OSR Commentary - Setting Up a Wretched Country second edition Campaign & Beyond

 Got together with a friend yesterday and we started talking about one of our Wretched Country mini games from last year. And it reminded me of a fact. Let's get into it. 

So tonight I'm looking through Wretched Country second edition after visiting with a friend of mine today. And we started talking about one of his old PC's whose currently one of the main NPC's in our game campaigns. And this brought back home that I was working on a Wretched Country second edition campaign for our players. What were some of the elements that I was looking for within such a Dark Fantasy & Western horror campaign?! 

Some of the elements for a Dark Fantasy & Western horror campaign: 

1. The Western campaign needs to be episodic with in internal consistency from session to session. Adventure elements need to have consquences just like 50's & 60's classic TV Western series. 
2. PC's should be interesting and engaging. We find this out through actual play sessions. 
3. PC's don't have to be the good guys but with a bit of smattering of grey across the board. 
4. Horror elements need to come from the 'Old West' 
5. There should be ties between the PCs such as they were such and such gang or fought in the same regiment during the American Civil War. 

So for this campaign I'd probably end up using  Wretched Époque rpg first edition for the rules set and Wretched Epoque second edition for some of the setting elements. This is along with  Wretched Country second edition 

The real key to creating a Wretched Country campaign is to a. get the mythology for the area that it's set in concistant and b. to get the PC's involved with a stake in the situation of the adventure so that during play they have a reason to be there. And if there's a key book for Wretched Country that never get's mentioned it's Wretched Folklore. 

Wretched Folklore isn't just a 'monster manual' sorta of book but actually has entries on 'Praire madness' pheonoma, the spiritualist class, pychic events, and more. Then it goes into the monsters and legends of the 'old West'. So why I'm I using the material of Wretched Époque rpg second edition as well?! Because of the fact that it brings so much for the 1900's urban rpg setting landscape. 
So you've got the big cities covered and western towns. This rpg forum thread here has some awesome Old Western resources as well. 
And of course all of this ties into what we've been doing recently with 

Something Wretched This Way Comes.  The key with any of the Wretchedverse rpg's is consistency of play between game sessions and mini campaigns. And this is where Wretched Country second edition leads straight into Wretched Apocalypse events & setting. Time space gates, praire storms and other supernatural weather are a great campaign mover. 

In the past mini games I've run with PC's crossing over into Wretched Apocalpyse the biggest problem has been the mutants and wastelands trying to eat the PC's horses. And the PC's shooting scads of NPC's and potential allies. 

The biggest event is the PC's having to explain to the 1900's inhabitants that thier taking supplies to the less fortunate with those being the wastelanders. 
Also establishing a route between the two time periods is frought with all kinds of supernatural issues. And these led to the events of Cold Heart Canyon. 
And also we had random encounters with wastelanders showing up in Texas in the 1900's. Not that anyone noticed. 
And that get's back into the fact that Texas reallly is another state of mind entirely.