Quote:Original post by JBourrie
Come up with an all new system that is fun to play and the game will be popular, if it's good enough it wouldn't matter if you used scanned images drawn with crayon!

Paper Mario!

I would go with the Spaghetti western rather than the historical western setting. It is more iconic and offers more "fun" than the historical setting.

I don't think you can equate the Fantasy classes to a western setting, it just does not match, and besides, you are attempting to be original, why then hold onto an unnecessary aspect from fantasy *RPEGs?

If you were going to use classes then I would use these:

Gun Slingers: This class would be about the quick draw. These are the ones that use the cliché 6 shooters. They specialise with close ranged combat.

Sniper: These are the long ranged combat specialists. They tend to be better at using the rifle than a pistol.

Demolitions: This class would be good at setting explosives and using weapons like Molotov cocktails/grenades/etc.

Doc: These characters are usually found patching up the cowboys after a showdown. They are also vets (tending animals - useful if the herd you are bringing in gets injured, etc).

Tracker: These characters are the best at surviving in the wilderness areas. They can be useful for tracking down strays, from the heard you are bringing in, or following the trail that leads to the cattle rustlers lair. They also are able to tame various wild animals as companions. They don't specialize with any particular weapon.

Gambler/Maverick: These are the true "Jack of All Trades". They can do anything the other classes can do, but will never be the best at them.

Some skills that the characters might have:

Accuracy: This is how accurate you are with a particular weapon type. A character that specialises in a weapon type will either have a bonus to the skill level or earn them quicker/cheaper.

Fast Draw: This is how quick a character can pull a weapon before the can attack with it. This is important for "Showdowns" as the one who shoot first (and hits) is the one that wins.

Brawling: This is hand to hand combat, usually unarmed. This kind of combat would have punches, throws and grappling. If the combat is armed combat then they would most likely be using knives or improvised clubs (chairs and table legs). Except for the knives, they would usually be non lethal injuries.

Crafting: These skills would be Gun smithing (making/modifying guns or bullets, etc), Tailoring, Leather working (making saddles, boots, etc), adn other useful trades found in that era.

And many more...

Combat:
Brawling, should be very destructive on the environment object (tables, windows, etc). You should be able to throw opponents into and onto these thing (usually causing the object to break). Weather this is an automatic thing (ie it's just part of the combat) or a gameplay choice (maybe there is a reputation bonus that you can get - but it might make the "LAW" more likely to go after you).

Brawling should usually be non lethal (you just get knocked unconscious - and probably picked up by the local sheriff and put into the cells for a day or two), but with the option of lethal combat (using knives, etc). The player should also be able to pick up objects in the environment and use as part of the combat like table legs as clubs or even picking up a chair and hitting an opponent with it. These improvised weapons should break often so are not usually worth carting around with the character all the time (and be heavy/bulky too).

For combat with guns, the characters should be able to use objects around them to help protect them from bullets. These could range from soft cover like plaster walls (reduces the damage) to hard cover like rocks (stops the bullets).

The player should be able to take cover and to attempt to shoot from behind these objects (reduced accuracy) or rely on their dodging abilities (go hire a spaghetti western movie to see this kind of gunfight).


Employment:
Whatever you do, do not refer to these as "Quests"!

The Jobs your characters can take on might be anything from herding cattle, to taking on a cattle rustling ring. From winning a game of poker against a Gambler, to paying off a loan shark or even tracking down a gambler who needs to pay their debts. You might be protecting some farmer's lands from bandits, to rescuing their daughter from them. The character's could have run in with the law, or even become the sheriffs themselves.

They could get a reputation as a fast draw, but would have to defend that title from upstart gun slingers. They might try to be the "Guy on the White Horse" (see the spaghetti westerns - the good guys are nearly always on a white horse) or take to the life of a pack of bandits and rustlers.

There is a vast array of potential "employment" opportunities that would be fun to play.




* RPEG = Role playing element game. That is games with elements/aspects taken from PnP role playing like classes, etc. they usually end up being Action Adventure games.

Quote:Sniper: These are the long ranged combat specialists. They tend to be better at using the rifle than a pistol.

I wouldn't call marksmen of that era snipers. Those days snipers were mostly snipe hunters in British India.

Wikipedia quote: "During the American Civil War, the common term used in the United States for much the same function was "skirmisher." A Civil War army often protected itself when on the move by using such concealed marksmen, who were deployed individually on the extremes of the moving army. Generally, such skirmishers were selected on the basis of prior proven hunting and marksmanship skills, and they were often older men in their 40s or 50s. The term sniper hence did not reach widespread use in the United States until somewhat later than the American Civil War."

J. , Finnish army reservist sniper and active sniper competitor :)

Quote:I wouldn't call marksmen of that era snipers.

Good point. You could call them Marksmen or Sharpshooters.

A lot of people here ask you to drop historical accuracy, I think that there are some reasons to do so, but...

Ever played Sid Meyer's Pirates ? It offers you a good map of the Spanish Main with towns of various importance depending on the era you chose. I think it also modified the probabilities of the various encounters you could make.

Like pirates, cowboys existed during a very short time frame, mainly during the time it took to gather all the wild bisons in U.S. to the big cities, but this makes for interesting and different time periods : a first "era" where very few cities exist in the west, with a lot of explorations to be done. A second one with all the bison gathering to do, another one where cowboys were mostly used as scouts by military forces, etc...

Dropping historical accuracy may look at first like the easy thing to do, but when you dig a bit, you happen to see that your whole world definition and history are already written and surprisingly interesting. Of course, nothing forbids you to "spice up" a bit some events...