Boot Hill was TSR's wilden west skirmish/role-playing game. Back when we were kids my crew played a few shoot-outs with it, at least before we discovered BattleTech. One of the neat touches in the rulebook is that each gun has a listed year it first becomes available. For a long time I wanted to put together random starting weapon charts sorted by the year the gunfight was taking place, mainly for two-bit NPCs. A few months ago I did just that, but only this morning did it occur to me that someone else might be interested in my charts. I don't know how many people play Boot Hill nowadays, but I went ahead and typed my charts up. They're now uploaded onto scribd.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Gunslingers and Percentile Throws
Boot Hill was TSR's wilden west skirmish/role-playing game. Back when we were kids my crew played a few shoot-outs with it, at least before we discovered BattleTech. One of the neat touches in the rulebook is that each gun has a listed year it first becomes available. For a long time I wanted to put together random starting weapon charts sorted by the year the gunfight was taking place, mainly for two-bit NPCs. A few months ago I did just that, but only this morning did it occur to me that someone else might be interested in my charts. I don't know how many people play Boot Hill nowadays, but I went ahead and typed my charts up. They're now uploaded onto scribd.
Thanks! I'd love to have a chance to play Boot Hill.
ReplyDeleteI'm running a Weird West / D&D game this Saturday! Thanks for the great timing in sharing this. :)
ReplyDeleteBack in the early eighties I combined the rules for Boot Hill and Villains & Vigilantes (I think...it might might have been another game) and ran a short but very memorable campaign resembling the cowboy comics of DC.
ReplyDeleteThe 'party' (posse?)consisted of a Singing Cowboy (who could effect encounters by with the songs he sang), a 'Lone Ranger' style masked cowboy, a Native American Shaman, a Half-African/Half-Mexican Gunfighter/Merc and a mysterious red garbed cowboy who may or may not have been a ghost.
Ah to be 13, a comic book fan, a gamer and have a Dad and a Grandpa who both loved Westerns.
@Barking Alien: I need to track down those comics! :D
ReplyDeleteNice. Gotta love Boot Hill. The fast, brutal and deadly nature of the system is a perfect match to the setting. I've run it numerous times. Your update will find a place if I get the opportunity to do so again.
ReplyDeleteBoot Hill and the Original Gamma World were, and still are, the highlights of collection of games. Mostly because those two, along with Traveler, were my first attempts to stray a bit from D&D ;)
ReplyDelete@Stuart or anyone else interested...
ReplyDeleteThe inspiration for most of my Western ideas come from DC and Marvel Comics character such as Bat Lash, Cinnamon, Jonah Hex, The Two-Gun Kid, Scalphunter, The Rawhide Kid, etc.
More of a DC fan growing up I'd have to say that companies characters and stories had more of an impact.
Check out http://www.rpi.edu/~bulloj/western.html
Y'all be careful out'chere ya'hear.
Hey. Great Blog. I totally agree!
ReplyDeleteBoot Hill: definitely in my favorite top 5 RPGs of all time.
ReplyDelete