So, it's pretty obvious that the base game will always be an awful speed game all things considered - what, with the long riding, forced walking, etc.

However, looking at the God of War (2018) categories, I saw that they had a category that is actually decent for speedrunning: Valkyrie% (link to category and rules here https://www.speedrun.com/gow2018/full_game#Valkyrie)

GOW (2018) suffers from the same problems as this one: lots of unskippable events, auto scrollers, and an open world with lots of traveling in between. All of these factors make the game a (currently) 4+ hour speedrun.

However, a bright individual came up with Valkyrie%, a category where the objective is to kill all of the optional Valkyrie bosses.

The rules are that is that you start at a certain shop endgame shop, timer starts when you leave the shop, timer ends when you pick up the last boss' item, and no major glitches allowed - routes after start, fast travel, and equipment are all runner's choice. The start point is from any point in the game (meaning, you can do it whenever as long as you're comfortable with your set up)

So I figured, why not try the same for RDR2 and its optional legendary animals? Rules will of course be decided among mods, but I was thinking:

1. Start from a Valentine Vendor with the menu up, timer starting upon menu close,
2. Routing, equipment, horses (breed, amount with you, etc), and whatever else can be decided by the runner
3. Fast Travel allowed
4. Can start from any point in the game (will of course require a save where all legendary animals are alive/unlocked, all locations available)
5. Hunted legendary animals must be skinned (as a way to confirm the kill)
6. I haven't really thought about whether the runner should have to turn in skins to the Trapper or not since that sorta seems like busy work
7. Run ends upon kill, skinning, or turning in skin of the last legendary animal

That ends my proposal for this category. It might be a bit boring and would require runners to make a whole new save if they don't have any yet, but it's faster than base game and can actually be watchable or hell, realistically runnable

I like this suggestion, it'd be cool to have some shorter speedruns than the 15 hour one. Good with some variation, and it would also make for a cool route.

Haha, alright boys I'll try and see if I can get a run going. I haven't even beaten the main game yet, but I'm sure things will be faster if I'm not dicking around and just focus on getting to a point where I have the right equipment and have all the legendary animals gated behind story missions ready to hunt

Question is, is it worth it to get to the epilogue before attempting to hunt in Blackwater or should I just get in there and risk all the lawmen/bounty hunters?

yeah, i meant for my first quick demonstration run since i don't have a kill-less save yet