D&D Wild West style!

[S'mon]

I notice several suggestions above that in 'Western D&D' the 'other' be 'Native American' elves, rather than 'Redskin' orcs. Be warned that this postmodernist 'Dances with Wolves' approach to the genre will actually take your game further away from the traditional Western than standard Gygaxian D&D. If the natives are the good guys, doesn't that mean the settlers (humans, presumably) are the bad guys?

You can try to resolve this by having 'good native' elves vs 'bad native' orcs, but the natural logic of the colonisation setting would be for the orcs and elves to unite against the colonising humans! So then either you run a game where PC elves and (half) orcs battle the genocidal human invaders, or the PCs are the Evil side, committing genocide against the innocent elves.

 

[Klaus]

As for guns, you could have them grant the Reserve feat "Force Needles" to the wielder, firing tiny shards of force at the target. Of course, the wielder needs to know (or have prepared) a force spell, so you're looking at spellcasting gunslingers.

Which is cool in its own right.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I notice several suggestions above that in 'Western D&D' the 'other' be 'Native American' elves, rather than 'Redskin' orcs. Be warned that this postmodernist 'Dances with Wolves' approach to the genre will actually take your game further away from the traditional Western than standard Gygaxian D&D. If the natives are the good guys, doesn't that mean the settlers (humans, presumably) are the bad guys?

You can try to resolve this by having 'good native' elves vs 'bad native' orcs, but the natural logic of the colonisation setting would be for the orcs and elves to unite against the colonising humans! So then either you run a game where PC elves and (half) orcs battle the genocidal human invaders, or the PCs are the Evil side, committing genocide against the innocent elves.

I think it would be far more interesting if it were less black-and-white than that. You can have evil, expansionist settlers, settlers just looking to survive and settlers sympathetic to the plight of the aboriginals. Similarly, you can have various aboriginal tribes have differing reactions to to the presence of the settlers. If D&D can regularly overlook the inherent nastiness that is medieval serfdom, it can manage this situation without dwelling on evil settlers vs noble aboriginals or vice versa.

 

[Darth Shoju]

Another thought for the magical firearms. If you want them to have the same impact on the setting that real-world six-guns and rifles had, you'll need to have them fairly available (not cheap necessarily, but available). I'd think they would also have to be useable by more than just magic-users. Running with idea posted above, you could have them dependant on some sort of crystal to power them. The crystals would be mined, thus making another valuable resource to use as a plot-point (actually back to the Bravestar reference, didn't they use crystals to power their laser guns and such?). Once mined and sold in uncut form (like diamonds), they would have to be crafted by a magic-user (or magewright or artificer if you want to bring those classes in) with craft wonderous item and some low-level spell of the appropriate energy type (magic missle for force, acid arrow for acid, etc). You could have them do different types of attack patterns too: pistols maybe just a ranged attack, rifles a ranged touch, shot guns ( ) a cone or maybe fan like burning hands. You could have the firearms hold charges and be rechargeable. Characters could carry multiple crystals and replace them when they "ran out of ammo" or even just wanted to do a different energy type of damage.

You could also make a couple different PrCs for the setting based on the guns; a gunslinger class that has improved initiative, quick-draw and uncanny dodge as class features; a gunmage class for the magic-users that lets them apply meta-magic feats or somesuch to their attacks with their weapons (even using reserve feats to give them knock-back effects and so forth). Maybe a feat or special type of the firearm item allows the warlock to apply their invocations to the weapon (or another Prc?). Honestly the ideas are endless in this setting...

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Just make sure your players are on board though. For some people, nothing makes the eyes glaze over faster than Westerns.

 

[Darth Shoju]

2) One of D&D's designer's PCs (Rary? Whomever, I believe he was in the 1Ed Rogues Gallery product) from the days of 1Ed was dressed in Western garb and fired Magic Missiles from a pair of six-guns. Without the guns, he couldn't fire the MM, and they couldn't fire real bullets, either.

Again, its some kind of gun. As I recall, the mechanic of this PC made it function more like a Warlock's eldrich blasts, but with the limitation that the PC have a certain material component (the "shootin' irons).

This could be handled with a modified "Innate Spell" type feat that, because you have to have an "attuned magic item" to cast the spell, you don't have many level adjustments on the spell. Psionics or Incarnum would probably work as well.

Myrilund (sp?)

 

[Klaus]

Murlynd, of Murlynd's spoon fame. He was a Paladin gunslinger, to boot, and statted in the World of Greyhawk boxed set, having crossed over from the Boot Hill setting. Had a holy avenger, too.

 

[Darth Shoju]

Murlynd, of Murlynd's spoon fame. He was a Paladin gunslinger, to boot, and statted in the World of Greyhawk boxed set, having crossed over from the Boot Hill setting. Had a holy avenger, too.

Ah that's right. Thanks man!

But that brings to mind another idea for this setting....a feat (or spell?) that lets the paladin deliver his Smite Evil attack with his firearm. Oooh and another that lets him align the blasts from it (although I guess align weapon would do that...)

 

[S'mon]

If D&D can regularly overlook the inherent nastiness that is medieval serfdom...

Well D&D overlooks the nastiness of medieval serfdom by using a setting that is only vaguely quasi-medieval, at best. Indeed the 1e DMG has a section which explains that any PC ruler trying to force peasantry, serfdom or slavery on his people will inevitably face regular revolts!

I agree you can handwave it: "These settlers aren't expansionist" is a self-contradiction, but I expect most players will be willing to suspend disbelief

 

[Cthulhudrew]

If the natives are the good guys, doesn't that mean the settlers (humans, presumably) are the bad guys?

No more than they were in the real Wild West, no. If you're going for the West as portrayed in early Western movies and in many early histories of the USA, then you're right. It all depends on whether your want to go for realism or escapism, I guess.

(Which isn't to say that- suggestions aside- the elves as Native Americans should be all well adjusted, happy go-lucky, uber-civilized and peaceful tree huggers. They should have their conflicts and gray areas as well, frankly.)