Western Games

They've all been wronged in some way by the bad guy or his henchmen, and are all out for revenge and end up banding together because of the common cause.

Another possibility, is they were all in the same unit in the Civil war and went AWOL.

You could do an early western game where they're all heading out west for glory, riches and land. Animals, natives and the elements themselves are your major obstacles. Throw in some base building, exploration and etc and bam. If you wanted to go a little more fantastical, add lovecraftian tones with witch doctors, skinwalkers, ghost towns (legit or not), and even abandoned mines leading to places that should remain forgotten.

>select all the cactus
Kek

>the western is almost always about the journey of one guy, or a pair of guys.You don't typically have a party of 3-5 where they are all on the same "team" in the same way you do for D&D.

You're not all that familiar with Westerns, then, considering one of the hallmarks of the genre is titled "The Magnificent Seven."

File: 1398980438750.jpg (201KB, 922x1200px) Image search: [Google]

201KB, 922x1200px

>>44166715
>D&D has this built in - they are all adventurers. Shadowrun has everyone play as shadowrunners.
>The obvious choice is to claim they are all pinkertons, all outlaws, or a particularly large group of bounty hunters.. but it seems really clumsy.

What exactly is the difference between 'built in' and 'clumsy' in that context? I don't see the difference between playing a band of Marshalls/Desperados or some Shadowrunners/Adventurers.

And for that matter I think there are a whole bunch of Western RPGs floating around in the pdf threads regularly, I think those should come with some plothooks or ideas.
So unless you want to homebrew an entire game why don't you just have a look at those first?

File: magseven.jpg (182KB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

182KB, 1024x768px

>>44166715
>You don't typically have a party of 3-5 where they are all on the same "team" in the same way you do for D&D.

What are you even on about you daft man

Don't use D&D for it. Go with something like Deadlands.

They're people in a town and someone or something messed with them. Not every two horse bunghole has the luxury of a sheriff, when someone makes trouble the people just get together and form a possee to deal with them appropriately.

>>44167670
Lynchmob - The RPG

I once played Deadlands in a party of six. We were all tourists from Europe.

File: blueberry_pic1.jpg (99KB, 457x655px) Image search: [Google]

99KB, 457x655px

People has already cited the Magnificent Seven.
In the Outlaw, Clint Eastwood ends with a small pack too.
True Grit has three main characters too.
The Researchers, could give you some clues.

And use your imaginations and that of your PCs, they could have served in the same unit during the war, they may be exiles from Mexico after or during the French invasions, or they are just a bunch of hungry Irish, lost in the New World.

Or they are just friends.

>>44166715
>>44167357

Another good one to take inspiration from might be Stagecoach - the party could essentially be an infinitely varied group of archetypal Western characters, who just happen to be travelling cross country in the same stagecoach/wagon train/steam train when they are waylaid by bandits/indians/rogue cavalrymen/whatever.

>>44167686
If you're not into vigilante justice (I don't know why you wouldn't be if you want to run a western but whatever) just have the old sheriff NPC go "mah shootin' hand ain't so good no more, yall deputies now"

>>44167381
Tombstone is a good reference as well for a Western PC party.

Pretty much every western I've ever read has a group of primarily good characters - albeit that one is unusually awesome in some way typically. Even that, though, is a fairly modern trope that got more typical in the post war era... alot of Zane Grey and his predecessors made the main character kind of a weenie and there was a whole bunch of other characters coming together to make the main action happen like any good adventure story.

If I were to do a western game, I reckon there are a couple ways to do it. First, you need to identify some common objective. It could be as easy as all the characters had been recruited to work on the same ranch, kinda like Shane, or it could be sorta grim dark like Blood Meridian where they're bounty hunters or hunting down indigenous folk. Secondly, they need a faction to threaten them - this could be the police, natives, mexicans, Mormons, bandits or rustlers, frankly just about anyone. Everything else is up to the players how they want to swing it... though I'd recommend that noone gets suuuper ridiculous gunslinging powers - that's just me though. Take extra points in fist fighting for maximum saloon throw down potential.

File: image.jpg (46KB, 386x381px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 386x381px

>>44167711
>>44167588
>Deadlands.

I was listening to the RPG podcast Plot Ponits and one of the host on the show has repeatedly made the assertion to that Dead Lands is a right wing RPG because the the backstory has the south winning the Civil War and then deciding to abandon slavery anyway.

I want to say the guy is wrong but I'm having trouble coming up with the counter argument that it isn't just Firefly style White washing of the South.

Make all your PCs former members of an outlaw gang where the leader just died in a shootout with some corrupt lawmen who were out to steal your gang's gold and your 5 PCs or whatever are the only ones who made it out alive and now they have a bone to pick with the law and some gold to get back.

Don't overthink it, as long as you get your PCs to work together it doesn't matter how clumsy it is as long as it gets the ball rolling.

>>44167588
I'd recommend Aces & Eights, by far the best western rpg system I've ever seen.

File: image.jpg (38KB, 300x420px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 300x420px

>>44168217
Tetsubo57 really rip they a new one over it
https://m.youtube.com/watchv=2gqTRNu1TEQ

For what it's worth at least they still have more Asian people in it then firefly

>>44166715
Play Dogs in the Vineyard.

You're all mormons.

File: Gunslingers and Gamblers.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>44166715
Here, enjoy

>>44168217
The South would need to abandon slavery at some point, when industrialization would completely overtake agriculture as a source of revenue, and even more so once service economies become a thing.

It would take a while though.

File: No hope.jpg (67KB, 780x585px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 780x585px

>>44166715
It's some kind of meta-bait or you are just retarded?

>>44169016
that's one i was thinking, but it does have the smack of history revision how of the southern generals are quite Not Raicst.

>>44168217
>I want to say the guy is wrong but I'm having trouble coming up with the counter argument that it isn't just Firefly style White washing of the South.

Firefly at least wasn't really about the Confederacy itself, but is fundamentally about the losers of a similar conflict and explores what it's like to loose what is THE defining social conflict of your generation but rather then simply die you just have to keep making a living and find new reasons to stay alive.

This is actually a fairly good representation of the eras after the American Civil War, where lots of western frontier settlers were on the LOOSING side of the conflict and went west rather then be forced to live in a more organized society where they effectively would be known forever as the losers.

>>44167357
OP might be referencing the way D&D tends to be played with "adventurers" being an actual class of people in the world. Shadowrunners fill a similar void. It makes a default assumption that there is a social caste of diversely skilled people for hire to do dangerous shit.

In a western, you have gunslingers who kinda sorta do the same thing, but they are all basically the same archetype.

>>44168946
> Youre all morons if you don't want to run around as mormon paladins in your western game.
Kek.

>>44168217
>>44169138
Deadlands is right wing? Well. Honestly, that's probably true, but not for the reasons they are asserting.
Westerns by nature have a strong ethos of rugged individuality, standing up for one's rights - by violence as necessary, distrust of the government and civilization "back east," religion, capitalism, conservative social outlook...Most of those tend to actually be right-leaning themes, particularly by modern US political standards.

Of course, the sort of person who jumps to "its right wing because the confederacy isn't made to look blatantly evil" is probably far enough left that they think the word "right wing" is somehow bad or a slur.

Historically >>44169016 is on point. The confederacy had already begun to bring in black soldiers with pay, and the slave-based economic system was already having some trouble before the war even began.
cont..

>>44171824
For slavery to survive it is necessarily an expansionist system. Slaves will keep having children and thus creating more slaves, and you have to have somewhere for them to go. This is actually part of why the the south was so bent out of shape about limiting slavery's expansion. There was a theory that if you didn't have a place for the slave to go, the overpopulation would both crash the market -and- become a threat in the slave-holding centers. Uprising, etc etc. (This is also the reason the middle eastern slave trade practiced castration. They actually took as many or more slaves than the europeans/US did, but they castrated all of the males - which was messy and killed a significant portion of them. Thus, they dont have a giant population of african-descendants in the middle east)

The problem with the expansion system is that even if they had been allowed to expand freely, slavery wasn't very economical outside of the good farmland of the southeast. Plantations were an ideal way to use the system (if any version of slavery can be considered "ideal") but in places where largescale farms weren't as productive (the appalachian hills, the harsher climates of texas) you didn't see many slaves even when it was legal in those places. Even given the whole of the south to expand to in an alternate the-confederacy-won timeline, slavery just wouldn't have taken off very well anywhere but the southeast. With nowhere for slavery to expand to (and slaves to be exported to) it would have imploded.

File: image.jpg (43KB, 308x428px) Image search: [Google]

43KB, 308x428px

>>44171824
Plot points guy did kind of use 'right wing' in the same manner 'problematic' is, ie weasel word rather than say anything that would come across as provocative.

Tetsubo57 (that bald guy on YouTube) wasn't so kind and calls it the most offensive RPG since Reich Star. Although to his credit he does give the game Game recommendation simply with the caveat that he wouldn't play as written.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2gqTRNu1TEQ

The idea that the south would of ultimately had to of dropped slavery even if victorious I thinks is pretty historically accurate. But the fact draw attention to the issue they make in the Confederate around and then trying to downplay the whole racism angle, does kind of leave for a bad taste.

File: image.jpg (38KB, 470x313px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 470x313px

>>44168946
If anyone can make Mormons cold it would be Vince Barker making them gunslinger Knights of the old West....


But even he couldn't... Still good game.

>>44168217
>the host on the show has repeatedly made the assertion to that Dead Lands is a right wing RPG because the the backstory has the south winning the Civil War

>Native Americans as a group gain collective revenge on Europeans by genociding thousands and dragging the world into a literal hellhole.

>The Confederacy is torn apart by supernaturally-inspired punishment. Slavery has been made impossible due to actual fucking magic.

>Right wing.

This person you speak of is an idiot.

>>44168289
I came here to post this. Holy shit, Aces and Eights is amazing.

>>44176149
How clunky is it in play?

>>44176128
He actually does touch on the Indian thing.

Interestingly he comes up with the conclusion the Native American movement attracted a lot of right wing secessionist sympathises because 'they're just trying to form their own confederacy', and fighting for state rights of their own. Apparently the same guy who wrote 'segregation now, segregation forever' also wrote the one about the Little Big Horn College.

For what it's worth he doesn't point his finger at the game and says 'da racist', simply that it follows a 'the south did nufinh wrong' narrative, one that he doesn't personally agree with.

>>44176593
It isn't clunky at all. The combat and damage systems are cut and dry and provide a real sense of tactical play. It's nuts. I can run a quick combat if you're interested.

>>44176616
>'the south did nufinh wrong' narrative

But Deadlands doesn't have that narrative in it. At all.

Is this person of the opinion that anyone who doesn't demonize the South as American-Nazi Germany is a pro-segregationist slavery apologist? Because that's what it sounds like.

>Is this person of the opinion that anyone who doesn't demonize the South as American-Nazi Germany is a pro-segregationist slavery apologist

I won't put in it quite those words but yes basically. It has the confederate States still around . Yet brushes up over the issue of slavery and racism for the most place It would be like if you did a 'Werid world War' and said contrary to popular western propaganda that Nazi Germany was a tolerant place open to people of all colours and creeds.

He does gives them the benefit for the doubt and says they probably just knew it wouldn't be a very light hearted topic to touch on and would probably limit player options but he's set comes across as a revisionist view of history

>>44176747
Run a quick combat? How so?

>>44176616
>>44167588
>>44167711
Anyone ever played the original deadlands? or is everyone here advocating for the Savage Worlds version?

File: targeted_silhouette.jpg (40KB, 400x486px) Image search: [Google]

40KB, 400x486px

>>44177183
>Run a quick combat? How so?
You know, I provide characters and run through the basics of combat and the system in general. This is the target silhouette.

>>44177236
Sure. Lets do this.

>>44177318
Cool. Give me one second.

>>44177236
That's aces and eights I'm not mistaken.

>>44168289
>>44176149
>>44177236
That is one crazy thick book.

>>44177381
It isn't as formidable as it appears.

In Aces and Eights, gunfighting occurs within a series of time units called "Counts." Every action, depending on certain factors, costs a character a certain number of Counts to perform. Higher levels, skills, and characteristics reduce the Count cost a character incurs to do things like run and shoot.

The Count is a timeline running from the lowest initiative value to the highest. It seems a little weird at first, since in Aces and Eights characters acting simultaneously is common, but in practice it works itself out pretty well. Characters and combat example are incoming.

>>44177521
Sounds like hackmaster's setup?

File: Action Counts.png (328KB, 447x823px) Image search: [Google]

328KB, 447x823px

>>44177563
Similar, yeah.

Pic related is the basis for most of the action economy in the game. Characters essentially bid their actions according to the Count values on the chart and whatever happens in the course of combat happens. In practice it's one of the deadliest, most exhilarating systems I've ever played. Players determine their motives and behaviors according to their traits and skills, like how normal people would.

>>44177618
I'm looking at the firearm rules.

Under what circumstance would you ever buy a cap and ball revolver over a cartridge gun? They do the same damage per caliber, it looks like. They cost about the same per gun, cost about the same per box of ammunition..but the cartridge revolvers take about a tenth of the reload time.

>>44166715
I reskinned eote into a western once and just ran A New Hope thinly disguised as a western. They didn't notice. It was great.

>>44177942
Cost. Ammunition for cap and ball is much cheaper than cartridge.

File: Fighter 1.png (384KB, 824x968px) Image search: [Google]

384KB, 824x968px

So, our first fighter.

File: Fighter 2.png (340KB, 824x968px) Image search: [Google]

340KB, 824x968px

>>44178589
And his scuzzy, smelly, outlaw opponent

>>44178211
.44 100 cap/balls 2.00
.44 100 cartridges 2.65

Fair enough, I guess. Is sixty cents per hundred a significant amount in the A&8 economy?

>>44178589
>>44178605
Fantastic. Lets do this.

Just watched The Ridiculous Six on netflix, kind of want to play a gunslinger dullahan now.

Would reccomend.

>>44176593
Good system Aces and Eights, it's a pretty fluid system but actually require the player to pay attention to what they're doing so don't play with any any who holds a complacently "I hit it with my sword" attitude.

>>44177236
The silhouette system is brilliant. Is the only system I've seen that handles called shot well. You place the plastic transparency over where you're aiming on the figure. You roll your dice to see how close you get on the ring (You need a 21 for a Bullseye) and then you randomly determine what section on that ring you hit from a card draw.

That may sounds incredibly clunky perhaps how I describe it but it's incredibly elegant in play. It's a simple D 20 rolled then card Draw.

File: Screenshot (125).png (570KB, 1000x734px) Image search: [Google]

570KB, 1000x734px

Kek

>>44180401
I'm voting for Ben Wade to win that shoot out. .

Rolled 7, 2 = 9 (2d10)

>>44179547
Sorry for the wait.

There are no turns in Aces and Eights. Character actions are only measured in time, the aforementioned Counts. The first procedure is to roll a d10 and add your base Speed to the result. The sum of your Speed and the d10 is the Count your character may first act upon; as you can see, having a lower Speed is actually beneficial.

So let's roll 2d10 and see what we get. First value is for our sheriff, the second one is for our outlaw.

>>44180584
>Sheriff: 7+1 = 8
>Outlaw: 2+9 = 11

So, the Sheriff starts on Count 8 and the Outlaw starts 3 Counts later. A Count is equivalent to a tenth of a second, by the way.

So now we use the chart I posted earlier to determine how we're going to attack our opponent. We'll say, for the sake of argument, that neither of our combatants have their guns drawn.

The Sheriff will act first. Drawing a pistol, cocking it, and then firing it has a Count total of (5+3) 8. So he'll draw on Count 13 (8+5) and fire on Count 16 (13+3).

Our unfortunate Outlaw, performing the same action, wouldn't fire until Count 19. So let's proceed. Let me type up the firing procedure.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>44180695
To target an opponent, you position the shot clock over the location on their silhouette you want to hit. It takes a modified roll of 25 to hit exactly which area you've targeted. Pic related is our target - the outlaw's black guts.

We act before the outlaw, so we don't have much else to worry about. The next procedure is to roll a d20 and add our modifiers.

>>44180489
Well this topic is now floating higher...

File: silhouette.jpg (14KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

14KB, 480x360px

>>44180795
Woops.

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>44180795
Damn, we're gonna be close to target on this one. Our Sheriff's Accuracy is 6. Added to our d20 result, we get 21. Our range modifier is an additional +1. Because we didn't roll a 25, we have to draw a playing card and determine the location of our bullet's impact.

>3 Spades

Now we find the position of our shot on the grid. 21, 3 Spades puts us right at the Outlaw's lungs and stomach. This will be a nasty hit. Our Sheriff's gun does d6+1 damage, so let's do that now.

>>44167744
One hundred percent this. Currently party includes a half-breed swindler/musician, a deserter from the Fascist Magitech state's military, a rakish high society brat from aforementioned Fascist Magitech state who stole the key to his father's magitech power armor and is looking to kitbash his own, a wandering paladin-preacher, and a hired blade looking to get revenge on the gang that wiped hers out.

>>44166715
Always the option of a town based game. Have them as a group of all different archetypes and have them all trying to find their place and make their fortune. Think Deadwood

>>44180905
>4 Damage
The Outlaw is now at 17 hit points.

Combat now continues until one person or the other reaches 0 hit points.

And that's the basics! There are a ton of other rules for infections and wound effects, and so on, but they only tack on a few extra dice rolls to the system I just played out. Any questions?

>>44181057
Aw, but the wound tables are the best part!

>>44181057
Does the game account for say... shooting someone from the side, or from above?

Do you wind up needing a ton of different silhouettes for various animals, etc?

>>44180804
My man Ben..

>>44181094
There are a bunch of different silhouettes, yeah. Most of them are general - standing guy, crouching guy, prone guy, large animal, small animal, etc.

Are there any Aces & Eights actual plays anywhere?

Also - has anyone played with Boot Hill?

>>44181057

>"This will be a nasty hit"
>A 5th of the Outlaw's HP

I would like to see whatever system that governs "nasty hits" actually played out

>>44166715
play as a group of Texas rangers on the trail of a band of outlaws.

or a band of outlaws robbing towns avoiding the law and dealing with natives.

or a group of cow hands bring a herd to market.

or do an Oregon trail campaign

or

>>44181057
Wait, why did we have to determine where we hit if we just use hitpoints in the end?

File: Z0045955.jpg (135KB, 814x1023px) Image search: [Google]

135KB, 814x1023px

For something with a more supernatural bent.

>>44181480
also you could make them a group that has been assigned the task of bringing law to a territory like Montana, by the newly instated Governor. Who happens to be corrupt

>>44181401
>>44181489
As mentioned, there are several additional rules you can tack on to the basic system I just described. I don't have the book here with me so I can't give you as many details.

There are wound charts and damage modifiers based on the location and severity of the hit. It is possible to incapacitate a guy with a shot to the gut, yes.

>>44181566
why is there a hole in the book?

>Ctrl+f "Gurps"
>No results

Oh come on already!!!!

Blood and Bullets is an OSR styled western game, so its very rules lite, and free online

>>44169010
I've never played this before. Is it any good?

File: image.jpg (44KB, 236x314px) Image search: [Google]

44KB, 236x314px

I think dogs in the vineyard is worth a look myself. The game has a good social combat systerm. Prefect for dramatic stand off.

>>44180401
>>44180489
>>44180804
>>44181118
Ben Wade confirmed for Best Outlaw

File: Boot Hill - Lost Conquistador Mine - (TSR7702).pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>44188037

File: Boot Hill Encounters.jpg (1MB, 2475x3505px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2475x3505px

>>44188048
thank me later

>>44166715
Members of a gang, members of a posse, on the run and conviently get together, they all get into a barfight at the local saloon.

or maybe you could have your players fucking talk to one another and intergrate their backstories themeselves!?!

>>44177183
I've only played the SW version, but I hear it's a big improvement on the original while keeping many of the aspects that made it unique.
IIRC SW is literally based on the Deadlands system so considering SW Deadlands a Deadlands 2E wouldn't be wrong.

File: mars.jpg (125KB, 1600x1600px) Image search: [Google]

125KB, 1600x1600px

>>44166715
Send them to Barsoom halfway through, make it a game about cowboys vs Tharks.

File: Deadlands Huckster.png (255KB, 350x638px) Image search: [Google]

255KB, 350x638px

>>44177183
I've played both. Deadlands Classic is a lot of fun, but the system is clunky. The damage system with wind and wounds can get tiresome, and traits and attributes are spread thin. The Savage Worlds version just feels like a natural evolution of the original game.

I love Deadlands either way though.

File: Samurai by ghost-1515.jpg (117KB, 1024x569px) Image search: [Google]

117KB, 1024x569px

>>44166715

There's also Red Sun, where a bandito played by Charles Bronson of Magnificent Seven teams up with a samurai played by Toshiro Mifune of Seven Samurai/Yojimbo to track down outlaws to take back a sword given to the President from the Japanese Emperor. They also fight natives. It was a pretty cool movie.

>>44190605
Ive always loved the idea of samurai in a western.

I want to mix the western genre with the feeling of a final fantasy. Probably I'll just rework ffviii and the "gardens" (PCs are all soldiers raised on military academies, and their job is to perform missions for their academies, and sometimes for third parties for money).

Meanwhile, up north there is a land where a witch has peformed a coup d'etat and is a menace for the civilized world.

Basically final fantasy 8 but with western-level tech and gritty combat rules (no weaboo magics or ki powers, just guns, rifles and stealth missions)

>>44191146
This actually sounds fun.

Write up your ideas into a more succinct document and post it, I'd probably like to show the idea to my own group.

>>44191146
>>44191218
I actually started writing up a norse western before I found out that /tg started one. Now I'm in a weird spot with it.. because I feel like if I release it as a thing, people will just scream about it being ripped off /tg. Meh.

>>44191244
Do it anyway. There's no such thing as an original idea.

Besides, I haven't heard about this other thing you're talking about.

>>44191244
>>44191259
>Besides, I haven't heard about this other thing you're talking about.
That's because nothing ever came of it.
We had a few threads of brainstorming and then a 1d4chan page was made with the pdfs.
After that it just died, never to be heard from again, because nobody ever actually test played it.
Cause nobody here has any real friends to play with.
/tg/ getting shit done as usual...

>>44191330
What's the 1d4chan page?

>>44191364
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Setting:Heathen_Western

>>44191244
>Now I'm in a weird spot with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxGRhd_iWuE
Do it.

>>44191244
as the guy who came up with that concept that time, I urge you to do it! I feel that we half-baked the thing and it evolved into something very different from what I had in mind. I'd love to see your vision of the work.

Just remember that the underground, blacksmithing dark elves giving humans the secret of revolver is a very cool idea

>>44191218
I can't do it now, but I'll try to post it on a homebrew thread soon!

>>44191648
Would you be gravely bothered if when finished it was sold? Either kickstarter or pay-what-you-want on drivethru?

As it stands, the notes are shaping into a full-scale game.

>>44191774
not at all. I'd probably buy it if it looks nice. Go ahead man!

>>44190700
Did you ever play Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman?

>>44191983
I have not!