GM Resources: Time Life Old West Series

As a GM you often find yourself in need of information. Setting information is very important for creating a living breathing world through your narrative. Many games are set in fantasy or science-fiction settings, and as a result these gamelines often release an entire range of setting specific books on aspects of the setting. Culture, geography, technology, language, everyday life etc are all part of what is released in these books.

Sometimes we play games set in historical era such as the 1920s for Call of Cthulhu, feudal Japan for Bushido, Roman Empire for various games and the good Old West of American history. Oft times these gamelines don't concentrate so much on the details of the setting other than locations, mainly due to the fact that since these are historical settings those details can often be gleaned from history books better than an RPG sourcebook could provide. These details are different from creative inspiration as they provide more of a backdrop than plot hooks.

This of course then raises the question, "what is the best book(s) for me to read to understand this setting?" Ask 20 GMs and you may get 15 different answers, dependant on your historical era of choice. As a GM I am always on the outlook for books that will help me improve the details of my games and breathe life into the world. I have a large range of history books covering 1920s (old travel guides are fabulous, but for another time), ancient Egypt, US Civil War, World War II and more books than fit on a shelf on feudal Japan and samurai.

One era I've been looking for for a while, but not had much luck finding anything on, is the era of the American Old West. Sure I can find western movies a dime a dozen at the second hand stores, and wild west fiction is easily discovered, but actual history books on what it was like I've found more difficult. So imagine my joy when I found locally for sale an almost complete set (bar one book) of the Time Life Old West series for $65.

For those not aware, this series was published by Time Life books in the 1970s and consisted of a 26 volume set of hardback books. I'm not sure how they were originally sold, but I think it was a subscription series books (I think that's how the Time Life series went, please correct me if I'm wrong.) These are great books, and because they were produced in huge quantities getting a set of them is relatively cheap (they go in the US for approximately $4-8 a book.)

Each book in the series covers a different topic in great detail. The complete book listing consists of

• The Cowboys
• The Indians
• The Trailblazers
• The Soldiers
• The Railroaders
• The Forty-Niners
• The Pioneers
• The Gunfighters
• The Expressmen
• The Townsmen
• The Great Chiefs
• The Rivermen
• The Texans
• The Loggers
• The Chroniclers
• The Spanish West
• The Miners
• The Canadians
• The Frontiersmen
• The Alaskans
• The Ranchers
• The Mexican War
• The Women
• The Scouts
• The Gamblers
• The End and the Myth

Additionally a master index book was produced, which I don't have, that goes for the $20-$30 range and is rarer.

The books are, as mentioned before, are hardback books. The covers are brown leather embossed with an appropriate motif including bull horns and ropes, with a period art colour inset depicting the topic. Incidentally the hardcover original edition of Kenzer Co's Aces & Eights main book is based on these books from the cover design, embossing on the faux leather and the internal layout and structure. Each one is 240 pages long and the interior is glossy paper full of period photos, artworks and photographs of relevant authentic equipment taken from museums and private collections.

Each book goes into great detail on it's specific topic. For instance the book on The Gamblers details the people that would become gamblers, details on dice and dice making, the various games of both chance and skill that were played by both the white man and the native Americans, cheating and the consequences, gambling halls and locations and a wealth of other information. The book on The Pioneers explains the routes to the west (Oregon Trail, California Trail etc), what motivated men to make the move from civilization, the wagon trains, inventory of a typical pioneer wagon, the wagons themselves and extreme detail on what life on the road was like for the pioneers and what they did once they reached their destinations.

If you have any interest in running a game set in the old west, you owe it to yourself to pick up these books. They are the best bang for the buck you will ever spend to get a resource to be used for any western game.

Game Overview: Aces and Eights

Many kids grew up wanting to stride manfully down the main road in a dusty western town, six shooter on their hip and duster blowing in the wind. Saloons, shootouts, three days of growth on the chin and wide brimmed hats are just a day in the life of a Hollywood cowboy. As with many of these dreams, there is a role-playing game to fit into that gap.

Over the years there have been many Old West RPGs. Boot Hill, Dust Devils, Six Gun and Shady Gulch to name a few. Most came and went in short time periods, just like the western cinema revival that threatens to reappear every few years but never quite turns up.

One of the more recent entries, and certainly one of the more comprehensive ones, is Aces and Eights by Kenzer Co. A more deluxe take on the old west, set by default in a fictional version of the American west the Aces and Eights line brought high production values to the western RPG.

Aces & Eights is a modular system that allows the GM and players to use as many or as few rules as they like. The combat system is quite involved but seems pretty realistic and good at conveying the western gunfight. It uses a transparent shot clock placed over a silhouette of the target to assist in the targeting and location determination, a more refined version of a similar idea used in the older game Millennium's End.

A quick review of the game lines gives us the following.

Aces and Eights Core Rulebook. Available in both a deluxe faux leather hardback and a softback version. The hardback version has embossing on it in the same manner, and much the same style, as the old Time Life Old West series of books (keep an eye out for a post on the usefulness of these as a GM resource at another time.) 398 pages plus a couple of transparent shotclocks.

Players Guidebook. A cut down version of the main rule book containing rules for player use and removing a few GM details and the setting information. 218 pages plus a couple more shotclocks.

Fool's Gold. An adventure around a gold claim and a bandit gang. 32 pages plus cover/maps.

Trouble on the Sequoyah Star. A large adventure set mainly on the Sequoyah Star passenger train. The pack includes a 48 page adventure, 16 pages of NPCs, in the standard Aces and Eights full page format, 11 full colour card stock pages of maps of the train with miniature grids printed on them, plus the cover which also includes a couple of maps.

Shootist's Guide. A 32 page booklet including rules and stats for creatures and animals and expanded rules for horses and mules. 30 pages of new silhouettes for human targets in various poses, also hiding behind obstacles and mounted. 14 pages of animal silhouettes. Plus an additional shotclock.

Judas Crossing. A 112 page book on a town in the Shattered Frontier, Judas Crossing with maps, details of the town, information on the various factions in and around the town and information on NPCs and how to obtain the correct NPC for the correct situation.

Rustlers and Townsfolk. A huge book of NPCs in 3 hole punch format, full page, for every walk of life that you could need in running an Aces & Eights game.

Rustlers and Townsfolk: Judas Crossing Edition. A large book of NPCs in the 3 hole punch full page per NPC format detailing over 100 of the individuals that reside in and around the town of Judas Crossing.

An excellent game for scratching that wild west itch that we all get from time to time.

Using the 36 Dramatic Situations

A couple of days ago I posted the list of the 36 dramatic situations, but what I didn't do was show any examples of them in use. I thought today I'd just walk through a couple of examples with a few game systems  on the inspiration that the results would give me.

Game: Babylon 5
Roll 1 - 5: Pursuit

The fugitive doesn't have to be fleeing a misunderstood conflict here, but it's an option.

Scenario A: A rogue telepath has come to Babylon 5 in search of the underground railroad that can smuggle him away from the every watching eyes of the Psi-Corp. Of course, where there are telepaths involved the Psi Cops won't be far behind and are willing to turn the entire station upside down and everyone's lives to recover the telepath or stop them. The characters are hired to help the pursued, or are command staff on the station caught up in the entire drama. Optional extra: the telepath accidentally scanned someone and knows some dark secret that could bring down governments/expose dirty secrets/provide an unfair advantage to one of any number of corporations (maybe InterPlanetary eXpeditions is after them as well.)

Scenario B: It is the characters being pursued rather than getting caught up in a pursuit. On a previous mission they killed a Narn in the course of their actions. Now the Narn's brother has declared a Blood Oath against them and will not stop until the characters are dead. He hasn't found them yet, but they hear someone is looking for them and has a bad attitude.

Game: Aces and Eights (or any western RPG)
Roll 4 - 5: Necessity of Sacrificing Loved Ones

Scenario: The players are sheriffs or deputies of a small town when they hear about a local land baron forming a grudge against the owner of the local hotel. The grudge is not justified and the baron is obviously in the wrong. Things escalate to the point where the barons men are sent to town on the instruction to kill the hotel owner, however in order to keep the players out of the way they have first kidnapped the wife or child of one of the characters. Now they need to decide what they're willing to sacrifice for law and order, their family or the law.

Game: Star Trek
Roll 2-5: Abduction

Scenario: A member of the crew has been abducted from the ship by a newly encountered alien race that a treaty for a valuable resource (dilithium?) has just been signed with. It turns out that this is a normal part of their culture after a treaty, to take a hostage from each side to help secure the treaty and they fully expect the Federation representatives to randomly take one of their people involved as well. It is up to the players to resolve the situation without breaking the treaty.