Are there any sources for a rural modern fantasy setting? (Redneck D&D)

Question

I stumbled across an amazing quest generator called Fantasy Redneck Adventure. It implies an amazing setting with standard fantasy tropes like knights, wizards, golems, quests, etc but in a modern, stereotypical redneck setting. This instantly appealed to me and struck me as a great setting for a Role for Shoes game.

The problem is, I'm not sure where else to go for inspiration. Modern fantasy tends to be urban. Searching for "fantasy redneck" gets me the wrong kind of fantasy, and "redneck rpg" has been similarly unhelpful.

Is my only option going to be redneck zombies and other supernatural horror? That really doesn't have the same feel.

"The sheriff of Hoggboro needs you to drive out the one-eyed minotaur that's been joyriding in a souped-up caddy like some kind of goldarned teenager. Your reward is a nice slice of pie."

That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Light-hearted, actual fantasy stuff.

Obviously an RPG setting would be ideal, but I'll take any suggestions/inspiration from any source (books, video games, etc.).

Answer 1

Since the point of that generator is that it's a creatively-lampooning mashup of genres that otherwise never meet, your only real recourse, if you want to expand on the creative mashup, is to grab material and mash it up.

If you're not familiar with the earthier side of American life, you've got some research to do. Watch some films set in modern American backwoods (Cohen brothers films are a good bet, and just plain good) to get a feel for useful tropes. Think about how to fit these tropes into a stereotypical fantasy quest structure. Bonus points if you can subvert or lampshade a trope from one side by fulfilling it with material from the other.

Keep in mind though that you're sending up modern stereotypes that your own players may well identify with, either personally or through loved ones you may not even know about. Poke fun, but respectfully; lampoon, but affectionately; if something has even a faint feel of mean-spiritedness in it, leave it out no matter how darling the idea.

Answer 2

From looking at that generator it's not all that modern - it's not medieval, but it seems pretty Civil War-compatible with the exception of the occasional mention of a car or crystal meth. I would thus use:

Deadlands

Deadlands is a Wild West + magic and fantasy game set in a post-stalled-Civil War America. A gamer in our group just borrowed my sizable stack of books to run a campaign of his own. If you then posit "things don't change too much" you could add in cars and stuff easily - in fact, they had a Deadlands: Hell on Earth variant game that had Mad Max style postapocalyptic thrown in, you could use that/crib car etc. rules from it. Deadlands has had its own system, d20, and Savage Worlds versions (I like its own system!). You can still get most of it from Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

Alternately, if you really want to be more modern about it, just adding in the hillbilly, I'd be tempted to use:

XCrawl

Its setting is basically "D&D-real American Gladiators" in a modernized Romanesque setting. The Roman part is a really weird choice, so toss it out and use "hillbilly" instead! You'll have to provide your own hillbilly but it would be a good modern-D&D rules chassis for it, and a new version is in the offing (Maximum XCrawl, using the Pathfinder rules). In play it gets pretty white-trash, which is the next best thing to redneck.

Of course if you like indie games you'd just use "whatever" - Hillfolk is made for Iron Age hillbillies but it's more of a generic DramaSystem vehicle, they have a supplement out to do SF with it even.