Mecha Western Setting Riff

A Game Idea I'm Not Using (Right Now)

So, this is about mixing the tropes of the Western genre with mecha. I make no claims to this particular mashup. The idea's been floating around for awhile.

Ever get an idea for something completely different from the project that's sitting right in front of you? I should be finishing my notes on B4 The Lost City for my Old School Essentials "Nostalgia Tour" campaign. On the other hand, this is one of those ideas that will bother me until I jot something down. Feel free to borrow what you like and let me know how it goes.

Mecha keeping an eye out for bug rustlers.

Related Concepts

The mecha western draws from Westerns, space operas, and space westerns plus the whole giant robot thing.

"Space opera" is derived from "soap opera" and "horse opera" - the latter being a term for Western films and television series. Replace the horse with a spaceship, revolvers with rayguns, and the Wild West with the Final Frontier. Star Trek's "wagon train to the stars" is a well known example.

The space western is a space opera that invokes the themes and trappings of the Western. In many ways, it simply draws the existing relationship between the two genres closer together. For example, the Mandalorian places greater emphasis on the Western elements that have always been a part of Star Wars.

The mecha western is a different kind of space western. Spaceships are still around, but their role is more akin to a train or stagecoach than a horse. They are ways of crossing the frontier that the protagonists don't own or control. The Western's horse is instead swapped out with piloted robotic vehicles. This idea isn't exactly unprecedented - anime like Outlaw Star are inspirations.


Drilling Deeper

Placing mecha in space opera isn't enough - that's a significant portion of anime and video games. Mixing mecha and Westerns involves recycling classic Western plots and tropes with a sci-fi spin that includes giant robots. There is plenty of commentary on the Western genre - TV Tropes has a whole page - and I'm not going to be doing a deep dive here. I want to discuss how everything reacts after being combined.

A frontier is mandatory. The action has to take place far enough from settled areas for things to get out of hand. The conflict between those who employ the violence necessary to destroy threats to order and those who wish to build and live in that order is alive here. There is also the fact that explosive weapons and anti-authoritarian attitudes don't mix with artificial environments maintained by fragile life support systems. The tension between hired mecha jocks and those that pay them could be a valuable source of role playing drama.

Space westerns - such as Firefly - often feature a mix of technologies. This could be the result of a recent interstellar war. The effects of the conflict still disrupt trade, but left plenty of salvage around. Or it could be the simple fact that high tech gets less common and more crude the further out a place is from the centers of industry. In any event, there is a mix of technological aesthetics - steampunk, dieselpunk, cyberpunk, cassette future, rocketpunk, and glossy high tech. What is available depends on the sources that can be accessed, the means at hand, and what can be jury-rigged to fit to a purpose.

What to Call These Yahoos?

Space Cowboys? Taken.
Mecha Jockeys? Mech Jocks? Kinda also taken.
Hired Guns? Buckaroos? Gunslingers? Straight outta Westerns, not enough mecha.
Mecha Busters? Mecha Wranglers? Hmmm...

I'll workshop it later.


Adventure Ideas

"High Noon Mecha Showdown"
Chronometers count down to local noon, when the regular interplanetary transport arrives with a band of mecha equipped enforcers assigned to kill those getting too close in their investigation of the corrupt corporate government. The player characters need to make sure that all their mecha systems are nominal when the time comes.

Inspirations: "High Noon" (1952) and "Outland" (1981).

"The Great Brain Robbery"
A valuable corporate shipment is on the move, but that's just the cover story. Something even more valuable is hidden in one of the regular cargo modules - an AI core that corporate wants to stay off the books. Catching up to the shipment, boarding, and defeating corporate security is just the start. Recovering the core and keeping it long enough to reach a buyer will be an even greater challenge.
Inspirations: "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) and "The Train Job" (Firefly 1x2).

"Cattle Drive"
Hired on to protect dinosaur-like megafauna and the specialized mecha that herd them to market from rustlers. They have to get the herd from their ranch to the markets near the planetary space port while under constant harassment from mecha buckaroos in the pay of competing ranches.

"Lost Treasure"
Three parties race each other for a treasure. A crashed luxury space liner that went down before the war. Salvagers picked it clean long ago, but there are rumors that something was missed. The race ends in a Mexican standoff after a long journey and many dangers. Who will make the first move and provoke a fight in the wreck of the space liner?
Inspiration: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966).


Conclusion

Now that I've got some notes down, I'm putting this idea away for later. Maybe I'll dust it off after my preorder of the Lancer book arrives.

A Game I'll Never Run - Working for a Dragon

A deep dive into my own notes is a key step as I prepare a new RPG campaign. I frequently rediscover little gems that I jotted down months or years ago and promptly forgot. Something else I find are fantastic concepts for campaigns that I have absolutely no time to run. After all, I'll hopefully be busy with my current campaign for awhile.

Rather than let them lie unused, I'll be presenting them here as they turn up. Feel free to borrow anything that looks handy. Just let me know how it turned out.


The Quest Giver is a Dragon

Our adventuring party works for a great wyrm of considerable age and wide experience. The beast isn't interested in acquiring more wealth. This particular dragon's hoard is already big enough to be comfortable to lounge upon. This dragon has moved on to other things. But what are the dragon's motivations and how can the adventurers help to achieve them?

Meet the new boss?

Collecting Scholarly Knowledge

Knowledge was a means to an end in the dragon's youth. Genuine curiosity eventually overcame ambition as the dragon grew old and strong. However, a dragon showing up to ask questions is usually counterproductive. Many interactions between dragons and others involve raided livestock, looted gold, and things on fire. Employing adventurers as agents tends to work better. At least, until those adventurers start getting ideas.

Before that, our adventurers can find employment by:

• Tracking down and acquiring the last copy of an ancient tome before anybody else gets it.
• Convincing an elderly sage to part with their particular brand of wisdom. The sage is done with life and can't be bribed or threatened, even by a dragon or band of cutthroats. What would convince such a sage?
• Trading books with various libraries. The dragon has extra copies to spare, but wants to avoid the complications of letting others know who they are dealing with. It's best to send the adventurers as representatives.
• Swapping knowledge over networks of scholars who may not be keen on giving their secrets to a dragon.
• Establishing relations with key scholars. The dragon foresees the need to consult with them repeatedly.
• Prying a scroll of lost lore out of the cold, undead hands holding it.

Collecting Arcane Knowledge

Knowledge can be power, but magical knowledge gets to the point quicker. There is some overlap between this and acquiring scholarly knowledge. Some of the ideas presented above can be used with this motivation. In both cases, the dragon is using the adventuring party as agents to gain access to sources that would be denied otherwise.

• Meeting with a jinn or devil on their own plane and figuring out what it would take to persuade them to part with what they know. The first challenge is the logistics of arranging and traveling to the meeting.
• The dragon has learned of a tome called the Necronomicon. The knowledge it contain is both valuable and dangerous. One doesn't survive to become a great wyrm by taking unnecessary risks - best to have someone else read the book and transcribe its contents in a form safer to peruse. There is a troublesome mage who has beat the dragon's prior agents to various prizes over the decades. Perhaps the adventuring party can convince the mage to take on this task? Of course, a copy of the Necronomicon must be obtained in the first place.
• Raiding the library of a demi-lich. It is located a trapped-infested crypt, but the demi-lich should be distracted with whatever such undead do down there.
• Rumors suggest that another adventuring party has looted a rare magical item from some dungeon. How to get it without showing the dragon's hand?
• Trading magical secrets with an organization of wizards with a dodgy reputation. Both sides know that betrayal is coming, just not exactly when. The assassination attempts against the dragon's prior agents don't really count. That's just common practice.

Supporting the Imperial Dynasty

Centuries ago, the dragon took another form and founded a ruling family. Affairs of state grew boring, so the dragon left the polity in the hands of later generations. But the dragon takes family obligations seriously enough to intervene from time to time.

The dragon doesn't want to operate openly and uses agents when possible. The dynasty has to appear to be strong enough to stand on its own. Besides, the dragon isn't a pet that comes when called just because there's a handsome representation on the imperial crest. This is a situation where each side gets things it wants because both parties compliment each other nicely. The player characters could be adventurers acting as the dragon's agents, part of the imperial court, or members of the imperial government with a mysterious boss.

• The dragon and the dynasty are family, but that doesn't rule out backstabbing. There's always upstarts who think that they have what it takes to further their ambitions by getting rid their mysterious "great uncle" from out of town. Keeping an eye out for trouble is one option. Finding a place to hide the charred corpse and cooking up a cover story is another.
• The dragon is the center of a spy network. The dragon makes for a pretty good spy with superior senses, the ability to fly, and maybe even shape changing. The dynasty has used its connections and wealth to build a wider net for gathering information. Of course, such networks have vulnerable nodes that enemies can attack or co-opt. That's what the internal security and assassination branches are for. The adventurers are handy as deniable assets with no obvious connections to either the dragon or the royal family.
• A lack of money isn't a problem for either the dragon or the dynasty, but there are some problems wealth can't solve. Some folks just can't be bribed. The player characters need to find a way to persuade the source of the issue or otherwise make it go away.
• The dragon can solve some issues indirectly. Sometimes that ambitious lord making moves in the imperial court can't just be killed off. On the other hand, that lord might get called back home to deal with a crisis at precisely the right time. A dragon attack on the lord's holding might be the source of that boon. But somebody has to make sure that word get through to the lord at precisely the right time.
• The dragon and dynasty view their relationship from an interpersonal perspective rather than a political one. The dragon's long life and unusual viewpoint make it a valuable source of advice. The dragon prefers to quietly guide the dynasty along and providing indirect support while juggling more draconic interests at the same time. Besides, the player characters are around to handle any dirty work.
• There was those times when everything was going smoothly until the current ruler and most of the heirs were assassinated. The dragon was busy guiding someone never expected to take on the role of ruler while investigating the assassinations. One such incident is the source of the imperial decree forbidding multiple members of the dynasty from riding in the same airship.