Also:

"Also, in actual accounts of shoot outs it sounds like a lot of missing and then slow death (often on both sides) when they finally did hit."

That's what happens in all gunfights/wars. The ratio of shots made to hits is enormous. The vast majority of shots taken are never even intended to hit - they are used to pin the enemy down in cover.

Incidentally, that's why I designed the SC system the way it is - you are assumed to be taking plenty of shots that don't have a chance of hitting. You only roll for those shots that might have a chance. It's a concept very few people get - even my own players sometimes forget. Player: "Whaddya mean I'm out of ammo? I only took two shots!" Me: "You used up a clip per round shooting while trying to position yourself for a good hit, and you had two clips."

-clash

I think a really cool way to do historical gunfights like the OK Corral or the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight would be to massively reduce the amount of time in a combat round (one second a la GURPS, maybe) as well as having lots of missed shots and nasty wound rules.

Extreme slow-motion in gameplay, essentially. And initiative would suddenly seem a lot more important. You wouldn't want to do this for every fight, though, probably. Or at least if you did, you wouldn't want to have a lot of gunfights.

Sorry, this isn't actually about Wild West religion, but the question seems to have already been answered.

Quote from: HinterWeltSo, are there a western games out there that:

1. Capture a cross between history and movies (does not matter which side of the line it is biased too).

2. No magic/supernatural elements. Encounters and conflict are based on the movies (say Clint Eastwood ones) type of conflict. For example, lone lawman to retrieve gang of bad guys and recruits posse. Hijinks ensue.

3. Has cultural elements of the old west like the religion we are talking about, the ranch life, or many of the items I am sure to be ignorant of.

I imagine it would be nasty deadly. You often have a fairly high body count in movies and historically, you seem to either get missed, hit in a minor way or wounded unto death (either immediately or shortly).

You should look at the PDF previews for the Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier RPG, coming next month (June).  I think it's got everything you'd want - and much more...

Go here and scroll down for the preview PDF links.

As far as diseases, on all the TV westerns I used to watch they would always have episodes with outbreaks of smallpox and typhoid.  I don't know how historical it is but practically every show had it.

Quote from: GrimjackAs far as diseases, on all the TV westerns I used to watch they would always have episodes with outbreaks of smallpox and typhoid.  I don't know how historical it is but practically every show had it.

Smallpox and influenza were the big ones that scared the crap out of everyone.

Consumption (tuberculosis) wasn't quite a plague but it was a very serious "social disease" (from hanging around in the wrong places, extreme poverty, etc); alongside venereal diseases of course (syphilis being the really bad one).
Two of the greatest gunfighters of all time were essentially taken out by tuberculosis and syphilis (Doc Holliday and Wild Bill Hickock respectively, though the latter was killed before the disease actually killed him, his abilities and alertness were essentially wasted away by the disease's effects).

RPGPundit

From newadvent.org

The following statistics of the religious denominations of California given below were represented by the United States Census of 1890.

• Catholic   157,346
• Methodist   36,874
• Presbyterian   18,934  
• Baptist   11,383
• Congregational   11,907
• Jewish   6,179
• Lutheran   4,267  
• Adventist    2,822

Catholics do not recognize any such enumeration as "communicants"; the total for this head therefore underestimates the Catholic population.

TEXAS: POPULATION ACCORDING TO RELIGIOUS BELIEF
In numbers, the Catholic population ranks third of all the religious denominations in the State. The Census Bureau's figures (1906) give Baptist bodies in the State, 401,720 communicants; Disciples of Christ 73,556; Lutherans 27,436; Methodists 317,495; Presbyterians, 62,090; Protestant Episcopalians, 14,346; Catholics, 308,556; Jewish congregation, 11,676. The figures given more recently by Catholic diocesan authorities show 311,667, and doubtless since the increase in the number of chidlren communicants a larger showing may well be claimed. Altogether, of the population of Texas about 25 per cent is Protestant, about 9 per cent Catholic; all other religions, less than 1 per cent, leaving about 65 per cent having no definite religious belief.

New Mexico: Religion
In 1850, when New Mexico was organized as a territory of the United States, it (including, till 1863, Arizona and part of Colorado) was made a vicariate Apostolic, under the Rt. Rev. John B. Lamy. In 1853 New Mexico (with exceptions noted below) was made the Diocese of Santa Fé, and the vicar Apostolic became its first bishop. In 1865 this diocese became the Archdiocese of Santa Fé, and Bishop Lamy became its first archbishop. The archdiocese includes all of New Mexico, except Do��na, Eddy, and Grant Counties, which belong to the Diocese of Tuscon. The present Archbishop of Santa Fé is the Rt. Rev. John B. Pitaval. The Catholic population of the territory in 1882 was 126,000; in 1906 it was 121,558 (U. S. Census Bulletin, no. 103, p. 36). But the figures for 1882 (given by H. H. Bancroft) must include the Catholic population of Arizona and probably also of Colorado. In 1906 Catholics were more than 88 percent of the church membership of the territory, which was 137,009, distributed as follows:—


Roman Catholics. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .... .. . . .. . . .121,558
Methodists. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . .. .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . ..6,560
Presbyterians. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. .  . .. . . .. . . .. . . . . ..2,935
Baptists. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . . .2,403
Disciples, or Christians. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . .  .. . . .. . . .1,092
Protestant Episcopalians. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . ..869
Unclassified. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .1,592
Total. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . . . . .137,009

At present (1910) the total Catholic population of New Mexico may be estimated at not less than 130,000, about 120,000 being of Spanish descent. No definite statistics are available on this last point. The large Catholic population of New Mexico is due to having been colonized by the Spaniards, whose first thought on founding a colony was to build churches and establish missions. The recent Catholic immigration has been from the Middle West, and this is largely Irish.

Good research, dude!

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditConsumption (tuberculosis) wasn't quite a plague but it was a very serious "social disease" (from hanging around in the wrong places, extreme poverty, etc)

I wouldn't call it a "social disease."  It may have been more common among the poor (as most diseases are), but I've never read anything that said catching consumption meant you'd been "slumming" or had loose morals, or anything like that.

Quote from: Mark PlemmonsI wouldn't call it a "social disease."  It may have been more common among the poor (as most diseases are), but I've never read anything that said catching consumption meant you'd been "slumming" or had loose morals, or anything like that.

Dude, that is precisely why for a brief while in the Romanticism movement it became "fashionable" to catch consumption, it suggested that you were "slumming it".  Unfortunately, Chopin and a couple of other dudes had to die of it before the 19th century's version of the Swine figured out that it was a really stupid fad.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditDude, that is precisely why for a brief while in the Romanticism movement it became "fashionable" to catch consumption, it suggested that you were "slumming it".  

That's Europe, though.  We're talking about the Wild West, and I've never heard anything like that when it comes to the frontier.  If you've read something that says it occurred in the West, I'd like to know your sources, so I can read up on it too.

Quote from: Mark PlemmonsThat's Europe, though.  We're talking about the Wild West, and I've never heard anything like that when it comes to the frontier.  If you've read something that says it occurred in the West, I'd like to know your sources, so I can read up on it too.

Oh, I definitely didn't mean to imply there was any romantic notions to TB in the wild west.  That said, back then as now, TB was generally caught by people living in cramped and unsanitary conditions, in poverty, etc.

Doc Holliday, for example, likely caught the disease while studying dentistry in Philadelphia, where he had to suffer some pretty unsanitary conditions.

RPGPundit

From my grandparents I understood that TB was a "filthy and disgraceful" disease. Everyone they knew of who had it lied about it. Course my grandparents were Japanese so there may have been a cultural thing there too.

Also... it's hardly proof but I've always noticed in movies that TB coughing is treated differently than regular coughs. Before I assumed they were uncomfortable because of the blood but now I can't help but view the hiding and apologizing as a sign of their disgrace more than their squeamishness around blood.

Yeah, I could be way off base, but I just don't think the social connotations were the same in what we think of as the Wild West, where the sanitation wasn't the greatest.    I can imagine social implications possibly occurring in the eastern US, though (or among high society immigrants from the east, now on the frontier).

Heck, with pneumonia, croup, influenza, bronchitis, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, diphtheria, brain fever and cholera, consumption would just be one of many.