When did the wild west stop being cool?

[Koewn]

Yes, but his most unappreciated role was when you stick him in a beat up Land Rover in Tanzania and have him catch animals for zoos for a living. That, to this day, is my favorite John Wayne movie.

Hatari!

Man my wife digs that movie. Watches it every time it's on. Blasted cable TV (I like it too..just not..all the time.)

Best use of rockets and nets!

 

[frankthedm]

The world has moved on.

 

[Ranger REG]

The world has moved on.

Unfortunately.

 

[Krieg]

The world has moved on.

...and in time it shall return.

*shrug*

 

[Dogbrain]

Today there are still some who fill the role of Cowboys, but those are largely "non immigrant guest workers" or somesuch who are imported from south american countries

Have you ever actually been to cattle country in the USA? What you claim is quite, quite false. There is no "importation" of cowboys to the USA.

 

[Dogbrain]

You didn't see anything about the Black Kettle Massacre, Wounded Knee, or even the Buffalo Soldiers

Odd, I rather like the movie Buffalo Soldier. Obviously, you and I grew up seeing different westerns. My father loved all the Spaghetti Westerns, and he was born in 1946. As far as he was concerned (and I came to agree with him), they were better than the sanitized stuff that came before. My own "model image" of the western movie owes more to the Spaghetti genre than to the earlier stuff. I also grew up on movies like Little Big Man. None of this soured me on the Old West setting. Indeed, the idea of two cultures at odds, its members moral as individuals, but willing to inflict atrocity upon each other, made the setting all the more interesting.

After all, the computers we use were likely built by people whose wages are so low that none of us would ever want their jobs, and built in countries wherein labor rights are simply not permitted. Don't see anyone here demanding that we all stop using ENWorld in order to preserve moral clarity.

 

[coyote6]

Besides the "historical RPGs aren't as popular" thing, Western RPGs have an additional problem -- in most popular RPGs, the PCs have some sort of extranormal abilities -- magic, psionics, superpowers, supernatural monster powers, wuxia kung fu, cool ultra-tech guns/power armor/lightsabers, truly badass spy/commando/ninja skills, etc.

Most Western settings don't have any of that. IMO, that probably impacts the popularity.

But I kind of agree with whoever said that lots of RPGs have certain Western sensibilities. If nothing else, the standard PC group is probably a lot more like the The Magnificent Seven than the Knights of the Round Table, the Justice League, or the Enterprise's bridge crew.

 

[frankthedm]

Originally Posted by frankthedm
The world has moved on

.Unfortunately.

Sorry, was refering to stephen king's Dark tower series. Try it, You might like it.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0670032549/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-7864077-1371801#reader-page

 

[S'mon]

Gygaxian AD&D definitely used a very "Western Frontier" model as the default setting - check out the "Territory Development" stuff in the 1e DMG, it's clearly based far more on Western notions than anything to do with medieval feudalism.

The idea that you can't have super-powered PCs in a Western game is silly; have you guys never _seen_ a Clint Eastwood movie?! Like when he guns down 4 cowboys, armed & ready to draw, before any of them can get a shot off in A Fistful of Dollars, do you really believe that's _realistic_?!

 

[Ranger REG]

Besides the "historical RPGs aren't as popular" thing, Western RPGs have an additional problem -- in most popular RPGs, the PCs have some sort of extranormal abilities -- magic, psionics, superpowers, supernatural monster powers, wuxia kung fu, cool ultra-tech guns/power armor/lightsabers, truly badass spy/commando/ninja skills, etc.

Most Western settings don't have any of that. IMO, that probably impacts the popularity.

Hmm.

It is somewhat disheartening that majority of gamers are not interested in non-FX games, whether it is Western or Military or Criminal Investigation/Detective.