I feel like jedis and the force was just overkill with the prequels and in most of the EU. There's this whole other side to Star Wars that's just dusty frontier living and desperados living and dying by the gun. I want to cook up a bunch of outer rim adventures and I want to get as far away from jedis as I can. I just want Star Wars to feel like a space western.
Any ideas? Adventures, characters, settings, etc?
Obviously, Edge of the Empire is the perfect setting. I've played a lot since December last year, with no jedi in sight!
The adventures of the Beginner's box, the Long arm of the Hutt (download in the support section), the Corebook and Game Master's kit adventures are great,
I've also ran an adventure called "Gun Nut" (can't remember where I had found it), a lot of the d6 adventures can be adapted as well.
I've tried my hands at adapting d20 adventures as well, but haven't ran them yet.
If you look in the main forum, in the "Read me first" there is a link to fan-made content, which contains some adventures, it would be a good start.
Every Clint Eastwood western, you must watch.
I'd also watch Deadwood, for how to do a serialised story with the same cast of characters.
Socorro is a good planet for a Western. It's got desert. Isolation. No Empire. 3-4 local tribes with varying outlooks. One space port. No central government. And lots of smugglers.
WEG40154: The Black Sands of the Socorro is an old sourcebook for it.
Lots of space travel doesn't really seem like it fits the Western motif... as the other places one ventures to are wildly different. But maybe that's handled in tone.
Edited by torquemadazaThink "Gun Nut" is a D20 adventure. Also think there was one about a Nerf rancher's daughter.
Watch Firefly, it is the definitive space western.
The Magnificent Seven is easily adapted to Star Wars.
Tatooine is a western setting complete with indigenous species being forces out of their territory by settlers.
The "Spaghetti Western" style is as much about feel as it is about actually taking place in deserts, too.
Look at Tarantino movies like "Kill Bill" or "Inglourious Basterds", or sequences from Breaking Bad for a huge influence from Spaghetti Western style in a modern setting.
Intense confrontations between stoic heroes and villains, double-crosses over money or betrayals over family make great hooks for Spaghetti Western style.
[reposted from another thead]
Putting aside the Man With No Name movies (which are awesome), you might want to consider these awesome westerns for some good story ideas -
Django (How can you not love a coffin machine gun?)
Take a Hard Ride (loads and loads of action)
(part 2)
A Bullet for the General (drags in the middle a bit, but had some solid twists and turns)
The Stranger and the Gunfighter (a pretty solid "find the treasure" story)
A Man Called Django (a pretty rock 'em, sock 'em roaring rampage of revenge)
Adios Sabata (half a million bucks of gold and dozens of bad guys! And a badassed gun!)
Oh, I forgot one of my favorites: Have a Nice Funeral, Sartana Will Pay!
They Call Him Cemetery (a pretty badassed wagon chase in this one)
The "Spaghetti Western" style is as much about feel as it is about actually taking place in deserts, too.
oh for sure. I just wanted to use the Outer Rim because, well, that's the book we have available to us. (thanks, Obama)
If I could though, I would love to straight up rip off the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Too many people have seen it. I'd recast Clint as a Hired Gun (or maybe a Bounty Hunter), Tuco as a Smuggler, and Angel Eyes as an assassin Bounty Hunter. Another idea I had, ironically since it involves Harrison Ford too, was to do something along the lines of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I'll check those vids at home. Work doesn't support 'em. I'm all for existing planets as a setting, but if I have to I'll gladly create my own.
Think "Gun Nut" is a D20 adventure. Also think there was one about a Nerf rancher's daughter.
Gun Nut is a D20 adventure, but I had found a EotE version, or maybe I did convert it myself, I'm not sure. I'd share it, but I don't have the ok from the original author. However, I could look into getting his approval and post it afterward. It's not a complicated one to convert, I'm sure.
EDIT: I knew I didn't convert it: it was converted to the Beta by Mootpoint
Edited by aljovinDirt, Death and the Nerf Rancher's Daughter
As someone else mentioned, watch Firefly. Firefly takes the best parts about the Western and adds a sci-fi spin to it: expansion, living in the lawless side, staying one step ahead of the long arm of the law, doing what it takes to survive, and taking justice in your hands when needed.
I'm all for having dramatic gunfights in reasonably close quarters, the classic staredowns, and the like. Think of every port bar as a saloon and you can get the picture.
As another idea, look into the RPG Deadlands. They had an explansion called Lost Colony that tied the Wild West with Sci-Fi and Magic. Interesting concepts to mix together, and it may help give ideas (like being the local law on a colony of some sort, having the only working ship with Problem A coming around, etc).
There's a certain tone that coincides with Firefly I'd gladly use although... I'm not really a Joss Whedon fan at all. I do get the western feel of the show though. Yeah, it's something to consider.
I think one hook I'm going to run with for an early arc is a play on "My Name is Nobody" (1973) where some backwater planet is plagued by a big gang of swoop riders who execute daring raids and heists. By big, I mean *big* too. In the film, the Wild Bunch is supposed to be 150 men on horseback. I firmly believe in the Star Wars tradition of the "wow button"; that thing in the story that is larger than life (example: the Death Star, AT-ATs, or the World Devastators). It's something the prequels lack IMO.
There is a 1970s film called Bucktown, starring Pam Grier and Fred Williamson, that I have always thought could easily be translated into other genres, such as Western OR Star Wars ....
Fred Williamson comes back to his hometown to find that the official law is corrupt and has the town in an iron grip. He calls members of his old gang to come to town and intimidate the corrupt Sheriff, but when they do, he finds that his old gang is even worse than the law! They take over the town and it's basically up to Williamson himself to stop them single-handedly.
I'd love to try translating that into a Star Wars setting...
There is a 1970s film called Bucktown, starring Pam Grier and Fred Williamson, that I have always thought could easily be translated into other genres, such as Western OR Star Wars ....
You mean this one?
Well, hell - if we want to open the doors to any exploitation flick, I can think of a couple dozen that would make awesome Star Wars games! The Inglorious Bastards, for example, would make an wicked Star Wars adventure!
That's the one!
Definitely there are a lot of great exploitation movies that would make fun adventures.
Although I love the story of Bucktown, I'm having a hard time translating it to an adventure for a group of players now that I think about it specifically.
In the film, Fred Williamson's character is a lone individual and he calls his old gang to come to town once he finds out how corrupt the law is.
In an EOTE adventure, that could theoretically be an NPC who contacts the players after the gang has come to town, but then you lose the twist of the gang coming to stop the cops, and turning out to be worse by far.
Might take some more thinking...
If you can get hold of West End Games' Fragments From the Rim sourcebook you should get some excellent ideas. You have some crime lords and a bounty hunter (Noval Garaint) that should fit the mood, there's the Vohai Unirail for all the things you can get up to aboard a moving train, an interesting bar setting in Margath's on Elshandruu Pica, and much more.
Pull some stories from Firefly (though if your players are fans, they might notice lol).
Tasked to rob a train of goods and discover the cargo is medical supplies destined for a suffering colony.
An often overlooks 90's western, Tombstone has some good sources of inspiration. Not to mention it's probably the best roll of Val Kilmer's Career.
The conflict established in the above scene is resolved in the following clip, don't watch unless you don't mind spoilers.
I actually quite recommend giving a look at the recently-released Kenobi novel, it's very much got influence from Westerns, if not spaghetti Western.
I think it's kind of funny that once or twice, this thread mentions lack of Jedi as a positive thing. Different genres, but Jedi = Samurai = Gunslinger. Less so in the Prequel era, but the idea of a lone weapon master dispensing justice from town to town/world to world...
Anyway...
FIREFLY, of course, is a primary source, but a lot of DS9 as a "border town fort" is also relevant to an ongoing, location-based campaign. I haven't watched DEFIANCE, but have heard it has a Western feel.
I hope this doesn't come off as crass or racist, but one of the things that people sometimes forget in "space Western" is the idea of the Indians as depicted in Westerns, where the represent not only a "noble savage" archetype, but also a "savage horde." For those who've seen SERENITY (spoilers ahead), Whedon intentionally cast the Reavers as a dangerous and brutal threat to the settlers. The ion cloud at the end is a space version of mountains, so when the Alliance shows up, it's literally a space age version of the cavalry coming over the ridge...
More later.
I think it's kind of funny that once or twice, this thread mentions lack of Jedi as a positive thing. Different genres, but Jedi = Samurai = Gunslinger. Less so in the Prequel era, but the idea of a lone weapon master dispensing justice from town to town/world to world...
An iconic samurai or gunslinger doesn't require magical powers. An iconic Jedi pretty much does. You can make a *heck* of a gunslinger or 'samurai' without ever referencing the Force rules. The Jedi may originally have been (loosely) modeled on samurai, but they went well beyond that archetype.
There's an interesting question there: What if it's less "Jedi" and more "lightsaber-wielder"? I wonder that in light of this ...
So here’s the big prediction. Jedi will be a choice of Destiny, whatever form the destiny mechanic takes. Crazy? Perhaps, but does it not make an elegant sort of sense? If you want to call yourself a Jedi then you need to act in accordance with that set of values. The more you act like a Jedi the closer you’ll get to your destiny of becoming a Jedi.
Here’s the really cool thing. You know all those players who want to play Jedi because it enables them to wreck face with lightsabers and force lightning? They can still do that, but they won’t have the right to call themselves Jedi. They’re just badass force users out for their own glory. Nothing wrong with that, but it means those who actually want to become Jedi will have a true sense of achievement when they do. They won’t have just paid 100XP to buy the Jedi specialization. They follow the Jedi code, choosing the harder path to become more than just a guy who waves his hands to get his own way.