Cortex Steampunk Western, Game 3

[WritesNaughtyStories]

As the other Cortex games evolve toward more Victorian and Magical settings, I thought I'd start this thread to begin the discussion of a different setting. Several of us have given this some discussion but don't want to distract from the set up of those other games.

Again, we're looking at steampunk but with a distinctly western take, more grounded in the "historical" West than fantasy. Think Cyberpunk rather than Shadowrun.

The core inspirations for this game are Izzy's Anamnesis playthrough that brought Prudence Lawton into being and shows like The Wild, Wild West starring Robert Conrad and Kung Fu starring David Carradine.

Themes like colonialism, religious oppression, the coming, and cost, of civilization and community are the pallette I'd like to start the discussion with.

Thoughts about locations, things to include or exclude and the kinds of characters that might inhabit this setting are welcome.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Are there any must-haves or must-not-haves that we want to talk about?

[IsabellaRose]

As much as I'm curious to explore Prudence herself, what she becomes after she dons that dress and puts that dark ash around her eyes carrying two guns and two blades, how she becomes a spirit of vengeance and retribution but also of love and sisterhood, exploring the two sides of her...

I feel like if I delve too much into who she is after Anamnesis, she'll lose her mystique. I might prefer her as almost an urban legend kind of figure, someone who exists in stories, usually secondhand accounts, a retelling of her actions, leaving the truth misremembered and clouded by exaggeration.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I think you're exactly right. I think she is the Spirit of Love and Vengeance - seen through her followers and their actions. Saha may have studied at her feet, but knows only the teacher and the saint but Ashborn should remain a mystery.

[StarlitSiren]

Would this story work with the whole 'whore with a heart of gold' trope? I'm imagining a girl working on the frontier, in a town that's maybe kept it's identity until recently when religious crackdown has made it first more untoward to work the oldest profession, and now much, much more dangerous.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I absolutely think so, though other people might feel differently. That kind of purantanical oppression is exactly the kind of intolerance I was thinking about in my initial thoughts.

Edited October 8, 2025 by WritesNaughtyStories

[StarlitSiren]

The frontier town we set in might- until more recently- have been far more free, and by extension criminal, though that comes with the territory. Back alley dealings, smuggling operations, etc. Once the 'Civilisation' began to move in all of that and the oldest profession both came under fire.

[WickedCadrach]

I think if we want that Western feeling of lonely trails, instead of focusing on a town, maybe we should focus on a region. I'm imagining a little frontier town two days ride across wilderness and homesteads from an only slightly bigger town, but one with a railroad or attached army fort to show that encroaching 'civilization'.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I like that - creates the opportunity for a lot of settings. I think the fort is an important symbol of civilization and authority, as is the railroad.

Perhaps the "hooker with a heart of gold" used to work in the slightly larger town, closer to the fort and rail line, but fled to this little crossroads. Now she tries to ply her trade in a far smaller saloon, with much more reluctant customers since there's no anonymity here. Down to the occasional cowboy or prospector and the couple of often broke loveable losers from town?

Edited October 8, 2025 by WritesNaughtyStories
typos where my phone tried to help

[StarlitSiren]

I like that- there's those that are passing through too. I like the regional premise