A Fistful of Death - Weird West One-Shot

By popular choice the one-shot RPG for this date will be a Weird West game run by yours truly (Abe, that is).

Something is haunting Wyatt's Cross. People around town--if it can be called a town, being little more than a crossroads--are dying. No thread connects the victims besides their strange manner of dying. Young and old, local to Wyatt's Cross and passers-through. At home, at work, or in public. They all die inexplicably, falling into a death-like sleep that lasts until midnight. At the strike of the witching hour, they die gasping and flailing, choked to death by a phantom noose that leaves their necks raw and bruised.

Every one of the last nine days has seen another death. Farmers report strange sounds in the woods east of Wyatt's Cross and townies claim to have seen a grim figure riding through the streets at night.

You are a resident or visitor of Wyatt's Cross during this tragic period. I'll create characters for everyone, but I'll need to know what you want to play. Available archetypes are:

The sheriff, the deputy, the Pinkerton, the outlaw, the cowboy, the gunslinger, the priest, the drifter, the doctor, the entertainer, and the tracker.

It's not a specific game system. For my one-shot RPG games I usually run something very light-weight that everyone can pick up quickly so that you don't have to go into it knowing a bunch of rules.

This one's based on classic Deadlands and the GUMSHOE system but isn't terribly similar to either. I'll run through the rules before we play; it's less complicated than most boardgames.

Regarding the archetypes: if you think of a character from western movies and the like who would fit that description, that's pretty much it.

The Sheriff is a small-town lawman more interested in justice and keeping order in his town than the specifics of the law.

The Deputy is an honest, idealistic kid trying to live up to his image of what a sheriff ought to be.

The Outlaw is a thief, con-man, and cattle-rustler mostly interested in looking out for himself.

The Cowboy is...well, a cowboy. Spends a lot of time out in the country, driving herds to sale and so forth; a good man, maybe, but not tied down to anything.

The Priest is a small-town pastor used to getting his way with his parishioners; he's a town icon but there's a reason he's preaching out in the middle of nowhere.

The Drifter spends his life wandering from place to place, living off the land or doing odd jobs. There's something strange and otherworldly about him.

The Entertainer could be a few things: the player or barman at the local honky-tonk, a burlesque girl or a lady of negotiable affection, or a travelling showman. If anyone picks him, let me know what you have in mind.

The Tracker is a loner like the Drifter, but less of an enigma. He's an outdoorsman with ties to the land and an outsider, but a friendly one on his periodic trips through town.