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.
Like your thinking on the rule changes Joe, all makes logical sense to me.
ReplyDeleteThank's for sharing the pictures of the models, there is some great looking characters in there.
If I can think of any 54 mm female models I'll post a comment
Thanks Dave, the logic still has to be tested!
DeleteThe pics really was for padding , as I've done little else.
I'm pretty sure I had a plastic Maid Marian when I was a kid, but I'll be looking at Disney Pirncesses for scale.
Fantastic old school collection sir!
ReplyDeleteThanks you Michal, evrything thing I do is old now.
DeleteThe rule changes seem to make sense Joe?
ReplyDeleteThanks ray, its the 'seem to that needs testing though.
DeleteWonderful insight as to what your doing with the rules Joe & for what your looking for, love seen the picture of the old models :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Frank, I don't want to re-write whole chunks of rules, but rather some simpler things to make a less random game.
DeleteGreat to see these old figures Joe!
ReplyDeleteThanks MJT, I get a warm feeling when I see old Airfix figures.
DeleteMarvellous stuff, Joe. The rule changes sound perfectly sensible to me, and what an awesome collection of figures & conversions from the past. Love these sorts of posts and pics, so please keep them coming :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Blaxx, I'll mould the rules to my liking eventually!.
DeleteI'm not really otivated atm so this was a bit of a last minute post!
Rule changes make sense, be good to see them in action, shouldn't the gypsy dancer be included with the females, or is it a fella in drag?
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain, riles still have to survive testing.
DeleteThe poor Gypsy girl was ostracised by all the Britains girls.
Great stuff Joe! Agree with everyone else and like your rule changes - for someone who roles horribly on the dice, movement by dice rolling always is a head scratcher to me. There are plenty of modifiers or interrupts that can effect movement as opposed to straight dice roles. Gunfighter's Ball uses this type of movement and I had a model on a horse move the minimum of 2 inches because of my dice roll, mad 🤦♂️
ReplyDeleteThanks Ivor and apolgies for the latest of my reply, I've been little sick (probably with a touch of food poisoning). Whilst I like random movement, 'running' slower than a walk really pees me off. I;d like to tke a look at a more more sets of rules as there are so many on the market atm, but buying a set of rules to find I don't like them is a big deterrent.
DeleteMovement is pretty universal, whatever works in your current favourite rules can work in these. It could affect weapon ranges but usually they are ridiculously short because they relate to table size rather than figure scale.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of variable run distance, I just use the Chain Reaction variable because it allows for consistency in a better class of figure but your idea is just as good.
For the cowgirls of the town couldn't you just stick a couple of lumps of putty on the chest of a man and add a bit of putty hair. Ladies in dresses is a different matter altogether, that was why I went the Black Scorpion route with my western figures although I don't like many of their new sculpts. 54mm is a dufferent kettle of fish I know but might be easier to convert.
Thanks Vagabone, one of the things I really dislike about movement is rules that allow figures, running at full pelt the abilty to shoot. I've tried it with a musket, it's almost impossible, similarly with both pistols (usinh nerf guns), so I'm not going to allow it.
DeleteOn my table, using movement similarly to TRWNN, but doubling the ranges gives a very interesting dynamic to the game and IMHO it's also more realistic for 54mm figures.
I have the sculting skills of a 3 year old so unless it's in straight lines I don;t think your idea is viable (plus I'd have to buy some 'putty' (green stuff?).