There has been a rejuvenation of interest in 'Wild West' role-playing in my realms of existence over the past two years. First off, the Western RPG Aces and Eights came out nearly a year ago, with its plastic aiming screen. And a bit closer to my T&T fellowship, James Shipman, of Outlaw Press fame, has been working up a Western-Style version of T&T rules, so far culminating in a solo-adventure published in his great mag The Hobbit Hole. And I, myself, have been dabbling a bit into post Civil-War era studying while doing some research on some settings I have been calling "Powder Punk." The last bit is mostly swashbucklers, buccaneers and pirates but the Mexican Civil War and South American wars of the 18th and 19th century have cropped into my note taking.
So when Peryton and I bought our Sergio Leone "The Man With No Name" (you know the movies I am sure) trilogy on DVD, replacing our VHS collection, complete with commercials, I decided to dig a little deeper into the celluloid for more "less than Traditional" takes on the Old West. Thanks to YouTube mostly, I have been able to find a whole slough of colorful spaghetti westerns with recurring actors who aren't Clint Eastwood. I struck gold, simply put.
As Netflix started reluctantly dropping a couple of the titles into our mailbox at Peryton Publishing International, also known as our townhouse, I was drawn into a world where every place south of Texarkana and west of the the Mississippi River looks like the deserts of southern Italy and west Spain. People of complexions darker than khaki had names even when not even being the heroes best friend (who knew that Mexicans could buy glasses before the Reagan era?). A world where there were more gatlin guns, onces of nitroglycerin, and throwing knives than six-shooters in almost every third fight. Where a fistfull of dynamite bought with a few dollars more could have two men kill entire regiments of uniformed soldiers. And lest I forget, some pantaloons always flashing in anyplace that served whiskey-- my favorite element I have to admit.
In these movies I learned of colorful characters that had names. As well as John and Juan in Duck You Sucker there are more than handfuls to mention. Django, who drug his own coffin from place to place. Sabata, who moves through time from the Mexican Civil War back to the Mexican Revolution by his second movie, but the technology levels for the diferent movies were fairly accurate at least. Banjo, the smelly hippy gunslinger. And last but certainly not least Trinity, who is the big guy from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And I have only began to scratch the surface.
So maybe one day, I will write up my own Spaghetti Western Action Gaming,or "SWAG" to quote Ksyd117, or I'll just write up scenarios for Aces and Eights, it won an Orgie, or whatever the Origin Awards are called as Best Game of the Year this year after all, or whatever the T&T Western rules are called. Or maybe I'll just download more Ennio Morricone music. Hee, I'm already doing that bit.
Tags: AcesAndEights TunnelsAndTroll S PerytonGamers
