Wild West: OD&D Style

[doc]

LAW OF THE GUN

OD&D, Western Style

Having recently read Blood Meridian (A more graphic and stunning Western I’ve yet to read.) and played a few sessions of Aces & Eights, I felt the need to put together a mini-game that adapted the elementary rules of OD&D to an old west setting.

So, without further ado:

STATS

Each character gets the familiar stats of Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, and Charisma. A stat of 13-15 gains you a bonus of +1, 16-17 a bonus of +2, and 18 a bonus of +3. All rolls for stats are made on 3d6; no weighted dice, please.

HIT POINTS

A character’s initial hit point score is equal to his Constitution. And yes, higher constitutions do get the +1 to +3 bonus. So character with a constitution of 12 would have 12 hit points and a character with a constitution of 18 would have 21 hit points.

LEVEL

Levels are gained through surviving battles. Note that a battle implies a real possibility that the character may be maimed or killed. Gunning down four unarmed and sleeping Indians does not count as your character surviving a battle. Use common sense.

There are ten levels that a character may aspire to. With each level the character gains 2 hit points, +1 to strike on combat, and may add +1 to a single skill.

SKILLS

A beginning character gains 4 + INT modifier in number of skills. Each skill is tied to a stat. So if a character with a Wisdom of 13 took the skill Perception, he would have Perception:13. Skills may be bought up as the character rises in level, but the highest skill level possible is 19. Even the best fail sometimes.

The skill system is meant to be quick and cinematic, hard and fast. As such, there is little description of the skills and individual groups are encouraged to place their own spin/advantages/limitations on the skills.

COMBAT SKILLS

Each combat skill can be taken only at first level, and may never be added to as you raise in levels. They give the character an initiative bonus and additional accuracy when using certain types of weapons.

Cutthroat: +2 to hit with all bladed weapons.

Deadeye: +2 to hit with all guns.

Knuckleduster: +2 to hit in unarmed combat.

NON COMBAT SKILLS


Drinking (Constitution): You can stay sober until a failed roll.

Educated (Intelligence): You have had a higher education and knows a lot about a lot.

Endurance (Constitution): Can stave off effects of starvation, harsh weather, and bodily harm.

Fellowship (Charisma) You can get people to like and agree with you.

Gift of Gab (Intelligence): You can converse in any language, even if it’s only on a very crude level.

Indian Lore (Wisdom): You know the ways of the Natives, including myths and customs.

Intimidation (Strength or Charisma): People give you a wide berth and give in to your demands.

Man of the Cloth (Wisdom or Charisma): You know your Old Time Religion.

Medicine (Intelligence): A doctor, dentist, or maybe shaman. Goes well with the Education skill.

Perception (Wisdom): A good eye, and can tell when something doesn’t feel right.

Riding (Constitution): You are good at riding horses, angry bulls, etc.

Roping (Dexterity): The cowboy’s skill. Good with a lariat.

Seduction (Charisma): All that and a bag of chips.

Stealth (Dexterity): The scout’s ability to move through territory unseen and unheard.

Tracking (Wisdom): The bounty hunter’s skill. Can be used for both urban and wilderness climes.

ARMOR CLASS:

Most folks don’t go around wearing armor these days. Which is why gunfights are so danged lethal! Heavy animal hides, favored by trappers and cowboys in colder regions, act as AC 8. A steel breastplate, similar to Conquistador armor, would act as AC 5. A leather duster coat, while looking pretty darn cool, doesn’t give any armor bonuses. Bonuses for high dexterity apply as per usual.

SAVING THROWS

Since the only OD&D save that would have any actual application in Law of the Gun is vs. poison, there is only a single saving roll in the game. It is used for three things.

1. To save against poison.

2. If the character takes more than half their HP damage in a single attack, they must make a saving throw or become instantly unconscious.

3. The very first time the character gets shot, they must make a save at -2 or freeze in shock and terror, unable to even defend themselves properly.

[doc]

WEAPONS

All non-firearm weapons do a straight 1d6 (plus strength bonus if applicable). Weapons available include:

Indian Weapons: Arrow, Club, Bolas, Spear, Tomahawk

Bladed Weapons: Knife, Straight Razor, Machete, Saber, Sword Cane, Shuriken

Blunt Weapons: Walking Stick, Billy Club, Table Leg, Midget

FIREARMS

Firearms in Law of the Gun use the Exploding Dice mechanic. Which is to say, if a die rolls a natural 6, the die gets rolled again and the second number added to the 6. This continues for as long as 6 keeps coming up on the die.

So if Roscoe Slade whips out his piece to take a shot at the Gringo Kid and rolls 2d6 and gets a 3 and a 6, he might roll again and get a 5 for a total of 14.

Pistols do 2d6 points and have a range of 40 feet.

Rifles do 2d6 but have range of 120 feet (providing the shooter is in a position to see the target).

Shotguns do 3d6 from up to 5 feet away, 2d6 from up to 15 feet away, and 1d6 from up to 30 feet away. Further than 40 feet they are not terribly reliable.

So let’s put together a character.

“Red Knife” Jacob Nash

Strength: 13
Intelligence: 9
Wisdom: 5
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 16
Charisma: 8

Armor Class: 7 (tough animal hide plus Dex bonus)
Hit Points: 17

SKILLS: Cutthroat, Drinking:16, Endurance:16, Stealth:13

GEAR: Sawn-off Shotgun, Machete, Boot Knife, Derringer, Small Bag of Gold Dust (value around $16), Tattered Deck of Cards, Broad-Brimmed Hat of Bearskin, Good Boots,

IN BRIEF: “Red Knife” Jake is a mean-tempered hombre what came to the West for to stake him a claim. Three years later he’s found the best way to make money in the gold business is to jump claims and steal from those who have already struck the vein. He supposedly met his end following a confrontation with the Gantner Gang, but managed to show up alive and kicking in Abilene some three weeks after it was reported that he was gunned down in a hail of bullets. Much to the chagrin of practically everyone.

Jake is of average height, with a sturdy build, grizzled appearance, and mean, flinty eyes. He dresses in clothing made from the hides of predators that he claims to have slain personally, and always has an extra weapon or two tucked away. He is quick tempered and impetuous, rarely taking the time to think his actions through. His nickname comes from his skill with his machete, which he has taken to naming “Jose.”

[philotomy]

Cool, have an exalt.

I'm interested that you did this after playing Aces & Eights. What did you think of Aces & Eights? What made you create Law of the Gun rather than use Aces & Eights? (I haven't played Aces & Eights, but I think it sounds interesting, which is why I ask...)

[doc]

Thanks!

Aces & Eights is a lot of fun, but it isn't particularly simple. It takes a while to create a character, and, while the game isn't needlessly complex, it is a lot closer in tone to Hackmaster or 3.5 than to the slam-bang, gritty types of westerns that I've always enjoyed thanks to sirs Eastwood and Bronson.

By morphing OD&D into a western game, not only did I get a simple and fast-paced game where a character can be created in mere minutes, but it was a lot easier to sell the idea of playing it to my regular group as I've been running an OD&D campaign weekly for over a year now.

And yeah, "Red Knife" Jake was my Aces & Eights character. I simplified him for his LotG incarnation and used him as a contact/adversary for the characters.

Doc

[Finarvyn]

A few thoughts on this:

1. I like what I've seen, so far, rules-wise. Aces & Eights is really Hackmaster in the Wild West, which means it's similar to AD&D, which means it converts well to OD&D.

2. For more Wild West ideas, you might check out SimonW's Go Fer Yer Gun, which is based on Castles & Crusades. It's a cheap download.

3. Your experience idea is similar to that of Boot Hill and I think it works well. Boot Hill has some neat "first shot" charts that you might check out for those pesky gunfights. I can send you some of this info or maybe post it here if there is interest in it.

Bravo, and an EXALT.

[doc]

Thanks Fin

I actually have all the editions of Boot Hill floating around somewhere. I also have had Go For Your Gun and all of Simon's other stuff from back in the days before he started selling them on RPGnow (I particularly like Lashings of Ginger Beer).

The best part of Aces & Eights is the clear target scope that you use when trying to hit your opponent. You lay it over the image, placing the bull's eye exactly where you are targeting, then you roll the dice, add up your bonuses, and draw a card from the deck. Based on this, you not only get to see how close you came to your target, but where the shots actually struck. It's a huge amount of fun. It works great with just a handful of characters, but when you get a party of six people and an equal number of opponents, it gets cumbersome.

And since this is an Old School site, that's the last I'll comment on Aces & Eights

Doc

[codeman123]

sweeeeet... i like it.. only thing i see that i would change is the armor class... i would proubly go with more of a defense value sort of thing..and armor does not lowers that but provides some sort of soak value...

oh yeah.. have an exalt..

[apeloverage]

You should put it out as a Labyrinth Lord supplement.

[thorswulf]

NICE! Simple, cinematic, and fun! Which experience table for raising levels are you using? I'm guessing the Fighter. Thank you for NOT putting in rules for gatling guns! But dynamite rules would be fun.....

[apeloverage]

Add rules for spaceships and you could use it for Firefly.

[apeloverage]

If pistols got an initiative advantage compared to shotguns and rifles, and shotguns maybe had a little bit more range, then you'd have a very compact little system where each type of gun had its own significant advantages and disadvantages.

Also perhaps there should be a Poker skill?

EDIT: Also maybe there should be an extra combat skill: Quick Draw. It seems like initiative would be more important in this system, because of the consequences of being hit.

[Finarvyn]

Aug 7, 2008 14:42:26 GMT -6 doc said:

The best part of Aces & Eights is the clear target scope that you use when trying to hit your opponent. You lay it over the image, placing the bull's eye exactly where you are targeting, then you roll the dice, add up your bonuses, and draw a card from the deck. Based on this, you not only get to see how close you came to your target, but where the shots actually struck.

Although I own the leather hardback of Aces & Eights, I've never really played it. The target scope always looked a little silly, but I guess I need to give it a try if it's that fun to use. Oh, and even thougth it's an old school site, a little A&8 chatter isn't too bad ... it's really AD&D Wild West after all!

[coffee]

Aug 11, 2008 5:20:59 GMT -6 apeloverage said:

Add rules for spaceships and you could use it for Firefly.

You really wouldn't even need rules for spaceships.

In Firefly, the ship <i>Serenity</i> is another character (and I'm guessing an NPC, to boot). Every other ship is either a plot device or window dressing.

[doc]

Actually I already did rules for spaceships in the Star Opera setting (see the thread in the OD&D workshop area).

Yes, there SHOULD be a skill to let you play poker. How about:

Cardsharp: Allows for skill at playing, bluffing, and cheating at games of chance.

I'm keeping away from making Quick Draw a skill and allowing it to reflect the Dex bonus of the character instead, though if you want to you could say that the Deadeye skill allows an initiative bonus when using pistols.

Dynamite? Yeah, I could do that. How about:

6d6 to anybody within 5 feet (impact zone)
5d6 to anybody within 10 feet
4d6 to anybody within 15 feet
3d6 to anybody within 20 feet
2d6 to anybody within 25 feet
1d6 to anybody within 30 feet

That takes into account not only the force of the explosion, but also shrapnal (flying bits of wood, metal, etc) caused by the explosion.


Doc

[Finarvyn]

Dynamite was pretty much a standard ending to almost every Boot Hill adventure I ever ran. Somebody somehow would get ahold of some and blow up the bank or saloon or wherever and half of the characters would die in a blazing inferno. What fun.

[doc]

Fin, are you sure that wasn't Hackmaster you were playing?

;D

Doc

[apeloverage]

Aug 11, 2008 10:13:20 GMT -6 coffee said:

Aug 11, 2008 5:20:59 GMT -6 apeloverage said:

Add rules for spaceships and you could use it for Firefly.

You really wouldn't even need rules for spaceships.

In Firefly, the ship <i>Serenity</i> is another character (and I'm guessing an NPC, to boot). Every other ship is either a plot device or window dressing.

What they mostly seem to do is try and outrun other ships, so maybe a Pilot skill would be enough.

[Finarvyn]

Aug 11, 2008 13:02:20 GMT -6 doc said:

Fin, are you sure that wasn't Hackmaster you were playing?

;D No, this was way before HackMaster was even invented. My players (my high school group, not my current one) were power gamers before we ever heard the phrase. One of them was an ex-army guy (flunked out of basic) and loved the idea of blowing things up. Kind of scary, actually.

[doc]

Sorry, I thought I'd already posted this:

LEVEL ADVANCEMENT

Surive 2 battles: 2nd level
Survive 5 battles: 3rd level
Survive 9 battles: 4th level
Survive 14 battles: 5th level
Survive 20 battles: 6th level
Survive 27 battles: 7th level
Survive 35 battles: 8th level
Survive 44 battles: 9th level
Survive 55 battles: 10th level

This scale is based on the idea that most legendary gunslingers (John "Doc" Holliday, John Wesley Hardin, Clay Allison) who were reported to have killed more than 30 opponents actually killed in the area of 5-10. Either that, or many of the people they killed were unarmed or at some other serious disadvantage (like John Wesley Hardin notoriously killing a sleeping man). Thus, if you are running a game set in the mythic west, these characters may be around level 8, but if you are running a gritty, more realistic version of the west, they may be around levels 4 or 5. The higher levels (9 and 10) reflect characters like Joe Mancoe (AKA The Man With No Name) or Django; characters who shoot up hundreds of opponents during dozens of battles over the course of many films.


Doc

[coffee]

Aug 16, 2008 13:34:32 GMT -6 doc said:

...John Wesley Hardin notoriously killing a sleeping man...

True, but that can hardly be called a "battle"; Hardin fired through the wall and the guy stopped snoring (which was what prompted him to fire in the first place). He didn't know until the next morning that he'd killed him.

[apeloverage]

You should put this out as a Swords & Wizardry supplement.

[dwayanu]

Nice job, Doc!

When the Constitution 18 Kid is in town, load all six cylinders, eh?

I started on something similar, but it kept wanting to morph into BH.

For an "Advanced" game with a more cinematic ethos, an alternative to A&8s might be a spinoff of TSR's Buck Rogers RPG.

[doc]

For those who are interested, I put Law of the Gun into a simple document that you can find in my bottom drawer.

sites.google.com/site/docsplacesite/


Doc

[Finarvyn]

Sadly, I seem not to be able to read wps files. :-(

[dwayanu]

The format is for Open Office, but my program choked on those files. Curiously, their sizes were 2-3 kB larger than Doc's site reports.

Rich Text Format would be more portable, if fancy layout is not needed.

[coffee]

My Open Office wouldn't open them, either, but I got them at work with Microsoft Word.

I then immediately converted them to PDFs so I could read them at home; I don't have Word at home.

Doc, I can make these PDFs available to you if you want; just give me the word.

[kesher]

Isnt .wps a MS Works file? That might explain why it wouldn't open in OO, but would in MS Word...

[dwayanu]

Yep, that's "Works Text Document." It's not a format I see among the "save as" options in my OpenOffice.org 2.0. I'm not sure why my system associated the file with that program. MS Word (.doc) would probably work for me, although even Word itself can have trouble with files from different versions.

[doc]

Okay, I included an RTF version right next to the other one on the site. Let me know if that helps.

Coffee, if you want to do 'em as PDFs, that's fine.



Doc

[Wothbora]

I spent an evening working through the percentages in Boot Hill 1e and got all frustrated at the weirdness in the various ways that TSR broke down Averages between 4 Characteristics.

Speed: Average = 11-20%
Personal Bravery: Average = 21-35%
Personal Accuracy: Average = 26-35%
Strength: Average = 26-40%

About the only thing that made sense was comparing Bravery to OD&D's Wisdom Stat which would make Average Bravery something along the lines of a Wisdom of 8 to 9. It was also interesting to try and piece together Strength with OD&D. The Labels are very "Indie" for all the Characteristics, but Strength Labels were amusing nonetheless.

BH 1e Strength Label / Percentage / OD&D Stat
8-Feeble / 01-02% / 3-4
9-Puny / 03-05% / 5
10-Frail / 06-10% / 6
11-Weakling / 11-17% / 7
12-Sickly / 18-25% / 8-9
13-Average / 26-40% / 10
14-Above Average / 41-60 / 11
15-Sturdy / 61-75% / 12
16-Hardy / 76-83% / 13
17-Strong / 84-90% / 14
18-Very Strong / 91-95% / 15
19-Powerful / 96-98% / 16
20-Mighty / 99-100% / 17-18

I had the grand idea that I'd use Swords and Wizardry along with the Dungeon Master's Guide 1e (to help with the conversion (see DMG pages 112-113)) and come up with a Boot Hill that was as close to the first edition melded into and with S&W.

Crazy idea and waaaaaay too much work (and almost a wasted evening save for the fact that I understand the 3d6 Bell Curve a lot better than three hours ago).

Then I took a gander here under this topic "Wild West OD&D Style" and saw what Doc has done...

Doc, have an Exhalt...

Once again you've created an Old School wonder that is better than what I was trying to do. (Just like you did with Barsoom)...

You definitely are the Man!!!

I'd give you another Exhalt (if that were possible) for the elegant Skill System you've incorporated with this Wild West Version. It is something that I first sort of rolled my eyes at and then I saw the beauty of it as it works with this system. Excellent, absolutely and excellent homebrew!!!