Sidewinder: Recoiled vs OGL Wild West

[scourger]

Spellslinger

I'll give a plug for Spellslinger, Runesong. It is a great little d20 western game from the Fantasy Flight Games Horizon Line. Here's a link:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/hr04.html

You can download some sample pages there for a preview or link to a review. I ran it as a Wild West D&D game with their default setting using 4 short adventures from Dungeon as a mini-campaign. I found it to be a great, concise resource. It is very adaptable to an all-human, more realistic Wild West game, too. All the elements are portable, so you can use as little or as much as you want to make it as realistic or as fantastic as you want. Sidewinder is great for a D&D Wild West mini-campaign.

If I were to run another Wild West game, I would probably just use the core D&D rules--mostly from the DMG--for a more realistic all-human, very low magic game. The DMG has rules for firearms that are sufficient. I would let the PCs be warriors or experts. The native tribes might have a few adepts. Aristocrats are a good possibility for Easterners or cattle barons. Commoners are the everyday people. There is plenty of wirtten material out there for the Wild West. I might even try a game version of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove book series (also made into a couple of movies). I've got a book titled Triggernometry that is a good read about Old West gunfighters.

I had the original Sidewinder, so I feel safe in saying that Sidewinder: Recoiled is probably a great product, too. It is written in a very captivating style with Bat Masterson as a sort of ghost writer. The original even had a few adventures in the back, and I think Recoiled will have those as well. You probably can't go wrong with it, if you like the d20 Modern rules (I just don't).

What kind of game do you want to run?

 

[GMSkarka]

I'd go with Sidewinder: Recoiled. I've read the PDF, and I desperately want to get a physical copy ASAP. It's really, really, REALLY good. (Speaking as a Western genre nut)

I like Gareth Hanrahan's work a lot, too--he does great stuff, but I haven't seen OGL Wild West, so I can't make a recommendation there--- aside from the fact that I know (from having read his livejournal) that Mongoose assigned him to write the book despite the fact that he knew next to nothing about the genre, and so he had to educate himself as he wrote it. I'm sure he did excellent work (he always does), but to me, that gives Sidewinder the edge, because it was obviously written by folks who know their stuff.

Plus, Sidewinder is being supported, whereas OGL Wild West is a stand-alone product.

 

[Crothian]

I'd go with Sidewinder: Recoiled. I am no fan of the Wild West setting. Dispite that the book really impressed me and the support for it has really been good. If I were to play a western game, this is the rule set I would use hands down.

OGL Wild West is okay, but frankly I've been less then impressed with all the OGL books. It does not make me want to play the game.

Spellslingers has some cool ideas and I'd find a way to use it if I wanted a bit more fantasy in my Wild West.

 

[jaerdaph]

I loved the original Sidewinder and I love Sidewinder: Recoiled even more. You won't be disappointed going with SW:R.

I also like Gareth Hanrahan's work (OGL Horror is one of my favorite purchases of 2004), but I haven't picked up OGL Wild West, so I can't recommend it, but I'm confident Gareth did a great job with it. Check the Mongoose Publishing message boards to see what people think of it - I've seen it discussed there a lot.

I don't have FFG's Spellslinger either so can't comment, although FFG's Grimm from the same product line was absolutely brilliant. Isn't it less historical and more along the lines of magic in the Weird West? Again though, I'd be willing to bet it's good.

I guess it might come down to economics and how much you want to spend.

OGL Wild West is a complete game - you don't need a PHB or copy of d20 Modern. You need a PHB for Sidewinder and a copy of d20 Modern for Sidewinder: Recoiled.
You also need a PHB for Spellslinger.

 

[Xythlord]

Ok well I picked up the original Fort Griffen vol. 1 and that is exactly what I was looking for regarding the Indians of the old west. I am looking forward to reading vol. 2 but I do have a small question, will you eventually have these in POD form? I originally got the Sidewinder: Recoiled book in POD form and absolutely fell in love with it, I thought it was VERY well done and hope to see these in that format as well (its just nice to have something on the bookshelf you can reference during a game without resorting to a computer).

Just to remind everybody, the only thing that S:R is missing is the character creation and advancement rules, which can be found in the SRD and printed out on a couple of sheets of paper. So you wouldn't actually need to "lug around two books".

I also own GURPS Wildwest and much of the material in it (other than the expanded ruleset or crunch, which doesn't take up much space) dovetails quite nicely with Sidewinder: Recoiled. It has a lot of background and setting info that can be used.

Xyth

 

[jezter6]

Actually, it doesn't include chargen or advancement which are NOT in the SRD because they are not open content. If they were in the SRD, they would be in the book.

Finding an XP chart is quick, and if you've played d20 more than once you should know how easy chargen is without ever having to look at your PHB again.

 

[Geoff]

Ok well I picked up the original Fort Griffen vol. 1 and that is exactly what I was looking for regarding the Indians of the old west. I am looking forward to reading vol. 2 but I do have a small question, will you eventually have these in POD form? I originally got the Sidewinder: Recoiled book in POD form and absolutely fell in love with it, I thought it was VERY well done and hope to see these in that format as well (its just nice to have something on the bookshelf you can reference during a game without resorting to a computer).

We plan on eventually doing POD's of this material but don't have a set time frame yet. One thing we are discussing doing is compilations of the products for POD's instead of doing each one seperately. This may be straight compilations of the entire product (for example, The Fort Griffin Echo - Volume 1, Numbers 1 to 3) or compilations of related articles (for example, combining several Council Fires into one POD).

Do you have any thoughts on either of those options?

 

[Kanegrundar]

I have to give Sidewinder:Recoiled the nod. It's a very well done western D20 game. OGL Western was fairly good as well, but it didn't give that true western feel like Sidewinder.

Kane

 

[Mytholder]

Does OGL Wild West use the d20 Modern rules? If not then that could be a big determiner as to which one would work best for your game. I like Sidewinder but can't use it as it requires d20 Modern.

OGL Wild West is based on the d20 Modern ruleset, but it's OGL and therefore standalone - everything you need is in the book. It revises character generation and abilities by adding loads of new talent trees based on your occupation, a Luck ability to give PCs an edge, and it redoes the Combat system to tailor it for shootouts (individual wounds are now tracked and have detrimental effects on a PC's actions). It includes an overview of western history, stats for famous historical characters and generic NPCs, and a big chapter on GMing and campaign design.

 

[Xythlord]

We plan on eventually doing POD's of this material but don't have a set time frame yet. One thing we are discussing doing is compilations of the products for POD's instead of doing each one seperately. This may be straight compilations of the entire product (for example, The Fort Griffin Echo - Volume 1, Numbers 1 to 3) or compilations of related articles (for example, combining several Council Fires into one POD).

Do you have any thoughts on either of those options?

I would think that it would be easier to just make compilations of the entire Fort Griffen Echo's, somewhat similiar to what the comic industry does. Just wait till you have 3 up and then put them together in POD form. I know you fellows have a lot on your plate and it has to be easier to just do the work on already finished products rather than first editing a bunch of articles into a format and then making the POD.

Which of course doesn't help me as then I would have to wait for volume 3 and then the POD , but oh well I think its worth the wait.