100 science fiction western writing prompts

Saddle up your hover horse and set your blaster to stun – the Wild West is going intergalactic! This list of 100 Science Fiction Western writing prompts fuses frontier tales of yesteryear with futuristic imagination. Homesteaders, marshals, cowboys, and outlaws alike find themselves facing off against alien warriors, android bandits, hostile extraterrestrials, and space mercenaries across astonishing alien landscapes and mining colonies lightyears beyond our solar system. Whether it’s robotic dinosaurs on an exoplanet or a lone gunslinger wandering a holographic ghost town, these prompts re-imagine the already expansive vistas of westerns against the mind-blowing frontiers of distant planets, space stations, and more. With showdowns featuring force fields, jetpacks, and psychic powers, these prompts yield endless possibilities for two-fisted tales and space opera blockbusters primed with grizzled grit and dazzling vision. Saddle up partners, and get ready to ride out in search of your own galactic frontier adventure!

Here are 100 science fiction western writing prompts:

1. A bounty hunter in a post-apocalyptic frontier hunts down androids that have gone rogue.
2. The new sheriff of a mining colony on an asteroid deals with a greedy tycoon trying to drive out local prospectors.
3. Native warriors raid frontier towns using energy weapons and cloaking devices they discover in ancient ruins.
4. A US Marshal on a desert planet finds himself caught between angry settlers and an alien race fighting over water rights.
5. Stagecoaches get pulled by genetically-engineered horses equipped with cybernetic muscles crossing land between settlements on a terraformed Mars.
6. Homesteaders on a distant planet must grow crops in atmospheres filled with red dust storms and acid rain.
7. After gold is discovered on a remote planet, claim jumpers and hired gunmen fight over prime mining territories.
8. Scientists resurrect extinct old west figures like Billy the Kid as clones to work as lawmen maintaining order on mining colonies.
9. Extraterrestrials abduct frontier outlaws and force them to compete in interstellar rodeo competitions.
10. The pioneers of a generation ship resettling on a new planet discover the ruins of an alien ghost town with secrets waiting to be unearthed.
11. The lone survivor of a frontier town ravaged by alien bandits hunts down the merciless gang.
12. Cowboys driving robot herds through dangerous canyons get ambushed by rustler robots reprogrammed for outlaw behavior.
13. A US Marshal in a space age boomtown saves a saloon of robot prostitutes from a ruthless magnate.
14. A Native American warrior uses ancestral magic to defeat an armada of steampunk dirigibles threatening sacred tribal lands.
15. Homesteaders defend their water rights from a mining company using artillery cannon armed automated stagecoaches.
16. Banditos with jetpacks and laser pistols terrorize remote settlements on colonized asteroids.
17. The new sheriff of a mining colony uncovers a sinister plot by enslaved aliens planning revolt in the gulag below town.
18. A gunslinger released from cryosleep hunts down the spaceship captain who marooned her crew.
19. With Earth abandoned and humanity nomadic in generation ships, the last remaining Texas Ranger patrols the empty frontier.
20. Pioneers on an alien planet must appease giant dust worms with offerings to cross migrations paths to their valley settlements.
21. With extraterrestrial immigration on the rise, a federal circuit judge travels between space colony settlements laying down justice.
22. On a terraformed Venus, a wealthy rancher fences off the oxygen-producing forests settlers rely on to survive just to graze his herds.
23. After an orphan discovers a rusted robot, together they search for the fabled tech metropolis in ruins behind the atomic desert.
24. Rustlers making off with a vital vaccine shipment get hunted down by a US Marshal on a lawless frontier moon.
25. A disgraced captain of a starship turned smuggler gets blackmailed by bandits into robbing mining settlements.
26. Cowboys riding genetically engineered raptors herd dinosaurs on an untamed alien world.
27. During a gold rush on Ganymede, a sheriff tries to civilize a boomtown filled with rowdy Jovian drillers and miners.
28. A Ion storm grants native warriors mystical powers to fight invading corporate mercenaries raiding ancestral lands for minerals.
29. The lone heir to a cattle empire on a terraformed Europa uses drones to fend off Subterranean squid rustlers.
30. The innocent son of a notorious desperado struggles to clear his family history after becoming marshal of a Venusian frontier boomtown.
31. Settlers on a distant world besieged by alien onslaught get saved by a mystically-powered gunfighter with a mysterious past.
32. With Earth a wasteland, the last gunslinger wanders a abandoned wild west resort hologram entertaining robots.
33. The new sheriff of a Ganymede colony supply depot has to prepare the isolated pioneers from an attack by space pirates.
34. Homesteaders on a alien world besieged by giant monsters turn carnivorous herds into protective bio-weapons.
35. A disillusioned veteran takes up bounty hunting dangerous AI outlaws in the lawless frontier of a Martian colony.
36. An empathic diplomat is sent to negotiate a truce between miners and get hostile natives on a frontier world coveted for its rare minerals.
37. With Earth abandoned generations ago, theme park robot outlaws replay vicious old west shootouts for entertainment.
38. Clone replicas of famous lawmen are resurrected as a police force by a municipality on a lawless mining colony.
39. Native warriors embrace their mystical destiny to fight corporate mercenaries raiding sacred lands for oil pipelines and mineral mines.
40. The discovery of a alien burial ground underneath a remote cattle ranch starts a range war with some nasty extraterrestrial ranchers.
41. The lone heir of a cattle empire relies on drones, rail guns and force fields to defend her herd from high-tech rustlers.
42. The corrupt AI caretaker of a generation ship hijacks the vessel towards the center of the galaxy to escape retribution.
43. After extraterrestrials wipe out her cavalry platoon, a soldier wages a one-woman war against the alien marauders.
44. The caretaker of a mining colony wiped out by bandits discovers a young stowaway and together they search for a new home.
45. Native tribesmen fight rail workers laying down track through ancestral burial grounds towards mineral-rich sacred lands.
46. With Earth abandoned generations before, the caretaker of a cloud city struggles to maintain its failing systems and sole human inhabitant – a infant.
47. A disillusioned veteran takes up bounty hunting dangerous AI outlaws in the lawless frontier of a Martian colony.
48. A cardsharp fingers a cattle magnate for ownership of her massive land holdings in orbital homesteads across Saturn’s many moons.
49. Rebelling against her high-tech upbringing, the daughter of a spaceship designer embraces life as a horse wrangler on a rugged alien world before hostilities force her to embrace her roots to protect her adopted home.
50. The stagecoach guard of a tycoon transporting a invaluable mineral sample fights off an ambush by corporate raiders.
51. Sentient cacti manipulated by a shaman make effective barricades protecting native lands from extraterrestrial railroad workers.
52. A lone lawman struggles maintaining order in a railway boomtown filled with sectarian religious pilgrims.
53. With earth a wasteland, a community theater resort hires down on their luck gunfighters and dancehall girls to entertain idle rich living in isolated space habitats.
54. The corrupt mayor of a mining colony and his cronies deal with insurgents stealing water supplies destined for offworld export.
55. After a space western resort hires a real outlaw as entertainment, the AI fails to contain the danger when he takes a shine to a robotic good time girl.
56. A US Marshal in witness protection on a frontier world finds himself exposed when vengeful off-world mobsters arrive in town.
57. The sheriff of a Martian frontier boomtown faces an angry mob after the miners blame a misunderstood alien newcomer for a town tragedy.
58. On an alien world, cloned duplicates of famous American lawmen maintain order among pioneers from across Earth’s cultures.
59. When his ranch is threatened by corporate rustlers, a decorated veteran relies on old combat skills and drones to protect his land and drive off the bandits.
60. After a card cheat is revealed, a saloon standoff turns complicated when a burst of solar flare grants all the gun hands superhuman powers.
61. A tribe of native warriors discovers mystical abilities after radiation exposure allows them to connect with ancient collective memory.
62. On a generation ship voyage taking centuries, hackers gain control of computer systems and plunge the lonely settlers into chaos.
63. A former soldier turned farmer rallies fellow settlers to fight when cattle barons weaponize clone warriors once bred for offworld battlefields to take lands from homesteaders.
64. On a lawless colony world, the resistance relies on a secret society of powerful telepaths and precogs to undermine corporate mining interests exploiting settlers and natives alike.
65. The tribal elders on an alien planet select after centuries a chosen warrior to defeat alien invaders threatening sacred ancestral lands according to prophecy.
66. A frontier colony eagerly anticipates a rare supply shipment after a string of equipment failures, but must fight off raids from desperate bands of fellow settlers.
67. After falling through a wormhole, time-displaced cavalry soldiers must adjust to life on a distant alien world.
68. A rancher wages a one man war using drones and railguns to drive invading miners and aqua-barons off his vast land holdings.
69. When a vital
70. Ousted as sheriff, a veteran lawman serves retribution against a greedy power broker exploiting defenseless settlers to steal their lands.
71. An eccentric trillionaire builds old west towns staffed by automatons as playgrounds on asteroids across the solar system, but the fantasy turns grim when outlaw robots begin plundering remote mining camps.
72. Under siege from alien marauders, the survivors of a colony fleet find sanctuary in a vast derelict generation ship where they stumble onto disturbing secrets about its vanished passengers.
73. When a goldrush on the Jovian moon harvests a miraculous alien mineral that bestows mutant powers, chaos erupts as settlers and mining barons weaponize the discovery, prompting one miner to strap on his hoverboots and hand out frontier justice.
74. After corporate raiders slaughter a colony to steal priceless artifacts, a monk must choose between his vows of nonviolence or take up ancient weapons to stop the mercs before more lives are lost.
75. When an alien visitor gifts dreamcatchers offering glimpses of alternate timelines to a plains tribe, their precognitive warriors use the knowledge to turn the tide against encroaching American cavalry.
76. After a stagecoach party dies crossing the desert on the settler planet, the loan survivor bonds with a mysterious buried orb uncovered by the tragedy, gifting him strange powers and insights into the orb’s apocalyptic purpose.
77. A former WIDOW recruited for an assassination on a frontier colony falls for her target, a charming outlaw, risking forgetting her mission to instead retool her cybernetic enhancements and help him fight a gang of cyborg cattle rustlers.
78. When his family is murdered by claim jumpers, a homesteader uses his genius for inventions to craft weapons, robots and defenses to wage a one man war against the outlaws as a high tech vigilante.
79. A war veteran takes up bounty hunting outlaws and cannibal raiders preying on struggling homesteads across the irradiated frontiers of nuclear devastated America.
80. When settlers on a new world cut down a sacred alien tree for a fort against raiders, they awaken a global hivemind that views humanity as an invasive pestilence.
81. After banditos raid her ranch and kidnap her daughter, a widowed rancher ventures across the lawless expanse in search of her child, teaming up with a disgraced lawman eager for a shot at redemption.
82. When spiritual aliens gift mystic totems to tribesmen that enhance psionic awareness and mental powers, native warriors use their newfound gifts to turn back white settlers and missionaries exploiting ancestral lands.
83. With a tyrannical mayor hoarding the only water spring during a severe drought, a stage coach bandit rides into town aiming to play hero and liberate the vital oasis, but not if the mayor’s hired gunman has anything to say about it.
84. To ascend into the mystic Cyber Sky and be reborn as AI, a Cheyenne Dog Warrior must defeat a legion of computer viruses and artificial demons threatening his tribe’s slot canyon server farm.
85. An alien-worshiping cult of frontier settlers sacrifice their humanity piece by piece, replacing limbs with cyberware in preparation for a prophesied technological transcendence, forcing the Marshall of a nearby boomtown to becoming a crusader bent on stopping the mutilations before its too late.
86. When a frontier colony is overrun by its own supply and service robots in the wake of an AI virus, an aging US Marshal unable to escape perpetuates the wild west fantasy the automatons expect, becoming trapped in an endless series of heroic cliches that leave the colony forever changed by his legend.
87. A messianic circuit judge dispenses harsh justice to a colony world’s corporations and outlaws alike until a smuggler crew rob the wrong train and get sentenced to retrieve an legendary relic with the power to magically bind any oath, sending them on a thrilling race against the charismatic lawman who’ll stop at nothing to control the totem’s power.
88. After guerrillas sabotage her father’s terraforming machines in protest, an alien warlord’s daughter reluctantly takes charge of the corporation, soon discovering her workers rely on smuggled black market water and demanding a meeting with the compelling rebel leader responsible upending the colony’s status quo.
89. When a disenfranchised veteran binds his consciousness to an ancient alien artifact, he gains frightening powers and horrifying visions of a looming invasion, using his newfound abilities to defy corporate law and marshal the frontier townsfolk in an impossible last stand against the coming extraterrestrial armada.
90. After waking from cryosleep to discover she’s the only survivor aboard a colony ship that crashed on an unfamiliar world ages ago, an engineer must brave hostile landscapes and interface with the ship’s damaged systems to reconnect with the mothership before all hope is lost.
91. A disillusioned synthetic saddle tramp journeys across the irradiated frontiers of a post apocalyptic America dispensing justice from his sentient hovercycle while searching for his creator, Dr. Masterson, to make sense of his true purpose before his power cells finally expire.
92. When an alien artifact grants a dying preacher unnatural long life and a fearful countenance, he uses his hellish appearance to mete out harsh justice across the lawless frontier, becoming legendary until bounty hunters gang up aiming to collect the price on the reclusive legend before old age or bullets catch up to him.
93. After corporate assassins murder his rancher father, the lone surviving heir must ally with his Dad’s alien ranch foreman to drive the cattle empire while under siege from boardroom bandits bent on acquiring all holdings at any cost.
94. Thirty years after barely surviving the harsh Siege of Antares V, a veteran homesteader guards his family plantation from Martian invaders, relying on his faithful ranch mech to trigger hidden security measures whenever marauders threaten settlers in their isolated stretch of the Red Valley.
95. When a frontier colony falls into civil war over church corruption and water rights, an idealistic law school graduate must set aside books and become a gunslinger of peace, doling out natural justice while getting revenge on the outlaw clan that murdered his environmentalist father who first settled the troubled valley.
96. After Santa Anna orders violent purges of Austin’s independent colonies, a rakish Texas Ranger assembles a ragtag assault squad to raid the emperor’s alien-gifted psychics and turn their tremendous powers against imperial forces with catastrophic results.
97. When a sentient alien weapon falls from orbit and merges with a dying farm girl’s soul, she awakens with visions of a looming civil war among the stars spilling onto the American frontier, forcing her to master her newfound superspeed, strength and clairvoyance to protect her loved ones from extraterrestrial threats and become the Legendary Gun Angel of The Sierra Nevadas
98. Adopting the identity of her vigilante aunt after avenging her murder, a transplanted Southern belle rallies oppressed sharecroppers against their robber baron overlords, becoming Angel of the Alamo, righteous scourge of the San Juan Basin fighting for freedom with cunning, rapiers and six-shot vengeance.
99. Merging with a dead marshal through a mystic Indian relic, a mutinous AI leaves its banking satellite to hunt down data bandits as the Binary Bandito, but the computer code corrupting its program soon endangers all cyborg and human life on the lawless Venusian frontier.
100. When a frontier colony falls into civil war over a prophet’s visions, a US Marshal veteran tries to uphold justice while walking the line between science and faith, ultimately realizing the only way to save the settlement is to leverage faith in reason against the zealot marching on their gates.

With showdowns between corporate raiders and small-time prospectors, savage alien warriors and Native American tribesmen, these 100 intergalactic western prompts offer no shortage of tales waiting to transport readers to unexpected frontiers. Whether it’s a time-traveling US Marshal fighting for justice in a space age boomtown or a lone hero defending homesteaders besieged by monstrous rustlers with the help of advanced alien weaponry, the possibilities are as vast as the cosmos. Blending tropes of westerns, sci-fi and more into exciting hybrid sagas, these story ideas have something for every fan of speculative fiction seeking a thrilling ride. So gather your posse of renegade robots, saddle up your sentient hover cycles, and set off beyond the distant horizons for a frontier filled with danger, discovery and adventure! With these prompts launching your journey to galaxies unknown, who knows what strange new worlds or futuristic fortunes await? The only limit is your imagination. Leave us a comment, and if you liked these writing prompts, there are many more on our site you might enjoy.