Wild West Game Experiences

[VariousRen]

The game will only a two session adventure using pre-made characters, with the focus being on travel, tracking, and gun fighting. The set up is that a group of prospectors hired by a wealthy businessman have gone missing, and he suspects treachery. The players are sent to find the prospectors and discover if they've died from exposure, ambush, or have broken their contract to try and steal a claim for themselves early in the gold rush of 1849.

I'll be using a short list of weapons as the standard armament of the day.

The Allen Pepperbox (1d+1 pi, holds 6) is cheap and common, carried around as a self defense weapon. The Colt Number 5 (2d-1 pi, holds 5) is a more serious weapon, with detachable cylinders for faster reloads. Finally the Colt Dragoon (2d+1 pi+, holds 5) is the heaviest revolver people may have, and isn't commonly used.

The M1819 Flintlock rifle is the rifle of choice for those with cash (3d+1 pi+, reloads in 5 seconds), although older muzzle loaded flintlocks will be much more common.

Finally the Tower Blunderbuss (1dx13, 35 seconds to load) is the most common shotgun design around.

There will of course be knock off versions of all of the above (generally cheap quality, with lower malf scores, range, damage, and acc).

Protection comes in the form of Leather jackets and pants (DR 1), a full Buff Jacket (DR 2), and/or a metal vest (DR 5F). Wearing armour is generally a trade off between protection, weight and heat. A high dodge is critical, and encumbrance penalizes survival checks to resist fatigue loss.

Because this is a short running game, I'm comfortable with people being hurt or killed in the few combats that we run. There will probably be two combats, with the first serving as an introduction (players placed at an advantage), and the second ending off the story line. There will probably be one or two chances for violent conflict along the way that skillful negotiation can avoid.