A Fist Full of Gold Coins: Fantasy meets Western

[SDragon]

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.

[Gnomemaster]

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.

[Ivar]

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.

[Jharviss]

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.

[Gnomemaster]

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.

[Cantus]

Entirely different setting that's got the same general setting idea.

http://www.strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,2943.0.html
http://www.strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,2932.0.html

The first is the actual disscusion about the setting and the second link is a story set in the same setting.

[SDragon]

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 :)