We managed to find a western town: it is small, but perfect for our purposes since it is period enough. Since realistic scenery and the visual aspect were our priorities, finding an appropriate location for the game was crucial. Racial hatred, the machinations surrounding the election of the mayor and the personal tragedies of the Native Americans living in a white town, all that adds credibility and pathos to the story. Duels on a muddy street, brawls in the shadows, the howling of the Injuns riding past… What more could I ask for? Although it’s not completely shallow.
Everything is done for effect, the inspiration coming from the Hell on Wheels Season 2 is palpable, one cliché follows another – but it’s a damn western! They’ve given me exactly what they promised and what I wanted. Hell on Wheels is mainly about a film-like experience nothing too psychologically complex. On the one hand, the game was based on visually interesting dramatic scenes: on the other, it gives the players room to experience relationships, intrigue, powerful stories, personal dilemmas, and intimate scenes. There were gun fights, duels, brawls, prostitutes, Indians on horseback galloping across the plain, boxing matches, cancan in the saloon, whiskey… all emphasised by dramatic music, both recorded and live. We decided to make a genuine western stuffed with all the clichés, character archetypes, and scenes people remember from their favourite movies. Eventually, we chose to convey a dramatic, film-like experience to the players. Our journey to the western-like larp started in 2013 and went through different concepts. The game takes approximately 20 hours and is preceded by roughly 5 hours of pre-game workshops and gun handling training. It borrows certain characters and introductory plots from the series, but handles them freely and places them into a broader context of the transcontinental railroad construction in 1866.
#Hell on wheels native game series#
It draws its inspiration from the US AMC TV series of the same name. The Hell on Wheels larp is a dramatic game for 54 players that takes place in Stonetown, a western settlement in the Czech Republic.
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