Pathfinder 2E Gothic Western (a Weird West setting)

[gamerprinter]

It's settled the header graphic and logo for Gothic Western is created.

I got inspired by the Mexican Festival of the Dead, where they use those painted wooden and ceramic skeletons as decorations everywhere. I created a 3D bull skull and horns, but covered the skull in Portuguese floor tile designs. I imagine this as a some kind of artifact. It is made from the skull of a great bull who killed a matador in the first Bullfight in Spain in 710 AD, when the trainers and tenders tried to finish the bull off, it managed to kill a total of 13 men, including the matador, before it was brought down. It was slaughtered and intended for a great feast, when it's head was stolen by unknown assailants. They let the skull rot away, then painted witchery on it's clean surface to hold the murderous rage of the beast within...

It works!

 

[gamerprinter]

It's funny, I just posted a thread about Gothic Western on a Pathfinder RPG Facebook community, and just about every person commenting asked if the PF1 version is being released or had been released? Everyone seems to still prefer to play PF1 over PF2. So now, I'm considering finishing my PF1 development, as it had originally been designed for, then provide compatibility with PF2, and perhaps 5e as well... thoughts?

 

[payn]

It's funny, I just posted a thread about Gothic Western on a Pathfinder RPG Facebook community, and just about every person commenting asked if the PF1 version is being released or had been released? Everyone seems to still prefer to play PF1 over PF2. So now, I'm considering finishing my PF1 development, as it had originally been designed for, then provide compatibility with PF2, and perhaps 5e as well... thoughts?

Develop the lore and bits first and then add mechanics later. Sounds like a great way to sell to multiple markets.

 

[gamerprinter]

Another thought, due to the diversity of many Native tribes, each with their own unique religious beliefs, it's difficult to use a single belief system, while staying true to each tribe's invidual culture. That said, there was for a short time, a shared, singular religious belief that spread from the Great Basin region, east to Okalahoma and across the Great Plains spawned by the dreams of a Paiute prophet from Nevada. Although it's practices largely centered around a circular dance performed by the entire village, the specific practices varied from tribe to tribe.

It was called Ghost Dance.

It was believed, that those who participated in the Ghost circle dance, the act would summon an army of Native undead to sweep White Man from the land, allowing both the living and the dead to inherit the Earth afterwards. I hate to use the Zombie Apocalypse cliche, but it seems to be right. I could see a module, even a 3 level module (1/4th of an AP) dedicated to the Ghost Dance as a weird west theme... it fits the setting's concept, thoughts?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Shadowrun has a new ghost dance as part of it's setting back story. This happens after magic has returned to the world and is very effective.

If you do write an adventure for it, might want to consider the possibility that characters will want to support the ghost dancers, not stop them.

 

[gamerprinter]

Shadowrun has a new ghost dance as part of it's setting back story. This happens after magic has returned to the world and is very effective.

If you do write an adventure for it, might want to consider the possibility that characters will want to support the ghost dancers, not stop them.

Interesting. I was doing more reading on the Ghost Dance, and it seems the spirits of those who die return to speak again to their living relatives, but aren't there in physicial form. The circle dance lasts 5 days, bringing the dancers to ecstasy, at the culmination of the ceremony, they begin to float over the ground, while an earthquake takes on the land and sucks down White Men, their roads, homes and structures into the ground to be swallowed up. Once signs of White Man are gone, the earthquake ends and the natives return to the ground safe and their dead relatives return as new living.

A medicine man visits the player characters in a dream state and explain to them what is going on, and invites them to join their Ghost Dance. Perhaps a local debaucherous town of miscreants and outlaws under the governance of a local mining baron, harrasses the local native population, as the Ghost Dance movement reaches that tribe. Rather than the PCs fighting against the native Ghost Dancers, they join the dance to defeat the local baron and the town of debauchery - in this way the players help the Ghost Dance rather than fight it... thoughts?

This way native beliefs are honored, rather than made into a misunderstood situation.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I do like a good (read "bad") cattle/mining/rail baron. I find them easy to hate.

But rather than making the adventure completely black & white make the boss a loving family man. At the same time he treats his employees as indentured servants. And will happily exterminate the native population.

The employees are locked into inescapable situations. The old company store trap. Some hate it and are trying to organise some sort of resistance. Others are just broken and spend their lives and pay in the bars and brothels (that are also owned by the baron.) And then there's the baron's muscle who get to swagger and throw their weight around and just be real easy to hate.

And don't make the First Nations folk monolithic either. Some are hard core for the total destruction of all the "invaders." Others would be happy simply to see them gone with minimal death and destruction. The dispute between the factions is what's delaying the Ghost Dance.

And why not throw in some star crossed lovers.

If you want to be nice you make them the children of the boss and leader of the Ghost Dance. This allows for the old "the children show their parents how to be better" ending. Or possibly just makes the respective parents even more incensed.
Or maybe make lovers ordinary members of their communities with whom the players can empathise. The lovers can be the ones who let people know what's happening in the other camp, helping advance the plot.

 

[gamerprinter]

I do like a good (read "bad") cattle/mining/rail baron. I find them easy to hate.

But rather than making the adventure completely black & white make the boss a loving family man. At the same time he treats his employees as indentured servants. And will happily exterminate the native population.

The employees are locked into inescapable situations. The old company store trap. Some hate it and are trying to organise some sort of resistance. Others are just broken and spend their lives and pay in the bars and brothels (that are also owned by the baron.) And then there's the baron's muscle who get to swagger and throw their weight around and just be real easy to hate.

And don't make the First Nations folk monolithic either. Some are hard core for the total destruction of all the "invaders." Others would be happy simply to see them gone with minimal death and destruction. The dispute between the factions is what's delaying the Ghost Dance.

And why not throw in some star crossed lovers.

If you want to be nice you make them the children of the boss and leader of the Ghost Dance. This allows for the old "the children show their parents how to be better" ending. Or possibly just makes the respective parents even more incensed.
Or maybe make lovers ordinary members of their communities with whom the players can empathise. The lovers can be the ones who let people know what's happening in the other camp, helping advance the plot.

All excellent ideas. I was planning to make it gray situation, rather than black and white with something closer to your suggestions...

 

[gamerprinter]

There already exists a complete 1st level module, which the fake newspaper in the first post was designed to be used for. The adventure is called Unclean Brand (unclean is a term referring to aberrant beings). The PCs are hired to recover stolen cattle and bring the rustlers to justice. What the party doesn't realize is that cattle rustlers were hired by agents of the Order of Oblivion (a cult of mayhem), the cattle have been branded with an artifact branding iron with an unclean sigil. Over a few hours the cattle transform into aberrant monstrosities intended to be released into the wild as random encounters. They have to track their way to the ruins of a Spanish Mission in the Arizona Mountains. I think I'll be including this module as an epilogue within the setting guide.

 

[gamerprinter]

So help me decide. I only planned to do 3D for specific items, like the skull in the Gothic Western logo, but decided I could use some filler art that depicts Old West, but isn't for any specific purpose - so filler art. Now I plan to do the bulk of the art as B/W, grayscale or Sepia tones, and only spectacular illustrations in color as set pieces, and I'll probably commission that kind of work, as well as some character art. Now here's some 3D filler art, I created last night, and am posting the full color version (as it was rendered), then in Photoshop I made a Sepia tone and a grayscale illustration. Which do you think is best... I'm leaning towards the Sepia tone one.