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Thinking about how weird history is. You could have a Historical TTRPG, set in the "West," in... let's say 1863. Midst of the civil war.
The party could be:
-An elderly French gentleman pirate (privateering ends in 1830)
-A Luchador (the first regional Lucha Libre were in 1863)/
The party could be:
-An elderly French gentleman pirate (privateering ends in 1830)
-A Luchador (the first regional Lucha Libre were in 1863)/
-An escaped slave turned soldier (or just straight up play Robert Smalls).
-A stage actress, turned union Spy (Pauline Cushman comes to mind)
-A Ronin Samurai, fleeing the end of the shogunate (1867, but there's strife before) working as Security in Mexico City (happened) /
-A stage actress, turned union Spy (Pauline Cushman comes to mind)
-A Ronin Samurai, fleeing the end of the shogunate (1867, but there's strife before) working as Security in Mexico City (happened) /
-A Victorian Gentleman Detective (Holmes, for instance, starts out set in the 1870s).
-A Mexican Vaquero (all throughout this period)
-An Irish Mexican Veteran (Los San Patricios)
-ANY NUMBER of underrepresented indigenous folks in the region (Jicarilla Apache woman pictured).
-A Mexican Vaquero (all throughout this period)
-An Irish Mexican Veteran (Los San Patricios)
-ANY NUMBER of underrepresented indigenous folks in the region (Jicarilla Apache woman pictured).
-An Uzbek fighter fleeing the Dungan Revolt (1862-77)
-An actual goddamn steampunk inventor (Ada Lovelace died *just a bit young* for this, but it's the era).
-An actual goddamn steampunk inventor (Ada Lovelace died *just a bit young* for this, but it's the era).
All of these people would have plenty of reason to be in Texas/Northern Mexico/The West in the 1860s.
You could just... play that party. That's historically plausible. Nothing wrong with it.
You could just... play that party. That's historically plausible. Nothing wrong with it.
And you could play that party, if your group was interested and you treated it with respect, in a world of titanic forces, of racial oppression, of the birth pains of a new world - the death of empires, the rise of nation states, the descent of the US into war.
And that would be a fun goddamn game.
All of this is subtweeting that one terrible CYOA that I'm not going to give more attention. If you WANT to not "sugar coat" the west, you can give it as it was - and let your team struggle against that, and work to earn their happy ending.
All of this is subtweeting that one terrible CYOA that I'm not going to give more attention. If you WANT to not "sugar coat" the west, you can give it as it was - and let your team struggle against that, and work to earn their happy ending.
All I'm saying is that if anyone wants to run that game I'm going to play a bitter Irish Catholic veteran of the Mexican American war, who fought for truth and honor and their future against a genocidal, slave-owning group of faithless land-stealing traitors.
You know. Texans.
You know. Texans.
AND HE'S BEST FRIENDS WITH THE LUCHADOR
HE'S HIS TRAINER
AND THE FRENCH PIRATE AND HE FELL OUT BECAUSE THEY BOTH LOVED THE SAME WOMAN
Y'ALL
WHO'S RUNNING THIS
WHO CAN DO A FRENCH ACCENT
WHEN DOES THIS GAME START
HE'S HIS TRAINER
AND THE FRENCH PIRATE AND HE FELL OUT BECAUSE THEY BOTH LOVED THE SAME WOMAN
Y'ALL
WHO'S RUNNING THIS
WHO CAN DO A FRENCH ACCENT
WHEN DOES THIS GAME START
...the whole game is an Avengers team-up lead by Smalls and Cushman to infiltrate a secret laboratory in a buried Aztec Temple beneath a monastery outside Mexico City, where a rogue scientist is inventing super-weapons for the confederates.
Y'all.
Y'all.
