

I just started playing Horizon Forbidden West and I’m loving it. And I’ve been thinking how it would quite well as a D&D game. So I had a look at other Horizon Zero Dawn references for D&D and I found a few monsters and a hunter subclass but that was about it. Someone was running a Patreon back in 2020 but it doesn’t seem to have continued. So I thought I would look at doing some of my own work. And to start with I need to do some planning.

Races and Backgrounds

There are two ways of dealing with these;

Option 1 is having just the 1 race, Human and then have all the different clans and roles be backgrounds.

Option 2 is having each of the clans be a different race. And then have backgrounds as normal.

Since many backgrounds would overlap clans, option 2 is a good idea. But I’m not sure if the different clans really deserve different races. Do they really have special abilities? It seems more like they provide proficiencies like backgrounds.

Classes

I don’t think I need custom classes, but I think some new archetypes would be useful, although not neccesary.

I am quite tempted to have these sub classes match the HFW skill areas; Warrior, Hunter, Trapper, Healer, Infiltrator and Machine Master.

Some of the caster classes can stay as some magic can be represented as hacking, nano-tech, old one tech, traps and so on.

Let’s look at the classes:

• Barbarian – This can totally stay. Possibly remove the caster archetype
• Bard – Seems reasonable. some of the spells might be a bit off.
• Cleric – Priests are a thing in Horizon, but most do not have magical abilities. But if these represent Healing abilities and tech this is feasible still. Probably need some new domains
• Druid – Changing shape is basically a no-no. So these are out. A Nature cleric is better served with a domain.
• Fighter – these would be a main stay. Arcane Archer looks iffy, but is mostly specialist arrows, so can probably stay.
• Monk – again, this seems fine. Not exactly on theme, but would fit.
• Paladin – If Cleric’s are OK, I think these are.
• Ranger – another mainstay. Although they do magic, most Ranger magic are really traps or skills rather than actual magic.
• Rogue – no problems here.
• Sorcerer – RAW probably not. But with a new bloodline and a reskinned spell list this would be someone using tech.
• Warlock – same as Sorcerer.
• Wizard – Whereas the other two can be reskinned I don’t think the Wizard can.
• Artificer – Another mainstay.

Proficiencies

Mostly these are okay. Arcana and Religion might want to be removed and replaced with Machines. And I feel History is a bit big, so maybe History would only deal with Old Ones, and Culture would deal with more recent history and knowledge of the tribes and so on. It also feels like Technology should be a thing. And maybe Nature isn’t that useful and could come under Survival.

Equipment

Equipment is a big deal. Weapons need to do extra condition damage, and Armor needs to resist the same conditions. And equipment need to be crafted from loot from Machines. Traps also need to be way more common.

So there is a lot of work to do here, but this is also the work that will make D&D feel more like Horizon.

Machines

Machines are monsters. But they need rules for dropping loot for crafting and need to have components that can be targeted and condition attacks (and resistances and vulnerabilities).

This again is a section that requires a lot of work.

So those are the main chunks. Setting would also take some work. Do we set the game in Zero Dawn Sun Kingdom or Forbidden West or another region altogether? Do the players replace Aloy and play through the game, or have a different story? But the rules have to come first. As I work on these rules I’ll post them here. If you have any suggestions, leave a message!

Tags: D&D, D&D 5E, Dungeons and Dragons, Horizon, Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon Zero Dawn