Running Shadowrun as a Western?

[HellfireVanWinkle]

You know, there's something that has always been kind of bugging me about Shadowrun. It's considered mainly to be a Cyberpunk RPG, but I always thought that it also had tools to run it as a western! I mean, the native americans have a great importance in the setting, so much so that native american nations are a thing, this sounds an awful lot like something with futuristic western vibes. I know enough about Shadowrun but I'm not exactly as scholar when it comes to its lore, I always figured that outside of Seattle it was very much like a "Futuristic" version of Deadlands minus the horror elements. Is there anybody else who thought of running Shadowrun as a "Futuristic Western" instead of a "Cyberpunk Heist"?

 

[nevin]

Its not too far off the cyberpunk vibe. There's not a lot different between mercenary vs mercenary and the whole western theme. Throwing in the Deadlands areas makes it kind of Spaghetti Western/horror territory but lots of places for people to hide, look for old tech etc. I think that could work pretty well.

 

[Reynard]

"It has Native Americans in it so it is a western!" is a pretty powerful indictment of genre fiction and pop culture.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show has a lot to answer for, even 100 years later.

 

[IggyMoonbeam]

I mean it's also a setting where the Confederacy has split from the union again, there's a security force called Lone Star, and some of the best pistols in the game are oversized revolvers. There's a little more to the western influences than just a focus on Native Americans

 

[Micah Sweet]

Recently funded Kickstarter. Pdf out for backers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/foxandboargames/shadowwest

 

[Umbran]

Recently funded Kickstarter. Pdf out for backers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/foxandboargames/shadowwest

That's for Shadowdark. The OP is asking about Shadowrun.

 

[Umbran]

I mean, the native americans have a great importance in the setting, so much so that native american nations are a thing, this sounds an awful lot like something with futuristic western vibes.

Well, the fictional socio-political positioning in Shadowrun is a lot different than a typical Western, in which the Native Americans are typically a people shoved into the interstices of a burgeoning, but significantly lawless, USA. In Shadowrun, the tables have turned, and a white man wandering around with a gun exacting frontier justice though much of the American West will end up learning the error of their presumption.

I know enough about Shadowrun but I'm not exactly as scholar when it comes to its lore, I always figured that outside of Seattle it was very much like a "Futuristic" version of Deadlands minus the horror elements.

It is not. The Native American Nations bear little resemblance to the Wild West. Specifically, Westerns as a genre typically rely on governance and police protection being insufficient to the task of keeping law and order in the area. That is very much not the case in the Native American Nations.

And, on the flip side, Shadowrun is filled with horror elements.

 

[nevin]

"It has Native Americans in it so it is a western!" is a pretty powerful indictment of genre fiction and pop culture.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show has a lot to answer for, even 100 years later.

You are not wrong. But to give the designers some credit, the Indians got all their magic and gods back and took back a place for themselves. It was a bit better than Indians in other game systems that tried them step.