So You've Decided to Run a "Western" Game. What Kind?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Welcome to Deadlands. That's pretty much the tone of the books....

I’m familiar with Deadlands, but I think some of those go a bit beyond its system. I don’t think you could quite play the demigod/avatar of a Trickster with the “power level” it assumes, for instance.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm pretty much only interested in settings with magic in them-- with a few narrow exceptions-- but most intersections of "fantasy" with "Western" are going to get my attention. Even games with more of a horror focus, like Deadlands, are going to be high on my list.

One of my projects was going to essentially be a D&D-in-Space setting, except with 19th century technology, and "the wild frontier" was going to be the region of space made up of former colonies of "the East" and "the West". I realized that despite my best efforts, I wasn't going to be able to write it without doing approximately all of the racisms, so I regretfully dropped the whole thing.

You might want to re-examine your concept through the lens of the Space:1889 game and setting. Essentially, it’s a Jules Verne/ HG Wells heavy setting, with adventuring on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. I used that setting for a HERO game, and it worked fine.

Yes, it’s technically post-Western in RW chronology, but the “sword & planet” Martian portion of the setting has some very Westernesque vibes.

 

[aramis erak]

I’m familiar with Deadlands, but I think some of those go a bit beyond its system. I don’t think you could quite play the demigod/avatar of a Trickster with the “power level” it assumes, for instance.

You could... it would be high level, but given that reloaded uses Savage Worlds, and Savage Worlds can do that, according to friends who ported Scion over to it.... think 15th level+...

 

[aramis erak]

You might want to re-examine your concept through the lens of the Space:1889 game and setting. Essentially, it’s a Jules Verne/ HG Wells heavy setting, with adventuring on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. I used that setting for a HERO game, and it worked fine.

Yes, it’s technically post-Western in RW chronology, but the “sword & planet” Martian portion of the setting has some very Westernesque vibes.

No, actually, it's not. the "Wild West" as shown in the movies and TV is basically 1870-1920 in the Southwest (NM, AZ, NV, CO, UT, eastern CA) and 1895 or so in the PNW (OR, WA, ID, Western CA.)
Seattle was "Civilized" by 1900. By 1926 the highways basically connected coast to coast, and the west was done.
1912 was the end of the territories in the (now) contiguous 48 states, with the joint admissions of AZ and NM

Many historians argue the "Wild West" period to be 1870 to 1890. A few argue for 1880-1890. Others give it as 1860-1920.Pretty much any way you cut it, 1889 is still in the Wild West, and the Challenge Article on the West in 1889 is pretty clearly thinking "Wild Wild West" and "Wild West", not Civilized Oregon (Many look at Washington State's admission as the end of the Wild West, and that's 1889).

Alaska and Hawai'i both had territorial police by 1920, and neither had the "western" mentality.

 

[MGibster]

Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports.

Some people put the close of the Old West at 1912 with statehood for Arizona and New Mexico. But then we still had a few armed conflicts with Native Americans as late as the early 1920s. Like many dates for eras, they're fairly arbitrary and serve more as a guideline than a hard point of no return.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

No, actually, it's not. the "Wild West" as shown in the movies and TV is basically 1870-1920 in the Southwest (NM, AZ, NV, CO, UT, eastern CA) and 1895 or so in the PNW (OR, WA, ID, Western CA.)
Seattle was "Civilized" by 1900. By 1926 the highways basically connected coast to coast, and the west was done.
1912 was the end of the territories in the (now) contiguous 48 states, with the joint admissions of AZ and NM

Many historians argue the "Wild West" period to be 1870 to 1890. A few argue for 1880-1890. Others give it as 1860-1920.Pretty much any way you cut it, 1889 is still in the Wild West, and the Challenge Article on the West in 1889 is pretty clearly thinking "Wild Wild West" and "Wild West", not Civilized Oregon (Many look at Washington State's admission as the end of the Wild West, and that's 1889).

Alaska and Hawai'i both had territorial police by 1920, and neither had the "western" mentality.

I‘m solidly in the “Wild West ended in 1890” camp, so by 1889, it would be on its last legs, wobbly on too much rye and a few gunshot wounds.

But that’s pretty academic & ultimately immaterial in the context of the Space:1889 setting, and honestly, what I actually did with it for my Supers game. One of the PCs, Colt, was 100% an homage to James West, for instance.

And the Terran colonial empires of the day expanding their influence on Mars is chock full of the same kinds of settlers versus indigenous people tropes of that period on Earth.

 

[DammitVictor]

My precious terrible idea was that the game took place in a spiral galaxy. One arm of the galaxy was ruled by the PHB+1 Empire, one arm of the galaxy was ruled by the OA+1 Empire, and the game takes place in the arm between them, about a century after most of the colonies overthrew their imperial governors-- with that middle spiral arm being the (more or less) full monty, "let's get weird" D&D full of disputed borders and unchecked threats.

I don't know how to salvage it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My precious terrible idea was that the game took place in a spiral galaxy. One arm of the galaxy was ruled by the PHB+1 Empire, one arm of the galaxy was ruled by the OA+1 Empire, and the game takes place in the arm between them, about a century after most of the colonies overthrew their imperial governors-- with that middle spiral arm being the (more or less) full monty, "let's get weird" D&D full of disputed borders and unchecked threats.

I don't know how to salvage it.

I’d love to help if I can…

The level of spacefaring is clearly more advanced than you’d seein Soace:1889 or even Spelljammer. This sounds a bit more like Dragonstar.

Dragonstar

www.fantasyflightgames.com

How “western” do you want to go? How “D&D”? Visuals?

 

[loverdrive]

I can't see “Spaghetti Western” option, and that's what I'm running. Well, acutally, it's an Eastern, but I don't think it matters.

 

[Aldarc]

Possibly something inspired more by Zorro.