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« on: June 29, 2011, 05:10:48 PM »
First I want to say like the idea, and I totally get where you are coming from on the questions and if it can work.
I was working on something similar. The idea was what would happen if magic had always been around and it was modern day. I like the idea of trying to explain what was item of technology would never have been made and what could have happened if we had the ability to sling energy around.
So when you ask your questions here is what I had sitting already in the back of my head.
1) Can you have a self-defined "Swords & Sorcery-Western" story without Firearms of any kind or is the self-description of a "Western" require Firearms to be present? Would you as a reader be let down by picking up a story describing itself as a Western without any guns or gunplay in it or could you be satisfied with it being replaced with Chanbara-style swordfights?
I would say yes, and here is some way. Why was the firearm created. To give a weapon to a solider that could penetrate armor/shield and was relatively easy to train with. Its why we stopped wearing mass amount of metal armor, well until our tech. got good enough that we understood the way bullets moved and Kevlar was invented. So in your world would a gun ever be needed if you had wizards running around. Could an Artificer simply have created a wand/rod or other type of weapon that the mundane could use and act like a gun. Lots of books and movies bring up wand duals, and I think this would work great in a western setting.
Then you brought up the melee combat and still have strong Gun/wand play. Ways to keep this going, would be to find a reason why it is. Could be as easy as wizards or talisman can put of a shield that stops the wand energy from getting to them, but it is a lot harder to stop a sword in the gut. Or limited amount of charges in the Wand/Gun. If you have a wizard that can stop a few blasts of gun or wand fire, might be nice to have a sturdy sword as a back up. Or spell eaters, maybe a race or group of people that are like an anti-mage or can absorb energy of spells thrown at them but a nice dagger to the back works well. Lots of ideas on that reason.
2) What options are there to do the classic Western trope of the Fast Draw at High Noon with a Main character is a Wizard of Ill-repute, not a Swordsman? Similarly, there's the classic scene from a Fistful of Dollars/Yojimbo where the Man With No Name proves how badass he is by killing a bunch of guys in a matter of moments in a fast draw. How could you do that iconic scene with a Wizard other than *Raise hand* *Fireball* *Done*?
I talked about wizards wand dueling above, I think this would just take it to the next level. I see spell slinging a lot like the old western duals.
Hope this helps