Owl Hoot Trail: spaghetti western + fantasy = awesome. Come playtest!

[Piratecat]

Everyone who sent an email earlier than Tuesday this last week should have been included. That said, Beth (who handles playtesting) left on Tuesday to get married this weekend. She'll surely continue the process once she's back. If you don't hear anything by the middle of this coming week, please ping me in this thread.

I ran 3 games of it this weekend, shortening the (roughly) 12 hour adventure down to a nice tight 4 hours for convention play. I'm really happy with the results. I've found some ways to improve things, including a player cheat-sheet for fast rule reference. I'll write that up.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

What about BADGES? For the constabulary, and all ...

Spoiler

There's only one correct answer to that!

Cavalry?

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Looks like my Friday playtest has fallen through.

Still, it was a good read and I'll get together some thoughts to send back to you.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll take 'em! Playtest ends in mid-July, iirc, so any and all feedback is a fine thing.

 

[qstor]

I'm interested I love western games!

Mike

 

[Nytmare]

If you don't hear anything by the middle of this coming week, please ping me in this thread.

Just checking to make sure, are you a "Sunday starts the week" kinda guy, or "Monday starts the week?"

 

[Piratecat]

Eh. I'm easy.

Beth at Pelgrane just got married (woo!), so she's probably on holiday this week. Playtesters should definitely email her at the above link, as she has all the info about giving feedback, but I can get you the rules and adventure if you need them for this weekend. Shoot me an email, please: kevin dot kulp at gmail. This offer is rescinded as soon as Beth gets back.

Be aware that I'm AFK for the weekend into the magical Land Of No Internet, though, so please ping me today if you need them.

 

[WildWestGM]

I will be looking for this. I recently posted on this forum that I've bought every D20 Wild West themed game and supplement I could find.
I am thinking of producing my own free 48-page supplement on my campaign. It is based on the Salt Wars in El Paso in 1870s.
For this campaign, I am 98% sure I am going to include VERY limited magic for certain Indians PCs. Stuff that would explain why Geronimo was so hard to find, etc. Nothing like fireballs, but perhaps minor illusions and only offered to certain Indian medicine men or chiefs. Just a thought.
Boot Hill was my favorite RPG ever. One year in the early 1980s, me and a group of friends spent a summer playing it and the group had a blast.
But I like the idea of "rules lite"... but that may be because I've learning D20 Modern now and I see 4 rules books in front of me and it seems daunting to absorb all of this context in a meaningful way.

 

[WildWestGM]

Just another thought about what I like to see in RPG Wild West products. And that is BACKGROUND. The more detailed a world, the more I can create myself when running that world.
I'll give an example: in my world I'm creating about the El Paso area, I will include a FAQ about the world in they are operating. Here's one question regarding all the lawless activity in El Paso and why the U.S. Army didn't just come in and clean house.
"Why don't they just call in the Army?"
Well, there was a law passed called the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878 that prevented it. Due to the severe dislike of the military occupation during the reconstruction after the Civil War, this law was generated. It stopped the federal government from using the military for law enforcement. That meant arresting the cattle rustlers, bank robbers and other criminals was the responsibility of the undermanned and underfunded local police.

To me, this gives the GM an insight to how a campaign can be run. The players could be used as "hired guns" to help clean up a town because in reality, the US Army was handcuffed.

 

[Piratecat]

A brief note to say that this is done and off for art and layout! With inestimable ideas and suggestions from Hypersmurf, this is going to be a very fun game. Can't wait to see it in print.