Western Story Archetypes

Generally speaking, there are a few prevalent themes in telling stories about the Wild West. These archetypes can be helpful when preparing your game, to find what kind of story your group finds most compelling. 

Empire Story

The players are building something, and getting rich.  This could be building up the town, a business, or their own  ranch.  The players and MC will have to discuss what kind of business or resource the players want to run, and then present obstacles specific to that enterprise.  If they become cattle ranchers, then there could be cattle rustlers, animals attacking their herds, supernatural plagues or weather, or competing businesses trying to sabotage their empire. 

Outlaw Story

In an Outlaw story, the players are criminals, who engage in dangerous illegal activity to gain wealth and fame.  This could be motivated purely by wealth, power over others, or simply defiance of societal norms. The players may track down rich business men or bank owners, research their targets and staging elaborate heists. The party will definitely run afoul of law enforcement, but also face other competing gangs.  If the players are not careful, they may invoke the Death Sickness or other curses for their immoral behavior.  With a story focusing on criminal activity, it can help to introduce crooked political figures or sinister business men, so the party is stealing from even worse people.  

Marshall Stories

The players enforce the law, and try to bring order to the untamed frontier. Here the players are recruited into law enforcement, as bounty hunters initially before some characters are recruited as deputies or local sheriffs, before being promoted into office or federal marshals. In a marshall story, the players represent law and order, bringing in outlaws for bounties or ending crime sprees.  This may involve solving murder mysteries, recovering stolen property, or journeying into the wasteland to track down vicious criminals.  Antagonists in these stories may include any kind of colorful outlaw, including supernatural offenders, but also wild animals who’ve attacked people and must be put down, or perhaps a criminal conspiracy like a crooked land baron. 

Union Pacific Story 

This campaign is about the railroad or telegram line, or some other form of technology that represents civilization.  The players are trying to help bring this technology to the community so the town will prosper and connect with civilization.  Initially it sounds similar to the Empire story, but the Union Pacific story differs in that it’s a large scale undertaking to benefit all residents in the area, The party may have to recruit workers, clear hazards from land, secure work sites and assets, and possibly conduct some espionage on rival companies. In this storyline, the players benefit from bringing the town closer to a consistent reality as it exists in the rest of the known world, but at the cost of the supernatural community. Typical villains may include competing businesses,  our outlaws trying to profit by stealing assets from the enterprise.

Ranch Story

Ranch stories are about players building a homestead, a place for themselves, and protecting it from outside forces that would disrupt their lives.  There could be outlaws trying to rob the players, a land baron trying to steal their land, or some idealogical opposition to their way of life.