Systems that actualy emulate Western movies?

dbm · 2026-03-24T23:55:19+0000

Sir Brennen said:
Is there a "rules-lite" toolkit game like that? Nothing comes to mind.

Fate is possibly closest to it. You could certainly use Fate to run a Wild West game and put the emphasise wherever you wanted to.

Fudge as the progenitor of Fate would also be an option.

Cortex Prime would also potentially qualify and could undoubtedly do the job.

HellfireVanWinkle · 2026-03-25T05:34:58+0000

mmadsen said:
Rutskarn explains how he generated a deep Boothill campaign of politics, deception, and intrigue, after originally playing it as a joke.

Let me give you my thanks because this here is the most interesting play report I've red in a while, I was ready to dismiss Boothill because I hate systems that are too "Wargame"-like, but this article let me see some potential in it.

overgeeked said:
It sounds like you're looking for a story game rather than a traditional RPG.

Bullseye, though I'm not 100% opposed to "traditional" RPGs as long as they have meaningful mechanics to compliment the tone.

dbm said:
Fate is possibly closest to it. You could certainly use Fate to run a Wild West game and put the emphasise wherever you wanted to.

Fate is a very interesting candidate, but appart from some random threads on reddit, it would seem that there was no serious attempt to make a Western hack for this system. This is definitly one of the strongest contenders yet for me, but my lack of expertise in this time may make this task difficult. Also I hesistate between Fate Accelerated or Fate Core for this endeavor.

dbm said:
Fudge as the progenitor of Fate would also be an option.

To be fair, I'm less fond of Fudge than I am of Fate, because without Fate points the probabilty curve makes things kind of boring.

dbm said:
Cortex Prime would also potentially qualify and could undoubtedly do the job.

I have red and tested Cortex Prime at my table, and the test was inconclusive I'm afraid.

Swanosaurus · 2026-03-25T07:01:39+0000

Haunted West has a dueling subsystem that really sounds like it aims to emulate classic western cinema. It looks very ambitioned, but frankly, I never really managed to understand the rules system. I think it has a solid d100 core, but the book is really badly organized, the terminology seems unclear to me, and many rules are explained in a roundabout way. It feels like it would have needed some serious editing in the rules section, because the rest of it is awesome!

Tonguez · 2026-03-25T07:56:36+0000

HellfireVanWinkle said:
Fate is a very interesting candidate, but appart from some random threads on reddit, it would seem that there was no serious attempt to make a Western hack for this system. This is definitly one of the strongest contenders yet for me, but my lack of expertise in this time may make this task difficult. Also I hesistate between Fate Accelerated or Fate Core for this endeavor.

Blood on the Trail is a FATE World of Adventure about the Oregon Trail with Vampires and has rules for managing a wagon train and dealing with environmental hazards. You could easily strip out the vampire powers and replace them with Outlaws and Raiders and turn the sickness aspects of vampirism into "You have died of dysentery!".