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Last Updated September 11, 2002

SHOOTING TABLE (1D20)

TURN SEQUENCE
Weapon S.R. Hit L.R. Hit
Each group is given 2 Event Six Gun 0-6" 10 6-12" 7
cards on the first turn of the
Rifle 0-12" 10 12-24" 8
game.
Each Group moves as card is 1D6" left and 1D6 right deviation.
drawn. <6" on template = close range. 6 -
Shotgun
Each Group fires if 10" is long range and -1 on wound
appropriate (or reserves his table
fire for a "Quick Draw") Bow 0-9" 10 9-18" 7
Each Group engages in Melee if 8 to hit - both parties could get
Knife
they haven't already been (Hand to hurt. a melee = 2 rounds of fighting
engaged in Melee this turn. hand) per turn.
At end of turn or end of
Veteran +1
quickdraw NPC's carry out
their actions. Generally fire / Gunfighter +2
react in a quick draw on a 1 or Wounded -2
6 on 1D6 Moving -1
Event cards may be played at
Target moving or under
any time during the turn. -1
cover (not cumulative)
After all have finished can
throw away upto 1 card and An unmodified roll of 20 means gun is out of
take up to 1 cards but can not ammo, spend next turn reloading
exceed 2 cards. An unmodified roll of 19 means hit innocent
bystander, roll to see who

WOUNDS TABLE (1D6)

D6 Scum & Veterans Gunfighters
1 Just a scratch just a scratch

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MOVEMENT OPTIONS
3D6" & No shooting or Melee
(tripple 1's for Gunfighters, or
2 wounded (only scum) just a scratch
double 1's for others = fall down)
3 wounded just a scratch
2D6 & can fire PISTOL at end of
turn, OR Melee 4 wounded wounded
1D6" and can fire rifle or 5 dead wounded
Blunderbus 6 dead dead
Stand and fire Bow once Scum only - miss their next turn if wounded.
3D6" on horseback and fire any 2 wounds kills Scum and veterans. 3 wounds
weapon or melee or dismount (4D6 kills a gunfighter
if no action)
NB Gunslingers can fire TWICE at
same target

QUICK DRAW

Unless on horseback or unable to shoot through moving too fast you have the
option to withhold the "Shooting" part of your turn until later on. Then one
player calls "Draw" all characters can fire even those whose card hasn't come up
yet.
Everyone rolls 1D10 adding +1 if a veteran, +2 if a hero and subtracting -2 per
wound
Firing is then carried out in strict initiative sequence. (2 at same number fire
together)
Following turns if gunfight still raging this is fought out BEFORE any cards are
drawn for normal movement

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EXPLANATION BEHIND RULES

I have been playing skirmish wargames for many years, all with my own variants of rules, all
from different inspirations. These rules were most directly inspired by a participation
game I played at colours in September 1999 in Reading (England).I cannot remember the
name of the group who hosted the game, but my thanks and recognition that these rules
lean heavily on their Cowboy & Indian rules.

I have so far used these rules for Cowboy skirmish games, in the mould of John Wayne and
the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Each player should take three characters. One of these
should be a "Gunfighter" the highest class of character, this represents your own
character, you also have two assistants who should be "Veterans" the next class down. This
game is often umpired, and you may be up against a larger crowd of "Extras" these are
classified as "Scum" in the game, and tend to die quite quickly!

Each group starts the game with 2 event cards, these can be played at any time during the
game, they include such cards as "run like the wind add 1D6 to your movement", "Stumble
and trip miss rest of your turn", "Lucky Dollar in pocket deflects bullet deduct 2 from dice
when rolling for injuries", plus a large number of "Blanks". These can be played on almost
anyone during the game turn. Obviously you play the beneficial cards on yourself and your
allies, whilst saving the negative cards for the opposition. There is one exception, you can
not play any of the negative cards on a "Gunfighter". Veterans and Scum are fair game
however.

There is also a small pack of movement cards, one for each group in the game, (commonly
about 4-6 or so). These are shuffled and drawn in sequence, as each group is drawn, they
can carry out their turn in it's entirety, reserve their entire turn, or carry out the
movement part of their turn and reserve the shooting part until later. (more of this in a
moment)

Umpire controlled NPC's can either move after everyone else has been drawn, or if
unusually good can have a card in the pack with the live groups.

At the end of the turn each group may through away one crappy card, and draw 1 or 2
cards to bring their total back up to 2.

If you refer to the movement table above you will see that players can move and shoot,
the less you move the more you can shoot, Pistols are also much better for moving and
shooting, Rifles are more powerful long range weapons, but are really static weapons.

Shooting is rolled on a D20, the number or below must be rolled to hit the target. I'll
explain the shotgun. This is a template weapon, draw up a triangle about 8 inches or so long
about 2 inches wide at one end, and pointy at the other. Put the pointy end at the firing
characters figure, and aim where you want to fire. Roll 2 D6, one represents movement
left, the other right, determine the difference and move the wide end of the triangle that

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far in inches. Thus you can miss your target and hit someone else. I normally say that if
you aim at someone and don't move more than 1 inch either way you hit the original target,
plus anything else under the template. For shotguns the plus's and minus's for skill, wounds
etc apply to discrepancy between the two D6, so if a Gunfighter rolled 3 and 5, he would
add his plus 2 to the 3, making 5. i.e. direct hit.

Close combat is rare in these rules, but a knife or similar weapon needs an 8 to hit on a
D20, with similar modifiers to firing. To make a knife fight more deadly you fight two
rounds of knife fighting per turn. Increasing the likelihood of a speedy end to the fight.

The wounds table you will see is biased in favour of more "Hardened" men. You can of
course vary this, and introduce your own characters.

Quick draw, this is the showdown, there may be more than one gunfight taking place on
different parts of the board, but you determine all the characters judged to be in the
same gunfight, roll for initiative with a D10, and shoot it out, shooting is only simultaneous
if two characters are on the same initiative. IF at the end of the turn, a gunfight is still
continuing, this is resolved at the beginning of the following turn BEFORE you start pulling
movement cards for anyone. Thus by the time movement cards are drawn, a group of
characters may now be dead, or have already had their turn, by blazing away earlier in the
gunfight.

GUNFIGHTERS - Important rule, these characters can fire twice with any weapon, counts
as at the same initiative. Along with their bonus's, difficulty to wound and kill, and that
you can't play negative cards on them, helps make these guys truly dangerous.

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