I'm looking for something classless for a Wild West campaign. I looking for something between Hollywood and real life. Say 60/40. Which of these two is the better game meeting these goals?

Depends whether you prefer rules heavy or rules light. Aces & Eights is at its core quite simple and straightforward but when you add in the full character generation system and the various subsystems it's a weighty game. A&8 has a similar system to Hackmaster 5e. Coyote Trail is pretty rules light. It uses the genreDiversion system.

If you're OK with rules heavy go with Aces & Eights. It's very complete.

Quote from: Thanos;782725I'm looking for something classless for a Wild West campaign. I looking for something between Hollywood and real life. Say 60/40. Which of these two is the better game meeting these goals?

Aces & Eights rules are much closer to real life than to "cinematic" rules. If you're looking for fast and loose, A&8 probably isn't for you.

However, there is a LOT of western material that you can mine for other games, even if you don't use the rules.

I have not read or played Aces and Eights, but I have heard nothing but good things. I love Coyote Trail, and have run it several times with excellent results. From what others have said, I really think the big difference is as Youjimbouk said - do you prefer a rules light, more improvisational structure; or a rules heavy, more detailed structure?

-clash

A&E no doubt for me, if only for the targeting/combat rules.

Coyote Trail is a nice game with a low entry treshold and some good prefab options to make it more cinematic and/or introduce some very mild magic (coup-counting).
It's not spectacular, but is has everything you ever need ready to use in it. (And I mean _everything_ - there are cut-out dice )

Its major issue for campaign use will be that there is hardly character improvement, and that having any noticeable character improvement will quickly burst the scale in which the system has its sweet spot.


I can't talk much about A&E, but another good option for slightly cinematic western is Savage Worlds with Deadlands: Reloaded. Yank out the magical stuff, and you get a good wild west system that has both its John Wayne and Man With No Name moments and is perfectly useable for campaign mode.
(The Microlite20 mod Tumbleweed is also well-made, good for campaigns and free as in beer, but comes with classes.)

I think Aces & Eights does a really good job of doing Hollywood westerns if only for the combat/targeting system. It's a really modular rules set which makes it easy to pick up and add on things on an as needed basis. It's my favourite RPG (western or not).

Coyote Trail, though I also like Gunslingers & Gamblers.

Yeah, it pretty much comes down to rules light or heavy, but also historical or alternate history. Aces & Eights is a nice game with lots of fiddly bits.

Coyote Trail is gritty, with some optional rules to make it less so, including cinematic cliches. Pete Spahn was responsible for all the setting material, from the town of Shady Gulch to the scenarios and the material on Indians.

I'd probably use Aces High, the BRP Western setup.
It's not alt-history but it does have a horror/magic element... so I'd just drop it (or use as local superstitions).
Aces & Eights sounds like an excellent resource though so I'd probably grab that as backup.

I've played both, they're both awesome, but I think that for cinematic I'd go with Aces & Eights.

Aces & Eights is a beautiful book but I gave mine up because it was just too much book for me. Coyote Trail is the one I'd use out of those two options.

Do either of the basic books contain native american or mixed heritage PCs? If not does either system have secondary book that covers that topic?

Coyote Gulch does so in the Indian Trails expansion.

Of course, you could just go for Coyote Gulch Expanded Edition to snatch the Core Rules, Shady Gulch, Indian Trails and other extra stuff all at once for a hefty discount. Which is what I did, and I do not regret the few extra dollars

Aces & Eights