Wuxia/Western hybrid

Lately I've been plotting out in my head a story that would be a combination of The Western and Wuxia movies. It'd be set in The Wild West, complete with gunslingers, Indian tribes, gold prospectors, and all that stuff, but the fight scenes and the general vibe of the story would be modelled after the larger-than-life style of Wuxia.

Before I start writing anything down, though, there's a problem I can't quite seem to make up my mind on: bullet-time. On the one hand, pretty much any gunfighter with a name in this story is going to have superhuman speed and precision with a gun, to the point where they can shoot the wings off a fly from fifty yards away with their eyes closed. But it might get boring if every single gunfight was decided by the Quick Draw. Since the gunfighters are too skilled to actually miss each other, it seems like the only way to create a duel that isn't over in a single shot is to give them bullet-dodging speed as well.

But that creates some Fridge Logic. If these people are so fast that they can dodge vast barrages of bullets, then why are they using guns in the first place? I can't just get rid of the guns (it's The Wild West afterall), but I'm having a hard time figuring out how they can be legitimately useful while still allowing for long fight scenes where my gunslingers fire hundreds of bullets at each other.

Any suggestions?

Try close-up Gun Kata, the more practical relative. Bullettime dodging I feel has become overused.

edited 31st Jul '11 6:30:50 PM by QQQQQ

Not sure how practical/applicable this will be for your universe, but here are my thoughts:

• Out of curiosity, what degree of Super-Speed are we talking? Are we at Flash Step levels? Or can they just clear huge distances in a short amount of time, a la The Flash? How much endurance do they have (i.e. can they run for a long period, or can they only use it for short bursts — a sort of "stock system" where they can only use it a few times a day)? If you give your characters rules and limits to work with, I'd wager it'll be easier in the long run.
• On the subject of "Why use guns in the first place?": I'd imagine that moving at super speed and using that in its own right could be useful — BUT, depending on how you use it, it could have some serious drawbacks. Punching someone with a super-fast blow could do some damage to an enemy, for example, but do you think that the attacker will be able to walk it off? Basically, Required Secondary Powers might be in order; yes, they CAN use super speed, but they have to use it wisely. Otherwise, they'll have to deal with friction burn or shattering their bodies and all that jazz.
• Maybe you could try to introduce a level of strategy into your gunfights. Fighting game enthusiasts tend to believe in the concept of "Yomi,", which boils down to predicting and countering your enemy's attacks. So Gunslinger A could go for the shot, but Gunslinger B sees it coming and uses his speed to dodge accordingly. But on the other hand, A could KNOW that B was about to dodge, and fire where he suspects B will run.
• Also, terrain is always something to consider in a fight, written or otherwise. Are they standing twenty paces away from each other? Using buildings for cover? Or is the whole town a warzone? If you can integrate the playing field into your fights, there's plenty of potential to be had.

Those are just a few musings. Hope they can help move you in the right direction.

edited 31st Jul '11 7:37:28 PM by Voltech44

It's only very short range superspeed I was thinking of; their reactions would be superhumanly fast and they could move a few steps in superspeed at a time, but they're not covering long distances that way.

And, yes, terrain would be important in any lengthy battle, but since the characters' ability to shoot quickly and aim precisely makes the Man With No Name look slow, if they don't have some decent superspeed it'd be a case where coming out from under cover is virtually a death sentence.

One possibility I've thought of is making them able to dodge bullets, but only if they're not at too close a range (like say, within ten or fifteen feet). I've also thought about giving them some Made of Iron qualities, so they can take a few bullets to the chest and still keep on coming.

When in a setting like the old west, the gun would be the dummy weapon. Anyone can point in the general direction of an enemy and pull a trigger, even if mastery improves aim, loading times, the ability to seek out cover, and compensating for saturation fire.

Some old west guns(pistols) had close range capabilities, thick steel rods under the barrel that could break a man's skull(origin of the word "pistol whip")

Anyone who can deal with saturation fire, while getting closer to the point of origin, will, of necessity, be a master of his craft. It does become easier with the flash step, but the training to get to that point would place an unscalable barrier between the hero and a common mook. I'll assume that a dragon would have similar training.

As for close range shooting, I agree with the gun kata. But remember that guns in those days were hard to load, so a hero using a close-range weapon would either have to carry extra loaded guns(the origin of "gunslinger" i.e. a man with guns in a sling.)

Hope I've been of help. You might also check out Red_Steel2 for the wii, it has essentially the same premise, man with both sword and gun.

Thanks for the tips (though I don't have a Wii, so can't really check out that game).

One other idea I've been toying with is giving gunslinger's Battle Auras. Basically, when they get Bad Ass enough, bullets will actually swerve out of their way to avoid them. A Chinese character might identify this as chi, while the more old westy types will say that they can just scare bullets into running away (activating a Battle Aura would usually be accompanied by giving a Clint Eastwood style squinty glare of death).

This would let an expert gunslinger go almost completely unscathed while Mooks fire round after round at them. Other expert gunslingers, however, would be able to channel their Battle Aura into their shots, giving them a much greater chance of hitting.

The only reason I'm kinda hesitant about this is I want to focus more on people using Charles Atlas Superpowers rather than blatantly supernatural stuff. There are quite a few Weird West stories out there, but I was hoping to do something a little different from that.