The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias


Three Views of the Weird West part 1

September 29, 2020

We’re back and we’re saddling up our shantaks, filling our waterskins with space mead and heading out to where the land is weird. For a long time, we thought that “weird west” just meant Austin, but it turns out to be a whole subgenre. Let’s hope we can explore it before the heat, outlaws and eldritch monstrosities leave us as nothing more than bleached bones amidst the sagebrush. Main Topic: Three Views of the Weird West part 1 This is the first of two episodes exploring the weird west in gaming. With the release of Down Darker Trails, Cthulhu has followed the pioneers out to a strange new frontier. We thought it would be interesting to map out some of this territory. In this instalment, we discuss a couple of the weird west games that predate Down Darker Trails. First, Matt guides us through the pulpy mayhem of Deadlands. Then, Scott preaches the word of the King of Life Reborn and the glory of Dogs in the Vineyard. Oddly enough, we also mentioned both these games in our episode about our favourite game mechanics. Once again, the lockdown means we recorded this episode remotely. We hope we’re getting the hang of this. Links Things we mention in this episode include: Deadlands * Deadlands: The Weird West* Savage Worlds* The Esoterrorists* Manitou* Big Trouble in Little China (1986)* Judge Death* The Mandalorian (2019)* The Burrowers (2008) Matt earns his bennies * Adios A-Mi-Go* The Shining by Stephen King* Deadlands Noir* Hell on Earth* Lost Colony* Firefly (2002)* The gunfight at the OK Corral Dogs in the Vineyard * Dogs in the Vineyard* The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints* The State of Deseret* The Milgram Experiment* The Mormon settlement of Utah* Joseph Smith* The California Gold Rush* “Jailbreak” by Greg Stolze from