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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 14:36:00 GMT -6
Late last year I grabbed Blood & Bullets, mainly as an afterthought to fill out a Lulu order, along with print copies of Sabres & Witchery and Ancient Mysteries & Lost Treasures. I was never particularly attracted to the Wild West genre before (probably because most published Western rpg's gin up the genre by slapping in ludicrous Fantasy and Weird Science elements) so I was surprised how much I liked B&B. Being a succinct read helped a lot and I liked Washbourne's tweaks to the Whitebox system (should I call his version the WhiteWash system?  ), especially the exploding damage mechanic which keep even high-level characters wary of gunshots. Combined with my old copy of the Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator, B&B turned out to be the perfect Wild West game I didn't know I was looking for. I've run it at at a few conventions, to the appreciation of many players. I even put together some home-printed rulebooks to give away (which I hope isn't a problem for Simon). One minor issue: my original hardcopy of the rules got stolen by a bandit in Kansas (yes, really) just before I was going to run it for the first time. Quickly printing out a copy of the free pdf, I noticed their were siginicicant differences between the hardcopy and pdf texts. Mainly, the pdf had three character classes whereas the lulu text had four, and the the damage mechanics were more traditionally Whitebox in the lulu text. Turns out I prefer the pdf text, but I do wonder why the texts differ, and which one Simon Washbourne considers the definitive text. |
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Post by simonw on Jul 9, 2015 13:10:25 GMT -6
(should I call his version the WhiteWash system? ) Nice!  I've run it at at a few conventions, to the appreciation of many players. I even put together some home-printed rulebooks to give away (which I hope isn't a problem for Simon). No problem - they actually look cool One minor issue: my original hardcopy of the rules got stolen by a bandit in Kansas (yes, really) just before I was going to run it for the first time. Quickly printing out a copy of the free pdf, I noticed their were siginicicant differences between the hardcopy and pdf texts. Mainly, the pdf had three character classes whereas the lulu text had four, and the the damage mechanics were more traditionally Whitebox in the lulu text. Turns out I prefer the pdf text, but I do wonder why the texts differ, and which one Simon Washbourne considers the definitive text. I don't consider either the definitive version - I like 'em both and I'm not sure now why I changed the LULU version. I do like the additional class though. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 11:05:41 GMT -6
Thank you for replying, Simon. No problem - they actually look cool That's a bit of a relief actually. When I first threw those booklets together I tried to contact you for permission to give them out, but couldn't find a channel. Interestingly, I found the Three-Class version more versatile. In particular, when I asked myself "how would I model Doc Holliday as depicted in Tombstone?" I agonized over which of the Four Classes (he's an Eastern-trained dentist, but he's also a professional gambler, and he's a better shot than Wyatt Earp, and folks regularly see him as the most dangerous man in the room), but when it was reduced to three it got much simpler (he's double classeed, roughly Gambler 4 / Shootist 8). In future games, I may appropriate the Dude's specialist ability for all classes, so every character has a civilain trade they were raised in, (including more frontier-appropriate ones like Blacksmith, Cattle Driver and Preacher). |
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Post by simonw on Jul 11, 2015 0:36:25 GMT -6
(he's double classeed, roughly Gambler 4 / Shootist 8). I'd probably do that for Doc Holliday too. The Dude is really intended for the occasional "fish-out-of-water" PC. I was thinking of Johnny Depp's character William Blake (an accountant) in Dead Man when I wrote it up but there are a few other examples that I can't think of right now. To be fair, they are mostly not the main protagonist and I wouldn't expect most players to choose this class very often, if at all. In my group, one player chose to play a Dude who was a French nobleman, who also happened to be an expert sword-fencer. So, whilst apparently useless, he was pretty handy in a melee. You could probably change the name of the class to encompass other fish-out-of-water types, like David Carradine's character in Kung Fu. |
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 11, 2015 7:02:48 GMT -6
Interesting thread. Not to totally hijack, but I do have a couple of questions:
(1) You both refer to the three-class versus four-class system, but never say which are the classes. I can see that Gambler and Shootist are two of them, but what are the third and fourth, and which is the optional one. (I also see references to Dude, Blacksmith, Cattle Driver, and Preacher but assume that these are not all classes because that brings the total to 6, which isn't 3 or 4.)
(2) I have Go Fer Yer Gun from the old C&C days. How does this game differ from Blood & Bullets? In other words, what would inspire me to buy B&B if I already have GFYG?
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Post by simonw on Jul 11, 2015 8:58:31 GMT -6
Interesting thread. Not to totally hijack, but I do have a couple of questions: (1) You both refer to the three-class versus four-class system, but never say which are the classes. I can see that Gambler and Shootist are two of them, but what are the third and fourth, and which is the optional one. (I also see references to Dude, Blacksmith, Cattle Driver, and Preacher but assume that these are not all classes because that brings the total to 6, which isn't 3 or 4.) (2) I have Go Fer Yer Gun from the old C&C days. How does this game differ from Blood & Bullets? In other words, what would inspire me to buy B&B if I already have GFYG? You can d/l Blood & Bullets for free from here (just go to "Free Stuff"). The classes are Trailblazer, Shootist and Gambler. The extra class in the POD book on LULU is the Dude. There are no other classes. It's simpler than Go Fer Yer Gun! and is based more on Swords & Wizardry (actually on Sabres & Witchery) rather than C&C. I'm more for cutting classes these days and like to aim for three or four to cover most things. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2015 16:15:00 GMT -6
... I also see references to Dude, Blacksmith, Cattle Driver, and Preacher but assume that these are not all classes because that brings the total to 6, which isn't 3 or 4 One of the special abilities of the Dude (the fourth class that appears only in the POD version of B&B) is to have expert training in a civilized profession of one kind or another from back East, like Dentistry, Acting, Accounting or Haberdashery (those are just off-the-cuff examples, there's no predefined list). The Dude gets a +4 when attempting actions under the penumbra of their expertise. My reference to Blacksmith, Cattle Driver and PReacher is just musing on the idea of making something like that ability availaable to all classes, competence in one non-adventuring vocation of their choice (I'd probably scale the bonus back to +2 so that Dude's still have an edge if anyone ever plays one at my table). |
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), especially the exploding damage mechanic which keep even high-level characters wary of gunshots. Combined with my old copy of the Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator, B&B turned out to be the perfect Wild West game I didn't know I was looking for. 
