As I noted at RPG Pub, the first module for Hurled into Eternity is ready to go: HS1 – The Star Spangled Standoff.
In keeping with the our 250th celebration of America’s Independence, likewise the townsfolk of Liberty Fork find themselves beset by outlaw forces of the Iron Confederation after the devastating Civil War. The good people of the town simply want a respite from the horrors of that conflict, but the Confederation has other ideas, yet somehow the Shattered Union staggers on.
Fortunately for the townsfolk, The Masked Rider and Spirit Hawk, heroes of the dusty trail, are there to render aid and set the wrong things right!
With all that said as an introduction, I invite you to take a look at the free PDF of the module to see just how things work in Hurled into Eternity. But I also add that it is very much a work in progress. What do I mean? Unlike most types of role-playing games, the western genre can’t fall back onto tropes like exploring dungeons and fighting monsters. Westerns are about shootouts and high stakes. But they also follow a script in a way. By that I mean the Judge needs to think more like a movie director to keep the action flowing.
So with all that said, I present the Alpha scenario of HS1 – The Star Spangled Standoff. I very much look forward to feedback because, unlike writing the rules for the game, modules have proved to be trickier. I’m not saying this as a cop out, but rather I think this is the best idea I’ve put forward so far. It needs input to determine if this is the right track.
So there it is. Download it, give it a whirl, and let me know your thoughts.
There’s a moment — right before you turn over the card — where everything hangs. The breath holds, the blood stills, and luck’s got its boot on your throat. Is the Grim Reaper paying a visit? Maybe Lady Luck half smiling?
Who knows for sure?
That’s Hurled into Eternity in a nutshell. It doesn’t hand you anything. You take it. Inch by inch. Scar by scar.
And if there’s ever been a song that understands that journey, it’s Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin.
At first listen, it’s a gentle invitation. The acoustic strumming, Plant’s voice light as a breeze. You’d almost think it’s a song of hope. But Zeppelin never does anything directly. There’s always a twist in the trail. As the track unfolds, the strings get harder, the drums dive in, and that soft beginning turns into a relentless push forward. It’s not a song about reaching a destination, well...about the open road. It’s a song about clawing toward it.
And knowing you might never get there.
Sound familiar?
Hurled into Eternity is the same way. The game isn’t about easy victories or cinematic glory shots. It’s about survival — raw, knuckle-blooded survival. It’s about pushing past the odds, when the cards don’t favor you, when the Judge smiles that razor-thin smile, and you know the house always wins.
The line from the song that sums it all up?
"Many have I loved, and many times been bitten / Many times I've gazed along the open road."
That’s every character in Hurled into Eternity. Haunted by the miles behind them, battered by the ones ahead, but still walking; bloody but unbowed same as laid out in Invictus. Because there’s no other choice. You don’t get to sit on a porch and strum about the past. You’ve got to shoulder your regrets and keep going — into the dust, into the dusk, and, if the deck’s kind, maybe into a legend of your own making. You either rise to the challenge, or get ground into the grave.
The Wild Card System that fuels the game feels like that riff. It starts simple — just a deck of cards — but as the game plays on, every draw, every suit, every Joker bite ramps up the stakes. It’s quiet tension turned into roaring momentum. It builds, never knowing when Lady Luck might turn on you.
So, when you sit down at the table, the next time you reach for your deck, put on Over the Hills and Far Away. Let it ride shotgun with you, you won't be disappointed.
Because the trail is long. The deck is stacked. And there’s no one coming to save you.
But damn if it isn’t a hell of a song to walk into eternity with.
(Hurled into Eternity is set to ride the open range, Spring 2026)
It’s been a busy stretch behind the scenes for Hurled into Eternity. If you’re just tuning in, here’s a quick status update on where things stand and what’s coming next.
The core rule book is fully written and internally locked and loaded. Every major system has been reviewed and stress tests are ongoing: the Wild Card System, Luck and Hand of Fate mechanics, wounds and death, professions, and Judge guidance. It’s all there — and it works the way it’s supposed to. Brutal. Clean. No half-measures.
The Wild Card System itself has gotten its final polish. The revised 2.0 version makes card values even more distinct: Jacks always fail, Kings always succeed, Queens are a 50/50 gamble, and Aces are rare triumphs that give you Luck back. Jokers are now better tied to your reputation (Good, Bad, Ugly, or Weird), and they don’t save you — they change the story. It’s all running leaner and tighter now, with a better sense of pacing and dramatic rhythm in play.
Two major expansions are in development:
Weird West – Currently the most developed, this expansion brings dark folklore, ghost stories, and grim Americana into the Hurled framework. Spells are live and deadly. The Reaping & Reckoning table handles catastrophic failures. New professions like Dust Tracker and Witch Hunter are already written and integrated.
It contains a full bestiary of unnatural threats is underway for the Weird West,
starting with ghosts, revenants, scarecrows, and haunts. Each creature
gets a full write up, mechanical profile, and guidance for use in dark
tales of frontier horror.
Gangland – Think 1920s noir with a switchblade in its teeth and a Tommy gun in its hand. Set in a fictional version of a Prohibition-era city, the game trades spells for rackets, bribes, and vice. It’s about loyalty, betrayal, and blood in the streets. You’re not a hero. You’re a name in the paper — if you’re lucky.
The game’s tagline still stands:
Hurled into Eternity isn’t about easy victories or quick glory. It doesn’t meet you halfway — it expects you to bleed for every mile.
That philosophy continues to guide every design decision: brutal but fair, evocative but lean, and always anchored in a tone of desperation, tension, and earned survival.
Ahead are more updates, and perhaps some surprises. For now, shuffle your deck and keep your eyes on the horizon. The next card might change everything.
Previous update and link to the Alpha rules can be found here (I'm trying to avoid linking to the rules multiple times in the blog)
Four Years Later: Red Dead Redemption 2 Is Still One of the Greatest Video Games of All Time
What can be said about this game that hasn't already been said before. But as a fan of westerns? I approve, wholeheartedly. I'm not going to try and say more, its already been said and then some. There is a ton of sites that dissect it in detail, videos, articles; you name it. I can't hope to match all that content, nor will I try. What I'm going to do is simply note how it impacted me when I played it.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over four years since I completed Red Dead Redemption 2. We picked it up for Willmark Jr’s PS4 during Christmas 2019, along with a brand-new large screen TV. It was a perfect setup—and I had no idea I was about to experience one of the most immersive and emotionally resonant video games ever made.
The odd part was I wasn't the first to see it in the family. My wife saw a friend of hers playing it before I did and mentioned it to me. I didnt think about it too much at the time but my interest was engaged for sure.
Before I dive in, let me clarify: this isn’t a step-by-step breakdown or an in-depth review. It’s a high-level reflection—free of spoilers—for those who haven’t played it yet (though at this point, if you haven’t… what are you waiting for?).
So why blog about a (now) older game, especially now that we’re deep into the PS5 era? Simple: Red Dead Redemption 2 is the greatest video game of all time. Yes, even better than The Legend of Zelda- A Link to the Past —and believe me, saying that feels like heresy, but here we are.
It’s Not Just a Game. It’s a Masterpiece.
When I first mentioned I was playing it, a coworker sarcastically called it “that horse riding simulator.” How wrong he was. Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t just a great Western—it redefines what a video game can be, especially one set in a genre that historically struggles to find footing in gaming.
Western games can’t lean on the traditional “crutches” of fantasy RPGs: no orcs, no fireballs, no enchanted swords. The strength of a Western—whether on paper or on screen—lies in its characters, narrative, and atmosphere. Games like Boot Hill, Aces and Eights, and my own Hurled into Eternitylive or die on these pillars.
And this is where Red Dead 2 doesn’t just succeed—it soars.
The final 30 minutes of the game? Neither my so who was watching me play it nor I uttered a single word. And then the emotional impact of losing his horse? In my case I had been using the same one since Chapter 2.It was like losing a beloved dog.
Arthur Morgan: A Character for the Ages
One unexpected benefit of my play-through was going in blind—I hadn’t played the original Red Dead Redemption, so I didn’t know that John Marston was the protagonist of that game. My first exposure to the world came through Arthur Morgan, and what an introduction.
Arthur is easily one of the most compelling characters ever written for a video game. His story arc is deep, layered, and emotionally devastating in the best way possible. The pacing—from the opening hours to the final act—is nothing short of masterful. His ending likewise meomryable, perhaps one of the greatest heroic death scenes in any video game.
And the supporting cast? Equally remarkable. Whether it’s gang members, townsfolk, or total strangers you encounter, the game builds a rich, living world that doesn’t feel like a sandbox—it feels like a place.
A World That Lives and Breathes
The sheer scope of Red Dead 2 is staggering. You’ve got political intrigue, racial tension, industrialization, and even the occasional meteor crash. The world feels alive, not because of gimmicks or spectacle, but because of its people. Despite the people seeming blending into each other there are so many who stand out, to say nothing of the Ven der Linde gang itself,
The game doesn't ask you to save the world—it just asks you to survive in it, and in doing so, you become a part of something greater than a main quest. You exist in this world. And that’s rare. I can't help but draw the parallels to my own game of Hurled into Eternity.
The (Minor) Quibble: Online Play
If there’s one consistent knock against the game, it’s the online component. I’ve only dabbled in it, but Willmark Jr has spent more time there and describes it as “fairly weak.” But that doesn’t detract from the single-player experience at all. If anything, it underscores how complete the main campaign is—an online mode just isn’t necessary.
Final Thoughts
Call it 10/10. Five stars. Game of the Decade. Whatever scale you use, Red Dead Redemption 2 is at the top of it. Not just for its game-play, or visuals, or soundtrack—but for its heart.
Rockstar Games, take a bow. You didn’t just make a great game—you made something that will be remembered for decades to come.
In any creative endeavor, there are people who inspire us—who push us to do more or lead us down paths we hadn’t even considered. That’s certainly been true in the development of my game, Hurled into Eternity.
The funny thing is, some of those influences I recognized while building the game. Others I only saw in hindsight—ghosts riding alongside me the whole way, whether I knew it or not.
Movies - Upfront, it's easiest to say the most obvious inspirations are movies and TV. Pale Rider, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and especially Tombstone and Unforgiven absolutely deserve a spot on the short list of influences for Hurled into Eternity. They’re baked into the bones of the game, whether I meant them to be or not. There’s something about their tone: dusty, desperate, mythic—that lines up perfectly with the world I’ve been building for over two decades.
Music- Music. Music is essential. While working on the latest iterations of Hurled into Eternity, I listened to a ton of Western-inspired soundtracks. One of my go-to favorites is The Lone Rangersoundtrack, along with this absolute gem from Ennio Morricone: Guns for San Sebastian.
After a while, though, I needed something fresh—and I stumbled across this original composition by Steven Lynn. It sounds like it could be in Red Dead Redemption 2 its that good!
Terrain and Buildings - Fall and winter are usually when I hunker down at the hobby table. That’s when the brushes come out, the minis get primed, and the terrain pieces start to take shape. Right now, I’ve got the beginnings of a frontier town called Timber Ridge coming together. It’s a fictional outpost set somewhere in a mythic version of Wyoming—a place with its own legends, rival factions, and more than a few bodies buried beneath its streets.
Alongside that, I’ve also got some old model trains that once belonged to my dad, dating all the way back to the 1940s. I need to dig them out. There’s something deeply satisfying about using a piece of family history to help build a fictional world. Somehow, it all connects.
Working with something physical—terrain, paint, tools—also helps get the creative gears turning in a way that’s hard to replicate on a screen.
Why the Southwest Always Wins - If you’ve ever wondered why so many Western RPGs, films, and stories are set somewhere in the American Southwest, I think it comes down to one thing: the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
That single shootout in Tombstone has become the gravitational center of the genre. There were other towns, other legends, and other infamous clashes—but none carry the same mythic weight.
And yes, the title of my game—Hurled into Eternity—isn’t just poetic. It’s pulled directly from the next day’s edition of the Tombstone Epitaph. That headline stuck with me. It said everything the game tries to say: when you draw your last card, you're not walking away.
Cards, Dice, and the Roads Not Taken- Cards have always played second fiddle to dice in most game designs. Dice dominate as the go-to resolution mechanic, and very few systems—maybe eight to ten at most—use playing cards as a core part of their engine, either fully or partially.
Not long ago, I looked up Gunslingers and Gamblers and felt a brief gut punch when I saw it mentioned cards. Then I dug a little deeper and saw it actually uses poker dice. Relief.
To the best of my knowledge, Hurled into Eternity is the first Western RPG that uses playing cards exclusively to run the whole system. And there’s a reason you don’t see that more often: it’s tough to pull off.
Cards offer a lot—tension, unpredictability, narrative weight—but getting them to feel fast and natural at the table without bogging things down? That took years of trial, error, and rebuilding from the ground up.
What I’ve got now feels sharp. It’s dangerous, intuitive, and full of risk and momentum. The way a proper Western should feel.
RPGS- I’ve mostly steered clear of other Western RPGs—and that was intentional. I own the Savage Worlds rules and I’m familiar with how Deadlands uses cards for initiative, but I made a conscious effort to avoid diving too deep into that material. I wanted Hurled into Eternity to remain honest and original, not a remix of someone else’s work.
In fact, it wasn’t until I had the game mostly locked in—around version 7.5 Alpha—that I really started looking into what other Western RPGs were out there. I came across some excellent games, no question. But I’m glad I waited. For better or worse, I wanted Hurled into Eternity to succeed or fail on its own terms.
That said, I didn’t avoid everything. There were a few titles I did check out, mainly for reference—to make sure I wasn’t unknowingly treading the same ground. Those were:
Western City (By Jorg Dunne)
Boot Hill (1st and 3rd Edition)
Go for Yer Gun (By Simon Washbourne)
Weird West (by Stuart Robertson)
Each one offers something different, but I always came away feeling like I was still building something distinct.
Other RPG Influences- While it might not look like it in the form it is in now, the following games had a part in influencing me over the years with Hurled into Eternity:
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st Edition)
FASERIP Marvel Superheroes
Twilight 2000 (especially early on its development)
Gangbusters (An absolutely incredible game!)
There you have it, just where Hurled into Eternity got its nods from.
Hurled into Eternity wasn’t born overnight. It wasn’t forged in a corporate boardroom or churned out to ride a trend. This game has been riding shotgun in my mind for over two decades—long before terms like “narrative-forward” or “OSR” became popular buzzwords. In truth, it was born as a game I never released called Quest in late 1996
It began with fragments. Scrawled notes in the margins of notebooks. Faded maps of ghost towns that never existed. Mechanics scribbled out, rewritten, then scribbled out again. The feel was always clear though—gritty, grim, and unapologetically unforgiving. A Wild West where death ain’t just possible; it’s likely. But if you go out, you’ll go out legendary.
And now, after twenty years of iteration, evolution, and hard-earned grit, Hurled into Eternity is finally approaching the printing press.
Aiming for 2026: The Release
We’re looking at a tentative launch in Q2 or Q3 of 2026—a full-color, hardcover edition worthy of the legends it’ll carry. This won’t be a flimsy pamphlet or a bare bones beta. This is the real deal. A full core rule book steeped in sweat, smoke, and blood.
Expect more announcements leading into a proper crowdfunding campaign. I won’t rush it—but I will finish it.
This ain’t a game about balance. It's a game about reckoning.
You don’t play heroes—you play drifters, gunfighters, soiled doves, and outlaws. Folks clawing for survival, redemption, or one last score. The tone is dark, mythic, and soaked in the kind of hard choices frontier life demanded.
The world has a pulse. Every town has its own laws, its own secrets, and its own hangman. Every trail hides both gold and ghosts. You’ll meet legends—some living, some not. And if you last long enough, maybe you’ll become one.
Mechanics on the Edge
At its core, the game runs on the Wild Card System—a playing card–based mechanic that trades in tension, randomness, and fate. Combat is resolved through card draws, where suits determine severity and Jokers can spell miracles or doom.
Forget initiative—gunfights run on High Noon rules, where the first to flinch might be the first to fall. Skills are grouped into thematic callings (Military, Urban, Rural, Wilderness), with Talents drawn from the deck itself—fate choosing your gifts as much as you do.
Your drifter doesn’t level up like a power fantasy—they claw their way through scars, legends and fortune earned by blood.
There are critical wounds, misfires, brawls and balloon fights, and plunges into the Weird—a realm of spiritual horror and ghost story made real.
A World Rebuilt
Set in a quasi-legendary Wyoming Territory, the world of Hurled into Eternity takes real frontier history and folds it through myth, folklore, and tragedy. Towns like Redstone, Whiskey Gulch, and Crow Ridge exist between fading maps and whispered tales. The railroad doesn’t just bring progress—it brings change, and not always the kind folks want.
There are factions, bounty boards, twisted cults, and fallen lands. If you’re looking for a cinematic frontier where grit matters more than gear, you’ve found your table.
More soon.
Keep one eye on the blog and the others on the horizon. The saddle’s been empty a long time, but not much longer.
Taking a bit of a side track with all the crazy stuff going on in my life I've picked my western RPG, Hurled Into Eternity back to the fore. Its now on version 7 Alpha and will be ready for review, comments and play testing soon.
More to come but for now a look at the FPO/Concept cover. The idea will be a pulpy dime store western novel approach:
Unlike most towns people have created out there on the web, this one is not set in the American Southwest, but rather in more northerly climes. (As an aside, I love the movie Tombstone but I wanted a look and feel that was something different for an Old West town.)
A major inspiration for this is one of my favorite movies of all time: Unforgiven.
I’ve only just started on the town itself, so there is not much to show just yet. I anticipate with the pace I’m going at that I’ll complete it by the fall of this year, but we’ll see what happens.
Thus, the start of the town of Timber Ridge, a logging encampment, but full of cut-throats, desperadoes, and gunmen!
This post explains why I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks: the first true print out of the rules for Hurled into Eternity, at least in this format. Years ago (as in 15+) when the progenitor to these rules were in its d12 configuration and a traditional fantasy RPG called Quest, I printed sections of it, but never the entire rules themselves.
This is a prototype of the rules. I say
prototype loosely here because I'm not sure I'm going to use this
styling when it gets ready for a potential kick starter. None-the-less, I printed out two copies at the local Office Max as you
can see in color for the covers and the interiors are double sided black and white. Total cost for printing out two copies was under $20 including the color covers.
It weighs in at 78 pages, doubled sided when printed with two more for the covers. All told the entire rule set in terms of page count is 154. Maybe these will be collectors items someday (hah!)
The main purpose of the print out is to help facilitate testing and get a physical copy to make it seem more real. After years of only looking at it in its electronic form its good to finally see a physical manifestation of it. So far it has been very useful as I can reference as I work in the Willmark man cave testing the rules. So far its helped me tweak the rules for the Wild Card System, a bit for the better I hope.
Of course since printing stuff out I've noticed issues with it and changed the Wild Card System to flow better. I think I fixed the obvious problems regarding it. So far gun-fighting is looking very deadly with shotguns being perhaps to much. I'd really like to hear about feedback on the combat sections with the revisions.
Regardless, here is the latest version of the revised rules here.
(Quick Note: No I have not forgot my series of "Playing 1st edition AD&D", next post is almost ready to go but still needs a bit more work).
As promised version 11 of the 2nd generation of the Hurled into Eternity rules (link to download is below). Improvements include clarifications in the following areas:
Clarifications to the Wild Card System.
Modes of gunfire have been streamlined to eliminate the need for 1/2 or 1/3 configurations for gun fighting scores.
Modifiers condensed and streamlined for bonuses and penalties to hit.
Condensing and changing healing rates for Wounds (W) along elimination of differing healing rates for damage.
Early write up of a intro adventure (still not complete).
As always, spell checking and proofing is still on the radar, but not quite there yet as I'm continuing to focus on the rules. The feeling that I have now is I'm inching closer to a finished product. The rules are getting some, good constructive feedback and fixing areas that don't make sense. I saty that every post but two recent rounds of feedback have led to a even tighter game.
As a quick aside every once and a while I get the feedback: "Hurled into Eternity"? That doesn't make sense for a western, it sounds Sci-Fi. Sorry folks, you don't get much more Western then the name of this game! I'll leave it up to you to figure it out...
Well, after a fairly busy and interesting fall I'm now finally ready to *ahem* "climb back in the saddle" with Hurled into Eternity. Whats that you ask? Well my on-again off again western RPG game is now undergoing internal play testing to see how it works. My main focus of the play testing is to make sure I have the mechanics specifically nailed down. Lets face it the heart of any RP is the combat engine if that is not good then the RPG it's likely that the game is not so good.
My gut instinct tells me that the mechanics for the game work well, the conversion to an all card based mechanic is complete, now its simply a matter of making sure all of the parts line up with any gaps in a many they actually do, rather then what I think they do.
The next order of business is to take the combat chapter and pull it into a quick play doc to make sure that it flows. The parts that have been tested thus far are High Noon, (the imitative phase) in which the Judge and the players engage in 5-card draw. While its optional to deal it each round I prefer once per combat as it makes it battles go faster. Next up the hit determination. Some feedback I received was that it was bit to heavy with the modifiers so I scaled it back. Now the mods are reasonable and are fairly easy to calculate. Damage is likewise fairly straight forward.
One nagging thing has been the inclusion of poker chips. Now I feel it adds a nice western feel but at the same time I am mindful of the implication that it has been used in Savage Worlds. While my game is sufficiently different I don't want it to appear that it is lifting the idea. Currently they serve as a visual reminder of Luck (L) in the game and nothing more; they are not required for play.
The rest of the rules have been tightened up here and there and look to have missed almost all loopholes and areas that could be broken.
In the end game is fast, exciting and deadly. Cant wait to fully try it out.
I know I’ve been away for a bit, but I have been diligently working on my game, Hurled into Eternity.
Over the last few weeks I ran into several snags with it and “went back to the drawing board.” I didn’t revamp the game totally, but I excised the d100 mechanic and brought it to be fully based on a deck of cards. The Judge (GM section) still uses RPG dice for random events, but they are not critical to the game.
Now the game and its core mechanics use what I call the “Wild Card System.” Character values range from 0–10, with Jacks auto fails, Queens 50/50, and Kings auto success. Aces are always successes with extra bonuses. The funny part is I thought it up quite by accident while looking at a suit spread out before me from the deck. Instead of thinking in terms of a score going from 1–13 (13 cards in each suit), I thought about groupings — and thus the Wild Card System was born.
The next step (aside from editing) is some serious play testing before it even gets to the stage of a campaign. I’d like to see how all of the mechanics fit together, everything from character creation to combat.
Once that is completed, I anticipate making the text more friendly (I’m not the world’s best writer, but I try), and from there getting it ready for graphic design. The ultimate goal is to get it to a point where it can be printed via Lulu or other print-on-demand formats, then after a period of time, PDF. I don’t anticipate getting rich from this, but I think selling it for a nominal price will be well worth it. All without a Kickstarter? Outrageous.
In any event, here is the latest: Alpha. (Alpha is a bit of a misnomer as it’s pretty well developed.) My guess is that I’ve probably missed some spots where it still calls for a roll of the dice rather than drawing a card.
Hey been away for a while (had a fair number of personal issues the last few months) so I though I'd *ahem* "get back in the saddle" regarding blogging. A quick aside I'm starting to work on some more fantasy generated blog posts (maybe even a Warhammer one, but we'll see).
Anyways as this post relates to westerns: The movie Silverado. As noted it made the list of my top ten favorite westerns (that was favorite, not necessarily best) Silverado is a wicked fun movie, and a throw back to the westerns of old. I even mentioned it as a guilty pleasure but its not. I rewatched it recenlty and I have to say in terms of pacing its hard to beat as movie.
The opening scene of Emmet fighting of some desperado who were looking to bushwhack him while he was sleeping is all kinds of awesome and then spreads out to the majestic scenery of the American West.
Did I mention this happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie?
From there we quickly meet the second protagonist Paden left for dead in the desert. Form there ist a quick job to picking up his brother Jake played by Kevin Costner and at nearly the same time where they meet Mal played by Danny Glover. So within the first 20 minutes or so we have the four main characters all together.
One of the great things this movie does is give a sense of background very quickly in terms of each of the protagonists. Its a bit cliched sure, but in each case its all for the betterment of the movie. Remember, Silverado is about quick action and keeping it movie throughout.
Before they even make it to Silverado, Paden and Emmett encounter Paden's former trail friend Cobb and his unsavory henchmen Tyree and we are introduced to the running joke of "Where's the dog?" This is of course proceeded by a great gunfight by Paden while in his underclothes.
Lawerence Kasdan also does a good job with the racism of the Old West with Mal's character in the bar fight in Turley. Its difficult to do in today's political climate but handled well, even with the subtle implications from Sheriff Langston in running Mal out of town.
A side track to recover a stolen money box from some wagon trainers eventually results in the four getting to Silverado. There Paden finds Stella at the Midnight Star saloon meeting Cobb who reveals himself as the town Sheriff shortly thereafter.
The events in the mid section start the buildup to the finale, but are not without tension or death(s) as Mal's father is killed and Emmet nephew kidnapped with Emmett being nearly killed by the vicious Tyree. At no time does it feel forced as it jumps from scene to scene with Jake getting into it with who else Tyree and Mal and Slick arguing over Mal's sister.
Events come to a head with the kidnapping of Jake and Emmett's nephew and McKendrick burning down the house of their sister.
I can't say it enough, the movie is a whirlwind, with each scene having something to it. One area that lacks somewhat is the usual western romance. Apparently it was part of the movie and we see snippets of it from the interactions of Paden, Emmet and Hannah. The problem was during editing they had to cut something from the various subplots. Because of that the only thing that seems disjointed is those scenes as the whole story is not there.
In the end the final showdown is great as each of the protagonists guns down his own personal foe: Emmet killing McKendrick, Mal taking out Slick, Jake take out two bad guys simultaneously (one being Tyree, and finally a high noon showdown with Paden getting the drop on Cobb.
The film ends with a toast in the Midnight Star which Stella now runs on her own for the brothers as they head to California. As Emmett and Paden exchange goodbyes, Emmet remarks that Paden will make a farmer yet, to which Paden grins saying "I've got a job" as he slowly pulls back his coat revealing the Sheriff's star of the town of Silverado.
The scenery is great and the town very realistsic. The filmakers did an ingenous thing of simply filming it from different angles during the shooting of the movie to represent different town as needed. Shot in New Mexico it is obviously the right climate and locale of the film.
Since critics give out stars this gets 4.5 out of 5 from me. For a western there are very few that are better in terms of action. Sure some are legendary say like the Searchers or Once upon a Time in the West, but Silverado is a fun movie any way you slice it. Its PG-13 as the level of violence is up there but no worse then say the revisionists westerns of the 1970s.
So how does this apply to RPGs? If you are playimng your favorite western system: Deadlands, Boot Hill, Western City, what have you, if you model even a portion of your campaign on Silverado you'll have a great game. Right from the beginning there is a rise in tension, setups galore for later and reasons to care about the heroes (and wrongs for them to right). If one were using the default city and area of Boot Hill, Promise City and its environs it would work well.
Think about it, recovering loot, vengeance, stampedes, gunfights, shootouts, swearing, tension, whiskey, bar fights, hangings (almost), gambling, backstabbing, the cavalry making an appearance (not in the usual western cliched way)you name it. The only thing missing is some stagecoach or locomotive fights scenes. In fact my... own game Hurled into Eternity would be a great way to recreate the old West! (plug, plug). Speaking of which I'm gearing up to add some changes to the way combat works to make it a bit more survivable and it should be up soon.
I leave you with the trailer to wet your whistle for a great movie, saddle up!
