So I Want To Run A Western Game...

[Ariosto]

Dogs in the Vineyard is a really splendid design, in ways that don't really have much in particular to do with the 19th century North American frontier.

 

[Ariosto]

its not at all clear what you do in a campaign length Western game

Yeah.

It's probably not "more dynamite".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

its not at all clear what you do in a campaign length Western game

In a way, Western campaigns are a lot like Horror, Sci-Fi or Superheroic campaigns in that you generally fight the same kinds of foes over and over again. Occasionally, you'll get an oddball opponent, but for the most part, its the same guys, different days.

What differs is terrain and tactics. An Indian attack on a wagon train on the open plains differs from a raid on a farm, a Fort or a full-blown tribe on the warpath. Outlaws rustling cattle is different from them robbing a bank, a train, or even a shootout at their hideout. Range wars vary upon what's being fought over: grazing, water or the land the railroad will be passing through.

Of course, if you go into Fantasy Western or Alt-Hist tropes, you can have all kinds of oddball things thrown in. The Deadlands RPG and Kurt R.A. Giabastiani's Fallen Cloud novels spring immediately to mind, as do the shows Wild, Wild West, Adventures of Briscoe County Jr., and Kung Fu. Going further afield, you could arrange to have the events of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks re-set in the Rockies, or lift stuff from RIFTS Spirit West or even CoC.

Heck, even as far back as the 1960's & 70's, you had fiction depicting Cowboys vs Dinosaurs, Dragons, Werewolves or Undead.

For more info & ideas, pass by this thread.

 

[Ariosto]

A lot of "Gunsmoke", a dash of "Big Valley".

You've got human beings armed with Colt Repeaters.

Or vice-versa.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Colts armed with Human Repeaters?

 

[jdrakeh]

GURPS Lite 4e + GURPS Old West ($9.95 + Shipping and the cost of printing 32 pages gets you get a whole game). Or if you want more crunch, substitute the GURPS 4e Basic Set Characters and Campaigns books for Lite. GURPS has the advantage of being lethal but also allowing for lots of action, especially in Lite mode.

 

[Ariosto]

Silent in flamingo ease in troubled trance
Within a whirlpool we're breaking our backs
The tears of the moon, the sweat of the sun
Sacrificial hearts for a pointing bone

We went way past the Dimazio Line
The distortion was incredible
All of Groper's Fat Gang dressed in sleeveless T-shirts
Whinging, whinging for perfection

She's not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane

The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the National Trust

And don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow, the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're loosin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling,
Goes away?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

OK, for those more confused than I, those songs are:

Siouxie & The Banshees: "Pointing Bone"

Silent in flamingo ease in troubled trance
Within a whirlpool we're breaking our backs
The tears of the moon, the sweat of the sun
Sacrificial hearts for a pointing bone

Hunters & Collectors: Towtruck

We went way past the Dimazio Line
The distortion was incredible
All of Groper's Fat Gang dressed in sleeveless T-shirts
Whinging, whinging for perfection

The Beatles: "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"

She's not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane

The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the National Trust

How do they apply to Westerns?

Don't ask me!

 

[Ariosto]

Aye, that is the question. Most sobering, indeed!

Please cross-reference the commentary of J. Depp and R. Rodriguez with the Once Upon a Time in Pasadena and Palo Alto to Beijing archetypes.

typefile: coltswieldinghumanrepeaters

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before."

-Kurt Vonnegut

So...Beware ME!