I am going to run a game of PF this weekend set in a Wild West-style setting, but some elements I might need help with.
1.Should I use the commonplace guns or guns everywhere rules, and depending on which of those I go with, what would the gun prices be? (I'm horrible with percentages.)
2.I need help with a plotline and whether or not I should railroad or do a sandbox.
Any help is appreciated.
There is magic in the world and fantasy monsters and races are in the world but it's not the real world.
Commonplace guns has early guns and ammunition as 25% of the listed price (advanced ones like revolvers are full price still though). Guns everywhere makes everything 10%...so just drop a 0 from all the prices (and for ammo that doesn't divide by 10 into whole gold, just think of that as the price for a pack of 10, like how arrows are price for 20). Mathwise, guns everywhere is easier to run since it has such a simple adjustment rule.
Although, I question whether you need to make this into an entirely gun based campaign. It is not that hard to translate the mythical nature of the wild west into more medieval styles due to the fact that the romantic idea of the 'cowboy' in America actually mirrors Ronin in Japanese culture and the Knight-errant in European cultures.
Since this game is largely based upon adventurers, who draw heavily from the concept of the knight errant, it would not be hard to simply move motifs of the 'Old West' into a sword and sorcery style.
Admittedly, the heavy armor encouraged by the game does put a hamper into making the typical paladin build into a lone ranger, at least in terms of style. One system I liked when I read it for this type of situation was the defense bonus variant rules from D&D. This idea basically gives you scaling bonuses to AC that reflect your original armor proficiencies (so fighters get a very fast scaling bonus, while rogues do not)
Anyway...about how to run it.... Since this is something new, you might want to keep it on rails (At least at first). A cool thing you could do would be to play up how on rails and cliche you can make it. Turn the game into a living penny dreadful or old radio show. Use a corny narrator voice and say things like "Will our heroes get to the valley before the train passes through, or will poor Penelope become victim to the vile. land grabbing Baron? See the heart pumping conclusion next week!". Playing with familiar and dear tropes is a good way to liven things up. Although...depending on the table and the sense of humor, you might not get past the first 5 minutes before your players 'tar and feather your hide'.
My son and I have experimented with a wild west version of pathfinder with a lot of influence from the show Supernatural.
I would recommend using the variant Wounds and Vigor system from the Ultimate Combat book. This allows a bit more thematic description as the vigor is representative of near misses and being beaten down where as wounds represent actualy being shot, stabbed, etc.
We are also using the Class Defense variant rules from 3.5 to facilitate a little protection without having to walk around in full plate in the old west.
Ah, a note about all this discussion with defense bonus variant rules we have talked about.
Since they typically add to touch AC (at least, if we are all talking about similar systems), it might help when it comes to dealing with how guns can change the system. Essentially, it makes sure that not every battle is a war of attrition where everything just about auto hits with all its attacks and you do not need to drop dozens of wands of cure light wounds for the party to get through the day.
Of course, it also kind of dampens the advantages of guns...but hey, with guns everywhere is is not so bad.