Best Movie About Role-playing: Westworld

Guide to role-playing

Back in the early 70's there was a small explosion of some true to genre science fiction films that Hollywood was cranking out, no doubt due to the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Planet of the Apes (which spawned four sequels).  Films like Death Race 2000, The Omega Man, Silent Running, Soilent Green, Logan's Run, Rollerball and many others.  These were true Science Fiction stories, and like all good true science fiction, posed questions about man's relationship to himself, the universe and machines.  All of this was shattered in 1977 when Star Wars, a science fantasy film, rolled over the genre like a Jawa Sandcrawler.

One of those early 70's sci-films was called Westworld a film about a resort that, for one thousand dollars a day, you can live out your fantasies in one of three fully-immersive environments, Medievalworld, Romanworld and Westworld.  The movie was written and directed by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain) and introduced his 'theme-park horror story'.  The twist is that all the other participants in these 'worlds' with the exception of the guests, are robots.  Of course "Nothing can go wrong".

So what does this have to do with Role-playing?

Westworld has all the elements and is a perfect analogy of a role-playing game.  Spoilers ahead, so if you need to go watch the movie do so now.

Players and PC rolled into one

The move starts with two guests, played by James Brolin and Richard Benjamin, head to Westworld to live out their fantasy of living a real wild west experience.  Brolin had been to Westworld once before (the experienced role-player), for Benjamin, however, this was his first experience (a role-player newbie).  Once they don their western garb provided by the resort Brolin kinda helps Benjamin through the ropes of getting into this role of a fantasy experience.  Benjamin has a hard time of 'letting go' and getting into the fantasy.

Bad-ass NPC

Their first stop, like any good role players, is the saloon.  Here they run into the antagonist of Westworld, the Gunslinger played by Yul Brenner who challenges Benjamin.  Here it's great to watch Benjamin's character, a Yuppie from Chicago, attempting to get into this fantasy role of cowboy and finally guns down Brenner.

Once the two friends loosen up to this 'new' fantasy world they do what any good role-players do; they start drinking, whorin' and shooting up the town.

Six-Gun's Enough!

It's really great how the first two-thirds of the movie parallels the general path of most players actions in role-playing games.  With a free open 'world' the first things that happens is that players, get drunk, whore around and cause trouble in the towns they visit.  A great point to note here is that after Brolin and Benjamin kill the sheriff in a jail-break, the role of sheriff of taken over by none other than Dick VanPatten, another guest with thick  glasses (totally out of place in the western scene) bumbling about.  A great visual of players entering these archetypical roles and projecting personae onto their characters.  In Medievalworld, the guest there hits on the queen and voluptuous wench while eating and drinking to his delight of a no-consequence world.

Keep in mind here, the guests are having sex with robots.

Hitting on the tavern robot ..er.. wench

The robots in the town are all the NPCs that the players (the stars of the story) run into. They are there only for the guests (players) interaction with their stereotypical roles and dialogue and simple purpose - to add life and color to the guest's (player's) experience of the world.

Your Game Master's brain

The robots are controlled by a master control center that represents the Game Master.  Here they re-program the robots on the fly to adapt to the guest's (player's) actions; altering their preconceived 'storylines' to please the guests (players), but also tossing in pre-programed events such as the bar-fight.  All fantasy RPG tropes are visited here.  Note that GMing on the fly is displayed by the technicians of master control, allowing the guests (players) to do what they desire but reacting to it and keeping it contained within the 'safe' notions of the control center (GM).

The guests (players) revel in their fantasies as there are no true consequences to their actions.  Killing NPCs, sleeping around, breaking the laws, the guest loose themselves in these actions but their feet are still rooted in their real world.  It's quite well captured this dual existence of the player and the PC.

Random roles really begin to start messing up everyone's
preconceived ideas of the session.

But here comes the third act.  Here the guests (players) and the control center techs (the GM) are surprised at what happens next.  And what happens next is the unexpected.  Here the random dice rolls take over and surprise both groups of participants creating this fantasy experience.  Within the movie, the robots start acting on their own and begin killing the guests.  In game terms, the random dice start rolling events and actions that neither player or GM were expecting.  Here the movie rolls into unexpected territory - unplanned and deadly.  The guests (players) begin reacting uncertainly for their lives, the techs (GM) does their best to roll with what's happening trying their best to regain control of their 'game'.

At this point enough reality seeps into the fantasy world to make it interesting, thrilling and deadly.  It is here that the lone survivor, Benjamin being relentlessly perused by the Gunslinger, runs 'off map' and into the other 'worlds'.  It is here that he gets his $1000 a day role-playing value!

I saw this movie when I was a kid and Brenner's emotionless robotic Gunslinger scared the crap outta me.  Watching this movie now, sure things seem dated but in a retro fun way, but watching this with the eye of a role-player was a revelation.  The movie is a perfect parallel to the RPG experience and worth spending an hour and a half watching.  If any movie needs a modern reboot, this is the one.

Never trust a robot to do a man's job.

Help Me Find.... Monsters!

UPDATED:  Case closed thanks to The Archmage and his Collection of Creepy Horrors!

Last month there was an A-Z blog festy thing.  Some great OSR blogger posted some really great monsters I believe he came up with.  Well, for the life of me, I can't find those  posts and I have no idea who posted them.  I was pretty sure I was a follower of his blog but for the life of me I can't track it down - because his monsters were really freaky and I want to use some to, you know, freak my players out.

Does anybody recall those posts...? 

Go Fer Yer Gun! Character Sheet

Always love tweaking character sheets and Go Fer Yer Gun! has been no different.  Here's the raw GFYG! character sheet for download.

Go Fer Yer Gun! Now Free At RPG Now

Beyond Belief Games has made the western RPG Go Fer Yer Gun! available as a free pdf download over at RPG Now.  It's a great little rules-lite game based on Castles and Crusaders and, if you've been following along, you've seen that I've been prepping to run this game.  There's nothing like a free set of rules to help make your Friday pass by more quickly!

Check out Go Fer Yer Gun!

Gambling In RPGs: Wild West

Card playing and gambling were a mainstay in any western milieu so I wanted to make that a quick and simple option in my upcoming campaign.  However, after looking around the interwebs I was unable to find a satisfactory solution.  I wanted to keep the gambling in-game, quick and not side-track from the reason we all gathered in the first place, to role-play some wild west action and not sit around playing cards.  This is based on using Go Fer Yer Guns! but should be adaptable to any other RPG.

So here is what I came up with...

I'm basing the gambling 'mini-game' on Poker Dice but since this is being planned for a western style game I've switched the dice to playing cards; 9, 10, J, Q, K, A of all four suites as well as added a few additional elements. Since one of the hands in Poker Dice is 5 of a kind, I've added the two Jokers as wild cards. Thus 26 cards, 4 short of the 30 options in Poker Dice but I think that will work fine.

This 'mini-game' scene represents the entire 'poker' or gambling session for the player. The player 'antes' up the amount of money he wishes to gamble away. This would be a one time 'in' and wins and losses are based on this amount.

The GM deals 5 cards to the PC(s) and 5 cards to himself. The first two cards are face down and the last three are face up. This gives the outcome a bit of suspense and an option for players looking to cheat. The players are allowed to look at their face down cards.

These 5 cards are the only cards the players get with the following exceptions. The player can decide to use his Pick Pocket (cheat) ability to attempt to cheat to win the hand OR to use his Card Sharp ability to either cut his losses or enhance his winnings. He has to choose one or the other. The choice is made after the cards are dealt.

If the character (PC or NPC) have a Pick Pocket (cheat) ability they can try to cheat by rolling a Dex check + bonus + level directly against the victim's Intelligence check + bonus + Level.

A failure means that the slight of hand failed and the cheater was caught. Role-play accordingly - accusations shouted, guns drawn, bullets fly!

If they win then the player gets to trade in either or both of his face down cards to be dealt new ones. That will be his final hand.

All cards are displayed and winning hands are based on standard Poker Dice results. The winners and losers then roll on the charts below for final outcome.

WIN
Roll D12 +/- INT Modifiers

0 or less - Broke Even
1 - +20%
2 - +40%
3 - +60%
4 - +80%
5- Double your money
6- Double +10%
7- Double +30%
8- Double + 50%
9- Double +70%
10- Triple
11- Triple +Victim's weapon
12- Triple +victim's treasured item
13- Triple + weapon + Treasured item
14+  -  Triple + weapon + Treasured item + debt

LOSE
Roll D12 +/- INT Modifiers

0 or less - Loose all money, weapon, boots, treasured item + debt
1 - loose all money, weapon, boots, treasured item
2 - loose all money, weapon, boots
3 - loose all money, weapon
4 - loose all money
5- 90% of money
6- 80% of money
7- 70% of money
8- 60% of money
9- 50% of money
10- 40% of money
11- 30% of money
12- 20% of money
13- 10% of money
14+  -  Break Even


Now, if the player(s) had chosen NOT to cheat during the hand, they can influence the roll by adding their INT bonus. By the same token, the dealer can, if he had chosen NOT to cheat, apply his INT bonus as a subtraction to the player's roll.

I did a quick test of the above and it worked pretty well and was quick. I'll give it another couple of run-throughs just to be sure. If anyone sees any issues or has any other ideas let me know. This should be able to be adapted to most other RPGs as well.

Wild West Campaign: The Town of Rebel

Thinking I'd start things off small, I decided to begin play in the small town of Rebel.  It's found on the eastern portion of the Rosewood Territory campaign map.  Even a small town like this there was quite a bit going on.

Rebel is a small tough mining town on the main road west just south of Beggars Canyon  It was founded by Harlow Cox after the Civil War before he moved further west and sunk roots in the more prosperous Harlow Junction.  Cox, however, still runs the Rebel though Sheriff Slade.  Slade keeps tabs on the town for Cox.  The sheriff and his deputies help protect the tin-pans working in Beggars Canyon from Angus Young. The Mormon from Bronson has sent his band of ruffians lead by Barton Clay and are trying to run the miners out so that they can stake the claim.

The Canyon Creek Saloon is the towns main gathering place run by Boon Johnson, close friend with the Sheriff and Harlow Cox.  He's always got his ear open to the goings on in Rebel and feeds that back to Cox directly.  His 'Scarlet Ladies' help keep the clientele drunk and satisfied.  At the Canyon Creek Saloon you'll usually see a number of tin-pans celebrating their strikes or drowning their sorrows, ranchers, a few buffalo hunters and weary travelers heading west whetting their whistles.  You'll also find the hard drinking Doc Anderson always willing to deal someone's inebriated, gold heavy, pockets into his infamous poker games.

Now during this process I created a 'map' of the connections of the general folks in this town.  As you can see the connections get a little crazy but it should be enough to get started.

I'm using the concept posted on the Boot Hill OD&D boards about using the people as rooms and connections as corridors for the players to 'explore'.  There's a few love-triangles, illicit affairs, a couple of rival gangs and indebted tin-pans to keep things flowing.  And there's a few connections to the larger campaign area and the bigger power-players in the territory.  I'm hoping that the players stories should evolve fairly organically within the environment without too much instigating on my part, but we'll see.  I'll have a few nuggets to toss  in there if necessary.

If All Aliens Looked Like This....