07-30-2016, 10:48 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Wild West Game Experiences
Hey everyone,
I'm currently working on a Wild West game, using premade characters and planned to last two sessions. The game is set during the gold rush of 1849 and I'm giving characters only guns that existed at that time period (ie. no cartridges, no repeating rifles, long reload times on everything, ect). There are no supernatural abilities, no meta game abilities (like luck), and combat skills for PC's range from 11 to 15. This is my first game set in this time period, and I was wondering what some of the major differences between this and either a low tech or ultra tech game that I should be looking out for? In particular:
If all goes well with this game I'm planning on making it one of my go-to introductions to GURPS, so I want to make sure I'm as prepared as possible.
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I run a low fantasy GURPS game: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdo...YLkfnhr3vYXpFg World details on Obsidian Portal: https://the-fall-of-brekhan.obsidian...ikis/main-page |
07-30-2016, 01:04 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
I don't have any Wild West experience, but let's see...
Even if you restrict firearms to TL5, which would be sensible since you're in the first decades of TL6, there are a variety of repeating rifles that have sizable magazines in High-Tech, so make sure you're aware of that. They suffer from lower Accuracy, but they should be popular anyway. Let's say you put a 4x scope on a Winchester (anything more powerful also increases Bulk): it exists in TL5 and gets common in TL6, according to High-Tech, so that brings the accuracy of the Winchester up to 5. So, add that to a Guns skill of 15 to get 20, and that person will reliably hit targets up to 10 yards away with aimed shots, and have a 50-50 chance at 100 yards. These get better with Weapon Bond, or... actually, I'm not sure there's much else you can do to increase your hit chances, at that point. So that tells you a bit about engagement ranges: if you're more than 100 yards away from someone, they might have a really big scope or get lucky, but for the most part you're safe, since they're doing half damage even if they hit. And how lethal is this gun? The classic M1873 does 3d+1 pi+. You can get it in a bunch of different calibers, but that seems representative. That averages about 18 points of injury, so an average person is going to have to make HT rolls to remain standing, but they'll need to bleed for a few minutes before they risk death. A headshot is 36 injury, so of course that's more likely to be lethal, but even that seems like something a PC has a good chance of living through. Of course, nobody likes losing 18 HP. How many HP can a PC regain in a week? Again assuming TL5 medical tech (the frontier probably isn't on the cutting edge here), people under a doctor's care get 10 rolls to recover HP per week, so even with HT 16, it's going to take about two weeks to get back to full HP after that rifle shot. Other than the +1 for having a physician's care, though, I'm not sure how to get bonuses to that roll, so that'll be worth looking into. So, there you have it. PCs aren't going to get one-shotted from outside LOS under normal circumstances, but bullets suck. Have you read Tactical Shooting? It's aimed at TL 8, but it's the best gun book there is. Not sure what precise you'd want, but it goes into detail on fanning a revolver's hammer, among other things. |
07-30-2016, 01:07 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
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Do you players like that experience? If so, then go for it! Have you run through some practice combats to see how they run? I would caution you to be careful when you use this as in introduction to GURPS. Let the people new to GURPS know that it can be played in really different ways that the way you'll be running it. And that if they hate the experience, they should try again with a different style. |
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07-30-2016, 01:59 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
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I'll flip through tactical shooting, and I've read some of the techniques in high tech. As a two shot where people will be playing pre-mades I'm trying to keep the rules as light as possible.
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I run a low fantasy GURPS game: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdo...YLkfnhr3vYXpFg World details on Obsidian Portal: https://the-fall-of-brekhan.obsidian...ikis/main-page |
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07-30-2016, 02:08 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
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My gaming groups Wiki: GURPS Star Wars house rules, example spaceships, etc. |
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07-30-2016, 02:54 PM | #6 | |||
Join Date: May 2016
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
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I'd recommend having a table with general distances on it. 10 yards for fights in and around buildings (like a saloon), 15 yards across streets, 20+ yards in open areas with limited cover. That's my guess anyway. Quote:
Also decent HT, Fit, and Hard to Subdue/Kill can be a literal life-saver, and Rapid Healing can get an adventurer back in the fight much easier! Quote:
Make sure your characters know Cowboy Rules. Touching another cowpoke's hat or his horse could result in some serious confrontations. :P ------- [1] Tactical Shooting, page 10 |
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07-30-2016, 05:34 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
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You might have a rapier here for a rich Mexican or American from New Orleans. Or a navaja for a poor one(I know I kind of go on about navajas but navaha lore is fascinating). Likewise you might have bowie knife for anglos. Saber would do for both Anglos and Hispanics and there and there might be an Indian or two who can handle one, not just an assimilated one but one who picked one up on a raid or learned it from a teacher at a rendevous. I can't remember what the favorite hand weapons for Indians in the region were though. In any case revolvers are a cliche in Westerns though they deserve to be because they were a force multiplier for frontier patrols. But for tavern mayhem and duels hand weapons might work and be an interesting change of pace. Another advantage is that the martial arts of hand weapons have a rich history and sometimes have guidebooks available on line.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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07-30-2016, 07:18 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
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2. You may want to check your dates and logic on repeating rifles and revolvers- the first percussion cap revolver was 1833 The first repeating rifle was either the Girandoni in 1779 or the Lagatz (sometime in the late 1700s), the thomson rifle was 1814, and colt had made a revolver rifle almost as soon as he had made his mass produced revolver. Browning was producing harmonica gun rifles in 1834. So basically unless you are throwing historical accuracy out the window for gameability reasons, the repeating rifle predates the revolver. 3. If you go with a default assumption of body hits//never have bad guys target the head/vitals average ST and above PCs can expect to survive any single bullet wound, healing times as mentioned are going to be harsh. If you are using the random hit table, then an unfortunate roll could result in near instant death (from a head or vitals shot), doubly so without allowing luck. 4. Expect your PCs to at least inquire about armour- it may not fit the western setting very well, but mail or plate would actually have been pretty effective against those early 1800s weapons, if your PCs are routinely being shot and put out of commission for weeks of slow healing being the weirdo wearing mail or plate under his poncho will be preferable to another bullet wound. |
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07-30-2016, 07:26 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
I recently introduced a bunch D&D players to GURPS, the setting I used was a historically accurate depiction of elite soldiers in the Vietnam war so there may be some similarities that you can draw inspiration from.
I did allow what you call meta game advantages. For example the party scout had danger sense and the demolitions expert had luck. The downside was some scenarios were too easy, but the upside was that there were multiple situations where the PCs should have died but didn't due to these advantages. Realism didn't seem to be impacted, some people believe that these types of traits really exist, I have spoken to veterans who were convinced at any rate. I found it was better to start combat at very long ranges. It gave the PCs options, close combat was usually over in a round of two and very deadly. I started the campaign with a selection of missions before opening it up as a sandbox. That helped the players get a feel for the game system and historic context before they had to make any major story based decisions. You could recruit the PCs as deputies for a couple of missions before the sheriff retires and they are on their own. Recovering from injury is a big problem in historically accurate settings. This is another advantage of the mission based approach, you can delay time between missions to allow the party to heal. |
07-30-2016, 07:29 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Wild West Game Experiences
The Colt revolver rifle was from 1855, no? Were any of the others actually commonly employed (as opposed to just patents, prototypes, or rare oddballs)?
The black powder revolvers were common in the US from the 1830s onward. Colt Paterson, Walker, Dragoon. There were also the pepperbox styles. But AFAIK even newly designed rifles were still generally muzzleloaders even up to the American Civil War, when the Henry and Spencer show up. |
Tags |
advice, experiences, old west, west, wild west |
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