Far West 12th Anniversary

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But can he finish it before I complete Near West - an RPG about Cowboys teaming up with Kung Fu Masters to take on the duplicitous Robber Baron Garth M. Sharko whose investment scam bankrupted a small western town?
 
I know it's old-hat to bitch about the art for Far West, and I know artistic license is a thing, but it's not... good? Like, it genuinely just looks like a costumed actor with a filter over it?

And I get it, sometimes that's what the situation needs - I think it works great for games like WoD - but here... not so much.
Could be worse, could be the doll art from Cyberpunk v3.0
 
Could be worse, could be the doll art from Cyberpunk v3.0
I... actually liked that. Sure, it wasn't good, but I could see where they were going and I liked the artificiality of it - felt like it worked well for a cyberpunk game. Definitely a technique with potential (I prefer it to half-assed Poser art), and I think it's a shame that it was basically abandoned.
 
Out of curiosity, is there anything that would prevent someone from releasing another RPG with a similar theme and approach? (And with, of course, another title)

Also: was anything pertaining to the game system ever leaked or released?
 
Out of curiosity, is there anything that would prevent someone from releasing another RPG with a similar theme and approach? (And with, of course, another title)

Also: was anything pertaining to the game system ever leaked or released?

It probably says a bit about the RPG biz as well as the idea itself that someone hasn't done exactly like you say. I think there are lots of other commercial and non-commercial endeavors where if something like this Far West saga happened, some other party would pick up the idea and have it produced within a short span of time. I guess at least part of it depends on if GMS ever actually registered his trademarks.

But it says something when, even when the project is pre-funded with backer money, the creator doesn't follow through on his own vanity project. Why would anyone else pick that kind of thing up and run with it on their own dime when the person who is most invested in it refuses to? It implies a level of mad money and sheer spite. I'm sure the latter exists in RPG world, but I'm not convinced of the former.

Also keep in mind that the only reason GMS keeps this alive is because he loves attention, no matter the form. If someone did get tired of his bullshit and create the game on their own, he would almost certainly entangle anyone he could in legal action. GMS definitely has a large amount of spite in him.
 
Also keep in mind that the only reason GMS keeps this alive is because he loves attention, no matter the form.
Huh. That had never occurred to me but I have to admit that so many things click into place if that's true. This GMS guy is a such a mystery to me, I can't get into his head.
 
But it says something when, even when the project is pre-funded with backer money, the creator doesn't follow through on his own vanity project. Why would anyone else pick that kind of thing up and run with it on their own dime when the person who is most invested in it refuses to? It implies a level of mad money and sheer spite. I'm sure the latter exists in RPG world, but I'm not convinced of the former.
In fairness, it isn't necessarily super expensive to put out a rudimentary RPG. A free copy of LaTeX, enough time to learn it all, and some free art resources could probably suffice to get something passable up.

Something GOOD, that's another question. But if someone wanted to capitalize on GMS's failures here, it could be done.

Also didn't someone say that they are putting out something similar? I can't find the post but wasn't it earlier in this thread that someone was questioning whether they'd beat him to publication?
 
Out of curiosity, is there anything that would prevent someone from releasing another RPG with a similar theme and approach? (And with, of course, another title)
Nope. It's not even a hugely exciting idea; plenty of western games out there, after all.
He's using West End Games' D6 system "now" - I don't recall what the system was before that switch
It was going to be d20 or d20 Modern beforehand.
Also keep in mind that the only reason GMS keeps this alive is because he loves attention, no matter the form. If someone did get tired of his bullshit and create the game on their own, he would almost certainly entangle anyone he could in legal action. GMS definitely has a large amount of spite in him.
He also wanted Far West to be the start of a brand, not just an RPG and then done. If he gave up now, then he'd have to admit that the entire has failed completely, and maybe he's not ready for that.
 
Also keep in mind that the only reason GMS keeps this alive is because he loves attention, no matter the form. If someone did get tired of his bullshit and create the game on their own, he would almost certainly entangle anyone he could in legal action. GMS definitely has a large amount of spite in him.
Huh. That had never occurred to me but I have to admit that so many things click into place if that's true. This GMS guy is a such a mystery to me, I can't get into his head.
He also wanted Far West to be the start of a brand, not just an RPG and then done. If he gave up now, then he'd have to admit that the entire has failed completely, and maybe he's not ready for that.
He may not be capable of it.


AKA narcissism by the book, as several people have already hypothesized. Diagnosis without seeing a non-client, let alone by by non-professionals, is definitely extremely dubious, but one can hardly deny the behaviour being narcissistic. Those with experience being targets of narcissistic behaviour will concur without a doubt.
 
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I was only asking this because the idea of a western-wuxia mix is quite appealing - when I was a child, I loved the old Kung Fu series with Carradine and I recently learned that Carpenter's "Big Trouble In Little China" (a masterpiece IMHO) actually started life as a western/wuxia script.

Gawd I even feel tempted to start working on this idea, Mazes & Minotaurs-style... :smile:
 
How many d6 licensed games have been released in the last 11 years for comparison?
I know I got Carbon Grey recently. There's also Jerry Grayson's Mythic D6 line and he's released a few for it- Bastion, Terra Oblivion, Godsend Agenda (not delivered yet), and Irin (not Run yet). I say the last two because I have no doubt that they will release before Far West. :grin:
 
I know I got Carbon Grey recently. There's also Jerry Grayson's Mythic D6 line and he's released a few for it- Bastion, Terra Oblivion, Godsend Agenda (not delivered yet), and Irin (not Run yet). I say the last two because I have no doubt that they will release before Far West. :grin:
I think there was also a Zorro game.
 
I can't wait for the next shoe Skarka eats in relation to this game. At this point, as much as I like the premise, him fumbling around is almost more fun. I hope it doesn't take another year to see that!
 
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Bloody hell muchachos, tangent removed. With extreme prejudice.
 
I know it's old-hat to bitch about the art for Far West, and I know artistic license is a thing, but it's not... good? Like, it genuinely just looks like a costumed actor with a filter over it?

And I get it, sometimes that's what the situation needs - I think it works great for games like WoD - but here... not so much.
I was just going to remind you of Cyberpunk 2030, but it seems you're the other weirdo that liked the style of art in it...:shock:

IOW, I'd be fine with him using any kind of art, as long as he puts it out. I just want to see the damn game already...and if his work on MARS: Savage Worlds Edition is anything to go by, it actually can be good. I have that one, yes...and I liked it a lot, back before SWADE, which turned me into a Savage Worlds Grognard:grin:!

So, bottom line, I expect that if he releases Far West, it would be actually good. Not a popular stance these days...but the main (though not only) reason I didn't join that KS was because I wasn't in the mood to see how badly D20 would fail at "wuxia-western" combo (IMO, it fails at both separately, and I expected the combo to only worsen that).
Well, there was also "this seems over-ambitious, I'll wait and see":shade:.

I guess if you consider being consistent a virtue, he's been nothing but on all fronts in this project. (I genuinely don't care; I've never purchased or played a Skarka game and I only occasionally follow this debacle out of a mild curiosity, having been burned on a couple of KS projects myself).
I follow it for the free popcorn:thumbsup:.
 
I... actually liked that. Sure, it wasn't good, but I could see where they were going and I liked the artificiality of it - felt like it worked well for a cyberpunk game. Definitely a technique with potential (I prefer it to half-assed Poser art), and I think it's a shame that it was basically abandoned.
I was just going to remind you of Cyberpunk 2030, but it seems you're the other weirdo that liked the style of art in it...:shock:

For what it's worth I didn't mind the Cyberpunk 2030 Ken and Barbie dolls, either. Like Ladybird Ladybird hinted at, there's something about the artificiality of the dolls that symbolically evokes "cyberpunk" in a way that I find hard to articulate.
 
For what it's worth I didn't mind the Cyberpunk 2030 Ken and Barbie dolls, either. Like Ladybird Ladybird hinted at, there's something about the artificiality of the dolls that symbolically evokes "cyberpunk" in a way that I find hard to articulate.
Yeah, my logic is similar.
And that makes three of us...on the Net, I suppose:thumbsup:.
 
:tongue:He branched out to international logistics now?
I guess it's one way to keep on top of shipping costs.
 
I can't help noticing that half the artwork he shows on his twitter are the same pictures that were on the Into the Far West site since 10 years.
You'd think that with Erik Trautmann doing the layout for the past 8 months there would be some sample pages to showcase. Idunno, the table of contents, a sample character, equipment list and maybe a page with fluff text. There must be something that is more than a .txt file or the back of a beer coaster by now?
 
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