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Rattslinger
2013-05-09, 11:56 PM
Does anyone know of a good space western setting preferably not Deadlands the Lost Colony?

Larkas
2013-05-10, 12:00 AM
Do you mean a published setting or just anything to use as background in a game? If you mean the latter, I think that the Firefly/Serenity setting is AWESOME.

Rhynn
2013-05-10, 12:30 AM
You might need to define what you mean by "space western": this (http://feminerdity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/firefly_03_1280x1024.jpg) or this (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/graphics/news3/Bravestarr_V2.jpg) ?

If you mean Firefly, then there's a RPG based on it.

Traveller can definitely be run this way: in the Spinward Marches, things can be lawless, planets sparsely inhabited and even primitive. PCs can work as mercenaries, "prospectors," "traders," "mail-runners" ...

Transhuman Space (a GURPS setting) can be run this way... First-Wave countries are "back east," and the rest of the world, or space, can be the Wild West. Mining on the asteroid belt, space banditry, etc. De-emphasize technology by limiting the players to poor PCs and making them scrape and save for everything, and work hard for little pay.

Premier
2013-05-10, 07:46 AM
Stars Without Number is an easy-to-use sci-fi system very close to old-school D&D with a default setting that's highly supportive of Firefly-style space western but can also be easily tweaked for different flavours like cyberpunk, transhumanism, mechs, etc.. It comes with a map and notes on a single "demo" star sector and plenty of very useful charts and other GM's tools for creating your own sectors, systems and adventures.

And it has a free version that actually includes almost everything from the commercial one.

Rhynn
2013-05-10, 08:14 AM
Stars Without Number is completely awesome. The sector-and-planet-creation tables are one of the best things I've seen in a RPG. The game is simple but has depth.

Also, thinking about it, Fading Suns could be played this way, easy, especially if you're setting the campaign on Pandemonium, a re-discovered frontier world. Maybe focus on guild members, with no more than one each of aliens, priests, and nobles...

Rattslinger
2013-05-11, 01:22 AM
I've gotten my hands on a copy of Stars without Number, seems pretty cool! Does anyone know if there are any settings for it, other than things in the core book?

Rhynn
2013-05-11, 01:40 AM
Not really, as far as I know. SWN is an Old School Renaissance product in the spirit of original D&D and original Traveller, which means it implies a setting (well, rather more than just implies, in this case) but leaves all the details up to the GM. I find reading the material in the core book gave me quite a good idea of the world, and then I just automatically fill up gaps (or invent more things during play). It's very like Dune and Fading Suns in some ways - the diaspora caused by the loss of FTL travel, and the loss of technological knowledge and sinking back as far as feudalism, is basically all straight from Fading Suns (or just in it), but Fading Suns sort of got that from Dune (and maybe Warhammer 40K).

That said, you can scrap all the history and implied setting and just run whatever world/setting you want on it.

Individual planets can become settings, though. There's the Polychrome supplement, which describes a planet in 38 pages and sketches a cyberpunk setting (including rules) that you could keep expanding and never have the players leave.

Sith_Happens
2013-05-11, 02:35 PM
You might need to define what you mean by "space western": this (http://feminerdity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/firefly_03_1280x1024.jpg) or this (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/graphics/news3/Bravestarr_V2.jpg) ?

Don't forget this (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxT46H0Gvy0/S8Q5R_-F_GI/AAAAAAAAABc/p7rN4JHSbr0/s1600/CowboyBebop2.jpg), if you want a big helping of noir and John Woo to go with your western.

Rhynn
2013-05-11, 02:40 PM
Don't forget this (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxT46H0Gvy0/S8Q5R_-F_GI/AAAAAAAAABc/p7rN4JHSbr0/s1600/CowboyBebop2.jpg), if you want a big helping of noir and John Woo to go with your western.

At first I was slightly taken aback that Ed was posing sexily, but then I realized Jet was, too, and that sort of made it all right.

graymagiker
2013-05-13, 11:31 PM
When you say ``space western'' I think:


this (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxT46H0Gvy0/S8Q5R_-F_GI/AAAAAAAAABc/p7rN4JHSbr0/s1600/CowboyBebop2.jpg)