An idea for a future game. Or better a setting for a future game. It’s still pretty rough, but it would go more or less along these lines:
A.D. 1890, an alternate Earth.
Far away on the Pacific Ocean, beyond the Weak Sea there’s an archipelago of warm winds, tropical fruit, rich reefs, restless natives and gold. After the first explores came back to San Francisco with a treasure of gold and pearls, lured by the promise of riches, settlers from all over the world came to make their fortune to the islands.
For two years everything went smooth and then…
Ships began disappearing. As the losses increasing, fewer and fewer seamen dared to cross the Pacific to the Wild West Islands, leaving the settlers stranded without vital supplies, no way to come back and no way to market their wares.
Twelve years later… The settlers have became self-reliant, but poor. There is slavery, crime and vice on the major towns and the opportunity to build your own future in any of the hundred islands.
In one sentence
Treasure Island meets the Wild West Cowboys…
This still looks a lot like Blue Planet but that’s a pit easy to avoid by focusing on different character and themes. What about the wild children of the wild west islands? They could be selling papers, shining boots and the next day they could be sailing into the unknown.