For every story I’m writing for Arcanopocrypha, I’m thinking of other opportunities, such as if this were a game license, what would the game play be?

For “The Authentic Life of Josiah Dempsey”, the comic is about a US Marshall escorting a young orphan through the rough-and-wild Silver City in the 1880s. It’s go sheriffs, deputies, pistoleros, and Apaches, which is the best kind of western for me. I’ve also nicknamed it “Pistol Porn” as every characters’ weapon has been thoroughly researched. It’s a story of redemption, the perception of evil and shooting pistols.

But as a game, it’s be a little boring if I did a direct non-RPG translation. So, here’s what I’ve come up with.

You would play Josiah Dempsey, a fifty year old US Marshall dealing with hunting down ne’er-do-wells in the American Southwest during the 1870s and 1880s. During one misadventure, you’re teamed up with Sheriff Patrick Garrett. Your prey? Billy the Kid. One by one, you hunt down Billy’s posse and bring them to frontier justice.

After the first one is down, we cue the Flashback Machine: it’s a time when Dempsey (you) are escorting a young orphaned boy from the Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico to be with his aunt and uncle. You stop over in Silver City, where you have to deal with a lot of moral decisions between the wily sheriff, the overbearing deputy, the mining magnates, the Apaches, and the Mexicans, each who have their interests for the town. As threats to Dempsey and William come an go, Dempsey must tell, explain, and educate the young Billy.

Yep, the kid you’re hunting down NOW is the same boy you helped 20 years ago.

But the crux of the story is that Josiah’s decisions in Silver City change William Bonney into the notorious Billy the Kid. But the question is outstanding: was Billy the Kid a good guy trapped in a bad situation, a misguided guy, a bad guy or a evil guy. Somewhere in there is likely to be the truth.

Game play-wise, every flashback would have an impact to the current storyline. For example, if in Silver City, you stole Billy’s ice cream, he’d hold a grudge about that and mention it in the dialogue. If you teach Billy magic, he’ll have magic to use against you. If you teach Billy religion, he’d quote from the bible and maybe even converted to Christianity. And, as we define Billy’s character, we’d define a reason why he’s an outlaw. Was he a mercenary hired by land owners, or a rancher who had his land stolen by the bad guys and on a mission of revenge. Either way, he’s got a price on his head and you and Garrett are out to get your man.

What if the player teaches “Jesus tells us too turn the other cheek” vs. “Praise the lord and pass the ammunition”, how would that affect Billy down the line?

And once you do meet up, and you’ve learned Billy is the product of what you made him, what do you decide to do? Do you let Garrett shoot him in the back?

This allows wide variety of endings - by being completely evil to the kid, you could transform him into an evil enemy dog that needs to be put down, but if your efforts made Billy a good guy, you may have to find a compromise with Patrick Garrett. And what if Billy actually died in Silver City… what exactly are you tracking down? A gun-fighting, cattle rustlin’ Xombie?

Also, since this is a mystical story with brujahs and witchmen, I could subtitle it “Little Xombies on the Prairie” and one of the substories would be a some bastard name Landon doing evil things to a dead Melissa Ingles.

So, does this high level design/wishlist hit my ideas for a good game?
1) Cool weapons
2) Mystical spookiness to give player shivers
3) Potential killing of characters of all types: white greedy men, Injuns, Pistoleros, Xombies.
4) Characters that you would care about
5) Something that’s never been done well: flashback mode that informs current decisions.
6) Moral decisions with consequences that don’t make

Yeah, I know this is just an idea and I need to actually finish publishing the actual story, but it’s a GOOD idea.