What's the best Western RPG?

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Archangel said:
Gunslingers and Gamblers is another option. It uses poker dice, but there's a variant edition that sticks to traditional dice.

Also the Swedish rpg Western, which had a kickstarter a couple of years ago. Idk if the English version is available yet.
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The Kickstarter for the English version hasn't delivered yet, due to serious health issues. A couple of pdf's has been delivered and they keep working on things, in spite of everything.

I own Gunslingers & Gamblers Streamline Edition, i.e. the non-poker version, and think it's worth checking out for its nifty non-BRP d100-based system.
 
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3rik said:
I own this in pdf which I had nicely printed and bound. If anybody wants it they can have it for free. You'll have to pay for shipping though.
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Doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement. What about it didn't click or is it just a matter of slimming down?
 
I own:

BRP: Aces High
BRP: Aces High - New Mexico
Coyote Trail Expanded
CoC: Down Darker Trails
AFMBE: Fistful o' Zombies
Gunslingers & Gamblers: Streamline Edition
GURPS Old West
Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator
Knuckleduster Firearms Shop
Pariah Missouri RPG
Print the Legend FOR TRADE/SALE
Coyote Trail: Straddle County
Wild West Cinema FOR FREE

backed Kickstarters: Western - The Roleplaying Game, Weird Frontiers

Underlined titles have weird content. Mostly supernatural/horror elements, no weird science. Weird Frontiers is the only truly bonkers one.
 
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Gabriel said:
Doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement. What about it didn't click or is it just a matter of slimming down?
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Mostly slimming down. The game would be perfect for someone looking for something light and quick to pick up.
 
Ronin said:
But something missing from previous suggestions, is "Fist full of zombies". Its the western supplement for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Strip all the zombie stuff out, and you have a great little western game. The book describes several different styles of westerns as well. Such as spaghetti, singing cowboy, and etc. It wont have a ton of setting detail, but it makes a great little core element.
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I mentioned it earlier (see post 28)

I forgot that there is a game called Rider, which is based off Cepheus Engine.
 
Gabriel said:
Doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement. What about it didn't click or is it just a matter of slimming down?
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I have Wild West Cinema. It strikes all the right notes for me. It has level of crunch of ICONS or Barbarians of Lemuria. It also shares with ICONs the d6-d6 core dice mechanic and being a player-facing system. If I hadn't gone an made my own western game Wild West Cinema would be my top choice,
 
PolarBlues said:
I have Wild West Cinema. It strikes all the right notes for me. It has level of crunch of ICONS or Barbarians of Lemuria. It also shares with ICONs the d6-d6 core dice mechanic and being a player-facing system. If I hadn't gone an made my own western game Wild West Cinema would be my top choice,
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Interesting. To me personally it felt a bit more rudimentary than BoL or ICONS and slightly too basic for my, already rather rules-light, taste.
 
Some good stuff in this thread. My gut was to go with a Fudge based solution and it's nice to see one is produced. I also like the idea of reworking 007 to a western environment.

things not mentioned so far are that Hollow Earth Expedition would be easy to rework to a western environment.
Also if you are looking for western plot lines I can only recommend the Alias Smith and Jones TV series as a place to mine adventures from
 
 
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Some day I'll get my Wild West/Applachian Mountains/Native Horror+Victorian Horror in the Wild West game together...but not sooooon. Sighs.
 
Browsing for western games on DTRPG I also found Song of the Sixgun and Six-Gun Fury. Anyone familiar with these?

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And has anyone checked out Haunted West yet?
 
3rik said:
Browsing for western games on DTRPG I also found Song of the Sixgun and Six-Gun Fury. Anyone familiar with these?

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And has anyone checked out Haunted West yet?
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Song of the Sixgun was pointed out to me on my product page for Tales of the West due to having the same cover image. Blew my mind when I saw it. Picked up a copy and it isn't a bad looking little book. Uses a basic percentile roll under system kind of similar to the old Star Frontiers or maybe early Boot Hill games with skill chances determined by averaging a pair of attributes tied to each skill. Haven't read through it thoroughly, but it looks really nice.
 
 
Burn with your Neighbours for a truly dark apocalyptic tone
 
3rik said:
has anyone checked out Haunted West yet?
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Still nobody? I'm really curious if you can run this sans weirdness and sans alternate timeline out of the box.
 
3rik said:
Still nobody? I'm really curious if you can run this sans weirdness and sans alternate timeline out of the box.
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I know nothing about it...
But I have had a recent burgeoning of interest in westerns... mostly fueled by listening to old radio episodes of Gunsmoke... then re-watching High Chapparal, and then watching a slew of (relatively hokey, but fun) Tim Holt movies.

While I want to steer clear of fantasy/supernatural elements I also want to keep it a bit off-kilter... so I've been looking at other venues where 'western' tropes might get a remix. Other frontiers of the era.
I've considered Brazil and Australia... but I've settled on 'osterns' which I've been told are Soviet westerns set in the Russian east. (apparently Stalin was a big fan of westerns).
Not that any RPGs I'm aware of focus on this subject... so I've been watching the various movies I can find in English... reading up on stuff.
It would still have the horses/men/guns/isolated/lawless frontier settlements/rough climates... but the added fun of an excuse for bad Russian accents and some fresh flavors of political intrigue.
I'd still use Aces High for it... because the weird bits are overtly optional.
 
I wouldn't be the best for recommending a Western game So I'm watching this thread with great interest.

That said, you can't really go wrong with SW Deadlands, I ran it for a long time and we all had a blast. You can obviously tone down the horror or supernatural stuff if needed. Or even just use the SW system itself and do your own thing.

However, now knowing about Tales of the West I'm going to pick that up as I love FASERIP. :smile:
 
Rob Necronomicon said:
That said, you can't really go wrong with SW Deadlands, I ran it for a long time and we all had a blast. You can obviously tone down the horror or supernatural stuff if needed.
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If I were to play Deadlands again, what I would tone down are the comedy bits. Maybe that was just the group I was playing with... but it seemed like a lot of dials were set on WACKY!
 
Simlasa said:
I know nothing about it...
But I have had a recent burgeoning of interest in westerns... mostly fueled by listening to old radio episodes of Gunsmoke... then re-watching High Chapparal, and then watching a slew of (relatively hokey, but fun) Tim Holt movies.

While I want to steer clear of fantasy/supernatural elements I also want to keep it a bit off-kilter... so I've been looking at other venues where 'western' tropes might get a remix. Other frontiers of the era.
I've considered Brazil and Australia... but I've settled on 'osterns' which I've been told are Soviet westerns set in the Russian east. (apparently Stalin was a big fan of westerns).
Not that any RPGs I'm aware of focus on this subject... so I've been watching the various movies I can find in English... reading up on stuff.
It would still have the horses/men/guns/isolated/lawless frontier settlements/rough climates... but the added fun of an excuse for bad Russian accents and some fresh flavors of political intrigue.
I'd still use Aces High for it... because the weird bits are overtly optional.
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I like Westerns out of the usual place and time. I've also had fun combining non western elements from the same period with the old west. People often forget that at about the time the west was being tamed, Jack the Ripper was terrorizing London.
 
Simlasa said:
If I were to play Deadlands again, what I would tone down are the comedy bits. Maybe that was just the group I was playing with... but it seemed like a lot of dials were set on WACKY!
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Indeed! I GM'd it pretty straight-laced and had an emphasis of the horror. :smile: But yeah, it can get a bit silly...
 
Toadmaster said:
I like Westerns out of the usual place and time. I've also had fun combining non western elements from the same period with the old west. People often forget that at about the time the west was being tamed, Jack the Ripper was terrorizing London.
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There's an element of that in The Big Country, since Peck plays a 'city boy' who has friction with Charleton Heston's tough-country-guy character.
Generally I like anything that lets a bit of air out of the macho John Wayne buffoonery.
 
3rik said:
Still nobody? I'm really curious if you can run this sans weirdness and sans alternate timeline out of the box.
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I have it, but I haven't read it. Story of my life.
 
Imaginos said:
The 900 page PDF is done. Books are coming out April/May. Apparently already printed and en route. This one is based on DCC RPG.
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I wanted to get in on it, but missed out. I have too many games in any case already.
 
Imaginos said:
So I preordered Weird Frontiers (fka Dark Trails on KS). Hoping that plays well.
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I'm in on that as well. While I can certainly see myself adding some subtle supernatural flavor to a western, I'm generally not interested in Weird West, especially not if there's a lot of weird tech and very overt magic going on. For some reason Weird Frontiers did appeal to me anyway. Must be the Luchador class.
 
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I've run a couple westerns in GURPS, it works fine. Not much for specific western character. There's some material on fast draw rigs, fanning the hammer, slipping the trigger, shooting from the hip and so on in Old West, High Tech, and Compendium II for third edition or High Tech and Tactical Shooting for fourth.

Games Workshop's =][=nquisitor would work well for an old west game. You'd need some specific weapon rules. But it was largely inspired by the author's love of old west skirmish games in the seventies.
 
3rik said:
I'm in on that as well. While I can certainly see myself adding some subtle supernatural flavor to a western, I'm generally not interested in Weird West, especially not if there's a lot of weird tech and very overt magic going on. For some reason Weird Frontiers did appeal to me anyway. Must be the Luchador class.
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I don't mind and could actually get into a western game with some western some setting appropriate supernatural elements, ghosts, mythological critters (Bigfoot, Chupacabra etc), native myth / magic being real, even a little mad scientist mild steam punk is ok with me. Subtle is the important part, Weird west RPG settings tend to be over the top.

David Johansen said:
I've run a couple westerns in GURPS, it works fine. Not much for specific western character. There's some material on fast draw rigs, fanning the hammer, slipping the trigger, shooting from the hip and so on in Old West, High Tech, and Compendium II for third edition or High Tech and Tactical Shooting for fourth.

Games Workshop's =][=nquisitor would work well for an old west game. You'd need some specific weapon rules. But it was largely inspired by the author's love of old west skirmish games in the seventies.
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Pretty much anything works for a straight up western, the cinematic elements (fast draw, rope tricks etc) tend to be where special rules are needed and that is a common but fairly specific style of western.
 
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