Guncraft: Using Spycraft 2.0 to model Wild West adventure!

All right, here's some conversion thoughts I've been having.

For an upcoming gameday, I've been thinking about GMing something in a Wild West vein. My options were:

• Run Wild West in Grim Tales (more doable because of the generic nature of classes, and segmentation of abilities into Archaic and Modern)
• Run Sidewinder: Recoiled (but I don't own it, won't be able to buy it for several weeks, and I'm hoping it's a christmas gift anyway)
• Run Wild West with Spycraft. Advantage - it's got a lot of buzz on ENWorld right now, but Disadvantage - there's a lot of modification that needs doing.
• Run a stock Spycraft adventure, and forget the Wild West.

So naturally, I'm thinking about doing the hardest yet most rewarding one on the list.

Maybe following Pbartender's "Wild, Wild West" prototype, or maybe even earlier than the 1870's (a good decade for repeating arms, to be sure), I'd want it to be adaptable to more than one period. However, there's a LOT of Spycraft that would have to be retooled kind of carefully for this to happen; Spycraft by default assumes a 20th to 21st century baseline, and earlier to that, lack of many modern concepts and conveniences need to be addressed.

In particular, the Hacker needs to go. There's no room for him in pre-1960.

The Wheelman has a LOT of room to be used as both locomotive-engineer, and cowboy; HOWEVER, as cowboy rider, he has a lot of electronics and mechanics special abilities that go totally useless. Does anyone have suggestions on what to replace these with?

There's also an issue of the reload times of muzzle-loaders, breech-loaders, and cap-and-ball arms. Thankfully, because of the Single Action Army, single-action weapons are discussed, and cartridge revolvers are discussed, so we have these. However, I'm not sure how long of a reloading time to go with in Spycraft that strikes a good balance between (A) the real-life loading times and (B) the cinematic quality that is the default of Spycraft.

As for Campaign Settings (Qualities?) I like the ones listed, but they're more "Sergio Leone" and less "Wild Wild West", or even less "John Wayne". The default rules fit the Wild Wild West TV series to a T, though.

Gear Picks would be a nightmare if it weren't a one-shot game - I'd have to re-write the entire gear tables myself.

Any other problems you can forsee and might have a solution for?

NOTE: My goal is to visualize and DO it, and come up with ways it can be done, rather than telling how it CAN'T be done. So whatever we have to "triage" from Spycraft is fine, and suggestions for what to amend or bolt on are also fine. Describing pitfalls are fine, and if you have an answer to a pitfall, it's appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

When I get a chance to take another look through my notes on my computer at home, I'll post what I did for the adventure.

A few truely random thoughts

I recomend watching some John Wayne to get a feel for cinematic wild west shootouts, and to just get in the groove . My feeling is you'll find more running and ducking, and less shooting unless there are a large number of folks on each side. Fire rates are lower. You may want to throw some of the lethality qualities in to make those individual shots scarier.

Depending on when you put it, lever-action rifles could be around.

MAKE the game a more ducking and weaving experience: make the combat rounds 12 seconds long instead of 6 - which deals with lower rates of fire and allows reloading to make sense as-is. Sure, characters are slower, relatively speakign, but tell them its because they are scampering, not striding. Scampering around the barn to get a clear shot at the guy crouched behind the hay bales is a classic.

Nothing says quickdraw match like the Standoff rules. Which are doubly nice because they draw on a whole different set of strengths than normal combat, making quick draw artistry seperate from raw combat prowess.

Love your melee feats - bowie knives settle a dispute as thoroughly as a hog's leg, and with less noise . And Zorro. Some days its all about sabres vs. bayonettes .

Unarmed combat feats have their day too. The guy down at the chinese laundry might just whoop your arse when you least expect it .

Pinkertons. Oh, yes.

For the wheelman as rider, swap Medicine for Electronics in his class skill list, and swap the order of skills manual adjustment works on to Medicine/Mechanics/Security. This will let him work on horses early, and add a medically oriented class to the set other than scientist or advocate to beef up a group's chances of survival. If you are doing wheelman as coachman/train enginer, then set up manual adjustment as mechanic/medicine/security.

Hope that helps !