[Interest On, Fate Core] Taming the Wild: The American West meets Legend of Korra

Talonrazor

Taming the Wild

The cowboy is dying. The American Wild West, a land of archetypes and six-shooters, is slowly changing. The locomotive, the dirigible, the biplane, the automobile and the telephone are wiping out the remnants of rugged individualism. Federal agents and Washington D.C. is expanding it's reach everywhere. The science of steam is being replaced by the science of diesel and both are replacing the science of pioneering. Even the art of Forming is changing. An ability that arises in certain members of the population, Forming allows the manipulation of a certain element. Devotees become able to exert this ability to perform all kinds of feats. Over the past several decades those with the abilities are in decline.

In Mexico, a powerful Earth Former by the name of Pancho Villa is conducting a brutal civil war that threatens to spill into the United States. Dirigibles are starting to become more common and offer much easier transatlantic travel then the big ships of the sea... as long as they can avoid the sky pirates. International tensions are starting to rise and a sort of arms race has started in Europe. In the US, campaigns have started for both Arizona and New Mexico to become the 47th and 48th states.

What is this?

Taming the Wild is my new fledgling campaign setting using Fate Core. It merges the American West with the idea behind The Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra. The American Cowboy is eroding as technology increases. Earthforming cowboys are rarer and rarer. This world is like Red Dead Redemption with bit of steampunk/dieselpunk future. It's not a steampunk heavy setting but rather technology fast-forwarded ten years or so. Cars are becoming more common, biplanes are around now and dirigibles can be found in the sky. Out in the brush, it's still the horse and the six-shooter that are king.

The year is 1909 in Territory of New Mexico. Mexican refugees flood across the border from the Civil War and most of the Territory is still a wild desert. The players will be cowboys, gunslingers, cardsharks, scoundrels, Japanese immigrant samurais, Texan Rangers, Australian bushwhackers or whatever else they come up with. They will ride horses into town, have a shootout in their saloon and board their blimp to take on the bandit zeppelin while flinging stones and water at enemy fire-formers. I love old western movies and I love Avatar and I love Crimson Skies so why not do them all?

How are you playing this?

This will be initially a smale-scale campaign set in the backcountry of New Mexico. I plan this to be for three to four players and conducted via IRC or Roll20. The goal of this game is to play during my downtime at my office. I work the night shift at a public safety agency and it's going to be totally dependent on my ability to game during slow periods. With that in mind the timeframe will be 3am-7am EST. I am thinking it will be twice a week, perhaps Monday and Wednesday mornings? The idea is for this game to be low-key and flexible for people, ideally for those early risers or graveyard shift guys. If it's popular enough, we'll turn the campaign into a thing or play different game systems.

The setting is still gestating and we'll work on it together. This will be a game that we all design and build. That's the beauty of Fate Core, it is very flexible. Anyone who doesn't have the rules will be sent them per testdrive conditions.

If you are interested in playing this, Sign Up! If you have ideas for the setting or want to see it go a different direction let me know!