Passing the time on the drive home I asked the boy what he would like to play if we could do anything in the world.  He surprised me by suggesting the Wild West.  So I think we'll go for it, at least for a session or two.  I think we'll do a sandbox along the lines of Red Dead Redemption,  which is where I suspect he got the inspiration.  Later I plan to sit him down for some key cinema,  like maybe True Grit.

So, while I'm on the road,  has anyone done this lately?  What worked and what didn't?  Any suggestions?

Nothing lately, but I did run a sandbox Western GURPS game back in the mid 90's.


I chose 1878 as the year and started the campaign in New Mexico. The PCs got mixed up in some bounty hunting, some railroad wars, and some indian affairs.  It was a fun campaign.

That was pretty much how we played Boot Hill. Ranging out from the town and seeing what happened. Pretty basic. But fun.

I'm doing an occasional Western Sandbox with 1E Boot Hill. (Actually, it's my modified version, which converts percentile rolls into d20's, but is very similar to the Boot Hill style.)

I also ran a Sandbox Firefly (very much Western but also SciFi) by blending Boot Hill with some character generation ideas from 13th Age. (Backgrounds, One Unique Thing...)

What I like about Boot Hill is that it's pretty much a combat rules set and doesn't get bogged down in the details. I can "wing it" for some of the details as I need them.

Your kid is super-cool.

In my experience there are very few people under 45 with any interest at all in straight Westerns. It's one of those two game suggestions I keep bringing up and various groups have just given me blank stares or gotten actively pissed off (The other one is "Spies in swinging 1965 London").

I can't think of any suggestions to add right now, but I'm curious how this turns out.

Quote from: mcbobbo;712482Passing the time on the drive home I asked the boy what he would like to play if we could do anything in the world.  He surprised me by suggesting the Wild West.  So I think we'll go for it, at least for a session or two.  I think we'll do a sandbox along the lines of Red Dead Redemption,  which is where I suspect he got the inspiration.  Later I plan to sit him down for some key cinema,  like maybe True Grit.

So, while I'm on the road,  has anyone done this lately?  What worked and what didn't?  Any suggestions?

I've one this before. My best advice would to be have a general plan/arch/adventure goal whatever you want to call it. That and make sure its flexible enough to react to what the player/players do. The last western I ran was a Western/Horror mashup. The players were outlaws. They ended up killing a small town. Lets just say zombies you create come back to haunt you:)

I never really enjoyed our Deadlands campaign much but I'd love to play some straight up Western games... mixing old and new, light and dark... Bonanza and High Chapparal with Deadwood and Unforgiven.
Light on the historical accuracy fetish though... because that just leads to arguments IME... and that would leave me open to create an area that has a mix of all the tropes, natives, railroads, cattlemen vs. sheepmen, Mexicans and lawless towns full of anarchy.

The western is a bit like the superhero genre in that depending on your take genre expectations can vary quite radically. So you probably want to talk to the players and get everyone on the same page.

I would also say you need to discuss with the players what is it they want to do in the campaign and what is it that binds the characters together in a party. Just being characters in the Wild West doesn't tell you much and if you end up with an outlaw, a cowhand, a prospector, a saloon girl and Apache warrior you might struggle to form any sort of sensible party. In that respect agreeing a high level concept to like "friends on a quest" in the vein of the Searchers, "daring gang of outlaws" like Young Guns or a "classic feud" like Hatfields and McCoys can get be very helpful. Over time the characters might outgrow their original goals but by then they probably have enough a personal stake in the campaign to carry on.

It doesn't seem like it has to differ all that much from the list of components of a basic fantasy setup... a town to base out of, sell and buy stuff in. Some outlaying wilderness to explore and chase bad guys into/out of. A handful of factions that will rub against each other and create situations that might involve the PCs (farmers, natives, settlers, religious cults, outlaws, military). Various 'wondering monster' charts of the sort of unruly varmints that might happen through... and local troublemakers. Some interesting foreigners to add color (funny accents).

Any of those elements could swing lighter or darker...

Quote from: Simlasa;712651It doesn't seem like it has to differ all that much from the list of components of a basic fantasy setup... a town to base out of, sell and buy stuff in. Some outlaying wilderness to explore and chase bad guys into/out of. A handful of factions that will rub against each other and create situations that might involve the PCs (farmers, natives, settlers, religious cults, outlaws, military). Various 'wondering monster' charts of the sort of unruly varmints that might happen through... and local troublemakers. Some interesting foreigners to add color (funny accents).

Any of those elements could swing lighter or darker...

If you can nab a copy of it try TSRs Boot Hill.

System wise, I think it's MiniSix or similar.  Maybe Savage Worlds, but probably not because I hate how it handles ranged weapons.

I've picked 1866 as the starting year.  The CW is winding down, Jesse James getting up to speed robbing banks, and the Plains Indians are heating things up.  If I read the map right, the railhead has only come as far as Cheyenne, so that may be the target for the 'center' of the action.

I need to try and find a Sears catalog and maybe some newspapers from that time.  I also need to check with my historical shooting buddies about the available firearms.

Someone gave me some advice on building encounter tables a while back, so next up would be diving into those.

Maybe we can cook up a '50 seeds for...' western, supers, horror, sci-fi, post apoc, ancient world etc thread.

Idea for a western:

In the civil war a gold shipment was hijacked by the men who were supposed to guard it. The PCs are related to some of those innocent guards who were doing their duty and bushwhacked by their supposed colleagues. Concoct 4-6 NPCs who shared out the gold and spread far and wide. Some may have settled down, others built empires, still others might be bandits and desperados, and maybe one is a US Senator. The war was a few years ago. Can justice overcome time and the overpowering lure and reach of gold?

This'd be an ongoing sandbox/series of connected adventures where the PCs need to track down clues, talk to people who were there or knew of what happened. Maybe some are in jail and won't talk unless they are busted out? How far will the PCs go to get their man, and what will they do with all that gold (should they ever find it)?

Quote from: Simlasa;712651It doesn't seem like it has to differ all that much from the list of components of a basic fantasy setup... a town to base out of, sell and buy stuff in. Some outlaying wilderness to explore and chase bad guys into/out of. A handful of factions that will rub against each other and create situations that might involve the PCs (farmers, natives, settlers, religious cults, outlaws, military). Various 'wondering monster' charts of the sort of unruly varmints that might happen through... and local troublemakers. Some interesting foreigners to add color (funny accents).

Any of those elements could swing lighter or darker...

That's pretty much exactly how I did the sample campaign setting in Westwater.  (It's a B/X clone, and free BTW).  There's actually 3 suggested campaigns:

* 1840s (era of expansion)
* 1870s (era of outlaws)
* 1870 fantasy (era of outlaws...with dragons!)

Quote from: mcbobbo;712739I've picked 1866 as the starting year.  The CW is winding down, Jesse James getting up to speed robbing banks, and the Plains Indians are heating things up.  If I read the map right, the railhead has only come as far as Cheyenne, so that may be the target for the 'center' of the action.

Hm, if you have Netflix you may want to check out AMC's Hell on Wheels.  It's post-Civil War, but based around a railway town/camp - probably not great inspiration for a sandbox campaign, as such, but perhaps some inspiration for NPCs (or something to encounter in the characters' travels).  

And hell, Cullen Bohannon - the protagonist - is basically a PC, hunting down the soldiers who killed his family in the Civil War.

Wikipedia has tons of little tidbits in it along those lines.  E.g. Ft Laramie was staffed by "galvanized yankees" - Confederate conscripts.  So hunting for some officer responsible for killing your family could well lead you to the area.

Ditto for the gold.  Might make sense to hide it in the hills along with a cache from Montana mining activities.