For my last Deadlands game I detailed the fictional town of Melody Colorado. I played around with some of the details, but it partially replaces Walsenburg Colorado, the county seat of Huerfano County. I choose Huerfano Co., despite never having been there, because it was along a cattle trail, had good mining and farming, and was close to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It was also one of the original 17 counties of Colorado which I felt increased my chances of finding historical information online.

I was able to get some great history about Huerfano county that inspired and informed my game. For example both “The History of the Georgia Colony” and “Hispanic Heritage in Huerfano County, Colorado” from this excellent page: Huerfano County Resources.

Here’s what I ended up with:
A large map of Melody - 1.9 Mb jpeg, 3400px × 4400px
A players map of Melody - 580 kb PDF
Melody People and Places.

My point for all of this is that you should always check to actual history of the region your game is set in, you never know what cool stories you’ll turn up. And, if nothing else, you’ll get some good local flavor.

The Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator from Forrest Harris and Knuckleduster Publications is a real treasure for the Western GM.

Here’s a review at RPG.net.

The Cowtown Creator hits me in several sweet spots. First it focuses on the real Old West instead of the movie/myth Old West. Whether your game is about the gritty realism or zombie-gunslingers, injecting some actual history is always a plus. Surround your zombie-gunslingers with accurate historical detail and disbelief is much easier to suspend.

How it conveys this historical detail involves my other sweet spots. Harris begins by describing various types of Western towns and examples. He even gives samples of the types and numbers of businesses you’d find in those towns. Next he takes us through each type of business, from the Cattle Yard to the Saloon, the Fancy House to the Barbershop. Along the way he offers floor plans (often based on period drawings and photographs), sample workers and customers, and colorful anecdotes out of the history books. As this is a system-free book, all the characters are presented in a descriptive paragraph rather than any kind of stat-block.

There are lists of business names, drinks, prices, and (my favorite) names culled from historical documents. And Names there are a lot of names. Thousands probably. More than you’ll need. [I used the names list to create a random name table that I'll post soon.]

In the back are a couple of system specific add-ons for d20, Deadlands [classic], and FUDGE.

And yet I still can’t convey how great this book is. It’s one of those that you grab when you’ve got a few minutes to skim something. Hands down it is the most useful Western RPG book I have.

Also checkout the The Knuckleduster Firearms Shop and the whole line of knuckleduster products, including Old West Miniatures.

[No, I am not getting compensated by Knuckleduster or Forrest Harris.]

For my first real post at The Depot, I thought we’d go for something free and immediately helpful.

Colin Chapman’s Western Gear Archive,
lodged at Uncle Bear’s place.

There are four PDFs:
Western Handguns
Western Handguns II
Western Rifles
Western Shotguns

Each entry has a picture and some basic facts about the firearm. These are a great resource for helping you see what, for instance, a Forehand & Wadsworth Swamp Angel looks like in addition to knowing that it held 5 .41 long rounds and cost $14.00.

While you’re at Uncle Bear’s place, take a look at some of his other downloads (including a full line of Pulp Gear Archives).