Better 12 years late than never? A review of the Far West RPG

This is not a playtest of Adamant Entertainment’s Far West RPG because it’s 12 years late.

One friend, who once said she was up for wuxia-meets-cowboy adventures, has gotten married, raised a kid, survived a typhoon and moved to France. A second friend has started two businesses and now does craft beer professionally. Neither have time for tabletop RPGs anymore, and I don’t think we ever expected Gareth-Michael Sharka and the team to deliver the Kickstarter-funded game.

But they did.

This is not a playtest review because it’s just out, pretty much to backers, and on DriveThruRPG in the same blink of the eye (no problem with that) and there’s been no time. I have played through some quick scenes, though, solo and with a pal on Discord. My kung fu expert was shot.

It was like that scene from one of the good Indiana Jones movies; Indy pulls the gun and avoids the fight. It’s less funny when you’re the martial artist.

Far West does have all sorts of fighting schools to try and even up combat, but I actually think the bullet vs brawn tension is part of the charm of the setting. Yeah, you might be a wise master, but that punk kid has a gun, and you are in trouble.

Far West

My first reaction to opening the Far West PDF was that it looked pretty good!

The TL;DR executive summary is that Far West is pretty good! It’s just larger than I would buy these days.

There’s 278 pages of Far West, including many pages that list the many Kickstarter backers. However, the RPG is long because it does a lot.

For example, there is a Spirit stat to represent the hero’s inner power and get stuff done. Spend Spirit points to get an extra Wild Die to the roll. There are also Destiny Points, which can be used to modify results. And there’s a luck system, Joss. Wild Die also introduce random critical success or fails. That’s a lot of system to influence the die.

But, in fairness, it’s not too complex to master and creates a bit of a resource economy of fate when managing heroes’ progress through the wild lands.

Characters have attributes and skills which are added together. The attributes don’t use the D&D set but are still familiar;

• Reflexes
• Strength
• Wits
• Toughness
• Presence
• Knack
• Kung Fu

Knack describes dealing with tools and technology, and that works for me because smart people can be uncomfortable with tech.

Kung Fu is a whole attribute possessed only by characters with Rank (an experience level), it represents their fighting level, and it works. The Kung Fu attribute keeps Far West fast.

The system uses d6s, and high is good, with the dice needing to roll over a difficulty. The system adds extra dice to the roll once any bonus gets high enough.

If that sounds a bit OSR-y there’s also tagging and storytelling compulsions in the system, which are far more evocative of narrative-first tabletop games.

There are Edges and Flaws as well. See? It’s almost as if Far West spent these last 12 years ferreting away all the system trends and adding them to the developing game. Except that sounds messy, and I don’t get a sense of that here. I do believe you need to know the rules to play, though, and this isn’t a lite TTRPG.

The Far West world

I’ve started with the rules engine for the game, but there’s more to than that in the Far West. In fact, the attraction of the game to me was the setting.

Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fiction that features martial arts, chivalry, and adventure. The term wuxia literally means “martial hero”. Wuxia stories typically involve skilled warriors who fight for justice and uphold traditional Chinese values. In contrast, Westerns are quintessentially American and often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using broader themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States.

One looks forward to a better future, and one genre looks back to a respected path. One deals with traditional values, and the other with individualism. There’s tension.

Far West’s setting has a fallen empire and clan-like families (with a pledge system). To me, it feels far more Western than Wuxia because it’s about the future and not about upholding the traditions that brought strength and security to the realm.

There’s also cog science, not quite steampunk, but certainly, the tangible evidence that the world is changing and the past is being left behind with increasing haste.

And yet, characters have Spirit and Destiny. There’s something stable in these Heroes that sets them apart from the chaos of the rest of the West. Perhaps the Wuxia layers on over the course of the campaign as Heroes follow a trend of generally trying to do the right thing.

Look and feel

Pleasingly, looks good. There’s plenty of art, some photographic, many different styles… perhaps a bit too much for my tastes, but not to far as to be upsetting.

The book is easy to read, the font clear and easy to read despite some dense pages and a generous amount of bookmarks.

Far West uses tables, is also easy to read, and is consistent with its notations and styling.

I didn’t get any cringe from the game, either. At no point did I read a bit and wonder what a Chinese or American, for that matter, friend would make of the comment. Yes, some assumptions are inherent in the genres but nothing I’ve seen discussed as problematic online.

Of course, who the heck am I to evaluate whether the Far West is appropriately sensitive to cultures I do not belong to. I might be getting this wrong, but I’ll be surprised if so.

Overall

I suspect I now have Adamant Entertainment’s Far West RPG, but have missed my chance to play it. Life has moved on.

I like the tension in the setting, that of a new tomorrow versus the proven wisdom of yesterday, but I suspect it’ll take a skilful Narrator to make sure yesterday’s shadow does not fade too quickly.

Equally, I like the tension between the two significant conflicts: martial arts and cog science with gunpowder. Once again, I think it’ll take a skilful Narrator to make sure both have their place in a game and feel important.

I would not recommend waiting 12 years for the game, but if you do fancy a Western with a twist, I think the Far West is a candidate!

Quick Links

• Download: Far West RPG