OSR Review & Commentary Smoke Over Station Street By Independence Games For The Rider Rpg Or Your Old School 2d6 Old West Rpg Games

 "New Liberty sits at a crossroads geographically, politically, and morally.  The coming of a train laden with gold has turned simmering rivalries into open suspicion. Ranchers, gamblers, merchants, and lawmen all want their share, and every handshake hides a loaded pistol."

"As rumors spread and sabotage strikes the town, the characters must decide where they stand.  Will they uphold the law, protect the innocent, or try to seize their own fortune while bullets fly over Station Street?  Or is all of this simply a red herring for something deeper and more ominous?"

Smoke Over Station Street is a forty eight page adventure that dives deeply into the New Liberty campaign setting. The player's PC's are set up in New Liberty for Old Western adventure. This adventure pit the party against shadowy forces of the campaign setting and yet, there's possible opportunity within the Chaos. 
And what Smoke Over Station Street does is provide the DM with a solidly written adventure for the Rider Rpg. The adventure does this by giving the DM,' the EPIC structure of Essential and Optional Scenes to let the Referee tailor play at the table.' within Smoke Over Station Street.

The adventure structure of Smoke Over Station Street is solidly done because it takes the Rider Rpg rules & exploits them. And Smoke Over Station Street is easily fitted into an existing Rider Rpg campaign. The Rider Rpg is both a 2d6 historic and cinematic role playing game wrapped in one package. Smoke Over Station Street has a great roster of NPC's and lots of opportunity for your PC's to get in way over their heads. Smoke Over Station Street is a great campaign starter or mid point adventure for a Rider rpg campaign. 

OSR Commentary on The Cepheus Engine Journal Issue #16- Time Travel & Dimensional Chaos In The Old West of the Rider Rpg

 When it comes to looking at different Cepheus Engine rpg resources last night Cepheus Engine Journal #16 came to mind. Within it is an article called, 'The Science Fiction in Rider' by Steve Attwood from the Alegis Downport site. 

This article goes over some of the Science Fiction & Old West fictional resources for your games. And my love for the Independence Games Rider rpg is well known. Dealing with the fall out of 'time travel' adventures is something that I've had to deal with in the past. 'The Science Fiction in Rider' article points out something my player's PC's have done;"Another alternative during an exploration mission, the players step through a mysterious gateway that happens to be a link to the past. How easily available the portal can be one aspect of the adventure. Certain conditions could have to be recreated to reopen, or it is simply a matter of stepping through one doorway and back again. This latter point could suggest to more nefarious players that they could transport goods from the future to the past for a quick buck, however this opens up all sorts of time paradoxes and could make the players worse off." 
Trust  me it did as the player's PC's created an alternative timeline campaign! This was a nightmare line in which evil outlaw versions of the PC's became a huge headache to the players! 

Rider allows one to construct an outlaw gang quickly and easily. These gangs can become a huge pain in the neck. The campaign settings of Rider are another huge part of the rpg. 

Wild West rpg's live and die on thier campaign settings. Rider has all of the tools that one finds for bringing the 2d6  of the Wild West in spades. Vice is another part of the Old West that Rider zeroes in on. This was an area where the players had to get caught up on in order to make cash to escape the world of Rider. 

New Liberty is/was thier base of operations where the PC's had to make money to buy alloys and metals to repair thier time machine. This was after thier outlaw counterpart had rob them blind and made off with thier weapons and equipment. 
 'The Science Fiction in Rider' by Steve Attwood goes into several campaign and adventure options that I as a DM took full advantage of. I think if your running the Rider rpg then read this issue. 

Review & Commentary On Careers of The Old West By John Watts For The Rider Rpg or Cepheus Engine Powered 2d6 Rpg's

 "Independence Games is proud to present Careers of the Old West, our career catalog for Rider. This book presents 20 career tracks for use in building the background of your Rider characters. What did you do before you became an adventurer? These include careers things as varied as Barbers, Barkeeps, and Shopkeepers to Rustlers, Sharpshooters, Actors, and Wild West Show Performers!"

"This book contains new skills and a new background for those who wish to pursue the law!

Who will you choose to be?"

 Careers of the Old West is the latest installment from Independence Games and written by John Watt. Why this is important will become evident as we go. Careers of the Old West brings the wide variety of occuptations that we see in history and Hollywood Old Western movies & television shows. 

John Watts manages to pack into ninety pages everything that a DM needs to run the Old West for his players while add in a ton of options for the players. 
With a skill based system such as Cepheus Engine or old school Traveller this book is essential. 

Careers of The Old West adds huge number of careers that could be used for different points of a campaign. Places  where the DM really needs to add in a flare of NPC's who are both memorable and different. 

This supplement provides the player or the DM a plethora of options at the table top. Careers Of The Old West is a well layed out, easily read font, and solidly done book. 
There are all of the tools here to add an outrageous amount of options for the DM allowing everyone from entertainers or miners to thier campaigns. These become very well developed NPC's in 2d6 campaigns because we know who they are and where they have been in thier lives. 
In ninety pages we get a fantastic 2d6 Old West career option paths and fully developed occuptations! The writing of John Watts is on point. He adds in everything the DM needs to add these occuptations into thier campaigns minus the fuss. 

For the Rider Rpg,  Careers of the Old West is in my mind an essential book for both the DM & player. This book adds a ton of great occuptations to the table top and brings a whole new twist to the Rider rpg. This is a book that the DM can slip into his campaign & add a ton of good material for the game!