Few images are as enduring in the American psyche as the hobo riding the rails with a bindle slung over his shoulder. While this era of rail travel has long since ended, the image remains a well-known visual shorthand for someone who eschews polite society and lives on the fringes of society, making ends meet by traveling from town to town. Because of this, boxcar-riding hobos are still a common sight in fiction, with everything from The Simpsons to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia using the trope at some point. Catching the Westbound continues this tradition by using the trope to create a memorable 2-player TTRPG about life’s complex journey.
The game is set in an alternative history where the Pinkerton Wars caused the Northern Alliance and the Green Union to clash. The fallout from this war totally transformed the country, leading to resource shortages and numerous cultural changes.
Two Men And A Boxcar
The game starts with both players shaping their version of this world by talking and answering several questions. After this, each player creates their character by privately thinking about and answering seven questions that make the player think about their character’s name, what people call them, why they’re riding the boxcar, and what they’re leaving behind.
Once this is done, each player takes some tokens, and a deck of cards is shuffled. After this, the game begins. After working together to set the scene, one player draws a card from the deck and finds that card’s entry on the prompt table. They then use this prompt to guide the conversation forward. Then, once the conversation dies down, the other player draws a card, and the process repeats.
As this conversation continues, the players will also gain and discard tokens, representing their character’s fluctuating social and emotional capacity. Whenever the player’s character reveals something painful, acts defensive, or challenges the other character, they discard a token. However, they take a token if they offer the other character comfort, act like a genuine friend, or spend a moment with their thoughts.
When a player runs out of tokens, their character runs out of social energy and becomes emotionally distant, refusing to have anything beyond a surface-level conversation.
Once both players feel the overall scene or conversation has reached a natural end, they may either have the train arrive at its destination or have one of the characters hop out. Once this decision has been made, the players do one final prompt together and then discuss how their characters’ time together ends, ending the game.
Open Prompts Lead To Realistic Scenes
While the game may seem simple, it features many clever flourishes that help elevate the overall experience. One of the game’s best elements is its prompts, as they’re brilliantly written. The topics the prompts focus on (passing stations, fallout from local events, sensations in your body) help give the game a distinct feeling of time and place, which helps the world feel like a living, breathing place. However, each is very open, giving players room to shape their character and the overall story however they wish.
Because of this, the conversation between the two characters flows freely, making it feel like a real-world conversation rather than a simple question-and-answer session. The game’s decision to have players decide when to draw the next card further enhances this, as it lets players dig deeply into each prompt and follow the story wherever it leads them, leading to some deeply memorable moments.
The openness of the prompts also means the game has loads of replayability, as each prompt can be approached from many directions and used to create loads of unique stories. Because of this, Catching the Westbound is a game 2-player TTRPG fans will come back to many times. In fact, this game would be the perfect way to move into a new campaign, as it gives players a chance to think about who their character is, where they are coming from, and what they want from life.
Well Chosen Images Capture A Moment In Time
The game’s layout and general aesthetic also deserve praise. Through color choice and carefully chosen historical photographs, Ian Lincoln imbued the game with a specific atmosphere and plenty of personality. This makes the game a breeze to learn, as the page design and pictures make it clear exactly what sort of scenes the game is designed to emulate.
Catching the Westbound is a fantastic 2-player TTRPG that captures the feeling of the traditional boxcar narrative and uses it to tell a memorable tale about the numerous journeys we go on through life, complete with their multitude of highs and lows. If you’re a fan of the golden era of American rail travel, this game is a must-play as it wonderfully evokes the feeling of the numerous movies and books that have since romanticized that age. However, even if you hold no love for this era or have no knowledge of the boxcar-riding hobo trope, Catching the Westbound is still worth checking out, as it is a masterclass in guiding players in the right direction while still giving them the freedom to make a story that is totally their own.
