I'm feeling a bit of the need to live a new role-playing experience. It's not for need of a game, it's actually the need to try a very specific world: the American West.
Yeah, I know. Strange perhaps, especially coming from me. But I have the impression there was someone around here who was trying to play Masque or RL on exactly that setting, so I was kinda hoping there could be a PbP for cowboys, saloons, and a good old-western feeling
If there is, please, ring me at once! I'll ready my six-shooter in no time
Oh, btw, it doesn't need to be RL at all. If you know other people on other sites who might be playing a similar game and are good folks you might recomend, please refer me to them.
sounds awesome, I would be interested in playing along... would you DM a game like that, because I don't think I could... but gunslingers and cards and horse chases through the high desert and whores with tiny boot knives, fuck yeah... you get any leads, just hollar on down to the next town, i'll be a waitin' for ya, six gun resting on my hip and some grain liquor to warm my gullet...
Actually, a Ravenloft campaign in an Old West setting could be neat-werewolves on the desert, of course, but ghouls in an old mine, spectres protecting their claims, and even Native mummies guarding their tombs (I remember a short story where the protagonist steals an eagle-claw rattle from an ancient burial mound and gets mummified by the mound's occupant for his trouble)
This is the sort of thing I'd like to be kept abrest of. Naturally, as I develop any concept myself, I'd post it, but this could be a vastly intriguing premise if someone talented would care to collaborate.
Now, to factor in Kachinas as the Dark Powers and figure out the Curse of the Lost Dutchman's Mine...
The first step, of course, is determining a darklord for whom this type of domain is prison, then populating it with appropriate threats. A fan of "Near Dark", I'd lean towards a pack of vampires roaming the area in a covered wagon, obviously beseiged by Natives, feeding on whomever they find in their travels, but this would be more of a minor threat than the Big Bad.
Perhaps a corrupt thaumaturgist plotting with a race of demons to open a Gate and feed the town to them? The domain would be a Southwestern mining region chock-full of ghost towns where he's done this before, and the minor threats would lead the players to clues as to his dealings-find a mine, reveal it, let the town fill up, then call in the demons for victuals.
Of course, the region would need vast expanses of nothing, isolating the communities, and the thaumaturgist best served by being a circuit riding judge or some sort of marshal. Like the typical darklord, this gives him the illusion of power while making him a terror-ridden toadie of the Dark Powers.
This obviously bears more thought, but given the specifics thus far established, may I suggest the realm name "Tombstone"?
as a continuation o my earlier thoughts, I have looked into the American West-particular interest not being the historic Old West, but the fiction wrapped around it-the films, the stories, etc.
I believe the realms should be sandwiched between Souragne to the East and those islands from Kara-Tur to the West-I'd suggest two ports-the Northeastern Stinking Water, ripped from Eberron and intent on crossing the domain with their rail system, and a pirate cove connecting largely to the four islands.
The temptation is to place the standard races as the society of the Old West, the cowboys and ranchers, the miners and traders, the pioneers and etcetera, and have hobgoblins fill the role of the Plains Hunters, though elves certainly could fill the niche as well. The problem is that native characters in the Old West were given limited roles themselves-the faithful Indian companion or noble wise man if they weren't cast in an adversarial role.
Aside from the historic Kingdom of Deseret, where Mormons nearly established their own nation, and an attempt by a mercantile combine to establish an independent nation in the territory, plotlines would revolve around settlement and "taming" the West, even at the expense of the near-extermination of the buffalo and the native way of life that revolved around them, the ranchers, farmers, and sheepherders fighting amongst themselves, as well as the Pony Express, the building of the railroad, and other events defining the era.
The other problem is that Wild West firearms were greatly superior to anything as appears in standard Ravenloft-I'm leaning towards some sort of FORT save vs. a "Gun Rating"+the shooter's skill+miscellaneous modifiers to avoid an instant kill if hit, making sure it's understood armor bonuses will not add to Armor Class against guns, and keeping ammo pricey enough to make every shot important, even if it misses...
You might want to check out Fantasyt Flight's Spellslinger book. It's got a lot of interesting ideas that you may wish to implement in the crossing of the Old West feel with Ravenloft.
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Sareau wrote:
The other problem is that Wild West firearms were greatly superior to anything as appears in standard Ravenloft-I'm leaning towards some sort of FORT save vs. a "Gun Rating"+the shooter's skill+miscellaneous modifiers to avoid an instant kill if hit, making sure it's understood armor bonuses will not add to Armor Class against guns, and keeping ammo pricey enough to make every shot important, even if it misses...
If you have MotRD you could use those for your guns. If I were to run it, it would be a MR 0-2 world with the tech out of MotRD with probably just human NPSs. The dark lord would be a corrupt sherif, mayor or business owner. His DL powers would be subtle , nothing too obvious to see. They would include such things as DR, Natural AC boost and enchantment spells such as charm or suggestion. These things could be shrugged off as inate toughness or luck or personal magnitism. Things like raising undead, lyncanthropy, and most spellcasting would all be out. Such things would be too easy to spot for the natives and it wouldn't take long for the PCs to figure out who the DL is.
Also might check out "Deadlands". Kind of goes along with Ravenloft in a lot of ways, what with sinkholes of evil, dark powers (the Reckoners), evil minons (the incarnations of the four horsemen) corruption, the walking dead, and so on. I think they did a pretty good jobs - mages became con men and cardsharps, "Hanging Judges" were undead abominations, a witch/gypsy ran one of the great railroads in the race west, competing against another with undead tracklayers, etc.
Also would offer myself as a player - I'm not sure what's up with my offer for the Unsettled House, but interested in general in playing.
For the setting, you might also take a look at White Wolf's "Werewolf: The Wild West".
Pale wrote:Also might check out "Deadlands". Kind of goes along with Ravenloft in a lot of ways, what with sinkholes of evil, dark powers (the Reckoners), evil minons (the incarnations of the four horsemen) corruption, the walking dead, and so on. I think they did a pretty good jobs - mages became con men and cardsharps, "Hanging Judges" were undead abominations, a witch/gypsy ran one of the great railroads in the race west, competing against another with undead tracklayers, etc.
Also would offer myself as a player - I'm not sure what's up with my offer for the Unsettled House, but interested in general in playing.
For the setting, you might also take a look at White Wolf's "Werewolf: The Wild West".
I can run it if you want. It would MR 0 Lvl 4 characters. All characters would have firearm proficency for free. I tend to play up the mystery angle of Gothic Horror. I find uncertainty more unsettling than just the sight of blood. You would go up against frightening creatures but they would be mixed in with even more mundane ones. Is that a wererat or just a large rat? Is that wolf or a werewolf? Is that pretty redheaded woman just a flirt or a Red Widow? Shooting every rat that goes by with silver bullets would get very expensive very soon and shooting red headed women for no reason but paranoia results in a dark powers check and a murder charge. There may be no lycanthropes or Red Widows at all. It might be a ghost or lebontrod. One thing I will give you. Most of the supernatural opposition you would up against can appear mundane. I tend to leave red herrings from time to time but you should be able to figure it out.
so this has drifted a bit away from my initial intention, but it seems to have come back on topic...
That said, I really appreciate all the ideas that have been put forth, it's just that I don't have the energy at the moment to actually make and run an adventure, so I was only offering myself as a player. Actually, it's more than that. I don't know the Old West enough to provide a believable story either...
Can I understand, brilliantlight, that you'd be available to run a PbP game set in the Old West, whatever the ruleset? I'd jump in to play, of course
I have everything between 2.0-4.0 most likely I will run it as a 3.5 if you have that. I'll call it Way Out West.
Ail wrote:Hey all,
so this has drifted a bit away from my initial intention, but it seems to have come back on topic...
That said, I really appreciate all the ideas that have been put forth, it's just that I don't have the energy at the moment to actually make and run an adventure, so I was only offering myself as a player. Actually, it's more than that. I don't know the Old West enough to provide a believable story either...
Can I understand, brilliantlight, that you'd be available to run a PbP game set in the Old West, whatever the ruleset? I'd jump in to play, of course
