People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: A Horse Without a Rider by Nathanael Christen is a role playing game supplement published by Pinnacle Entertainment via the Savage Worlds Adventurer’s Guild for use with Savage Worlds.
The supplement is available as a six-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $0.50 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a bundle.
The opening paragraph explains that U.S. Army forts are often the last stops for parties of settlers. One such party is clearly in trouble when their guide’s horse returns to the fort. The adventure is aimed at Novice characters but could be scaled up. A sidebar says that People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: Military Fort can be used for the fort.
Introduction has some potential reasons for the characters to be at the fort.
Scene 1 – At the Fort has the guide’s horse spotted by the characters, information they can find out about it and how the fort’s captain blames the natives and plans a retributory strike.
Scene 2 – The Scene of the Crime has the characters finding the settlers, who have been ambushed, and a local hunting party.
Scene 3 – On the Trail has the characters finding the bandits who attacked the settlers.
Scene 4 – Out for Blood deals with stopping the fort’s captain from attacking the native camp.
Epilogue wraps things up and has some further adventure hooks.
Appendix 1: Settler NPCs has descriptions and names of some settlers.
Appendix 2: More NPCs has stats and descriptions of the major NPCs.
Appendix 3: Map has a map of the area.
People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: A Horse Without a Rider in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is short enough that they aren’t needed, though with enough different sections that they would have been appreciated. Navigation is okay. The text mostly maintains a two-column format, though Appendix 1 is one column, and appeared to be free of error. There are some colour and black and white maps and a single black and white illustration. Presentation is okay.
Though this is set in a specific region, it would be easy enough to drop it into other areas in the right era. It would also be possible to modify the adventure for a Weird West setting, for instance, by changing the bandits into something else. People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: A Horse Without a Rider can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply