When did the wild west stop being cool?

[Incenjucar]

Hmnn... Wild West and Planescape...

"Oh I'm a Yankee Demodandy, a Yankee Demodand or die!"

 

[JediSoth]

I love Westerns. A totally underappreciated genre, IMO. Some of them have such great soundtracks too (Silverado and Tombstone come to mind).

Anyone remember Outlaws? An FPS by Lucasarts? Great game...good soundtrack too.

Speaking of Western RPGs, Kenzer & Co. has one coming out called "Aces & Eights." Unlike Hackmaster, it's not a parody game. I'll be playing it at GenCon. It's been getting lots of positive buzz, particularly for the combat system.

JediSoth

 

[dead]

When did the Wild West stop being cool?

When Deadlands became d20.

 

[Piratecat]

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_?!

He's at least 12th lvl with rapid shot. Duh.

Funny story from the Boot Hill game this weekend. There was a fairly large party, but an encounter ended up pitting (in part) three desperados against my gunslinger, a female gunslinger and an innocous-looking dance hall girl. The desperados burst out of a boarding house. . .

From 15 feet away, the female gunslinger misses with 5 out of 6 shots.
My gunslinger takes aim and rolls a 1, blowing the head off a horse that then falls on another party member.
The dance hall girl pulls a pistol out from her skirts and with three shots, kills two of the desperados (head shots) and wings the third.

How embarrassing.

 

[hong]

My gunslinger takes aim and rolls a 1, blowing the head off a horse


How embarrassing.

I'll say.

 

[Piratecat]

This thread has made me go and re-watch Clint Eastwood's "For a Few Dollars More." Wow, is that a good movie!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I'm 25 and I think Westerns are hella cool! Young Guns, Unforgiven, Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, hell, even Maverick and *cough*Posse*cough*. Changed my young opinion that it was all just some dorky guy playing guitar. Nah, I like it raw, dusty, and a hot, hot, hot sun burning down on you.

And isn't HBO's "Deadwood" still going strong? I know the season just finished, but I've met a lot of people who like that as well.

I'm also interested in the idea of the supernatural Western flick. Any about?

Dusk 'til Dawn 3: Hangman's Daughter.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Some of my (and my group's) best gaming memories are from Deadlands (the Classic DL game, not this d20 or Savage Worlds crap).

 

[WizarDru]

I think it'd be a lot of fun, but for some reason, we've never actually played a western game. Played an 'Indiana Jones'-esque one-shot though, using MSPE a few years back, though, and some modern stuff using GURPS.

Westerns are still cool, but the myth more than the reality. I grew up with things like the Transformers, not Have Gun, Will Travel. My first western may have been Silverado, or it might have been the 'man with no name' films. The Outlaw Josey Wales is another great one, as well. Had a great love for Maverick (the James Garner version), too.

I think a big problem with Westerns in general, though, is the focus on the individual, not the group. Most westerns have a hero, not a group...Silverado is somewhat unusual in that regard, and Young Guns, though I've never seen more than brief pieces of those. Tombstone is one of the best westerns evar, to me, and Val Kilmer's performance is nothing short of riveting.

I think other factors might be the potential for lack of variety in the stories and the perception of a much higher lethality rate than D&D. But I'm just throwing ideas out, really.

 

[mmadsen]

I think a big problem with Westerns in general, though, is the focus on the individual, not the group. Most westerns have a hero, not a group...

I don't want to be that guy, but I'm not much of a Western fan, and I can immediately rattle off a few group-based westerns (in addition to the ones you mentioned):

The Magnificent Seven
The Return of the Magnificent Seven
The Wild Bunch.

I think most movies of any genre focus on a single protagonist rather than a group; that's the nature of the medium.