So I had an idea that I feel really hasn't been pursued, and that is combining the themes and feel of a Cowboy Western (the good kind, not the hokey kind) with a fantasy Roleplaying game.
This would be a game that is not Good vs Evil, but Savage vs Civilization. The easter part of the land would be very cultured and civilized with cities, while the west is filled with different types of tribal savages. There is good and evil on both sides, but for me this is a way to bring the frontier to fantasy.
The closest thing I can think of is Firefly, which as I'm sure most of you will agree is a great, great show. I don't have the time to whip too much up right now, but be prepared. I know I'm going to have this:
Paladins wielding guns and swords,
two main factions, humans, dwarves, and gnomes are for the most part the "Civilized races"
while Elves, Orcs, and Halflings are the "savages of the west"
Magical Booze!
Frontier Towns and Boom-towns
Imagine if Clint Eastwood strode into town wearing a dwarven breastplate, with a brown leather duster, pistol on his hip, cigar in his mouth, longsword on the other hip, hat pulled low over his head as he tugs hard on the reins of his Dire Wolf named Heragdar.
Does this sound cool to anyone? or are cowboys and indians lame now.
Magic missile shootin' Wizards dueling for books, duster and scarp ala Fist Full of Dollars included.
I like!
After playing that one fairly forgettable game where you play a vampire sheriff,(Deathwatch? I don't remember) I had a similar idea, and have only not worked on it due to time constraints (this has been about 2 years now)
One of my ideas involved "The Holy Wanderer", a prestige class based vaguely off the whole Man With No Name mystique, a traveling paladin-like gunman, with Holy cold iron six-guns and silver bullets, packing stakes, crosses, and just generally spelling doom for any infestation of evil.
I like the civilization versus savagery angle, but I think there should be some pretty strong moral combats. My main inspiration is, think if Van Helsing, from the movie, went to the West rather than Transylvania. The cities are lands of intrigue and ingenuity, and the wilds are the land of will and might.
Quote from: AllWillFall2MeOne of my ideas involved "The Holy Wanderer", a prestige class based vaguely off the whole Man With No Name mystique, a traveling paladin-like gunman, with Holy cold iron six-guns and silver bullets, packing stakes, crosses, and just generally spelling doom for any infestation of evil.
Five words:
The Gunslinger by Stephen King.
Well first of all, this is not going to be "oh you so stole that from Stephen King" because if there is one thing I know about Western movies is that they steal from each other. A LOT! so, consider this game a homage to all those great movies. There are really two types of Western films, and for sake of design I am going to refer to them as JOHN WAYNE and CLINT EASTWOOD.
John Wayne is usually about a genuinely good man (or woman) who will risk it all to help those who are in trouble. Look at the Three Amigos (with Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short) for a good parody of this. There is nothing wrong with a John Wayne campaign, it is simple, straight forward, and fun. In these kinds of games there are bad guys and good guys.
In Clint Eastwood Campaigns, the line between good guy and bad guy is pretty blurred. Heroes are more like Anti-Heroes. They may be bounty hunters, hired guns, drunks, or law-men who take a little off the top for themselves. These kinds of games are grim and gritty, and often the violence is not glorified. Often there are real moral choices that come up. Such as: The townsfolk want to stone El Tigre to death for robbing their bank. Do you defend a criminal, which will probably result in the deaths of a whole bunch of townsfolk, or allow him to be executed even though the townsfolk got their money back thanks to you?
I'm off to Barnes and Noble to get inspiration and research material, I will be posting a whole bunch of inspirations when I get back later tonight.
I don't think he was saying "You stole from Stephen King," but rather, "Hey, Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' series has some features that may be worth your exploring."
You're right. I hate how sometimes just speaking through text complicates communication.
I've decided how I'm going to split this campaign into the Savage vs Civilization.
The Republic of Santa Alvara represent the most powerful democracy in the world. They own the entire continent after purchasing the Wilds from the foreign powers that had set up colonies there. The Republic has moved into the Wilds with thousands of settlers and emigrants trying to make a new life for themselves. (This is the John Wayne Campaign)
The Wilds were once under foreign control (if you could call their laze faire approach control) but now are slowly being conquered by east. This stretch of plains, forests, and mountains are home to the Twelve Tribes, outlaws, remnants of the Foreign occupation, dark elf pirates raiding on Earth Elemental Land-Ships, and other unscrupulous types (This is the Clint Eastwood Campaign).
Quote from: GnomemasterThe Republic of Santa Alvara represent the most powerful democracy in the world. They own the entire continent after purchasing the Wilds from the foreign powers that had set up colonies there. The Republic has moved into the Wilds with thousands of settlers and emigrants trying to make a new life for themselves. (This is the John Wayne Campaign)
This sounds cool, just one comment. Make it a democracy, or a republic, not both.
Why can't it be a republic? It'd be quite right if Mr. Gnomemaster was looking for something akin to the majority of Earth governments, which are all representative democracies (a combination of a republic and a democracy).
Quote from: JharvissWhy can't it be a republic? It'd be quite right if Mr. Gnomemaster was looking for something akin to the majority of Earth governments, which are all representative democracies (a combination of a republic and a democracy).
Which is called an elective democracy, not a republic.
I guess that I could make it a little more definitive. It is a representative democracy, not a direct democracy. Republic is just a word that to me brings to mind the Pledge of Allegiance (And to the Republic for which it stands) The Republic of Santa Alvara just sounds cooler and simpler than the Elective Democracy that also has a Presidential System of Alvara. To me, the actual politics of the Eastern part of the country will probably have little to do with actual game play, it's just background. Occasionally a powerful Senator or Representative may ask the players for help, but the inner-workings of the Republic will not be a big deal.
The frontier-politics on the other hand will be a big deal.
If we look to Firefly and Serenity for a moment, we know there was once two factions: The Browncoats and the Alliance. Now there is only the Alliance and the wild frontier planets. That's how this game will turn out, the difference is this: Players can choose to side with the government or the Wild because neither is good or evil, they are only differing philosophies.
I have a huge Essay I need to finish, but I will Start up a Homebrew thread and this will be the discussion thread. I want to write up a nice intro like Luminous Crayon's Jade Stage because that man is a genius. I love it when these kinds of questions come up because it helps me think.
"Republic" is a rather broad term that usually means that sovereignty is held by elected, non-hereditary bodies (like a congress) or persons (like a president). In its broadest sense it simply means "not a monarchy." It is sometimes used in a modern sense to mean a representative democracy, as opposed to a direct (Athenian) democracy. The American founding fathers, for instance, contrasted an American "republic" that safeguarded the rights of its citizens with a direct "democracy" (like the Athenian one) that could easily fall prey to the tyranny of the majority.
Whether "democracy" and "republic" are compatible depends on your definition of the terms, but in their broadest sense most modern democratic governments are democratic republics.
I would use whichever term sounds right to you and not worry about the "Political Science Angle (tm)." "Republic" has a good old west feel to it (Texas Republic, Bear Flag Republic) so I'd go with that if you like the sound of it. Certainly many governments have called themselves things they are obviously not (People's Democratic Republic of...), so it would certainly not be out of the ordinary for Santa Alvara to be called a republic even if it technically wasn't.
I'm looking forward to reading more.
Thanks Carp, you hit the nail on the head. The thread for my posts is here: http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?41747.last (//FistfulofCoins)
Ill be posting about what makes this game different than others such as: New Monster roles, guns, and a sample town.
Is this going to become the discussion thread for the setting, or will discussion be allowed in the main thread? I'm enjoying what I see so far, but I have a few comments and questions, and I'd prefer to make them in their proper place.
this is the discussion thread, please ask away
Okay, after I posted that, I noticed you said that this was not based on "the hokey kind" of cowboy westerns. Is it fairly safe to assume that you mean this will be a bit more dusty, and not something filled with Howdy Doody-esque cowboys, and old miners that are chronically overexcited? If that's the case, then kudos. Those elements are what kept the whole "cowboys 'n' indians" thing from being cool, for me.
Are you going to incorporate magic? If so, why not take the Pirates of the Carribean "They're not superstitions and myths, after all" approach? Because everybody knows Paul Bunyan really was a 14-foot tall giant, no lie ;)
How close to real US history are you going to stick? For example, are (or were) the eastern states at war?
You say there's going to be evil on both sides. Does this mean you're going to go with the "Honorable savage" stereotype (a la Dances With Wolves), or more of the "sneaky thieving injun" stereotype, or even going with both? I'm curious how racism comes into play in issues like these.
WEll, I'm not going to stick very close to American History at all really. The Foreign Powers (This group of folks are purposefully going to be unknown for the most part. This is where all the weird races and things that don't fit come from. It is a tool for Players to say "I wanna be a Changeling, so I come from across the ocean from the small country of Kikrazitstan.") The Republic was in a cold war with the Foreign Powers, but through diplomacy were able to grab hold of the Wilds (The Foreign Powers decided it wasn't worth the trouble). Most of the campaign is about the struggle to tame the Wilds.
Yes there will be "Noble Savages" but I plan on staying away from the Injun for the most part. There are twelve tribes, each one unique and different, each one similar to Indians, but not. I'm proud to say that Finals are finally over, so you will see more from me coming up.
This sounds pretty close to a campaign I tried to run one time.
I'll definitely be checking up and seeing how this turns out.
This is the most ingenius thing I have ever heard of:
Let's take good races and evil races and put them on the same side, then have them fight good races and evil races on the opposite side.
Why had I never considered the brilliance of this? I had done it, but I have never really thought of it in those terms, nor really brought it out to its full potential.
I'm sorry, I just had to mention how much I like the idea of good & evil fighting good & evil.
Hey thanks! I see it as whether good or evil, each side seems to have the same major motivation: Greed. For research material, I've watched Fistful of Dollars (where I get the name of this campaign) as well as the Good, The Bad, The Ugly (GBU). The best part of GBU is that each person is only interested in getting more money for themselves. Angel-eyes is the bad, willing to do whatever it takes to get 200,000 dollars in gold coins. He will kill, torture, and lie his way, and he is the perfect PC for this campaign. This, in my opinion, is the viable way to play an Evil character with good characters without it unraveling in fifteen minutes. Even a Paladin can side with Angel-Eyes because they have no other choice (That's why Clint Eastwood (The Man with No Name) joins with him.
Duko is the ugly, and he is the perfect comedic character without being stupid. The problem with the Western style is that is too easy to become ridiculous and not funny. The phrase "Well HoooOWDEE Pardner!" should not be in the game. that the kind of satire that I feel would derail the game. Instead, while Duko acts silly and often seems incompetent, he is still a hardened man of the frontier and not to be trifled with. In fact, Duko is the first Captain Jack Sparrow, IMHO, he stumbles around, he's mean when he wants to be, he's incredibly lucky and dangerous and likes to get drunk.
Eastwood is the good, although not that good. Eastwood is still driven by greed and making money, but is partial to those who really need help. Unlike John Wayne or similar cowboys, Eastwood knows everything has a price. He is the perfect Good character because, while he is a good man, he is not afraid to kill (although he does not do so needlessly) and feels no remorse when in GBU he fails to save Shorty's life and lets him hang. He only mutters "Sorry Shorty." and moves on.
Now, how does the Western really apply to Fantasy? because it is hard to keep it from being too cowpokey (or Cow-hokey) or too much like a standard fantasy. The biggest change in the game will be the flavor.
Players will have to gauge how their character dresses, how he speaks, how he acts, and what are his goals. That is more important than the color of their eyes or their hair.
The use of guns will be big, but they are simple weapons and are not much more efficient than using a bow. These guns are very primitive when compared to what real life Cowboys used. The big difference is that the Savages of the Wild use bows usually, and the Republic citizens use guns. Guns are also seen as a symbol of stature or authority, men in power usually carry ceremonial guns that are decorated with silver and gold. The Guns are not sleek and small, like real cowboys carries, instead they are large and bulky, like Hellboy's pistol.
Entirely different setting that's got the same general setting idea.
http://www.strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,2943.0.html (//DiscussionThread)
http://www.strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,2932.0.html (//StoryThread)
The first is the actual disscusion about the setting and the second link is a story set in the same setting.
There was a "campaign" in the webcomic, Something Positive that used a fantasy-western setting, and I thought it was pretty good overall, so you may want to take a look at that if you haven't already :)