Old West Setting?

[tcabril]

Has anyone done an Old West setting?

I believe I once saw (years ago a campaign book for an earlier incarnation of Hero System) a book called "Western Hero" but I would probably be very much out of date.

 

To be quite honest I got the idea sitting around watching The Magnificent Seven TV series and knowing that I have no desire to run K&Cs Aces and Eights (way too complicated for my taste...)

 

The system is very straight forward and dropping most if not all of the powers (as many if not all would be inappropriate - I don't see cowboys flying or teleporting per se [though an interesting thought...])

 

What character point level would work - do you think?

 

Any suggestions or help would be great - I love hearing people's ideas!

 

Todd

[phookz]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

There was indeed a "Western Hero" produced as a 4th edition product: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Hero-Campaign-Book-System/dp/1558061185

 

I never picked it up myself, so I can't speak to its quality. Post Apocalyptic Hero touches on the subject briefly, according to the Table of Contents, but I don't have that product either: https://www.herogames.com/get/PAH_preview.pdf

 

HERO makes a pretty good platform for porting other games to. You could probably use Aces and Eights as source material. GURPS Old West could be good source material as well: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/OldWest/. There's probably something on these forums for the genre as well, but I didn't find it with a cursory search.

 

I think HERO scales well to games like that, it would work well for it.

[Palmate]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

Deadlands was a pretty good system with a heavy western bent, and if you don't like that, Hero would be great - you can port a lot over both from other systems and movies fairly easily, as others have pointed out. Western Hero is a good source book I still reference whenever I have a western one shot or scene with western influence. I recommend picking it up if you can find it cheap. I think I paid like 7 bucks at a Half Price Books a few years ago. I own PAH but honestly have not cracked the cover as I moved just after getting it...

Personally I would go Hero – but I convert many of my games, and systems over to Hero.

I would look at how Firearms are built, look at using MP for some situations; it will be a heavy skill based game - imo - with the main powers being firearms, and maybe a good dose of Luck

Let us know how it goes.

P

[tcabril]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

How many character points would you think to give a character in a Western Hero type game?

[Palmate]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

I personally feel most comfortable running Heroic games with around 150pt, 75/75 or any breakdown there-in. For western I would test build a few characters, and you will need to decide about the Firearms... it will be a big decision for the campaign. I personally would build the 5-10 most common firearms for the setting, include bows and arrows, etc. then work with the players, anything out side of those items either need to be approved by you, or if non-standard by the setting standards, then perhaps purchased with character points as a "special" model or something along those lines. Otherwise I would not have the players required to purchase the guns and such, gets to be too expensive and stops making sense at some point.

so to recap, I think 150 CP characters are about right, heroic, but they don't fly

as suggested in Heroic games PCs don't tend to have to by their equipment except in special cases. I would stick with that as well.

P

[jtelson]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

(as many if not all would be inappropriate - I don't see cowboys flying or teleporting per se [though an interesting thought...])

 

A dry wind blew through the mining village of Chloride, AZ. Two men rode quietly into the center of town, dismount, and loosely tied their horses to a post.

 

Easy Pete glanced up and down the empty street. “Seems a mite too quiet, whadda ya think?”

Mike tossed his head in the direction of the saloon’s balcony, the bottom edge of a leather duster hung loosely through the slats, “Someone talked, most likely.”

 

“Indeed, someone did.” A thick English accent wrapped itself around the phrase as a small bespectacled man walked purposefully from the Wild Rose into the center of the street. “And that someone is, alas, no more. Your services gentlemen are therefore not required. Kindly depart and there will be no need for any unpleasantness.”

 

Mike shook his head slowly. Pete sighed and then spat. Fishing out a silver dollar he looked at his partner, “Call it,” as he flipped the coin high into the air.

 

“Heads,” Mike called out as he drew his pistols and ran straight towards the Englishman.

Gracefully spinning as he leapt over the bandit’s head, he landed facing back towards the horses and fired two shots, an armed gunman fell clutching his chest from the window over the general store and another stumbled out of the Wild Rose collapsing in a heap.

 

Easy Pete dove behind a watering trough as the rifleman on the balcony stood and began firing, an instant later Pete was behind the man, tackling him, the momentum carrying them both over the balcony and into the street. The gunman hit the ground with a sickening crack, Pete rolled easily out of the fall catching the coin and slapping it onto the back of his hand.

 

Pete glanced down at the double eagle, “Heads, it is.”

 

Mike nodded holstering his pistols, “All right Mister, you all but told us that you killed my brother…so, Draw!”

[Tasha]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

If you are using 6e I would make the characters 175pts (with 50pts complications).

 

Western Hero is a great resource for playing western games. It has a list of weapons that would be appropriate to that age. Also there's expanded rules for using Fast Draw (a skill most characters will have in a western gunslingers game). Most of the pieces can be found elsewhere (ie Dark Champions would have the weapons and probably the expanded Fast Draw rules).

 

I would recommend that most of the PCs also pickup Combat Luck. It seems that RL gunfights that most of the Successful Gunfighters had incredible luck when it came to being missed by the opposition. Combat Luck simulates this pretty well. Without Combat Luck the game will be bloody as there is no real body armor available in that time period (ie no rDef).

 

Good Luck, it can be a fun genre. Heck, the many subgenres are a scream too.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

Good Luck' date=' it can be a fun genre. Heck, the many subgenres are a scream too.[/quote']

 

No more appropriate quotation could precede my mention of the Fourth Edition sourcebook, Horror Hero, which among the three mini-settings included in it is a campaign set in the American Old West pitting PCs against a secret cult of Hell-worshipping, devil-summoning sorcerors.

[phookz]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

Here's an old thread with resources you could use:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/55990-Western-Hero-Resources

 

And here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/64201-Western-Hero/page

where I found this cool link to the code of the west

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-codewest.html

 

The thought of playing a western has never appealed to me before but now I'm thinking it has a lot of potential to be ridiculously fun.

[brionl]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

Hey, I was going to say GURPS Old West too. I have a metric crap load of GURPS sourcebooks, even though I never actually play it.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Old West Setting?

 

Has anyone done an Old West setting?

I believe I once saw (years ago a campaign book for an earlier incarnation of Hero System) a book called "Western Hero" but I would probably be very much out of date.

 

With the HERO System, "very much" out of date means you have to take a few more notes on how to get the builds just right. From a gameplay standpoint, you could very nearly use it as-is.