“Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him”
-Rev 6:8
-Johnny Ringo, translating the Mexican Priest.

Tombstone (1993) is the mythological retellling of the conflict between the Cowboys and The Earps. It is a great movie, with many quoteable lines. While it is based on actual events it is takes a number of liberties with mistress truth. (Check out the Clanton side of the story.) Like any good legend or myth, it’s historical accuracy should not matter.

Recently I re-watched Tombstone with an eye toward idea mining for RPGs and here’s what I came up with.

Shattering the Peace.
While the movie starts with a scene of violent cruelty, after that the first act is a peaceful and optimistic. While foreshadowing of the coming conflicts occurs in small doses, everything seems to be going well for the Earps. Even when the Cowboys cajole the Earps, everyone ends up laughing it off.

In order to shatter the peace, you, as GM, must first establish the peace. Give your players a reason to care about the town and its people. Let them make important investments. Let them sink roots. You can foreshadow coming conflict, but be careful to account for overzealous players who make be looking for a fight.

Drug Use
Mattie Earp, Curly Bill Brocius, Cowboys in the Opium Den. The use of opium is a strong element in Tombstone. The event that set the tinder to flame, Curly Bill’s shooting of Marshal White, was largely due to Curly Bill being high. This is an example of where Tombstone gets broad history, right, even while fudging the specific. “Between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived in the United States in the late 19th century and between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women.” (from Wikipedia, citing Women and Addition in the United States–1850 to 1920, pdf).
When putting together the pieces for you Old West town, don’t forget that there’s money to be made supplying and dealing opium. And where there’s money to be made (and lost), men shall do battle.

Consider the Tone
In Tombstone the lines are pretty strictly drawn between good and evil. Even Wyatt’s flirtaions with Josie are justified by Mattie’s descent into drug addiction. Almost no mention is made of the Earp women all being former (and sometimes still practicing) prostitutes (why Ike repeatedly calls the Earps pimps).

One exception, and a valuable one to consider for an RPGs is “Texas” Jack Vermillion, “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson, and Sherman McMasters, repent and join Wyatt. When the bad guys cross a line having some of their followers switch sides could make for a nice twist.

In reality the feud between the Earps and the Clantons was complicated. Sometimes Wyatt Earp appears as a heroic lawman, other times a thug. Ike Clanton had legitimate claims against the Earps, and was not the cowardly, dirty, illiterate, buffoon portrayed in the movie.

So, tone. Black and White, or shades of gray. Either one can be fun.

You also need to consider the realism of violence in the game. Tombstone, like so many Western movies, is rather cinematic. You get shot, you die. My poking around suggests this is not the case. Most gunfights ended with opponents winged, or out of ammo. But cinematic violence can be more fun.

There’s a strange irony that in many ways the “cinematic” qualifier in this case means a game would be more deadly.

Hit ‘em where it hurts.
As I mentioned in the first section, the violent conflict is all the more shocking if you’ve established a peaceful backdrop. This is doubly true if you have the villains hit the heroes where it hurts. This is a trope of Western villains (and villains in general). Kill the family, burn the house, injure the friends. They don’t seem to realize this only incites the hero to grim, fatalistic, determination!

A well-dressed card sharp riffles a deck of cards and vanishes in a wisp of smoke. A man wearing a bowler with a mechanical monocle raises his hand and fires a smoke-belching contraption that blankets the street with beetles. A dour-faced preacher–bible in one hand, Colt Navy in the other–delivers a fiery sermon and the posse feels the hand of the Almighty reach down and straighten their aim, steel their resolve. An iconic gunslinger saunters into a saloon and orders a whisky, the smell of death lingers on him; not because of the men he’s killed, but because he has died himself, and has returned to wreak vengeance on his murderers.

This is the Weird West: where the civil war was fought to an uneasy truce, California is a shattered maze of islands and marshes, and the monsters of myth and legend stalk the land.

Deadlands: Reloaded is a restart of the RPG hit from the mid 1990s, Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game. It uses a new rule-set and the history has been slightly advanced.

If Deadlands is completely unfamiliar to you, there’s a large metaphysical backstory explaining the whys, but the bottom line is nasty monsters and real magic are enjoying a resurgence, centered on the Western U.S.

Character types fall into a few broad categories: Gunmen, Religious types, card-dealing magicians, steam-punk mad scientists, and Natives. However, as Deadlands: Reloaded uses the Savage Worlds rules, there are no strict character classes found in some RPGs and characters can be highly customized.

The heroes can fight against the tide of evil that forms the back-story and reason for the recent disturbances out west, or, as I do when I run Deadlands, you can largely ignore the metaplot and simply run the game as zombie gunslingers versus werewolves, witches and el Chupacabra.

Classic Deadlands (as the original version is called) had it’s own system that some players prefer to the new version. It used chips and cards in ways that some felt was very “in genre.” Others found the old system “clunky” and burdensome in combat. Deadlands: Reloaded uses the Savage Worlds rules with a few setting-specific tweaks. Savage Worlds is a system that encourages cinematic, even pulpy, gameplay, without leaving realism fully behind. I’ve often described it as the “John McLain” setting on the action/realism dial.

Pinnacle Entertainment provides Savage Worlds Test Drive rules (PDF), along with some Deadlands sample adventures and characters, if you want to try before you buy.

One more thing, if you are interested at all in Deadlands, or any other Pinnacle product (and I highly recommend them) the Pinnacle Forum is an excellent resource. The writers and designers are usually around, along with long-time fans and players. The atmosphere is friendly, helpful, and welcoming.

Previous post in this series include game prep: brainstorming, game prep: npc creation, AP 1st session, AP 2nd session.

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Dust Devils Revenged. Chimera Creative. Matt Snyder. 2007.
116 pages. Digest sized.
Get it while the getting is still good. Below is an email I received from IPR.

There will be no further printings of Dust Devils. You’d need to contact the publisher himself to get an answer about the PDF.

—————-
Brennan Taylor
Indie Press Revolution
Galileo Games

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Very simply Dust Devils Revenged is a game about dark western stories and flawed characters. Matt Snyder made it very clear that Unforgiven is the perfect example of a Dust Devils type story. Mechanically the game is very simple. When conflicts arise, the GM (called the Dealer in the game text) deals a hand of poker to the players. The number of cards dealt and number of cards available for the draw are determined by the characters stats. High hand wins the conflict, but high card wins narration. What kind of back-east flim flam is this? you say? That’s right, the GM only gets to narrate things between conflicts. In a conflict the only authority the GM has is to determine if the various stats are applicable. Beyond that, he’s just another player.

So how’s it work?
Very well. I had characters willing to give up the conflict goals in order to win narration. I had players initiating conflicts because they want to narrate something cool. (In fact he whole climactic showdown happened because the Doc’s player narrated it in when he had a conflict to sneak after Levi Oden.)

It is flexible in defining conflicts, so we could drill down to a shot by shot resolution (although this is time consuming) when dramatically appropriate. A word of caution, conflict can be devastating. If you go for a finer grained scene resolution, be forewarned. While the shot by shot scene did take some time, because we were playing a hand of poker to resolve things, it didn’t distract from the game.

One more word specifically about conflicts. They quickly get complicated if the Gm has more than one or two participants. Mr. Snyder’s intent, I believe, was to break larger conflicts into more discreet units. We discussed this after the game and saw that each method has it’s uses. In our final conflict, by having everyone as part of the same conflict, The Reverend’s Player, got to narrate a nice end for his character that wrapped up the whole scene. If we had resolved every thing as seperate conflicts it would have bogged us down, and likely lessened the impact the The Reverand’s final scene.

Ah yes, The End.
When a character takes enough Harm The End happens. Perhaps he gives in entirely to his Devil, maybe he has an epiphany or catharitic moment. regardless, he gets to narrate the result of the conflict and is then promptly removed from play. In my AP, The Reverend had The End during the shoot-out. There are a couple more things you can do at The End. You can offer succor through redemption (basically healing) someone else. You can also inflict additional Harm on your opponent.

Character Generation
In my opinion Character Generation is where Dust Devils shines like a newly minted tin star. A character is defined by 9 items. 4 scores, two traits, a past, a present, and a Devil. The scores are similar to attributes and correspond to the card suits. They are the basic building blocks for your deals in a conflict. The traits are best expressed, in my opinion, as a simile and can add to the deal. Your past and present are rated 1-3 and give you cards in the draw. Your devil is also rated 1-3 and can give you extra cards, take cards away, or neither. [See one of the characters as an example.]

But here’s where something mystical and magical happens. As you pick your traits and past and present, you are forming a back story for your character. By picking a devil you put a nasty twist in the back story that must be dealt with. I was amazed at how strong and interesting every character was. I made 8 NPCs in about 30 minutes and would gladly play any one of them.

For example let’s look at someone who didn’t see too much screen time. Marshal Abernathy.
I knew I wanted him to be a do nothing Marshal, letting his lackey brother-in-law and his idiot flunky do the work. But I also didn’t want a rube. He was a competent man if pushed. By giving him the “Seen it all before” trait I have both a mechanical reflection of his competence and a flag about how to play him. Being a former riverboat gambler I thought he would be “Sly as a Fox.” His past as a Riverboat Gambler is pretty far in his past, so I rated it at 1. Again, this is a mechanical reflection and a numerical indication of how much this past is still with him. Same for his present as a Town Marshal. I decided he may not be the best town marshal, but if pushed, he could rise to the occasion. Finally, looking over the list of sample Devils in the book, I had to choose lazy. It just fit perfectly. Very quickly I had created a man with a complicated story.

Dust Devils is not for every style of Western game. It is intentionally built to play haunted, flawed characters. the only way you could play a long term campaign would be to simply replace characters as they died.

For more reviews check here.

The player for Andrew Wagner (now a Deputy Marshal) couldn’t join us as he was a one-night guest, but one of our regulars joined us and created a character.

Jess Warner

In a freak twist of fate, a stray bullet from Levi Oden’s gun killed Jess’s mother. Though just 16, he swore revenge and set out after the outlaw.
Hand 4
Eye 3
Guts 4
Heart 2
Traits: Quick as Lightning, Innocent as the Day is Long
Past: Farm Boy(3)
Present: Tough for Hire(1)
Devil (2): Loner. That sumabitch killed his momma and it’s up to him to make amends.

---

Jess rode into town almost exactly 24 hours after Doc, the Reverand, and Andy Wagner. He could tell it was a rough town, but that didn’t deter him.

He entered the Star Saloon and asked for a cup of coffee and some breakfast.
“Son,” said the Barkeep, “I got whisky and cheaper whisky.”

They struck up a conversation and Jess asked about Levi. The bartender, thinking he was some kin because of the kid’s innocence. Told him what he knew. Jess asked if there was any work he could do and the barkeep told him there was a pile of scrap lumber, bucket of nails, and a hammer out back. He’d give two bits per chair and four per table the Kid cared to make.

Still hungry, Jess “The Kid” headed to the Dixie Pig, a diner. While there now Deputy Marshal Andy made his acquaintance and gave him some paternal advice.
“Son,” said Andy, “sometimes a fellow straps a gun to his belt and it makes him feel real big. It’s a lie. Likely as not the fellow you aim to shoot is feeling just as big and probably a better shot. All’s I’m saying is be careful. Make a plan.”

Back in the German House (a high roller saloon/brothel) The Reverend struck up a conversation with El Padre of Los Caballeros. Finally they left and the Reverand trailed them. Los Caballeros went from business to business, spending money and spreading good will. Finally they came to the Dixie Pig.

El Padre chatted with The Kid, then had a private word with Dutch, the Dixie Pig proprietor. The Kid overheard Dutch tell El Padre where Oden was. Ending the whispered conversation, El Padre told Dutch that the kid’s meal was on him.

The Kid got his bile up and shouted as he stormed out the door, “I’m not a kid…and he’s mine!”

Meanwhile the Doc poked around the Undertakers place and talked him up a bit. He determined that Pete Holden didn’t die from any wound he or the Reverend gave him. As they talked he saw Levi Oden walking down a back street toward the Marshal’s house and stole out and followed him.

Meanwhile, one street over, the Kid led a comical parade, loading his gun and looking wildly about for Levi Oden. Los Caballeros followed a few paces behind and The Reverend had all but joined their ranks.

Time stood still as The Kid and Levi Oden came face to face. Marshal Andy stepped out from the Marshal’s HQ as the two parties looked each other over.

“Levi Oden, why don’t you come into the office with me for a spell.” Said the Deputy Marshal as he drew his gun and cocked it.

Not still entirely sure what was going on, Levi walked toward Marshal Andy. Levi’s path and the Kid’s intersected and for a moment it looked like the everything was going to calm down.

Just as he stepped past Levi, the Kid turned and clubbed him with his pistol. Levi staggered to his knees and the Marshal fired, winging The Kid.

Doc dove for Levi, aiming to drag him inside a building, but failed and found himself exposed in the center of a lead maelstrom.

The Reverend leaned in to El Padre and said, “The lawman aims to stop you. I’ll take him and you can get Oden.”

The Kid swung his pistol like an Apache War club. And Levi fell prone. The Doc scrambled for cover but not before Pollock winged him. Before the Marshal could shoot the kid again, The Reverend hit him square with a shot. El Padre and Poncho both fired at the defensless Levi Oden and killed him.

As the dust settled and the wounded moaned for succor, The Reverand turned to El Padre and said, “If you’ll have me, I’d like to ride with your outfit.”

“I knew you were one of us when I first met you,” replied El Padre. He reached into his coat and shook out a blue sash with an intricately embroidered cross and placed it over the reverand’s head and shoulder.

And they rode off into the sunset.

“See the Elephant”
Andy Adams left the family farm in Indiana and headed west in the Early 1880s. For 10 years he was a working cowboy up and down the Great Western Cattle Trail. Who better, then, to give a first-hand account of what life was like in the Wild West?

When he published The Log of a Cowboy in 1903 he was disgusted with the portrayals he had seen in the penny dreadfuls. The Log of a Cowboy is a great read. Exciting, compeling, and suspenseful, it is a novel based on Adams own life experiences. The cattledrive encounters flooded rivers, Indians, Rustlers, and several cowtowns.

Great for it’s detailed description of the daily life of a cowboy, it is a perfect Western RPG resource.

Here’s some Linkage:
Andy Adams bio at Online-Literature.com Much more complete than Wikipedia.
The Log of a Cowboy at Gutenberg or at Amazon.

One scene comes up whenever I tell someone about this great book. It happened that the cowboys were in town when a ruckus broke out…

I saw The Rebel’s eyes, steeled to intensity, meet Flood’s across the table, and in that glance of our foreman he evidently read approval, for he rose rigidly with the stealth of a tiger, and for the first time that day his hand went to the handle of his six-shooter. One of the two pretended winners at cards saw the movement in our quarter, and sang out as a warning, “Cuidado, mucho.” The man on the bar whirled on the word of warning, and blazed away with his two guns into our corner. I had risen at the word and was pinned against the wall, where on the first fire a rain of dirt fell from the chinking in the wall over my head. As soon as the others sprang away from the table, I kicked it over in clearing myself, and came to my feet just as The Rebel fired his second shot. I had the satisfaction of seeing his long-haired adversary reel backwards, firing his guns into the ceiling as he went, and in falling crash heavily into the glassware on the back bar.

The smoke which filled the room left nothing visible for a few moments. Meantime Priest, satisfied that his aim had gone true, turned, passed through the rear room, gained his horse, and was galloping away to the herd before any semblance of order was restored. As the smoke cleared away and we passed forward through the room, John Officer had one of the three pardners standing with his hands to the wall, while his six-shooter lay on the floor under Officer’s foot.

What I like to highlight is a single sentence: “The smoke which filled the room left nothing visible for a few moments.” The Rebel fired twice and the man at the bar has fired 4 shots (2 pistols twice) and the smoke “left nothing visible.” Western movies have helped us forget that smokeless gunpowder wasn’t used in firearms until the end of the Wild West period. Whether as an additional rule in a shoot-out, or as colorful set dressing, including this nugget adds a touch of realism and authenticity to your Western RPG.

Andy Adams wrote several more books and from all appearances they were successful as well. I haven’t read them, but some are available on Gutenberg and at Amazon.

We jumped right into character creation and I described the conflict rules as we went–relating them to the particular stat at each step.

The only restriction I gave them was that the characters were all hunting Levi Oden. I left it up to them the hows and whys. I also let them decide whether they were working together or not.

So the Characters they came up with were as follows:

Reverend Davis Donovan

The good Reverend saw his entire congregation killed by a gang of outlaws. When they were acquitted and released, he sought vengeance. Afterward he left the trade of preaching and became a Pinkerton, knowing that they often worked beyond the law to take down outlaws.
Hand 4
Eye 4
Guts 3
Heart 2
Traits: Fast as a Jackrabbit, Cold as Stone
Past: Missionary(2)
Present: Pinkerton(2)
Devil (2): Hopeless. It’ll all end in death. And I’m going to hell.

Andrew Wagner (AKA Marcus Bryant)

A former Pinkerton who liked the power and freedom to pursue “justice” as he saw fit, he was eventually dismissed for overreaching his authority and embarrassing an important client. But now he had a taste for violence. He’s on the lamb from the Pinkerton’s they have a few questions, and likely a warrant, for him. He killed and took the real Andrew Wagner’s outfit, including his deputies badge, and fell in with Donovan and Stanton
Hand 3
Eye 5
Guts 3
Heart 2
Traits: Quick as Lightning, Sly as a Fox
Past: Pinkerton (3)
Present: Deputy (1)
Devil (3): Cruelty. Bryant took a little too much pleasure in the nastier side of his work as a Pinkerton, like beating confessions out of suspects or violently setting up townsfolk for government extortion.

Doc Emmett Stanton

Doc was practicing his trade when a patient under his knife confessed to a crime he’d never be convicted of. For the betterment of town, Doc acted as judge, jury, and executioner, and killed the man. No one ever knew. Sadly for Doc, He got a taste for killing folks
Hand 2
Eye 4
Guts 3
Heart 4
Traits: Cold as Stone, Sly as a Fox
Past: Doctor (3)
Present: Fugitive (3)
Devil (2): Murder. That first killing made Doc feel real good, but he knew next time, if he did it just right, he’d feel like God.

---

Doc, Donovan, and Wagner have partnered up to capture Levi Oden and bring him back to Grover’s Bluff for trial. They could kill him outright, but they only get paid if they bring back a living defendant for the trial.

They entered the town of Redding, New Mexico and immediately saw signs that the towns law officers were not doing their jobs*. A dead dog is nailed to the sign—its bloated body nursery to thousands of flies, trash blows down the streets, and bullet holes in shop fronts give silent eternal witness.

[*- Town marshals were not police officers in the modern sense. They were more like general civil employees tasked with everything from ordinance enforcement to trash collection.]

Spending some time in the Star Saloon, a grungy adobe building with whisky served from clay jugs, they discovered that the law in town is lazy, except when it is bullying. The Marshal, Horace Abernathy, is most content to sit back while his two deputies, Pete Holden and Tom Deggs, do all the work. Deggs was sitting in the corner when they enter, an enormous man with fists like hams, but he slipped out as they talked with the barkeep.

Doc and Donovan left for the Goode Night Hotel and met Holden and Deggs in the street. Holden aimed to pull his usual trick of bullying and frightening newcomers. Donovan, however, completely disarmed him by asking Deggs if it’s true he used to be a prize fighter. “Were you THE Tom Deggs?” Deggs is left liking the newcomers as admirers of his while Holden is just pissed off that they spoiled his fun.

Back at the Star Saloon, Holden and Deggs entered. Holden takes a stool at the bar and starts his bully routine with Wagner. Finally Holden ordered Deggs to take Wagner to the Marshal HQ and put and turn in his gun. Wagner tried to convince Deggs not to comply, but his gun ends up in the safe, which Abernathy doesn’t lock, having forgotten the combination. They heard gunshots and Abernathy and Deggs ran for the Star Saloon.

Having secured rooms, Doc and Donovan head back to the Star Saloon to find Wagner. They immediately run afoul of Holden. Doc asks him about Oden. Full of piss and feeling mighty from getting his way with Wagner he simply clocked Donovan across the face with his revolver. Donovan responded by firing and Holden is happy to return the favor, hitting Donovan in the arm. Doc, having taken up a position at Holden’s side, lashed out with a scalpel-sharp knife and opened up Holden’s arm and hip. Holden and Doc escaped out the back door and into the hills, while Holden is taken to the Doctor’s office for stitching and recovery.

When night fell, Donovan sneaked back into town to get their horses and supplies. And Doc patched him up. [Sadly Donovan has Zeroed out his Hand score.] Wagner met with Abernathy and found out that it would be no great loss if Holden died from his wounds. It might mean a job replacing Holden should Wagner choose.

Wagner scouted out the Doctor’s place and when he left he ran into Levi Oden. Levi knew Andy Wagner and doesn’t recognize him. Levi suspected something’s afoul. Later, Wagner returns to the Doctor’s place and kills Holden. He failed to see Levi Oden watching him.

The next morning Marshal Abernathy gave Wagner a deputy’s badge and invited him to dinner. Finally reunited the trio headed into the German House, a fancy saloon, after seeing three suspicious men ride into town and enter. They saw Lily Abernathy speaking with the men. The barkeep tells them that Lily is the real power behind the town. They also find out that Holden is staying at the Abernathy’s guest house. The suspicious men are three of Los Caballeros, a vigilante gang dedicated to protecting the weak and innocent.

My players will be on the trail of Levi Oden, a fugitive from Justice. I haven’t decided if they are all working together, probably not.
Here are the important supporting characters.

Horace Abernathy, Marshal of Redding

Mid-thirites. believes he’s found the perfect set-up as a do-nothing lawman. Hell, so long as she doesn’t find out about Dora, he doesn’t even mind his wife cheating on him…too much.
Hand 3
Eye 4
Guts 4
Heart 2
Traits: Seen It All Before, Sly as a Fox
Past: Gambler (1)
Present: Town Marshal (3)
Devil (3): Lazy. Horace is happiest sitting on the porch of his HQ, feet propped on the rail, with a cup of coffee and a cigarillo.

Lily Abernathy

Mid-twenties. Wife of Horace, sister of Pete Holden, lover of Levi Oden. She married Horace when he was a well-dressed, smooth-talking riverboat gambler, but now she loathes the West and will do anything to get back East. Women want to be her, and men want to be with her.
Hand 2
Eye 4
Guts 2
Heart 5
Traits: Pretty as a Picture, Smooth as Sillk
Past: Lady from Back East (1)
Present: Lady Behind the Power (3)
Devil (2): Manipulator. Lily knows what she wants and to get others to do it for her.

Levi Oden, fugitive, Lily’s lover

Levi was a hired gun for various outfits, but whisky always got him fired. Now his past is catching up with him, no matter how much he wants to change.
Hand 5
Eye 4
Guts 3
Heart 4
Traits: Quick as a Rattlesnake, Good old boy.
Past: Gunman (3)
Present: Fugitive (1)
Devil (2): Drunkard. Levi is a pretty good guy…when he’s sober. When he’s knocked back a few he is cruel and unpredictable.

Pete Holden, Dep. Marshal, Lily’s Brother

Pete learned cruelty in the Army as an Indian Fighter. Now he puts the lessons to use on the citizenry of Redding.
Hand 4
Eye 3
Guts 4
Heart 2
Traits: Mean as a bleeding bear, Steady as a boulder
Past: Indian Fighter(3)
Present: Lawman(1)
Devil (3): Bully. While cruelty and violence are Pete’s right and left hands, they serve his need to boss people around.

Tom Deggs, Dep. marshal

Tom hitched up with Pete in the Army and quickly became his enforcer and yes-man. Pete like having the dumb brute around to back his plays.
Hand 5
Eye 1
Guts 4
Heart 3
Traits: Strong as an Ox, Loyal as a Dog
Past: Prize Fighter (2)
Present: Lawman (2)
Devil (1): Killer. When push comes to shove, violence is the only tool in Tom’s belt.

Juan Gomez “El Padre”, Los Caballeros leader

Gomez is El Jefe of Los Caballeros, a group of vigilante gunmen, who usually fight for the weak, downtrodden, and helpless.
Hand 3
Eye 3
Guts 4
Heart 3
Traits: Hunts Like a Wolf, Everybody’s Friend
Past: Priest (2)
Present: Vigilante (2)
Devil (2):Wrath. El Padre is easy to talk to and generous to a fault, but when wronged (or sees others being wronged) he delivers the Wrath of god.

Pancho Mejia, Los Caballeros

The youngest member of Los Caballeros, Pancho is Gomez’s cousin.
Hand 4
Eye 4
Guts 4
Heart 4
Traits: Lady Killer, Cool as a Mountain Spring
Past: Vaquero (1)
Present: Vigilante (3)
Devil (1): Reckless. Pancho is prone to get in over his head whether by wooing the “wrong” lady, outright bragging, or simply taking unnecessary risks.

Jarogniew Leczinsky “Pollock”, Los Caballeros

Quiet and strong, Pollock joined Los Caballeros when his family was killed by outlaws in a bungled train robbery. El Padre is slowly turning his anger into a thirst for justice
Hand 4
Eye 3
Guts 3
Heart 3
Traits: Tough as Nails, Inscrutable as a moonless night
Past: Farmer(1)
Present: Vigilante(3)
Devil (3): Anger. Jarogniew (Polish from roots for anger) is a seething cauldron of hate and anger barely contained by El Padre’s whispered admonitions.

So there we go. I’d love to play any one of these characters as a PC, so I should have a blast running the game.

Here’s some relationship stuff I’m using that may not be obvious from the Character write-ups:
Marshal Abernathy is having an affair with Dora Parker, daughter of the Town Doctor. As far as they know, this is a very well-kept secret.
Dora Parker accidentally shot and killed Rev Finch when he confronted her and said he was going to tell her father.
Lily sees Levi as a means to get rid of her husband and her brother as a tool top get rid of Levi. Then she can take Abernathy’s substantial savings and remake herself back East.
Levi is in love with Lily and thinks she loves him too.
Levi, while not a deputy, has been able to reign in the worst of Pete’s abuses. This is only because Pete is utterly devoted to his sister and doesn’t want to upset her lover. He also the knowledge of their affair gives him a feeling of superiority over Marshal Abernathy.

What’s Going on Here
I am running a two-session game of Dust Devils Revenged starting Saturday. I haven’t really done any prep and I’m not using pregens, so I thought it might be interesting to blog the whole experience from Game Prep through AP to a review of Dust Devils Revenged. It’s much more ambitious than I planned for post on The Depot, but I b’lieve I’ll give it a shot.

Game Prep
First off, a couple of tools.
The Adventure Funnel from Dr. Rotwang’s Blog.
A western name generator I made using The Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator.

While the Adventure Funnel is great for traditional RPG adventures, Dust Devils is much more about emergent story than achieving a goal. With this in mind I used the funnel to help flesh out the supporting characters and their relationship.

Using the Adventure Funnel I came up with this:
Goal: Capture Levi Oden, wanted for murder, horse thievery, and violence a sundry.

Obstacles:

1. Levi Oden under Marshal’s protection (maybe even a deputy or Lily’s lover, or both).
2. Deputies make sport of newcomers
3. Town generally lawless
4. Terrifying Storm, flash floods,
5. Parson gets killed standing up to someone
6. Town Doctor’s daughter
7. Levi Oden has an upstanding reputation–he keeps the deputies in check.
8. Levi Oden is expecting to be followed and has a cache of travelling gear in a cave outside of town.
9. Los Caballeros - A gang of Mexican bandits? Zorro-esque? Wandering Freelance Lawmen? Rustlers?

Details:

• Flies on a bloated dog’s corpse (Blame Blood Meridian for that one.
• Lily Abernathy and Oden Levi are lovers. She is just using him, he is genuinely in love.
• Marshal Abernathy knows about his cheatin’ wife and aims to do something about it.
• Marshal Abernathy is having his own affair with Doc Parker’s daughter, Dora.
• Deputy Pete Holden is Lily Abernathy’s brother
• Deputy Tom Deggs is almost a “slow wit.” He follows Dep. Holden like a loyal dog.
• Parson Finch was killed accidentally by Dora Parker when he threatened to tell Doc Parker about her affair with Marshal Abernathy.
• Pete Holden will do damn near anything that his sister, Lily, asks.
• Saloon Owner, Jed Nuttal, is sweet on Lily and wants Levi out of the way.
• What does Lily want out of the situation? What does she gain by her affair with Levi?
• Los Cabelleros are hunting Deputy Holden. If a PC is possibly wanted they may recognize him as well.

“John C. H. Grabill sent one hundred and eighty eight photographs to the Library of Congress between the years 1887 and 1892. This collection is considered the premier collection of western frontier photography in the United States today. Known for their gritty realism, these sepia-toned windows to the past capture the American West in the midst of settlement. The well-crafted images evoke a definite sense of place and time that allow the viewer to peer into a world that otherwise survives only in our imaginations, and the stuff of legends.”

-Margaret McGuire, 2004. From Digital Picture Printing & Framing

Grabill’s photographs are gritty, realistic, and immediate. The entire collection can be found at the Library of Congress. Several sizes are available for download, including hi-res Tiffs.
I used one of his shots of Deadwood, Dakota Terr. to make my banner and another shot of his is my current wallpaper.
Here’s a few of my favorites:

There are many more her and they are wonderful inspiration for your Western game.

For my last Deadlands game I detailed the fictional town of Melody Colorado. I played around with some of the details, but it partially replaces Walsenburg Colorado, the county seat of Huerfano County. I choose Huerfano Co., despite never having been there, because it was along a cattle trail, had good mining and farming, and was close to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It was also one of the original 17 counties of Colorado which I felt increased my chances of finding historical information online.

I was able to get some great history about Huerfano county that inspired and informed my game. For example both “The History of the Georgia Colony” and “Hispanic Heritage in Huerfano County, Colorado” from this excellent page: Huerfano County Resources.

Here’s what I ended up with:
A large map of Melody - 1.9 Mb jpeg, 3400px × 4400px
A players map of Melody - 580 kb PDF
Melody People and Places.

My point for all of this is that you should always check to actual history of the region your game is set in, you never know what cool stories you’ll turn up. And, if nothing else, you’ll get some good local flavor.