Tales of the Old West RPG Core Rulebook

The nineteenth century American West is a challenging place to set a roleplaying game. The period includes a civil war dominated by the clash over whether dark-skinned people were people or not. It’s also marked by the treatment of Native Americans as “savages”. It sidelines the millennia of Native American influence on the land, along with that of Mexican and Hispanic cultures.

The myth of the West, particularly in cinema, has tended to portray the protagonists as exclusively of white European descent. History is overlaid with iconic representations whitewashing the cowboy, and portraying Native American culture as antithetical to Anglo civilization. As two white boys from England, we can’t expect to do justice to all these issues, but we hope to make this game accessible to as wide an audience as possible. So, we have done our best to be respectful of the real history, and to reflect all the people in the US and the western territories at that time, without stereotyping anyone. We have, however, made a game that is intended to be fun, and we hope we got the balance right. If you think we can do better, tell us. We are keen to learn.