Gunfight II - Setup

 So after considering the changes I thought needed  to TRWNN to suit my less chaotic style of play, I set up another simple scenario as a trial run.

[The Law, given a couple of rifles to even out the side]

The Law this time would have five characters, using the character generation rules as previously, save for one major change as I've added a new charater class which I've entitled "Gunslinger" and lies between "Gunman" and "Shootist"

Randomly determining the Law, I used the following results on a D20

1-4 Civilian; 5-9 Gunman; 10-14 Gunfighter; 15-19 Shootist; 20 Legend. 

Using this system the Law had a Citizen (J above), 3 Gunmen (F,G,I above) and a Gunfighter (H above).

The Banditos (below) had a vastly superior force, though they too had a civilian (E below) in addition to their two Gunfighters (A ,  B) and two Shootists (C,D)

[The Banditos]

The scenario was a simple one, the Law have just come from the telgraph/post office with th latest wanted notice but on emerging (a 2D6 random didtance towrds their office) instantly recoginise the notious Mexican gang on the notices coming down the street towards them The Mexicans are merely going the Bog Hotel looing for their friend.

The 'Citizen' of each group would be in a random building and would emerge on hearing a gunshot and on their action card if they passed a 'Nerve' Test (I've reduced the Nerve values by one  from the original TRWNN rules). A Civilian having two 'Nerve' adding one for each Level above to finally a Legend having a Nerve of '6'.

[The main street, where all the action will take place. Top left is building one, clockwise to building six]

[The Law heading down Main]

[The opposition heading up Main towrds the Law]

For the Action Deck, I used two cards for each Character and added the four necessary Action cards, one for each  Class. With the additon of the end of turn indicator, te Joker, this gave me a deck of 25 cards - much better for shuffling !

With orders of "Head for cover " fromBoth Leaders (C and F), the game started.

The first card out allowed Diego to activate and he immediately opened fire on rifle wielding Frank, despite the range and throwing only a single die he managed a '6' to hit, giving him a serious leg wound, leaving him lying in the dirt for the remainder of the turn.

[The Law all headed (successfully) to cover, leaving poor Frank where he lay]

 [Benito (top right is killed, but Jake (with his rifle] emerges from the  "Silver Dollar" back door]

The Meicans too headed for cover and given a second intiative Diego managed to get into the doorway of the big hotel, poor Benito though, having made it into cover was hit by a single die roll of a '6 was dispatched with a further double '6' 0 right between the eyes !

Frther exchanges of gunfire caused no casualties and Erico was still to appear (he did activate but failed his Nerve test.

With all the Joer turning up, indicating the end of the turn, I decided to call it a day and return to the game later this week. Setting up had taken well over an hour and even though I'd shortened the distance around the table, standing playing a single turn for about a further hour was as much as I could take. (bad back, old age,,arthritus, weak eyes etc., oh, I also have a cold!). 

Part two then next week !

I enjoyed the simple scenario, with its random elements and my idea for walking running and sprinting worked well imo. I also allowed the Mexican Shootist to have a pistol ability of '6'. as having read through the skills is even plausible with the original TRWNN rules. He may be a tad exceptional, but is equally easy to kill!

Doubling the number of character cards also worked well imo, giving a much better act and react typ of game and a much better 'feel' overa;;.

In case you're thinking rolling 6 dice, to get a '6' is a bit excessive - he had to roll a '6' three out of four 

times  to get there.

And for those that are interest (though I doubt anyone is), here are all the percentage chances of getting at least one '6' dependent on the number of dice rolled:-

No of Dice:                    1          2         3        4        5         6         7

Percentage chance:     16%    31%    42%   52%   60%    67%   72%

That's it then for this week, hopefully there is something here of interest and as always your comments , brickbats a bouquets are welcomed and appreciated. 

Gunfight - the Aftermath

 The aftermath of last week's game was that I took a long hard look at the TRWNN rules. The shooting workesd well imo, low casualty count and a quick game overall. The game took about three hours overall, half of which was setting it all up !

[The Bounty Hunters from the game]

Movement was a joke, though I'm pretty sure a lot of TRWNN players have probably never questioned it. I intend to change it to a more player firnedly system, using ideas of my own, some of  Dave Docherty's changes from his version of TRWNN ("Blazing Dice") and some of the movement mechanics from Shoot n Skeddatle. I will be referring to my old "Old West Skirmish Rules" as reference for all changes.

I don't mind random movement rates and even if figure has to use all of what he rolls on the dice (citizens only), but being able to walk fater than a run is a bit ludicrouse.

 [The Outlaws from the game]

 So I'm considering the following -  a walk will be a standard movement of 5", which the character may use all or some of.

A run will be either normal or fast; a normal run will be 6" plus the roll of a D6, giving 7" to 12".

A fast run will be 12" plus the roll of a D6, giving a range of 13" to 18".

This gives imo, a more logicalspeed ratio, no longer will someone be able run faster than somone running 'slower' and I will be getting rid of the double (or triple) '1s' making you fall - it's silly.

Horse movement will operate along the lines of my vehicle movement, horses will go through an accelartion of +6" each turn and a decelarion similarly plus a D6.

The intended effect is that overall the players will have a better idea of what their figures can do.

[Not exactly a cast of thousands, but a lot of my early 'conversions']

I'll also be looking at what actions a player can do within a turn, drawing a gun, opening a door, climbing and so on.

It did perturb me a bit that the low number of cards for initiative/activation meant that there were times when only a few characters acted beforre the turn was over - the very first turn had only two of the Outlaws moving before the end of the turn! With only a very few characters, this will be inevitable.

To combat this, and to make most turns lasting a bit longer, I'm going to double the number of each character's character cards. It may have the opposite effect I intend, but but it will give a much better chnace of each character acting at least once.

 [two Britains' conversions,a one of my own conversions.] 

Civilians took no part in my last gsme, but in every game I played in a town, there were always civilians, everyone in the town outside of a building can hear gunshots (and some inside too) and we always had the civilians do something (mostly runaway), so I'll be looking more closely at the civilian rules in the future. I also need to have better charactersitics for the characters too - Are they brave, cowardly, notorious, hated/loved and so on. TRWNN has some of these elements but no real guidance of how and when to use them save by player choice. Shoot n Skedattle has Abilty and Strength as characteristics but only mention them three times in their rules - bit of a waste. TRWNN skil set needs close inspection.

[Britains again, plus a random gypsy dance of unknown origin]

The game and the rules used still have a long way to go to et the game I want.!

[The total female population of my towns, save for a couple of sitting females] 

Civilians in my games reacted according to their stats , with results of either standing watching runnibg to cover or joibibg in; whn I've gone through the long (welcomed)  list of citizen actions in TRWNN, I may have a better idea of the direction I wish to head in. 

I do howver need a lot more females ! - in 54mm they;re very hard to come across though I may have to look at having them printed in 3D (there are three usable ones  on "Thingyverse").

[More citizenry, with some of the then newer Timpo models]

That;s it then for this week, I've done very little, other than reading a lot, watching a few westerns (Watch "The Sisters Brothers", if only for the use of cap and ball revolvers]and made a couple mor lamps from beads.

Thanks for taking the the ot visit, sorry for the por post, but as always your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Gunfight !

,After seeking inspiration from binge-watching all three series of HBO's "Deadwood", I tried a simple gunfight using TRWNN (only slightly modified) and my own characterisation ideas.

 [The Bounty Hunters]

The setup was quite straightforward, four a side, Bounrty Hunters versus Outlaws.

A D20 would give their status, a result of 1 to 4 gave a civilian   whilst only a '20' would give a "Legend". Rolling for each side gave identical results, two gunmen and two shootist each. I gave each of the characters three characterisitcs, a Hand to Hand abilty, a Pistol ability and a Shoulder Arm (rifle) abilty. I used the method explained in my last post, a D6 for each 'level', Rolls of 1 to 3 gave no improvement, whilst 4, 5 gave +1 and a 6 gave +2  - with a maximum of '5' allowed for any characterisitc. Gunmen would roll twice for each and Shootists would roll three times, as if they had all gone throught the various lower levels.  

[The Outlaws, at the other end of the street, just about visible in the top photo]

For cards, I borrowed an idea from "Shoot n Skeddatle", allocated each character a card (Diamonds  for the Bounty Hunters and Spades for the Outlaws) . To keep track on the table, as a visible aid, I gave each character a counter with their initial on, yellow for the Outlaws and Red for the Bounty Hunters. (Can you spot them?)

The cards, (it's a French Deck btw), the court cards were action cards the Queen (Dame) for  the Shootist's action card and the Jack (Valet) for the Gunman's action card. As no-one could use the Legend card, it was ommitted. There were also no civilians to be involved so rightfully or wrongly, I also ommitted the Civilian action card. (On reflection I probably should have included it)

A simple sheet of paper would record each figure's characteristics, their card and any wounds

[Detail on "Abe". Note his Nerve value of '3', I set these as a standard. His activation card is the 2 of Spades - bottom left]

Here's the photos:

[George is the only BH to move forward, Harry shoots and misses -despite doubling the ranges]

[There is little movement amongst the Outlaws]

[Bob get a flesh wound to his leg, knocking him down, Del runs forward. past Bob shooting]

[Bob will lie in this position for the rest of the game]

[Del, returns fire giving Frank a serious chest wound, laying him out for th rest of the game.]

[With a carefully aimed shot then using an action card, George nails Del with a Flesh leg wound]

Charlie, who hasn't activated at all. finally decides to rush forward and join in,  he gets a measly 2" with his 2 D6 and is Knocked Out  with a serious chest wound !

This left Abe alone versus three of the Bounty Hunters, so I decided he'd head for the hills via the cover of the Livery stable.

The game was over  and it was obvious that the Bounty Hunters had won,.

The game had good points, such as the skill system working well and easily to figure out; few serious wounds, but a lot of 'grazes abounding'; cover rules worked well, the single shot at Abe caused him  to Duck back; Charlies 2" run was unacceptable imo and will be under review.

Did I enjoy the game ? Yes, despite not knowing the rules well enough , nor having a QRS to hand, it went much more smoothly than anticipated. The Activation system meant poor Charlie didn't move for all but one turn and when he did...well...

Another bout of thoughts on rules is in order, but I will be playing again!

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefull there was something of interest.

That's it then for another week, as always your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

More Rules,

In a week where real-life overwhelmed any desire to do anything hobby related, I was  idling on an  internet  site reviewing many Western Skirmish rules and came across "Shoot n Skeddatle" as a free downloadable PDF and thought Why not?". 

[[Some of my 'Desperadoes", that's the seated mexican's legs on the left]

The rules are a whopping 80+ pages long, in this second edition and contain all the necessary rules fro playing a game, but not all the necessary items, namels Cards, lots of Cards, which are available as seperate, buyable, downloadable PDFs or actual cards. - bummer !

The cards relate to Characters - Lawmen, Outlaws, and Other (neutral) Characters; and Weapons - everything from Derringers to cannon -the whole gamut of Western ordinance.

Movement is pretty straight-forward with fixed ditances for walking running etc. and various actions are also taken in to account (opening doors, jumping walls and so on). Movement order is done using two decks of cards, each character aving a card allocated to them. The Doc below, fo r example is activated on the draw of  the Jack of Clubs. The turn ends when all characters have had the chance to activate twice. There is, of course, the chance to make your own characters rather than using the pre-genereated card ones.

 [A pre=generated character]

The various polygonal dice used, cover five characteristics , Strength, Agility, Scrap, Marksman and guts, with the larger polygonal dice having a better chance of success than the lesser ones. A '5' is always a success, so with a D6 you have a 33% chance of success whilst a D20 gives you an 80% chance of success.  

With the varuety of skills (that everyone has), there is a much better chance of individual charactersiation than I found in TRWNN.  

Where SnS scores highly compared to TRWNN is their 'extras', there are scenarios given, a campaign system and imho, everything has a cost, whether it be characters, weapons, horses or anyting else!

[One of the many weapon cards, showing its cost is $20 - toom right] 

The only feature I didn't take to was the simplified wound system, one wound and your hurt, two wounds and you're out of the fight, not outright 'kills'. 

Without playing a game using these rules it's not really possible to give an idea of how much fun they are or whether or not they'll give a good, fun game, but I'm pretty sure they'll have a lot of followers.

My overall opinion on the rules is that they're a pretty solid set of rules with a lot of good features, I like the characteristion structure, more so than in TRWNN and my old "Old West" rules, and the intiative (using playing cards) does mean all characterst get the chance to act, but the wounding system is lacking  and I prefer the TRWNN system. (I'm pretty sure they latter could be easily combined)

That's it then, a quick and dirty post (sorry), as the current real-life situation wears on I realised I haven't played a game since March this year - a solo Jimland adventure and I've only played with three others, in some six games (or so) in the last three years! It's all very depressing and does little to generate any enthusiasm for anything hobby-related.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Casey Jones...

..." Steamin' and a rollin'".

For those of a younger disposition this was a black and white western )one of many) from my youth, concerning the adventures of a railroad, its engineer (him of the title), Casey junior (his son), Fireamn Wally, redrock and the rest of the crew on the "Cannonball Express"..

[Not me in the pghotograph above, I was decidedly older when I bough this set]

All of the above preamble was so I could show my two railway set-ups for my Old West skirmishes. Railways and their robberies (invernted by Jesse James iirc) played such an important part in the OW that I had to have one.

[Contents of the Timpo set] 

[Forty inches long]

[Engine and tender, the latter held the electric motor]

[Inside the carriage and parcel compartment]

[Parcel bit with opening door !]

[Caboose with sliding doors, but no other detail]

The second set I have is even mor toy-like:

[What you see is what you got - I bought two sets]

[My two sets]

[Engine comparison]

[The two sets, side by side]

[In the foreground is my full train, two carriages and a scratch-built Express car]

[My roofless Express car with siding doors !]

[View showing unfinished internal detailing]

[Another view of the insed of the Express car]

[The whole of the upper structure of the carriage is removed to get inside]

The second set doesn;t come with tracks, but is a hefty model, well over five feet long if I added the flatcar.

In  a week where I did very little modelling or apinting, I found half an hour on Sunday to put togther these models:

[Three and a half beads and a drink straw - can you see hwat they are yet ?]

[How about now ? - they're meant to be old oil lamps - just in case you couln;t tell]

[And how they look in use]

So that's it for another week, the good news being that I managed to get a post together despite doing very little and Blogger is almost like it used to be. I even put in photographs as I typed and re-sized one of them !

Thanks for taking the time to visit, I hope there was something of interest and of course, your commetns are both welcomed and appreciated.