Archived from groups: rec.games.miniatures.historical (
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"Walter Schuhbauer" <walschuh@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:26ad1cb4.0404210105.2e1f98c7@posting.google.com...
> What's your favourite Wild West Skirmish game?
>
Once Upon a Time in the West.
Great set of rules. You don't have a lot of control over your character, so
its very entertaining.
Characters are based on a point-buy system. Among the more interesting
attributes are (IIRC)
Smarts -- which determines how many options you might have each round
Bravery -- which is a modifier to the roll for each action
Reflexes -- how quickly you react
and something about how hard-hearted you are.
Each round you roll to see what your allowable options are. The braver you
are, the more aggressive options permitted. The smarter you are, the more
you can choose from. There are rules for what to do if someone moves up
behind you (you roll to see if you hear them, then roll a reaction. It's
quite possible if you have great reflexes but are cruel that you might shoot
someone on your own side in that case, I've seen it happen.)
There are three booklets, maybe four. One includes campaign/role-playing
aspects. There are also some cool strategems, such as playing dead. The
smart way is to lie down before the enemy can see you. The dumb way is to
say "oh, they got me" and then lie down. The dumb way done better is to say
"oh, they got me", grab your chest, and hurl yourself to the ground. The
harder you throw yourself to the ground the more likely you are to be
believed, but also the more likely you are to injure yourself. The enemy has
to make a cruelty check to shoot someone they believe is unconcious or
mortally wounded.
There are also rules for "the big gundown" or draw. The idea is that the two
gunfighters stand there glaring and insulting each other, wearing down each
others resolve, until one of them looses his nerve and is forced to take a
panic shot, which is likely to miss, and also gives the cool-headed hombre
justification for killing the poor SOB in self-defense.
The rules are a combination of realistic and spagetti-western, and include a
whole bunch of canonical gunslingers, both real and fictional.
They were published in three volumes, plus an RPG sequel (The Return of Once
Upon a Time in the West) by Table Top Games (TTG) in 1978. I was able to
find a copy a couple of years ago, they might still be in print.
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