Goddman skippy, pardners, I'm finally going to get an Aces & Eights campaign off the ground.  Got a quorum of players and available time to be able to actually do it.  We're starting the chargen, rules-testing/learning, campaign planning session next Thursday (the 23rd).

My idea is this: the town of Lazarus is the sandbox. The players start as newcomes, fresh off the stagecoach and then they can go do whatever the hell they want.  They'll have travelled on the coach together, so they will know one another, but whether or not they want to team up is up to them.

I'm going to make the town fairly wild and pretty brutal, so you have to watch your back and who and how you talk to.  But I don't want to make it so brutal that guns get drawn right away.  If a PC fucks up, maybe he'll just take a serious beating.  That way there can be some good action and some serious threats, but not necessarily months of downtime where the PC is in the hospital.  On the other hand, if the guns come out, they are coming out and shit can happen.

I'm not exactly sure how I am going to handle spotlight time.  Should I have a structure, like 5 minutes per person or is there some way more organic?  I think I'll let things roll as they will for now and see how it goes.

I have to admit that I am a little intimdated.  I'm not so well versed in the western genre and definitely not in the history.  I am going to have to do a lot of prep.  I'll be buying the Rustlers & Townsfolk supplement and if they come out with the Lazarus book, I'll get that too, so that will save a lot of work.

I'll keep you posted if anyone cares!

Sounds like a pretty solid game.  Will you be logging the sessions?  I would love to see how it turns out.

If you mean by logging, actual play sessions, I probably won't do that.  But I'll definitely post here how it goes overall, how the system works, how the sandbox  setup works and other general stuff like that.

I have actually thought of logging the game in order to keep track of what happens when.  Something more like an agenda or calendar where I just note the significant events that happened in the town and to the PCs.  That's also a good way to keep track of their earnings and expense, which is something that Aces & Eights accounts for.  It's the kind of game where running out of money could actually happen and make for some interesting gameplay.  So while I normally am not too into tracking little details like that, I'm going to make an effort to do that here.

Think about the player who doesn't bother to track his money and ends up running out.  He reaches for his wallet and finds it empty, goes to the bank and has only pennies left.  "Your stomach is grumbling," I say. "and you promised old Johnny Winter that you would make another run at the Faro table at Spenkers this evening.  He'll probably have his stake as usual."  Now he's got a few hours to get some money together.  Could be interesting.  Even better if he's already in debt to some less than honourable fellows.

Then I will definitely keep track of your progress.  I love the old west, but never found anyone in my gaming area to start up that type of game and to be honest, I can only find time to game on-line.  Well have fun and I'll check up on it every so often.

Quote from: walkerp;256989If you mean by logging, actual play sessions, I probably won't do that.  But I'll definitely post here how it goes overall, how the system works, how the sandbox  setup works and other general stuff like that.

Sounds good - I'll be looking forward to it too!  

Quote from: Venosha;256995Then I will definitely keep track of your progress.  I love the old west, but never found anyone in my gaming area to start up that type of game and to be honest, I can only find time to game on-line.  Well have fun and I'll check up on it every so often.

Awesome!  Nice to know someone is interested.  I went through the combat rules again last night and I am quite psyched.  The base setup is really cool, where the GM counts up from 0 and people start their actions at their initiative.  Their actions are resolved when that action's counts are completed.  So if your initiative finds you at 5 and you are going to draw and shoot (count of 5), when the GM reaches 10, you roll to see if you hit.

So I'm getting psyched.

It's weird, some of the reactions to the western.  I've been dying to run this for a while.  I'm a fan, but not a huge fan of the western genre.  It's the sandbox and career rules that really got me into Aces & Eights.  But I finally  met another guy who specifically wanted to play it and we were able to get two more players.  But one of them (who will play anything) said, half-jokingly that the western was the most boring genre that could be picked and that maybe we could introduce monsters and switch over to Deadlands after a couple sessions.

While I'm all for the weird west and monsters, there is plenty of adventure to be had in the Western genre, obviously.  I guess maybe some people don't find the straight western fantastic enough and that's why it doesn't get the same amount of love.

I'm quite confident that that player's attitude will change once the Barlow gang burns down his establishment and kills his family.  heh heh.

It sounds great, I'll be looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Your player who plays anything?  Does he really?  He sounds potentially problematic to me, like maybe he's not really bought into the concept and would rather be playing something with more kicking in of doors and killing of monsters.

Quote from: Balbinus;257267Your player who plays anything?  Does he really?  He sounds potentially problematic to me, like maybe he's not really bought into the concept and would rather be playing something with more kicking in of doors and killing of monsters.

Hey welcome back, Balbinus!

No worries about that player.  He's been my GM for two campaigns (UA and SotC) and several one-shots and has played in several of my one-shots.  He's a bit of a munchkin, but more at a creative level (what kind of crazy stuff can I get out of these rules) than a power level.  He just likes to make troublesome comments like that.  He's a Québécois, which may be a factor in that they don't vibe so much off the western genre, unlike the french and the rest of anglophone north america.  He likes dark stuff and weird complications between individuals with conflicting motivations.  I think I can provide that in the town of Lazarus.

Quote from: walkerp;257285Hey welcome back, Balbinus!

Thanks

Quote from: walkerp;257285No worries about that player.  He's been my GM for two campaigns (UA and SotC) and several one-shots and has played in several of my one-shots.  He's a bit of a munchkin, but more at a creative level (what kind of crazy stuff can I get out of these rules) than a power level.  He just likes to make troublesome comments like that.  He's a Québécois, which may be a factor in that they don't vibe so much off the western genre, unlike the french and the rest of anglophone north america.  He likes dark stuff and weird complications between individuals with conflicting motivations.  I think I can provide that in the town of Lazarus.

I'm confident you can, it sounds like a great game actually, shame I can't play it.