Wild West

This is a game about the American West. Some of the book is about how it was, and some is about how it is remembered. It is up to the players and Games Master to find their own version of the West, finding their own trail between truth and legend. If the players want a historically accurate game where miles are miles, events occur as they truly did, and death comes more often from disease than a bullet, then they will find the tools they need in this book. Alternatively, if the players want a game inspired by movies and dime novels, where the history is just a painted backdrop and heroes ride high in the saddle, then they too will find their desires catered for within.

The classic period of the West made famous by movies, books and legends was from the 1850s to the 1870s. Before the California gold rush, the West was relatively thinly settled and unexplored. By the 1880s, railroads and barbed wire had tied down the frontier and ended the days of cattle drives and wild cattle towns.