Wild, Wild West? Sidewinder vs spellslinger vs deadlandsd20?

[KaosDevice]

It seems to me it would be pretty simple to tack on the Sanity rules and magic system from CoCD20 to Sidewinder for a fun and fearsome Cthulhu Old West style game....

hmmm...ideas, ideas...

 

[Wraith Form]

I'm surprised no one else mentioned OGL Wild West, not that I possessed a copy

I actually just received a copy from eBay for under $10. It seems goodly...a little more like the classic Boot Hill (old TSR) style game than the more-realistic flavor of SW:R. While I haven't owned it long enough to even dream of running it, it seems pretty well-done. It's based on the OGL of the d20 Modern rules.

Some of the careers ("vocations," they call 'em) seemed a little...I dunno...low-key or questionable as far as use in an adentursome game. I mean, you can play a miner. Yup, not a fancy-pants extra-special miner, just...a miner. His Talent Tree includes finding gold. Then his Wealth score increases, +1 permanantly or +3 for 1d6 months. Hunh, surprise surprise.

The talent trees are usually 3 unique benefits specific to that vocation. With only 3, you'd think they'd want the most heroic, adventurous, dashing & unique talents they could come up with. So, we have Strike! (the above-described finding gold talent) for a miner. Not a lot of incentive to play a miner, I reckon.

You can play a Bartender. Not a cool, Deadwood-style swearing-like a sailor, dirty-rotten-scoundrel Bartender, just...a Bartender. OGL Wild West's version of the Bartender has as part of it's talent tree to Duck Behind the Bar--if, any-time/-where during combat, the Bartender is within 5 feet of anything that might provide cover (especially his bar) he can take cover behind it as a free action.

Finally, the vocation Storekeeper just made me roll my eyes and shake my head. Storekeeper? Where's the excitement in that? DM: "The bell rings as the door opens. You have a customer. Roll for initiative!" Player: "Am I caught Flat-Footed?"

And there is an entire section about running a frontier town business. Whoopee.

The flip side of that is, you can multi-class without penalty. So, become a rich miner and then switch to Gunslinger and start on your path to fame & glory...with a little extra gold in your saddlebags!

Now, while I might appear to be casting the book in an unwholesome light, I'm just pointing out the weak spots. Things that made me yawn, scratch myself and say "meh". The other parts of it made me want to get my possee together and run an Old West game in the flavor of Deadwood/Clint Eastwood. That was just on a first blush of the book--generally, it seems to be a solid product.

I also received my copy of Serenity: the RPG the same day, and I had several fun hours watching The Man With No Name on DVD a little later. Got me hankerin' for a spell in the saddle with a six-gun.