How Wild is your Western game?

At first thought, the Old West gaming genre is pretty straightforward; Gun fights, heroic but sometimes law-dodging cowboys and sneaky Indians, right out of a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood western movie. Or maybe a Louis L'Amour or Zane Grey western novel.

A deeper consideration of the genre reveals a lot more variety in potential campaign styles. Let's take a look at some of the possibilities.

Straight Historical Reenactment
This approach has its merits, especially if you are using the game as a tool to teach US (or Mexican or Canadian) history of the 19th century. With the advent of the internet, researching old west history is a simple matter of spending a little while on Google and taking some notes, and maps, authentic photographs from the actual era and other resources (like the Montgomery Wards catalog I posted about last time) are easy to find and put to use.

The problem here is that you either quickly venture into alternate history, which is fine of course (see the next setting option, below), or you severely limit what the players' characters can do without changing history. What if they're drinking at Nuttal & Mann's Number 10 Saloon in Deadwood on August 2nd, 1876? Best be sure to make sure they don't interfere with a certain infamous shooting! Even worse, historically speaking, what if they happen to catch the performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater on April 14th, 1865, notice a suspicious looking character sneaking around and thwart JW Booth's evil plan?

Players in a strictly historical campaign will naturally want to have "cameos" at major historical events, otherwise, what's the point of being strict about the history part? If they are stuck in your fictitious town of Tumbleweeds, Arizona Territory and never meet any "celebrities" of the era, you're not really playing Straight History anyway. Ensuring the PCs get to witness history as it happens, and feel like they are contributing to, but not altering, the course of real events will take a lot of planning and consideration.


Alternate History Campaign

This is actually a very popular approach to Role Playing Games in the old west. Such notable titles as Deadlands (which also falls into the "weird west" and "steampunk" setting options, which I'll touch on later) and Aces & Eights employ the use of a familiar but different history, where the events of the world up till around the American Civil War occurred as recorded in our history books, but then something happened that changed the timeline, often in major ways.

I personally do not enjoy gaming in a post 1870 setting where the Civil War is either dragging on, or had a completely different outcome, but your mileage may vary. There are of course other historical turning points you could use to shift the course of events. A few ideas:

• Napolean Bonaparte never sells the Louisiana Territory to the US under President Jefferson. Explorers and colonists from the new US nation must contend with French occupants and defenders while attempting to settle the west.
• Mexican troops under Santa Anna defeat the army of the US in the Mexican/American War of 1846-1848, leading to ongoing confrontations over the colonization (not to mention water rights and mining claims) in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and much of California, which remain Mexican territory.
• Texas, after winning its independence from Mexico in 1836, never joins the United States in 1846, creating a third party in the conflicts over midwestern and southwestern territories.
• The Utah War of 1857-1858 takes a decidedly more violent turn and the Utah Mormons' defeat of the US army leads to the creation of the nation of Deseret, consisting of modern Utah, Nevada, Northern Arizona and bits of other bordering states. Rumors say Deseret now has eyes on the Colorado river's mouth at the Gulf of Cortez or even the harbor at San Diego for a pacific port!
• Combine the last two options to have a crazy complicated political and military situation in the southwest and Rocky Mountain regions!
• The telephone and automobile never get invented, and the old west era stretches well into the early 20th century. What new technological advances will you bring into the setting?

I don't want to ramble too long, or overload your imagination with too many options, so will pause here for now. Next time, we'll discuss the "Semi-Historical" and "Steampunk" campaign options, and then finally wrap things up with a look at "Weird West" and "Sixguns & Sorcery" campaigns.

Please post a comment with any comments or suggestions, including other interesting alternate timeline ideas!

Some Historical Reference Reading for Your Weekend

Here are a couple scans of old books I found that might be incredibly useful to a Western game.

The first, Grannan's Pocket Gallery of Noted Criminals of the Present Day, by the Grannan Detective Bureau (of Cincinnati, Ohio) presents a ton of real life bad guys to either drop right into your 1880s era game, or to inspire more "realism" in your homebrew villains. Click the cover image to download the file (5.3mb PDF).

This electronic copy of GPGoNCotPD was 

originally found at the Google Books project, 

please support the project by stopping by!

Next up is the incredibly cool 13th edition of the Montgomery Wards mail order catalog, from the spring of 1875! While not lavishly illustrated like the Wards catalogs a lot of us grew up drooling over at Christmas time, this document provides a perfect reference for determining price and availability for all manner of supplies the heroes of your game might want or need, complete with a discussion on how mail order retail shopping operated in the 1870s. Click the cover image to download the file (3.1mb PDF).

This electronic copy of the MWC was 

originally found at the Internet Archive, 

please support them by stopping by!

Enjoy the files, and post a comment if you find a use for them in your game.

Just joined the RPG Blog Alliance network

Coyote Cantina is now part of the posse over at the RPG Blog Alliance!

Click the logo above to check out all the great blogs in the Alliance!

Just posting a couple images the RPGBA site uses for hosting purposes!

"Tribal Nations" of the US, Canada and Mexico downloadable poster maps

Hey yall,
Wanted to share a cool resource I found via Cowboys & Indians magazine on Facebook. NPR (National Public Radio) recently featured a set of nice looking reference maps showing the locations of Native Tribes and Nations in the US, Canada and Mexico, complete with those people's own names for themselves along with the more common names we use for them. Cool reference for any Old West campaign.

Just a sample image, the PDF files are poster size, 

high quality images suitable for printing.

The article:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/06/24/323665644/the-map-of-native-american-tribes-youve-never-seen-before?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140625

The maps, direct links to the PDF files:

US & Canada:
http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2014/06/Tribal_Nations_Map_NA.pdf

Mexico:
http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2014/06/Tribal_Map_Mexico.pdf

I would love to get these printed out poster style, as in the cartographer's photo on the article page, to hang in the game room.

Hat tip to Cowboys & Indians magazine for the link!

Model scenery & terrain addendum: A couple more unlikely sources for cheap scenery

Browsing the different minis & terrain groups I belong to on Facebook and Google+ reminded me of a couple more relatively cheap options for scenery.

Don't be afraid to browse the aquarium section at your local pet store, walmart type superstore, or even dollar store. While the scale of fish tank decor pieces varies WILDLY, and the pieces are often painted garish neon colors, our handy keychain mini trick and a quick touch up with some model paints could lead to some interesting pieces. This is also a great place to pick up nice sized bags of gravel to spice up a desert or badlands scene, just look for the natural sand colored stuff, or another color that fits your collection (red or black gravel mixed in with the natural stuff could make an interesting volcano or burned out building or mine scene, for example).

Also, hit up your local craft store now and then. Michael's is the big chain, but most decent sized towns have a similar place, and walmart type superstores and dollar stores often carry craft kits too. With a couple dollars worth of toothpicks or popsicle sticks and a cheapo bottle of glue, you can quickly construct your own buildings, fences, mine details, etc. Better yet, you control the scale!

Craft stores also often have a good selection of affordable wooden or plastic model kits, including "old fashioned" wagons, buildings, boats, etc. Just remember to take your keychain mini with you, since these kits usually don't have the precise scale listed on the packaging.

Craft, hobby and superstores are also a good place to pick up decent paints, brushes, "hobby knives" (like Exacto blades or whatever) and other supplies you might want. Although the quality might not be quite that of the "professional" stuff you'll find at game stores or specialty vendors, the prices will be far lower.

Most importantly, get creative!

"Little Plastic Cowboys" toy soldiers as gaming miniatures.

To me, one of the big attractions of old west era gaming (RPG or Wargame/Skirmish Game) is cheap minis like these.



http://www.amazon.com/Indians-Cowboys-Western-Figures-Plastic/dp/B003AGI6UW

130 pieces, including some basic "scenery", for about $24 delivered, even your big Reaper Bones type deals can't beat that. Granted, they're unpainted, and the sculpts are not as fancy as the proper gaming minis, but if you're not picky and just want some cheap cowboys and indians to play out your battles with, you can't go wrong.

Now, keep in mind, the average scale of these minis is 56mm, pretty much twice the size of your average gaming mini.

Using Coyote Trail rpg as an example:

Use a one inch "grid" (or have a inch scaled ruler or tape handy). Since the average man is about 6 feet tall, and the minis are about 2 inches tall, 1 inch is about 3 feet in scale. Since Coyote Trail uses yards for all weapon ranges and movement, that works out perfectly, 1 inch = 1 yard to scale, so a gun with an 8 yard range is effective up to 8 inches on the table top.

If you want to use the Whitewash City cardstock buildings that come with the expanded CT bundle, just take them to your local Kinkos or whatever and ask for them printed on heavy stock paper or cardstock at 200% scale, since the originals are meant for 28mm figures. The paper "disposable heroes" minis can be used as well, same with the paper animal minis, and you can print them at home on your printer at 200% scale with no trouble. If you experience a loss of quality on the artwork printing at that scale, you can always import the images into Photoshop/GIMP/whatever and retouch them a bit before printing.

Once you have your minis, my suggestion is to pick up a set of dirt cheap plastic poker chips and use them as bases, gluing the cowboy figures to the chips, since those plastic toy soldiers are often unstable, to say the least. From what I've seen, and plan to experiment with in the near future, the plastic cowboys will take a basic coat of model or mini paint as well, with little problem (just don't expect the detail of actual 15 or 28mm gaming minis, which have far more detailed sculpts).

RPG/wargame miniatures to model train scale/gauge conversions

RPG/Wargame miniatures to model train scale/gauge conversions, for adapting figures, scenery, etc.

Most RPG/WG minis these days run from 25mm to 30mm sizes, with 28mm being the default. Sure, some mass combat wargames, especially old Napoleonics, use 15mm or smaller figures, but modern RPG and Skirmish games tend to stick to the ~28mm range, to maximum cross-game sales (like using Warhammer Fantasy figures for your Dungeons & Dragons game).

25 to 30mm figures run in terms of scale from about 1:72 (meaning a 1 inch tall mini represents a 72 inch/6 foot tall person) to 1:60 size, and unless you're a real stickler for detail and accuracy, or try standing a 25mm cowboy next to a 30mm indian, the sizes are basically interchangeable.
The closest widely available model train scales for these figures are S Scale (1:64 scale) or OO gauge (1:76 scale) which is more common in the UK than here in the states, but with the ease of online shopping you can probably find whatever you need at a reasonable price.

Some of the terrain and scenery pieces (trees, rocks, etc) from the ubiquitous HO Scale (1:87) that every american toy store carries might be compatible, but the trains themselves, buildings and people/animal figures will look rather small compared to your minis. Conversely, O Scale pieces (1:43 to 1:48) will tend to look pretty large compared to your figures, but again, some of the natural terrain and scenery bits will be useful. The reason I mention these is that HO and O Scale tend to be a lot more common in the US than S Scale or OO gauge, so finding things cheap in local shops will be easier.

Now. if you prefer to stick with the "little plastic cowboys & indians" type figures, you'll have a bit less options, but there are still some things to look at.

Little Plastic Cowboys (LPCs) average about 56mm, or 1:36 scale, a 6 foot man is represented by a 2 inch tall figure. The beauty of these miniatures is that many of the bulk packages you find nowadays come with a handful of horses, fences, tepees, etc.

For train accessories, I recommend looking at Wide Gauge (aka Standard Gauge for Lionel Brand trains) which is about 1:28 scale, or 1 gauge which is 1:32 scale and common in the smaller sized outdoor train models. As usual, you can venture up to O or even HO scales for your natural terrain pieces, and even down to G Scale (which varies widely from 1:19 to 1:29 scale depending on the model and manufacturer), another outdoor train scale that is somewhat common.

When in doubt, my trick is to "rubber band" a mini of the size you prefer (and probably one you don't mind losing or damaging) to my keychain. This way, if I happen upon a toy/hobby/craft store or I'm hitting the local flea markets or goodwill type thrift stores and find a cool piece, I can hold one of my actual minis up to it and see if it will be a good fit for my collection.

Also, keep an eye out around, and especially after, the holidays for some of those holiday/christmas village pieces when they go on sale. Dollar stores are starting to carry a lot of these things too, and using your keychain mini trick above, you can quickly judge for yourself whether a building, set of 'civilians' people