Untamed West questions

[hastati]

Hello,
I've decided to run a short campaign about the Earp feud against the cowboys fronted by Johnny Ringo using LUW and I have a couple of newbie questions. I played Melee/TFT a lot in the early 80's so am familiar with the basic game concepts.

The players will be the Earps and Doc Holliday of course! The game will start with the gunfight at the OK corral and go on from there freeform (so will not necessarily result in the vendetta ride). One thing I am struggling with is how to start the characters off in terms of development. It seems strange to have them start with basic attributes and skills. Has anyone started characters off with additional XP to make them a bit tougher? If so, how much so?

Also, I'm thinking about adding the following skill as it will play an important role in the game as the Earps were part owners in a gambling establishment:

Gambler: win a round of a gambling game by winning an IQ check against the other game players (does not apply to gambling games of pure luck such as dice, roulette, etc).

Lastly, I will be playing with miniatures on a tabletop so am thinking of adding in ranges for weapons. Has anyone else toyed with this or have any thoughts (I may just pinch ranges from GURPS)?

Thanks for any help or guidance.

[mister frau blucher]

Hello, hastati, and welcome to the boards!

That is a cool idea - i hope you keep us posted, both about the campaign, and how the rules work out for you.

"One thing I am struggling with is how to start the characters off in terms of development. It seems strange to have them start with basic attributes and skills. Has anyone started characters off with additional XP to make them a bit tougher? If so, how much so?"

So far, we just have the one published adventure of LUW, Blood in the Dust. Aside from playtesting that and the rules and another project-in-the-works, my focus has been on our fantasy rules.

However, there is no reason not to start historic characters of that stature at a higher level of experience. You can do this two ways, either assigning an xp total (say, 100) and apply that to a base 32-point/4 skill character, or assign a point-and-skill total (say, 37 points and eight skills). These theoretical point totals would represent someone with considerable experience over a new character, but as you know from Melee/Wizard, things can get deadly - you don't thave the massive hit points at "higher levels" that you do in other systems, so two gun shots can (or even one good one) can kill. Considering the characters involved, you might opt for 40 points and 10 skill levels for Wyatt and Doc, and 38/8 for the others.


"Also, I'm thinking about adding the following skill as it will play an important role in the game as the Earps were part owners in a gambling establishment:

Gambler: win a round of a gambling game by winning an IQ check against the other game players (does not apply to gambling games of pure luck such as dice, roulette, etc)."

Hey, this is a great idea! Mind if we steal it for future use?

"Lastly, I will be playing with miniatures on a tabletop so am thinking of adding in ranges for weapons. Has anyone else toyed with this or have any thoughts (I may just pinch ranges from GURPS)?"

Because of the rather limited space on the game boards (10x17 hexes) we kinda handwave range, though I prefer to have something to that effect. My experience with firearms is very limited, so it would be silly for me to pontificate about their range (I am on much more solid ground when it comes to medieval weapons and range). Playing on a table top is a lot more wide open and with greater distances, so having range modifiers would make sense. If you have GURPS Old West, you might extrapolate from that, but keep in mind the difference in hex values - in GURPS, it is 3 feet, in LUW it is 5 feet.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted as to your campaign's progress!

And welcome again!

Bret

[hastati]

Thanks very much for the prompt answers. The character generation info really helps a lot!

Please feel free to use the Gambler skill.

The really important gunfights will be played out on a 5 foot by 9 foot table using 28mm miniatures and terrain. I have a complete old west town.

I think I can figure out the ranges for the game using historical info and pinching ideas from other rules (RPGs and wargame sets). I've also created a slightly different weapon chart to include things like derringers. I don't want to add too much as it will just complicate the game and this is for my kids (as they all love the movie Tombstone).

Thanks again,
David

[mister frau blucher]

Hey David,

That sounds like a great setup! If you get around to it, I'd love to see some pictures of your game. If you do take some, please post them, and your thoughts/feedback on the system, in our LUW board below.

Also I'd be interested in your weapons chart...

Did you paint your figures, and did your kids help? I like hearing stories about people gaming with their kids!

Thanks for the interest!

Bret

[hastati]

In general, as a historical miniatures gamer, I usually paint my own armies. However, for this particular project, I had the figures done by a professional painter in the UK to a very high standard. They will be used for skirmish games as well as for RPGs.

I need to playtest the weapon chart to make sure that movement/weapon range interactions are OK and not broken. For indoor fights I will use a hex grid, but for outside fights I will just be using the tabletop and 1 inch will equal 1 hex. Once I've validated it as best I can I will post here. Basically, I just want to add in things like derringers, gatling guns, and artillery (the latter two for special scenarios only of course!)

Cheers