Personal brainstorming for my next Western Campign...

[Treebore]

Going to put out some ideas for the next game I want to run. I have mentioned before I want to do it in the Montana and Dakota "states" area.

Note: I am not beholden to or restricted to actual history. I don't want players familiar with actual history altering it to be the one who actually makes the gold or silver strikes of history, and so on. So I by default use alternate history settings such as that used for the Aces and Eights RPG. Or pretty much throw history completely out the window and run something like Deadlands Reloaded.

I am not sure what kind of town I want to use yet. I am pretty sure I don't want it big. So I am thinking a over all population of maybe 350 or so.
As for the players, they can create whatever character they want, just they all need to currently be in whatever town, or immediate area of it, that I decide to use or create. I have the Town creator I linked to this community long ago, so am thinking I will use that. Plus the creation process will help me generate even more "adventure" ideas.

I definitely want to have a "cattle baron" or two in the area, who acts like a law unto themselves. Local thugs/outlaws are a must as well. Likely praying primarily on Prospectors who get lucky. The really competent ones will likely be praying on the Cattle Barons cattle.

I don't think I will have an actual Brothel, but the local bar or bars I create will definitely have "back rooms" for such things as well as "High Stakes" Poker games and the like.

So far the hardest things for me to decide on are with regards to the people already in power. IE the Sheriff, the local Judge, the Mayor, members of the town council. I also have yet to decide on if any of the local Cattlemen are actually decent people, or just highly successful thugs. Mostly they will be a mix of both. Just wondering if I want one of either extreme, or one for both extremes.

I also need to decide on which religion, or possibly religions, are strongest around this community. I am leaning towards there being several in the town, but none so successful/influential as of yet to have even had a Church built. I want them holding their "sermons" in a local home, or if too big for a home to be used, then a barn.

I think all of this should give me plenty of ideas to fully utilize once I see what the players play, and what directions they start to go in as they learn how things "are" in this town. To start I will just use a bare bones character write up for all of the NPC's. Then if and when they become seriously interacted with by the PC's, I'll give them a full write up and generation on par with the PC's.

[Treebore]

I've decided on my first NPC and their main real life influence. Sheriff John Slaughter. I will model him around the same Sheriff of Cochise County, AZ fame.

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-johnslaughter.html

[Treebore]

Some Maps I want to make sure I use:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub ... t-Map-Sets