Why is one of the best time periods/settings in world history

>>50800952
Because it doesn't have magic

>>50800952
People probably assume that, because of the relatively common (though less so now) western movies that it's "for normals" and, therefore, boring. I personally like it, though.

>How do non-Americans feel about the American old west? Is interest in it nearly a strictly American thing?
I don't know that, but I do know a lot of old western movies were actually filmed in Italy (hence the term "spaghetti western") that probably got the genre at least slightly wider spread, though not necessarily any wider than the actual people involved in making them.

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>>50800952
>>50801871
EU faggot here, its a pretty cool setting very romanticised which is dandy, personally i think it would be hard to pull of and make it good.

>>50800952
>Is interest in it nearly a strictly American thing?
Nah, it's just an old-person thing. As late as the '50s everyone was crazy about Westerns and kids played cowboys and indians everywhere. It just sort of... collapsed from overexposure, everyone had seen every story done fifteen times. There's actually a bit of interesting literature on it, but I can't give you titles anymore, I'm afraid.

Anyway, Westerns had a universal popularity which dwarfs the one fantasy has now, for instance. Frenchmen and Germans were fucking crazy about Wild West stories. Basically it has everything; it's got savages, strange landscapes, duels, a land of freedom beyond the rigid confines of civilization etcetera, it's actually very similar to a lot of fantasy in that regard. (If you look at a lot of space opera it's even moreso; something like Buck Rogers is effectively a Western with rubber suits.)

A western is about a single wandering murderhobo who kills a bunch of assholes and usually fucks a woman or two. It doesn't bring any plot device opportunities that you couldn't get out of a fantasy setting. The only ones who'd be interested in playing a western are the fans of it.

>>50800952
>so criminally underused in TTRPGs

It might not be as popular as fantasy or scifi, but that doesn't mean there aren't cool games for it. Aces & Eights comes to mind.

>>50802212
And the only one with any significant fanbase is Deadlands, the one that injects fantasy into it.

Kind of like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun, in a way.

>>50802212
Aces & Eights has the downside of having an abysmal combat system unless you come seriously prepared with silhouettes for everything under the sun or simplify it to using the same silhouette; which ultimately begs the question of why the hell bother using the shot clock at all?

As much as I want to love the system, they tried far too hard with combat and failed miserably and as a result the game is dead because of it. There was no reason to reinvent the wheel as a result of wanting to incorporate called shots as a main game mechanic when plenty of systems do it better.

>>50802320
I like that the system is second based instead of turn based, and I really like the shotclock system. Sure, it's slow, but then show me any crunchy system that isn't.

>>50800952
The american west is kinda... eh. Like, gunslinging is a bit of a cool aesthetic but there's no actual scope to anything, or anything to do out there that's interesting. Like, I'm sure as an American you think that stealing horses and genociding mysterious spiritualist natives and getting in a shootout at a bar in your downtime is solid and fun foundation for a campaign, but I don't share that opinion.

I guess its more like the old west is a shit setting but the stuff in it is kinda cool. Works best when its thrown into another, better setting. Sick railroads and shit, town sheriffs etc. are cool setpieces but they also define upper limits on the old west as a setting that prevent it from being truly great.

Consider how much cooler it would be if your old west was say, people expanding back over the mostly buried ruins of Europe a half dozen centuries since there was last a living person there.

>>50802429
...or rather, since anyone had contact with a living person there.

Russiafag here.

If you're talking about western as aesthetic, then, I guess, while it's actually well represented out of /tg/ (Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, Fallout, Cowboy Bebop, Firefly), it's kinda hard to translate it's drive and sense of traveling the unexplored, lawless frontiers into tabletop (cause, you know, it's not new and unknown if you fought almost identical pack of mooks in almost identical place which you don't even see yourself 10 minutes ago).

If you're talking about Wild West as a location and/or time period, then it's not really that interesting for people outside US; it's like anyone outside Britain taking interest in their colonisation efforts, or anyone non-Russian taking a crap about conquering Siberia.

>>50802429
>Medievil fantasy is kinda... eh. Like, swordfighting is a bit of a cool aesthetic but there's no actual scope to anything, or anything to do out there that's interesting. Like, I'm sure as a European you think that stealing artifacts and genociding mysterious spiritualist races and getting in a brawl at a tavern in your downtime is solid and fun foundation for a campaign, but I don't share that opinion.
>I guess its more like medieval fantasy is a shit setting but the stuff in it is kinda cool. Works best when its thrown into another, better setting. Sick castles and shit, knights etc. are cool setpieces but they also define upper limits on the medieval fantasy as a setting that prevent it from being truly great.
>Consider how much cooler it would be if your medieval fantasy was say, people exploring back over the mostly buried ruins of Rome a half dozen centuries since there was last a living person there.

>>50802722
Hey the colonisation period is awesome

>>50801804
Neither did the medieval period. If you can have urban fantasy you can have weird west.

>>50800952
It's cool, but I can have the same kind of adventures in Europe or in the colonial empires, that I know a little bit better due to the fact that I studied it (and cultural osmosis). I've got no hatred of that setting, but why would I do aditional work for no visible benefit? If I'm doing some research I'd rather have adventures in truly exotic places, like 1850 Malaysia.

>>50800952
>Is interest in it nearly a strictly American thing?
>best Western movies were made by Italians and half of Europe's comic book scene is built around westerns

Take a wild guess, m8.

>>50800952
Honest question:

Why would it be better than cossacks exploring Siberia or gauchos fighting mapuches? Both have the same elements, and are exotic insted of cliche.

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Mixing it up with native mythology makes it a great setting.

Watch the film Ravenous, it's great.

>>50800952

Check out Louis L'Amour's work, the man is the undisputed king of western literature.

>>50800952
The American old West lacks grandeur. Castles, reigns, magic, large glittering cities. Though I guess you could make it work by going deep into native American mythology and make it about nature, forests, and beasts.

>>50800952

The setting isn't used often, true, but there's loads of things that use a western "feel" or "flavor". That's in general tho, dunno about rpgs specifically.

>>50800952
I like shooters set in American Old West. I'm not interested in playing it as RPG.

>>50801945
>A fantasy setting is about a single wandering murderhobo who kills a bunch of assholes and usually fucks a woman or two. It doesn't bring any plot device opportunities that you couldn't get out of a western. The only ones who'd be interested in playing a fantasy setting are the fans of it.

>>50801804
'Wands for sale: 6 blasts of lightening or two fireballs.'
'Wagons..pfft, get your flying carpet with tent option here'
'Horses are for losers, get your broom on'