“Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him”
-Rev 6:8
-Johnny Ringo, translating the Mexican Priest.

Tombstone (1993) is the mythological retellling of the conflict between the Cowboys and The Earps. It is a great movie, with many quoteable lines. While it is based on actual events it is takes a number of liberties with mistress truth. (Check out the Clanton side of the story.) Like any good legend or myth, it’s historical accuracy should not matter.

Recently I re-watched Tombstone with an eye toward idea mining for RPGs and here’s what I came up with.

Shattering the Peace.
While the movie starts with a scene of violent cruelty, after that the first act is a peaceful and optimistic. While foreshadowing of the coming conflicts occurs in small doses, everything seems to be going well for the Earps. Even when the Cowboys cajole the Earps, everyone ends up laughing it off.

In order to shatter the peace, you, as GM, must first establish the peace. Give your players a reason to care about the town and its people. Let them make important investments. Let them sink roots. You can foreshadow coming conflict, but be careful to account for overzealous players who make be looking for a fight.

Drug Use
Mattie Earp, Curly Bill Brocius, Cowboys in the Opium Den. The use of opium is a strong element in Tombstone. The event that set the tinder to flame, Curly Bill’s shooting of Marshal White, was largely due to Curly Bill being high. This is an example of where Tombstone gets broad history, right, even while fudging the specific. “Between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived in the United States in the late 19th century and between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women.” (from Wikipedia, citing Women and Addition in the United States–1850 to 1920, pdf).
When putting together the pieces for you Old West town, don’t forget that there’s money to be made supplying and dealing opium. And where there’s money to be made (and lost), men shall do battle.

Consider the Tone
In Tombstone the lines are pretty strictly drawn between good and evil. Even Wyatt’s flirtaions with Josie are justified by Mattie’s descent into drug addiction. Almost no mention is made of the Earp women all being former (and sometimes still practicing) prostitutes (why Ike repeatedly calls the Earps pimps).

One exception, and a valuable one to consider for an RPGs is “Texas” Jack Vermillion, “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson, and Sherman McMasters, repent and join Wyatt. When the bad guys cross a line having some of their followers switch sides could make for a nice twist.

In reality the feud between the Earps and the Clantons was complicated. Sometimes Wyatt Earp appears as a heroic lawman, other times a thug. Ike Clanton had legitimate claims against the Earps, and was not the cowardly, dirty, illiterate, buffoon portrayed in the movie.

So, tone. Black and White, or shades of gray. Either one can be fun.

You also need to consider the realism of violence in the game. Tombstone, like so many Western movies, is rather cinematic. You get shot, you die. My poking around suggests this is not the case. Most gunfights ended with opponents winged, or out of ammo. But cinematic violence can be more fun.

There’s a strange irony that in many ways the “cinematic” qualifier in this case means a game would be more deadly.

Hit ‘em where it hurts.
As I mentioned in the first section, the violent conflict is all the more shocking if you’ve established a peaceful backdrop. This is doubly true if you have the villains hit the heroes where it hurts. This is a trope of Western villains (and villains in general). Kill the family, burn the house, injure the friends. They don’t seem to realize this only incites the hero to grim, fatalistic, determination!