Ok...was listening to Red Dead Redemption OST today at work and came up with a BB idea. The players will be lawmen (law...women will be allowed but will go into detail on that later) sent to an area out west (USA) to help out a sheriff clean up the area. Time period will be around 1900u so weapons like gatling gun and the concept if motorized transport is around. There will be "downtime allowing the players to explore the main town and area and do regular things like gamble, go drinkin (whatever else ppl woulda done for fun at that time). Will try tp put up more info but break is over...would love to hear what ppl think so far
Update: Ok now that I am on my computer and not at work ill try to post some more info and in a better set up
Timeline: ~1900 Railways connect the industrialized east with the untamed west of the US. Marvels such as the automobile have come about (though they are still quite rare and expensive) and the federal government has decided to tame/civilize the western portion of the country (yes...pretty much the setting of RDR).
Characters: Each player will create a lawman and decide where they come from. They can come from anywhere is the US (that would have been part of it (for said time frame). The area the players will be in (no exact name yet) is requesting aid in dealing with increasing waves of violence and numerous gangs of outlaws terrorizing the county. Why are you being sent? Did you volunteer (and why) or maybe you were "volunteered" (again...why)? How will your family (if you decide you want to have one) handle the idea of having to move out west? What does your character look like? How are they financially? Do they not even have 2 pennies to rub together or are they doing decently (no "filthy rich" characters please...course maybe you were quite rich and then something happened....)
"Starting gear": Since you are a lawman you will start out with a pistol/revolver (era-appropriate), other firearms and such will be available once you reach the County. Feel free to give yourself any little knick-knacks you want (maybe you have a lucky pair of dice, or a gold pocket watch your father gave you, etc). I havent determined yet how I will handle the use of money, but keep in mind that things were way lower in price back then (things were sold frequently costing X cents instead of dollars for example...$50 was a pretty decent amount of money...etc) so if your character is "middle class" they wouldnt have thousands of dollars.
Short plotline: XYZ County (havent decided on a name...will be using a made up one to allow for ability to create my own towns etc) in the Arizona Territory has been dealing with waves of violence as gangs of bandits and outlaws seem to be showing up in ever greater numbers.
The county sheriff (and judge) Daniel Burton is severly undermanned to handle this and has contacted the Federal Gov't to send aid at once. With major railways also going through XYZ County the rail companies are also concerned with all the violence and are harassing the government as well to do something about it.
Deciding that they can knock out two birds with one stone, the gov't contacts law enforcement offices across the U.S. for lawmen willing (or "willing" if you decide to go that route) to be transferred under Sheriff Burton's authority and aid in cleaning up the county.
K I think i covered a decent amount of info...if I think of more info I will update it further.
Oh and to help with where your character may have come from....here's the US at about the time period it will be in:
http://mappery.com/map-of/Territorial-Expansion-in-Eastern-United-States-1900-Historical-Map