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My two cents:

- The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966). A team of veteran mercenaries (Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Woody Strodes) are hired by a rich man to rescue his wife from a mexican bandit. Plenty of action, great characters and memorable dialogues.

- High Noon (Fred Zinneman, 1952). Bad guy and his bunch are coming to town. The sheriff (Gary Cooper) looks for help to stand against them, but no one seems to have the guts for it. Told practically in real time.

- Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985). A mysterious preacher comes to help a community of gold seekers who are being harassed by an ambitious landowner. "And Hell followed with him..."

- Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948). Just to include at least one John Wayne film, as we're talking about classic western. Might not be his best one (definitely one of them, IMHO), but it's the best movie I can remember about a cattle drive :)

Hehe, I didn´t mean to scare you. I modified the first post of the scene so other players (that are arriving in Sabbath) can read it.

Thanks Malken. I watched "The Professionals" last year. It could be a great inspiration for a different story.

"Pale Rider" I watched ages ago, I´ve put it on my list.

"High Noon" was a favourite of mine before I realized it was considered a classic! For some reason, now that I am revisiting the western genre, I´m concentrating on colour films. But this one well deserves to be watched again.

John Wayne I never liked too much, but there must be good films starring the Duke (well he starred in hundreds of them).

Thanks again. This weekend turn for The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)

Update from my rediscovery of the western film genre. Last weekend was a double bill:

The Outlaw Josey Wales: I always liked Eastwood´s westerns (and his films in general). This is technically a very good film, with solid acting and a good story. A bit like Unforgiven, but maybe a bit lighter and not so dark. A sort of a milestone for Eastwood. I would not call it a masterpiece, but it is still up there with the best westerns.

High Noon: hehe, this I watched on Sunday. An absolutely perfect film as a film. Great acting, great pace, camera work, music... The anxious wait... As a western, the aesthetics and the story are bit too "buffalo bill theater show" or "country music dance night" for me, but it wasn´t until a decade or two later when the West really got dirty in the films. Ah, and it was nice to see a young Lee Van Clief (The Bad from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"), I didn´t remember he was in this one.

Next film?... not sure, maybe Magnificent Seven.
 

What about 'For a fistful of dollars'?

Ah, the Dollar Trilogy! The first one (A Fistful of Dollars) I liked OK, but my favorite was the second. I´ve seen “For a Few Dollars More” at least a dozen times when I was growing up. It isn´t as long as The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, and it is very entertaining. And it had Lee Van Clief also. To me, the Sergio Leone films, including Once Upon a Time in the West, are almost a different genre. It´s difficult to compare them against the more traditional westerns.

When I started preparing this game, I felt the urge to watch a few western films again to get the feel of the West and inspiration. Since I was looking for a certain realism and description of cowboy lifestyle, sense of realism and even historically correct information (when possible), I thought it would be best to stay away from the spaghetti westerns all together :) They are cool to watch but at the same time they done tongue-in-cheek. A bit like “epic high fantasy” to the medieval style campaigns.

If I had to choose my 10 top westerns, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly would be there for sure. Probably Once Upon a Time also. I´m not sure if “A Fistful of Dollars” would make the cut though. Once I finish the other films, I might watch the trilogy again. Thanks for the tip Rob.

I have a very similar opinion on the Dollar Trilogy :) I find "The good, the bad and the ugly" more of an epic tale and probably a better film as such, but "For a few dollars more" is the one I've seen more times and, for me, it has the best duel scene. "A fistful of dollars" is a nice flick, just not as great. About "Once upon a time..." I like parts of it a lot, but as a whole I think it's a bit too long and slow, a bit too Leone, and in the same time it falls short somehow. Unpopular opinion, I know! I guess I need some Eastwood in my Leone xD

On another note, I'm planning on watching “Open Range” one of these days (quite fitting, I liked it back in the day and good ol' Vern is in it!). What do you think about more contemporary westerns? Any “best-western-since-Unforgiven” that you really like? I'm very fond of “3:10 to Yuma”, with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. Good atmosphere, terrific soundtrack and Ben Wade's character is pretty cool.

Yeah, Unforgiven felt like the end of the western era... Well, Eastwood first resurrected the genre and then buried it again, but with dignity :) As I watched it the first time, I thought "this was it. You cannot make a better western". After that, there were a few OK flicks, but also some bad ones, and many others I´ve not seen. I´ve added "Open Range" and "3:10 to Yuma" to my list, thanks!!

The one film post-Unforgiven I´ve got good memories of would be Tombstone, hands down. More or less at the same time, Kevin Costner made one of his incredibly long and boring films called "Wyatt Earp", but when I saw Tombstone it had just the right mix of Steve McQueen-like coolness in Val Kilmer, some historical facts mixed with myths and legends, and nice action and good pace. And a few really memorable lines. I will need to watch the film again now to see if it still holds it own as I don´t trust my film taste from 20 years ago that much. I remember also liking Young Guns I&II a lot, which are not very highly rated. Maybe if I watched them now I would be disappointed. But at that time, they seemed OK. However, Tombstone has appeared in a few all time best westerns (in the top 50 at least), and I will definitely watch it again.

Another classic I watched this week: The Magnificent Seven. All-star cast, simple story, nice action. But I wasn´t really impressed I´m afraid. A bit too shallow, maybe not enough screen time for all the characters... Also some wooden acting from the supporting cast. It was fun to watch, but I could not see it as a classic.

I hadn't realized Tombstone came after Unforgiven, thought it was older for some reason. I agree, it's a nice one. I saw it again like a year ago and still found it very likeable. Val Kilmer's Doc compensates for every minor flaws, and Kurt Russell makes a more than decent Wyatt.

I never saw Young Guns, I'll put them in queue :)

About Magnificent Seven, I think it's one of those movies that are totally a product of its time and can't really cope with aging very well. There's a remake coming by the director of Training Day, with an interesting casting including Denzel Washington. I'm curious to see what they do with it.

I wanted to finish the Cattle Drive scene quickly, thanks for keeping up a great pace with the posts! Originally, I even considered doing a narrative text of a few paragraphs about the cattle drive, but then I read the "minigame" rules and I wanted to try them out. With a bit of extra detail, the cattle drive could be a campaign on its own!

As it is, the cattle drive scene was meant to create a bit of bonding between the characters (Sinta-Vernon-Hurd-Crowe and the others), and a bit of the everyday cowboy life. Also, the fact Hurd feels he owes something to Vernon or Mr. Bronson. Unfortunately, both Sinta´s and Crowe´s player have been missing. Crowe informed a while ago, coming back around the 20th. Sinta no news as of yet, which is a shame because the character was built up nicely. So, you were left with a "single character" scene as your first :) The cattle drive could easily be expanded to include Fort Worth and other stuff, but I feel it´s time to move on. On the other hand, all the relevant encounter rolls, weather, grazing, beef quality rules were followed, so with this scene you get an idea of what a "Aces&Eights" Cattle Drive is like. I have to say the system is absolutely great for the Wild West, and very detailed.

Well, I can tell you the posting pace has been no sweat, because I'm enjoying the game a lot! I'm really impressed by the feel and level of detail, and the system is very cool and smart, it really catches the flavour. I can't complain about the single player mode, it's been like a personalized tutorial. Really helpful to get me started :)
 

Thanks for the feedback. The Cattle Drive scene is finished now, but you can purchase anything from Fort Worth using the "Goods&Services" scene (I like to do it this way to keep up the pace).
I´ve also opened the new scene "Fun Night Out in Bannock". This scene is a bit tricky, with different player characters getting to know each other for the first time. Also, I do not want to drag the scene on forever. Let´s see how it goes. The pace is usually slower when there are more players involved.
BTW, I got a message from Sinta´s player, in a few weeks time Sinta should be able to rejoin the game so that´s good news.

Yeah! We got the outlaws about to party with some cowboys! But hurry up, ´cause Mayer is alone and suffering :D

Don't worry guys: for some reason I think Mayer's gonna have a ton of fun...

...For tonight, at least. He's sure going to regret it later xD

My internship ended yesterday! So I'm back in town. I'll be catching up with all the things i have pending, so it may take a while, but at the very late I will be writing here on Wednesday. 

Thanks for taking good care of my dear ol' Crowe 

Hugs and Kisses <3 

I think there's no need to keep narrating what Mayer did next. We all know how that works xD

OK, agreed :D

OK great news! Take your time to catch up, Crowe is not active in any scene just now, waiting for your return.
I will prepare the scene, let me know when you are ready!

Back to the films... I agree, Val Kilmer´s Doc Holliday is a performance for the ages.

Young Guns: I remember watching Young Guns II first, and then Young Guns I. I liked them both, but they are very different films. This week I watched the first of the two again, and I think it holds it own with most westerns out there. Young cast (Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Philips and others), solid performances, and action packed (it was the 80s afterall). Even the music is good (the second part has a more famous soundtrack by Bon Jovi, but that´s another story). I personally don´t like the slow motion for the action scenes, but I guess it´s OK.

Another thing going for YG-I is that it´s historically more accurate than I expected. I´ve been considering a new
game/story line depicting some of the events surrounding Billy the Kid, so I´ve read some of the history. And even though there are many things that have been altered for the film, it´s still very close to the historical facts.

I have "Open Range" and "3:10 to Yuma" (both the original and the remake) to watch.

Hurd, Jack and Choctaw => just wanted to say thanks for keeping up a good pace lately. The "Bannock-party" scene is now over. It was originally meant as a short opening scene, but I added a lot of the background story before getting there. So almost a year into the game, it´s now done!

I will complete the "Ride into Sabbath" scene and this will end the First Act, and I will open new scenes now that you are all in Sabbath. Just give me a few days. The story will jump about 5-6 months to the future, so if you wish, you can also write/think a bit about what your character has been up to. Any feedback is also welcome :)

Crowe and Sinta should also be rejoining us shortly I hope.

Rob wrote:

Nice! I'm loving this first act. It's been quite narrative for me, and I'm really thankful (If I've gotta be honest, I prefer role-playin' to rollin' dices like crazy). Quite different from any other game I've played until now, and I like it.

I just hope the second one to be as good as the first, master! :)

Thanks for the feedback and thumbs up, I´ve enjoyed the scenes with Mayer too. ^{Don´t worry about posting in the announcements. Any place is good for sucking up.} Originally I expected you to stay a little longer with the outlaws, and then a few PCs took alternative routes or were not available, so you´ve done most scenes with NPCs. On the other hand, it has been good for the character building and roleplaying I guess.

As to the style in general, I don´t see it as a narrative game. The plot is simple enough, there is some action but what I wanted to achieve was to introduce the characters in Act I and then in Act II these characters are faced with a situation that forces them to make some choices. The outcome of those choices is the conclusion (Act III is really short).

NOTICE: I just realized at some point I´ve removed the recommendation NOT to watch the film "Lawman" from the synopsis. Maybe I shouldn´t have done that :) It´s not a biggie if you´ve watched it (I know some of you have), but my recommendation is not to watch it before the game is over. It could be a minor spoiler. And I do not want you to feel obliged to act in a certain way. On the other hand, the main story arch of the film is what it says in the synopsis, so most of the stuff is new anyway. And the outcome is quite open.