My review based on partly reading. The kung fu styles have short descriptions definitely, but are uniuqe and imaginative, they are giving creative ideas. The aspects works well with spirit and destiny points as metaresources and gives one more layer for the game. Lack of Native Americans... Good question which option is better, for me is not evident that they should exist in this universe at all events. This is not a western, this is western wuxia. It is not against any law nor means disrespect that not all the cultures of the historical, "real" old west exist in the actual setting. Big black mark for many maybe but not for everybody. Good example the Tales of the Old West rpg by Effect Publishing. They worked with specialists on the topic and recommend how not to use real tribe names, do not choose names for Native American characters that might fictionalize Native naming conventions, etc to avoid insensitiveness, cultural stereotypes, trivialization of someone else tradition. At some point as I red this section in the rulebook not to play natives started to seem a better solution. The basic engine of Far West, the D6Plus is based on the open d6 system, an old divisive one, which aged badly in the opinion of some. After the infamous delay of this project the system of choice became a question also. An outsider like me cannot decide about it. But the WEG d6 one of the most favoured rpg system by me. I accused it for some reason. Narrow attribute scale, damage resistant rolls - I had and maybe will have periods considered these a bad solution. But now after years of playing, studying different systems I am returning thanks to the nostalgia and rediscovering of the treasures of this system. Not a perfect, but nobody can find one. D6Plus with its special features and a little fine tuning is a good opportunity to try or come back to the system. I look all rpgs a little bit like a cook who have got raw materials to do anything he wants with them. During the days I started to write this review I rered through some sections more times of the d6 Adventure and Fantasy editions from Nocturnal Media. Among others I compered options, solutions, mechanics with dedicated western ttrpgs like Boot Hill, Tales of the Old West and Far West in connection with showdowns, fanning, slip hammering, quick draw, etc. I have plans. The d6 system 2nd edition is coming.. I allow myself to consider this title as a toolkit for develop and customize my own world, adventures, etc. of a western wuxia mashup. If I would got the hardcover as a prospective beginner hobbyist, I would feel myself in the Nine Heavens despite all the flaws and issues of the book, I am sure. But I am not a beginner. In this familiar environment I am satisfied.

After all these years, I still find the idea and setting for Far West to be compelling. Might I use the world building aspects of the game at some point? Yes. Will I use the rules as written. No. They seem like a lot of work to me. Perhaps it is just my disappointment that this game morphed from a d20 system to the d6 one, but I truly found many of the rules confusing.

Forgetting about the timeline to get to this point... It is a cool concept and well executed with a rich history and texture of a FANTASY WORLD. Do not expect it to reflect reality as some of the low rankings appear to complain about.

This is a work of love to the wuxia and the spaguetti western films; for me, that is more than enough to give it a try in my game group but also the book is gorgeous and would be a fantastic gift for any gamer fan of martial arts.

(y si alguien cree que no voy a meter a un grupo de mariachis errantes cazarrecompensas el día que lo pruebe, no podría estar más equivocado)

The long "development time" did a disservice to the final result. At the time of the Kickstarter more than 10 years ago, the game mechanics were already outdated. The change to the d6 system has not improved this problem, as this rules system has not aged well either.

The background is OK, but does not really use the potential of the idea. Why again no Native Americans?

I backed the project on Kickstarter a dozen years ago and would have expected a better product after all this time.

This review is based on a thorough read-through of the pdf. (I haven’t played the game and, spoiler, don’t intend to.) You can find the blow-by-blow commentary in a thread on RPG Geek, if you want to dig into the nitty-gritty of the book.

The pdf looks fine - it’s got a pretty standard layout for an RPG, with a two-column format and lots of text on each page. The pdf isn’t hyperlinked, but it is bookmarked reasonably well. The worst part of the layout is that the section headings are screwed up throughout, which cane make it hard to figure out how the pieces relate to each other. Still, it’s fine. There’s a reasonable amount of art, though the majority are headshots of Kickstarter backers in the “Far West” style. Since the vast majority of those are white males, the art does not showcase the diversity one might expect from the setting (much less any gender balance - also not helped by how the text leans strongly into gender stereotypes and objectification in the rare places where women are mentioned).

To sum up my impression of the game itself: it’s a mess. It began life as a d20 + Fate mashup, and it doesn’t appear that a lot of thought was put into how to merge those systems in an interesting way. Later, the designer switched from d20 to the D6 system, which further muddled things. The math isn’t tight, the rules explanations are confusing (to say the least), there aren’t any examples, and there are several points where different parts of the rules conflict or at least talk past each other. The rules section is poorly written, and unless you have a high tolerance for making things up as you go along and ignoring the rules as written, you will be frustrated.

Character creation follows a kitchen sink approach: there are attributes, skills, and specializations (all dice pools that build on each other). Then there are kung fu styles (special abilities, which look like skills on the surface but function differently), aspects (narrative tags from Fate), edges and flaws, and occupations and backgrounds. The skill system is granular (lifting! bureaucracy! charm, command, AND persuasion!) but the aspects are purely narrative.

That said, it’s pretty clear that the genre and setting were meant to carry the game - the idea of wuxia+Western is a compelling one. But the game doesn’t showcase the core of those genres in any substantial mechanical way. Even before the Kickstarter, the RPG community had embraced the idea that rules can drive the genre, so I expected mechanics that emulated martial arts battles, duels, chases, etc. Instead this is a bog-standard fantasy game with a few trappings that reference martial arts. You could rename 90% of the kung fu styles with more conventional names (d20 feats!) and the mechanics would make just as much sense. This is, structurally, the most disappointing aspect for me. This feels out of touch with the RPG scene in 2010 - much less today.

The setting itself is mostly fine; it comes across as more Western than wuxia to me, but maybe that’s because I know better what to look for in Westerns. There are some individual elements I like a lot (in particular, the sense that it’s at an unstable equilibrium between various power groups), but most of the presentation fails to sell the promise of the setting. There’s no unified core concept and no sense of what to do with the vast expanse; the book really, really needs a good intro adventure to show the reader how to bring out both elements. The writing in this part is fine, although the overall organization and focus on playable aspects could use help.

However, the complete absence of any Native Americans, in a world so clearly informed by other real world cultures, is a big black mark. It is a failure to respect both the genre and the real world.

Hard pass for the price.

To say this is the wild west but in China it to barely scratch the surface. Significant effort has gone into embracing the setting rather than just appropriating it. Still to set up a game but after reading the rules and setting, I see a wide open space to play something original.