The Campaign Builder's Guild

Well, the title says it all really, Dungeons and Dragons in the Old West (or somewhere similar). I just wondered what anybody thought really, but a half-orc with a shotgun is fairly cool...

Sounds like a plan :)

Wild West sounds like a lot of fun if you can fit the races into it reasonably. :)

d20 Past might work the best here, unless you were planning on using the D&D classes and magic.

Quote from: limetomd20 Past might work the best here, unless you were planning on using the D&D classes and magic.

I agree but the half-orc and half-elves would fit really well as bandits since they are outcasts already, which would be cool. Each "nation" could be a town with a region of land for farming and cattle and they could have border disputes  :)

Quote from: limetomd20 Past might work the best here, unless you were planning on using the D&D classes and magic.

I like the idea of D&D classes and magic mixed with the Old West theme and weapons.

Great imagery is in the offing.

One thing you might try is deconstructing the "old west" style, and reconstructing it within DnD. That way, you get a similar feel without the end result seeming like a direct conversion.

What makes the old west the old west?
1 - Large amounts of "new" land, largely unexplored and unsettled frontier space
2 - The promise of easy wealth (i.e., gold rush); anybody might strike it rich!
2a - Wealth, once found, is often quickly flaunted or squandered on gambling, Women of Questionable Virtue, or other hedonistic entertainment
2b - Rich targets, combined with thinly-spread law enforcement, make for a lucrative area for crime.
3 - Vast inrush of settlers and claimants, motivated by wealth (2), hailing from diverse regions
3a - Resultant clash of various cultures in neutral space
3b - A marginalized and displaced native culture resents the new occupiers, and violence breaks out.

We could continue the list, but I think that's enough for a start.

So, we apply the same basic elements to a new culture, like this:

[ic=Islandia]Dwarven settlers have recently settled on the coast of a large island continent, Islandia. Using cheap human labor, they've built up quite a civilization, but with the exception of a few explorers here and there, they don't stray too far inland, because dealing with Islandia's native feral halflings is more trouble than it's worth.

Then, some explorer stumbles upon a vein of rare metallium ore, deep in Islandia's wild heartland. Now, it's a race to get rich! Dwarves and humans from their coastal Islandia settlements, as well as gnomes and ogres from neighboring continents, all hurry to set up towns deep in Islandia, to attempt to strike it rich with metallium mining.

All these new settlements lack the infrastructure to support them. Transportation is sparse, so supplies are sometimes hard to come by. Some luxury items are available for those who've struck it rich; every bartender and dancing girl is looking to get a piece of the profit from a lucky prospector just back from his metallium claim. High-stakes gambling games over the winnings are not uncommon, and may the Gods help you if you're caught cheating (or even merely accused.) Law enforcement lacks the manpower to deal with the problems that arise when metallium prospectors realise that striking it rich from mining takes more luck than they thought, but robbing your neighbor of his metallium fortune is much easier.

These towns also mean dwarves, humans, gnomes, and ogres are confined in small spaces, and their cultures mix and clash. In small towns where everyone knows everyone else, a misunderstanding can easily turn into a vendetta that everyone else in town takes sides on (or hides from, if the two involved are especially scary.) Dwarves resent the gnomes, gnomes resent the humans, and all three groups hate the ogres. It's easy to get killed around Islandia simply for looking at someone the wrong way. And everyone has to be careful of halfling raids against these interlopers and their strange new towns. [/ic]I think that's just about everything from my list above. This is a very rough example, because I did it very quickly, but it's already beginning to develop some old west style characteristics. I would also suspect that someone reading finished material on Islandia (without being privy to the thought process I demonstrated for brainstorming it) would not immediately think, "Hey, that's a DnD version of the old west!" The flavor's there, but it's subtle, so Islandia stands on its own a little better than a more blatant old west conversion might.

Someone willing to put a little more time and effort into it (and use serious names instead of "Islandia" and "metallium") might get some pretty nice results with a thought process like that.

At any rate, reading over Islandia has given me some ideas I want to use for a part of my own setting that's been bugging me for quite some time. Funny how that works. :)

I recall some years ago a Wild West themed setting on the Wizards boards.  It was a brilliant piece, where the desert was once an ocean and the elves were the dispossessed natives, riding around on giant manta-rays.  It was fantastically realized.

It might be worth tracking that setting down, cos it were kick-arse.

you could play off the racism of that era, and reflect it on the character races. with that, you could have a demographic thats very strong in humans (representative of most caucasians), with sprinkles of other races here and there.

sure, a shotgun wielding half-orc is a cool image, but a scene where the party defends the elf PC against a human miner trying to kick her out of the tavern....

But the racism of that era was shortlived.  Don't you remember?  They even let the Irish stay after building the fake Rock Ridge...

Quote from: CYMRO presents the Cabbage CavalcadeBut the racism of that era was shortlived.  Don't you remember?  They even let the Irish stay after building the fake Rock Ridge...

is this in RW wild west or in the setting-world wild west?

This actually sounds like a great idea.  Read the Dark Tower, if you haven't.  That could give you even more ideas.

Quote from: sdragon1984, newly found god

Quote from: CYMRO presents the Cabbage CavalcadeBut the racism of that era was shortlived.  Don't you remember?  They even let the Irish stay after building the fake Rock Ridge...

is this in RW wild west or in the setting-world wild west?

The RW, as recorded by the great historian, Mel Brooks.

Thanks!
@Luminous: I was planning on doing pretty much what you said anyway, so thanks again.
@Salicious: Should be easier to find once they bring search up, so yeah, I'll look.

They will never bring search up.  Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked it a while back and it hasn't been the same since.

Is this the thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=604901) you are refering to Salicious? (maybe not after re-reading your post)

This thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/archive/index.php/t-161090.html) sounds like the one you are refering too. Everything from dried up ocean bed to an elf riding large manta.

Google Site search has always been a good alternative. MacGyver said so and put it together shortly after Chuck Norris kicked wizards' search.

Quote from: PoseidonIs this the thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=604901) you are refering to Salicious? (maybe not after re-reading your post)

Doesn't look like the setting Salacious described, but a neat read anyway. I wish I had the time and talent to make props like that, and a local game group to appreciate them.

I realized it wasn't the right thread when I reread Salicious's post. I editted my previous post with another thread that sounds right, though it is more of a collection of stories people wrote based in a world that they created. It has a desert that was once an ocean bed and an elf riding a large manta ray.

I've searched for their homebrew thread that they say they started, but I can't find it. Another thread the author has a link to a blogspot.com site but the link is dead.

Looks like the setting in the thread above is in the process of being published. That maybe why I can't find anything else on it.

This sounds like a really good idea. Kinda like D&D meets Boot Hill or Deadlands. I think there was an article in the Voyage of the Princess Ark series in an old Dragon that touched on this too, although it seemed a little silly to me at the time.

What would you call it? The Good, The Bad and the Orcish? A Fistful of Gold Pieces?

i kinda like the elvish stranger....

Well, their was the Red Steel Campaign setting(from Princess Ark, they made a boxed set which is available for free in PDF form on the Wizard's web site), the Savage Baronies included a little country called Cimmiron County ruled by Sir John of Wain.

I think they made something called the Deadlands D20 game. I fancied making a western campaign after watching 'A Fist Full of Dollars'. My bubble was poped when I saw the movie Yojimbo (not sure if that's right). Then I decided to make a campaign full of ninjas.

yeah, it's Yojimbo(I love that movie)