Howdy pudners,

I'm currently trying to plan out a fictional old west frontier town with the ultimate aim of building the thing out of paper or maybe even resin kits. So right now I'm trying to figure out which are the really essential, you might even say iconic, establishments that I need to have setting up shop on main street.

I'm going for cinematic over realistic and I want to keep the place pretty sparse whilst at the same time having somewhere that's dripping with plot hooks. So no freeloaders, everyone that gets a place has to earn it by having an interesting back story, even the town drunk.

Western cliches, ahem, I mean tropes are the order of the day. I've already decided that my centrepiece is going to be the town hotel/saloon/bordello run by the soiled-dove-with-a-heart-of-gold and her no-good wheelin' dealin' beau (who 'wins' claim deeds off drunken miners with the aid of those two aces up his sleeve).

Anyway I know that there is a book called the Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator especially designed to help with this sort of thing but I thought that I might try and save some cash and see if anyone here might be interested in helping me along with a few suggestions. Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thankin' ya kindly all.

If you are aiming for cinematic rather than 'realistic'/historical, with loads of plot hooks, then you need...

A 'respectable' hotel where travelling preachers, teachers, families, etc can stay. [Perhaps the owner isn't as respectable as she likes to make out, or perhaps she is the driving force behind cleaning up the town - and running the ex-soiled dove and gambler competition out of business.]

A Chinese Laundry run by ex-railroad workers. [Ah, Deadwood - what a great show that was...Triad front, opium den, or simply what it seems - a hard-working business that gets a lot of racist abuse from townsfolk. Perhaps they need a wandering Shaolin monk to step in and protect them.]

A new bank - the town's first - with a pompous Easterner as a manager. [Who despite being a good family man spends far too long at the brothel, and boasts to the girls about his new uncrackable safe...]

Ah, the ladies...Soiled Doves all have a past that led them to their present sorry condition. These should be NPC gold, not only for their past, but also their ability to comment ironically on the goings on in the town. [And they hear things, lots of things. And they talk...when sometimes they shouldn't.]

The doctor. Cinematic or not, people are going to need to be patched up. Historically the West tended to get the medical practicioners who couldn't get a job anywhere else. Incompetence was common, alcoholism also. In the movies they are often dispensers of wise advice. [And perhaps they can advise well, as they have seen a lot of life. Perhaps they became MDs in later years, after being, say, a gunfighter. Now they are trying to give something back and make up for their murderous wild youth.]

The rival saloon (Deadwood influence again). Of course there are many sallons in town, some businesses set up in tents. But this one is as good as the big main saloon of your setting. [Is the business rival happy with friendly competition, or is he trying to run the big saloon out of business? How far will he go? Perhaps there is bad blood between the establishments due to a past business arrangement gone sour - were the rival saloon owner and gambler partners once? Did they fall out over money - or a woman? The ex-Soiled Dove? If so, where does she stand?]

Actually, for a western town and what could be happening in it, Deadwood is compulsory viewing. The whole issue of politics is a great driver of town based plots - mayoral elections, elections for Sheriff, Statehood or not. Deadwood was great at the cutthroat (literally) nature of frontier politics, and I believe the old TSR game Boot Hill had a scenario 'Ballots or Bullets' (?) that dealt with a town election in detail.

And remember, a town lives or dies by being connected, so...

The Wells Fargo (or whatever) office. The stagecoach carries people and mail. The office manager knows who comes and who goes, and can advise on where new arrivals should stay and what businesses to patronise. [For a nosey parker, it's an interesting job...and lucretive, if he gets a small kickback for every recomendation. But he could get into trouble if he takes tips from both rival businesses. Also, a good man to have in your pocket if you want to keep tabs on new arrivals, or intercept letters.]

The telegraph office may be attached to the stagecoach office or a separate concern. [Again, a man in the know. Perhaps this one respects his customer's confidentiality. So, perhaps he needs to have an accident and be replaced by someone more maliable.]

The railroad. This is the big one. The arrival, or not, of the railroad can power and entire short campaign. [The company will try to buy up land for the tracks through fronts, so they can acquire the land cheaply. If someone won't sell, perhaps the beneficiary of their last will and testament will sell. Someone will be in charge of the land purchases. Get in his way if you dare. Or perhaps the railroad will only go through one of two competing towns. If your town misses out, it will whither and die - so what will the townsfolk do to make sure they get the line?]

A barber that also serves as a dentist.

A creepy undertaker with a dark sense of humor.

A church.

General Store where people come to idle and shoot the shit. Also where the Sears catalog comes into town a brings visions of the outside world.

If larger in size, the fabric store where millinery, patterns, and notions are sold.

Sheriffs office and jail, with room for a deputy and a conveniently materializing gallows.

oh, and expand on the church: Church hall where bible readin' and 'respectable' socials happen. Nearby schoolhouse where the "governess" equivalent usually works.

Park and Gazebo near the Church where politicians speak publicly, bands play for the local fair, and proper ladies hold bake sales, temperance signs, and are 'walked about for a bit of fresh air' by proper gentlemen.

Okay, now I want to run a western.

A few other things you may want to add.

Boarding houses.  While frequently gambling houses/hotels/saloons would have rooms you can rent for a while.  Slightly bigger towns would have boarding houses for people to live in if they were going to be there for more then a night.

Livery(s) - if you are going to be in town for more then a few hours you have to put your horse somewhere.  Some hotels/boarding houses would have their own but often you'd have a stand along livery for people to use.

Restaurants.  Again not so common in smaller towns where people would eat at home or in saloons/hotels.  But as towns got a little bigger they had them.

Black Smith shop, typically in smaller farm towns or just larger towns in general.

Gun Store.  Not so much a smaller town but bigger towns had them.

The prominent person's house.  Usually set just outside of the town.  Could be a great place for some underground gambling, shady deals, robbery etc...

Unique features.  Depending on the reason the town came into being it may have some unique features.  
- Water Tower  Frequently if the train came through you'd have one of these.   But if the town was on a stage run or at some other key juncture it was pretty common.  Not a lot of smaller towns would have them if the town itself was just the hub of a community.
- Mine
- River access - steam boats, river crossing, floating hotel/gambling/saloon
- Prison in larger towns or a town built around the location of a prison
- Not a real town but a military fort/garrison.  Depending on your time frame these would be active military bases because of a war or opened up more to the public after the war.  They'd have much tighter restrictions but could act as safe harbors for the good guys if they were on friendly terms.
- Race Track - Fairly common in larger towns.  But also some small towns would have them especially in farming communities.

Probably a few more ideas I can come up with if I think of it but that's the off the top of my head list.

Everyone has come up with some good ideas. Here's some more character ideas:

- The Town Elders: a group of wealthy land-speculators who try to muscle in on anybody that might upset their plans for the town.

- The Town Drunk: an ornery old coot that everyone discounts as a 'no-good' - which puts him in a prime position to observe many shady town dealings without reprocussions eg. "Shit, that old boy was too sauced to hear anything we said..."

- The Hot-headed young Deputy Sheriff: Young Tex Masterson is only 18 and trying to make a name for himself, just like his daddy who killed four famous outlaws before taking a bullet. Someday he'll make a fine lawman if he doesn't get himself killed first.

- The Church Gossips: A bevy of middle-aged ladies who know all the latest gossip and are happy to share with anybody who cares to listen. [Note: this is a good way to introduce a rumor mill - 50% of the gossip is true.]

- The Unladylike Ranch Girl: Her father was bitten by a rattlesnake when she was 13 and she had to grow up riding on cattle drives and dealing with the men of the ranch. She killed her first cattle-rustler with a Colt Peacemaker when she was 16. She's tough, wears jeans & chaps, and is nobody's fool. Even though the townfolk think she's "too manish", underneath her gruff exterior is a fine young lady worth knowing.

- The Crazy Inventor: He's always working on some newfangled gizmos at his ranch on the edge of town. What crazy thing will he come up with next?

- The Runaway Millionaire Kid: He's 12 and calls himself 'Bill Eastman'. But he's really J. Whitmore Hathaway, heir to the Hathaway Steel Empire. Tired of boarding school, he ran away to see the frontier. Several detectives are looking for him. Anybody with him might be seen as kidnappers...

- The Ex-Con turned Good: Jim Colgrave served 10 years for armed robbery. Now he's out of the clink and wants to have a new life. He found work as a handyman on the ranch of a widow. But can he keep his instincts under control when a group of swindlers start courting his employer?

For additional character material, you might want to read up on this guy:

"Soapy" Smith - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith






He was one of the most famous con-men of the late 1800's and had a career so colorful he almost seems like a fictional character.

I found this helpful when I plotted out the beginnings of my nWoD Western.

Western Characters.

Note that "Gay Cowboy" has just recently been added to that list, making it totally complete as far as this site's standards go.

Adventure Ideas

- Someone robbed the bank early in the morning and got away. However, they locked the tellers in the vault and set the time clock. The people inside have less than two hours of air until they suffocate. It's up to the party to rescue them before time runs out.

- Old Elizabeth Sterling's husband died and rumor is she's going to sell her huge ranch and all her livestock then move back to Rhode Island. Every since the funeral, someone has been harrassing her: sawing a wheel off her wagon, letting all of her horses out of their stalls in the middle of the night, taking pot-shots at her barn and outhouse, etc. in the hopes that she will want to sell out quickly and drop the price. The party is deputized and charged with protecting her and also finding the scoundrels behind it.

- Some crazy old prospector shows up at the saloon and after he's well into the cups, tells everyone he found gold up in the canyons. Several low-lifes follow him out of the bar and the party notices. What do they do?

- Several shady characters have been hanging out in town lately. Dave Holth, 16, has been fascinated by them and talking to them a bunch. When he doesn't come home one night, his frantic mother tells the party she think he's joined their gang and asks the party to find out what happened to him.

- The whole town is suprised when a group of 30 men ride slowly into town around noon. The Sheriff and his men meet them in the town square. The men say they have unfinished business with Mayor Skeet Buckfeather. They could take him by force, but because they are "men of honor" they don't want to hurt any innocent bystanders, they say. So they want him to give himself up at midnight right her in the town square. If he's not there, then "we'll have a bone to pick with all of you." Then they ride out of town. Now what's going to happen?

[Backstory: The men are vigillantes who have been tracking him for three years all the way from upstate New York where Buckfeather (real name: Clyde Browning) burned down a church, killing 12 people including nine children. They have 30 more men (hired guns) waiting for them in their camp, 6 miles away.]

- Veronica Mills is the attractive 17-year-old daughter of Jombert Mills, a veteran "mule-skinner" on one of the big ranches. His daughter has become something of a scandal in town and he wants the party to keep her out of trouble. Unfortunately, Nate Pilgrin, a card-shark and gunfighter from Nevada Terriorty has been flirting with her and plans to take her with him when he skips this crummy town. Nate's small gang of six guys is always with him at all times, though inconspicuously.

- Clement Barnes is a faro-dealer down on his luck. He got blackballed from all the casinos because he couldn't keep his hand out of the till. He's also owes money to the Kelmer Brothers Gang to the tune of $800. They've given him five days to come up with the money or he's a dead man. One of the players recently won $1100 playing craps and Barnes witnessed it. He shadows the party, but is clumsy and inept and rather pathetic. The party catches him breaking into their room. How do they handle it?

I am sure some people will take exception to this but have checked out HBO's Deadwood? It addresses some of the very same points you're looking to answer. While it may or may not be historically accurate it's loaded with great ideas for how a fun cinematic old west game might run.

For other inspirations you can also checkout the shows Wild Boys, which is an Australian take on Robinhood wrapped in a cowboy premise.  Also I'd recommend checking out AMC's new show Hell on Wheels for an extremely well done take on the classic american western genre.

Quote from: Soylent Green;494059Okay, now I want to run a western.

Westerns are cool

Some great stuff here. All very inspirational.

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;494054Actually, for a western town and what could be happening in it, Deadwood is compulsory viewing.

Quote from: Serious Paul;494093I am sure some people will take exception to this but have checked out HBO's Deadwood?

One thing I really like about planning a western game is the sort of thing that passes as legitimate research, like rewatching back to back episodes of favourite TV shows. Last night I spent two hours listening to ennio morricone whilst online shopping for game props (facsimile period playing cards and toy silver coins).

Quote from: Blackhand;494082I found this helpful when I plotted out the beginnings of my nWoD Western.

Western Characters.

Yes this site is definitely going to be a big help. I actually really like the way that the western is such a tightly defined genre. I'd say it was a definite feature. As a GM you can create quite a rich game world with some fairly broad strokes and, for the players, everything has an air of instant familiarity about it.

Quote from: kryyst;494070Livery(s) - if you are going to be in town for more then a few hours you have to put your horse somewhere.  Some hotels/boarding houses would have their own but often you'd have a stand along livery for people to use.

I think that what I mean when I say that I'm not going for realistic is that I won't be trying too hard to rationalize the town's ecology. So, whilst it might make sense to have a livery, for example, if I can't find anything dramatically interesting to do with it, it'll probably be left out of the final cut. FYI I'm just using this as a random example to illustrate a point

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;494073Everyone has come up with some good ideas. Here's some more character ideas:

Thanks BD, I'm still digesting these.


Some of my own thoughts, based on what is here:

The railroad definitely runs through town. A train offers too many classic adventure opportunities to be excluded.

There will be a nearby company-owned mine, mining something useful but not exceptionally valuable. Maybe tin? The miners come into town to spend their hard-earned pay. The payroll gets delivered by train and is stored in the town bank. A nice big hook for more criminally-minded players.

There will be two rival saloons. One as part of the 'hotel', the other one a little more shabby and sedate.

There will be a boarding house. The proprietress also serves hot evening meals so the place doubles as the town's sort-of-restaurant. This doubling up of roles will be a feature of the town. I'm thinking one barber/dentist/surgeon/undertaker combo. Also the (small) church will double as a school room and town meeting hall.

I apologize if someone has already mentioned these, but...


There's silver in them hills (or coal, or iron, or gold, or whatever). Thus, various miners. Come down from the hills now and again; opening an assortment of charecter, victims, etc.

If the bank isn't new, as someone suggested; you could make it fairly established with a ruthless banker who employs a few guards of his own, ill tempered like their employer. Sends them out to "collect" on loans.

The Sheriff - He's old and ready to retire, his authority is tenuos at best. The men who work for him are the ones in charge of the town (I think it works best if they're scumbags.) He was once a reknown gunfighter and a good lawman but he's since become lax. He still thinks he's got it but his eyesight is going and he's becoming forgetful.