Let's not forget Six-String Samurai. In the years following the nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, "Buddy Holly" must trek through the wasteland to Vegas to claim the throne left by King Elvis. But he better beware, for "Slash" wishes the crown for himself and will stop at nothing to kill Buddy!
Not to mention Albert Pyun’s Cyborg and Knights. No, really- don’t mention them.
Oh man I'd love to run a game wherein there are folk trying to unite the factions of the frontier into something that can hold back the colonizers, others who just want to kill as many imperialists as they can, others who think the frontier will be better off with the trains and airship docks and academies that come with the imperialist civilization, etc, and who the PCs help and support will help determine how the frontier develops around them over time.
One of the great realizations I had about the Lone Ranger serials... without Tanto, Lone Ranger is a dead man. It's a subversion of the "Evil Injuns" trope of the late 19th and early 20th C tropes. Tanto is always the one saving Lone Ranger, very seldom the reverse. And, because of the racist antipathy towards Native Americans (including the assumption of ignorance and lack of intellect) of both the setting and the audience, him being basically ignored until he shoots or punches works really well in the fiction, because it's believable that the townies would ignore him provided he doesn't try to enter a business or attack someone, and is gone by nightfall. And some businesses might even let him in.
Sounds like Blue Planet. It's set outside our solar system on the planet Poseidon which has like 97% of its surface covered in water but it's got that frontier vibe and all the elements you mention. I don't think of Blue Planet as a western but you could certainly run it that way.
A…WETstern, you might say.
Boo! Boo!
