This is the Shem Wild West game I intend to run. Every character should have gunslinging skills (for whatever reason), but a different gunfighting style for each would be most awesome. It will be set on the Other Planet, in a far off area of the world that is just being gotten to.

The whole space travel thing is long forgotten, the people of Ruiz barely remember Shem. It is a planet of its own now. Railroads & telegraphs are beginning to dominate the landscape, & the silver mines of West Caernavron are making it a boom town. Down the road, Devil's Breath is a rough & ready railroad town. Across the mountains, Salvation is a town founded by religious settlers. Up the way, Queen City is the capital of the territory, a den of corruption & sin. The Black Sash Posse, a group of outlaws & reprobates, run the area, despite the best attempts of some lawmen to run them out. Instead, the law was run out, & the only law now is the Posse. Honest folks don't know what to do, & dishonest folks are finding it hard to get by, even.

Vigilantes come to the area occassionally, but none are a match for the Posse. Their leader, a man named Randall Crow, is a vile sonuvabitch who wears two sets of guns on his belts--black ones & white ones. He has never drawn the white ones, for the black ones always do the job. Businesses thrive under the Posse in Queen City, but they all must give the Posse their cut. Honest men are run out of the area, but honest women are rarely allowed to leave.

The people of Salvation have banded together to try to resist the Posse, but their attempts have been laughed off. They have big words, but no real fighting strength against the vicious guns of the Posse. Devil's Breath is a transitory place, most people there being workers for the various companies, & West Carnaevron is a violent mining camp. The Posse has little work to control the ruffians in these pits of mortal filth.

There are a few ranches nearby, some under the sway of the Posse, some more like Salvation in their connections. Within the territory, some other places of interest include Thunderbird Valley (a vast stretch of wilderness), Corral City (a distant, thriving trade city), Unnamed (said to be a ghost town), Eureka (emptied gold mine town, once a boom town), Morgan's Point (standard western town), Paint Rock (a town where natives & settlers coexist), Rising Star (nearest town with valid law), Big Water (well named), Chaparral (also well named), White Rock (where most of the settlers in Salvation are from), Nightmare Junction (named for its terrain, the city has grown to fit the setting), Horseshoe Bend (site of a famous battle), Grim (site of the most famous hangings), Arroyo Grande (also well named, settled by Juazans (Spanish/Mexicans)), Broken Arrow (a former native settlement gone to the settlers), Wagoner (on the edge of the territory, a crossroads town), Black Mesa (well named again), & Wapasha (a native settlement in the Forest of Bleeding Trees). The Forest of Bleeding Trees is so named for its red leafed trees that are alive year round, in the midst of the harsh climate.

Several places outside the territory are significant: Paradise (a big city in the civilized territory further west--think San Francisco), Acorn (distant civilized city on the sea, think Boston), Lazarus (another ghost town outside the territory), Fort Calvary (the big fort in the area, just outside the territory), El Dorado (a thriving gold mine city outside the territory), & Muscowequan (a native settlement that is known for its blood sacrifices).

Most place names are based on actual places or other fictional places.

All characters need a firearms (gunslinging or marksmanship) skill. Their guns need to have names.

Suggested character ideas, races, etc.

A justice of the peace/sheriff/(Texas-style) ranger newly come to the territory, perhaps hunting someone

A bounty hunter, definitely hunting someone

A school marm

An entrepeneur come out West

A snake oil salesman/mountebank

A jackalope, desert hunter (coyote man), manscorpion, wakinyan (thunderbird man), or ka'ar

A native (Ruizanes, humans native to the planet, basically, American Indians)

A member of a rival gang trying to gain power in the territory (esp. goblins)

Any decent desert race

A surgeon

A whore, singer, or actor/actress

A bank robber, thief, burglar, or assassin

A gambler

A farmhand or farmmaid

A lawyer or other educated gentleman from the eastern seaboard

A Tenzanese-descended settler

PCs:

Rob: someone who isn't afraid of death. cursed/blessed by death church to know that he will die in an accident where his gun misfires. three such accidents have occurred thus far

Rags: Father Abyssus, Daniel Abd al-Jabbaar, blood and hellfire Wemic exorcist, priest of Light.

Dani: nymphish whore who keeps her gun in her garter. she robs her patrons. travels around.

Nathan: an old blind prospector for gold who used to be a hired gun. He still has the muscle memory, but he does his targeting by sound now instead of sight.

Beccah: Keslin Teosinte, Siyaj Chan K'awiil (Stormy Sky), Ruizane school marm

NPC: Hargo Bloat, tocka mountebank

NPCs:

The Black Sash Posse:

Kage Sharpe, hitman

Mason J. Thrace, former politician turned mobster

"Deadly Aim" Jane Toutant, sharpshooter

Arda Green, notorious outlaw

Virgil R. Haynes, former lawman

Wendayo Akkalla, shaman

Jesse Braide, new recruit

Noah "Wraith" Bullock, priest of undeath

Brutus Marion, brawler

Linda "the Knife" Gayle, streetfighter

"Mad" Gunther Smith, gunsmith

Mary & Anne Campbell, twin gamblers

Walker Pryce, sold his soul to the Devil

George Rust, gatling gun specialist

Maultasch Parsimony, Walker's right hand

"Scorpion" Egus, hitman

Mrendelfoth Guilt, hanging victim

Ambrosia Vice, madame

Rosella Sin, madame

Randall Crow, their leader

Leaders:

Casino Association:

Others:

Murat Donnely, the coffinmaker