RPG Rank: Boot Hill 3rd Edition. Boot Hill. Dice Primarily d Random Attribute Generation during Character Creation. Skill Based buy or gain skills. Fans: 5 Become a Fan.
Record a Play. Description Edit History. Drygulching a settler and leaving the body in a ditch wont increase the characters Stature because there were no witnesses. Likewise, robbing a bank so cunningly that no one knows the robbers identity wont increase stature either, but will earn a reputation for the mystery bandit. Stature can decrease, as well. If a character performs cowardly deeds, he will lose the publics favor and find himself forgotten, replaced by more dashing heroes and villains.
A character loses one point every time he does something injurious to his reputation. Note that no distinction is made here in terms of legal versus illegal activity.
If Longlegged Tom Mosby takes a job as marshal of Promise City, then robs the bank there and skedaddles, both things will increase his Stature. High stature does not necessarily mean everyone respects the character. Stature has several effects in the game. It modifies the reaction roll when the character meets someone. A Stature attribute check can be used to cow NPCs into compliance with the characters wishes very useful for lawmen trying to disarm rowdy cowboys.
It can also be used by the Judge to gauge how often the character will be challenged by young guns looking to make a reputation for themselves. Gunfighting was a significant fact of life on the western frontier in the second half of the 19th century. With the end of the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of veteran soldiers were turned out of the armies of both the United States and Confederate States.
These men were trained to handle firearms, and most of them had at least some experience at killing their fellow man. With no place better to go, many of them turned to the expanding West.
Prior to the Civil War, the knife had been the preeminent sidearm and personal fighting weapon of the American frontier. But along with a multitude of veterans, the Civil War also produced a variety of reliable, multishot revolving pistols and magazine rifles. Almost overnight, Colonel Colts equalizer transformed the nature of frontier fighting and gave the West one of its most enduring and deadlysymbols.
The first sort of gunfight happens when at least one of the characters involved is concerned about getting off the first shot. This usually happens at a range of 20 feet or less. Two or more opponents blaze away at each other with lightning speed, shooting reflexively from the hip. The whole battle could be over in one or two seconds.
This is the sort of battle favored by gunmen, outlaws and barroom brawlers who liked to close in and overwhelm their opponents with an explosion of violence.
Aiming is so instinctive in this sort of contest that its almost irrelevant; the first shot may well be the only one that counts. For this sort of a gunfight, a turn is one sec-.
A one-second turn is also called a shootout turn. The second sort of gunfight happens when speed is not important, but accuracy is. This is usually at a range of more than 20 feet. In this fight, the first shot fired doesnt mean a thing. The first shot to find its target will settle the affair, and that shot will be fired by the man who can think coolly as he draws his pistol and aims, unconcerned by the storm of lead hail blasting harmlessly past him.
This is the specialty of the gun fighter, the cold, aloof lawman and legitimate pistoleer. For this sort of a gunfight, a turn is six seconds long. A six-second turn is also called a combat turn. When a gunfight begins, the Judge must decide which sort of turn is most appropriate to the action. It is even possible to mix the two in one fight. Gunfights often begin with a flurry of shooting at very close range and quickly open up and slow down as everyone dives for cover.
Many of the rules for combat are the same in both types of turns. Before discussing the specifics of shootouts versus combat turns, here are the basics of combat. Types of Shots There are four types of shots: careful shots, steady shots, hipshots, and fanned shots. A careful shot is aimed and fired with the gun at eye level. A steady shot is fired with the gun held still, but below eye level.
A hipshot is fired from the hip, as soon as the pistol clears the holster or the rifle is cocked , with only instinctive aiming. Fanfiring is an even faster form of hipshooting. The shooter clamps his finger down on the trigger or just wires it back, or even removes it entirely and then works the ham-.
Careful, steady, and hipshots can be fired with any sort of weapon. Only a revolver can be used for fanfiring. A careful shot emphasizes accuracy at the expense of speed. A hipshot or fanned shot emphasizes speed by sacrificing accuracy. A steady shot is a compromise between speed and accuracy.
A character can fire any sort of shot during a shootout turn. The type of shot fired has a big effect on when the shot is fired and how many shots can be fired. A character can fire one careful shot, two steady shots, three hipshots, or six fanned shots in a shootout turn. A character can always opt to fire fewer shots than he is entitled to.
A character can fire only careful shots during a combat turn. This is by definition. If someone wants to fire some other type of shot, then shootout turns must be used.
For example, a character with a Coordination score of 13 has a careful shot chance of 13, a steady shot chance of 7, and a hipshot chance of 3. A characters chance to hit when fanfiring is 1, or his Pistol skill, whichever is more. Chance to Hit Modifiers A characters chance to hit can be modified by his skill, movement, wounds, range, cover, and several other factors. These are summarized on Table 4: Accuracy Modifiers. The characters weapon skill score is added directly to his chance to hit with any sort of shot.
For example, a character with chances to hit of 13, 7, and 3, and Pistol skill of 2, has modified chances to hit of 15, 9, and 5. His chance to hit when fanfiring is 2. Ranges depend on the type of weapon being fired rifles, of course, having longer ranges than pistols. Point blank range is 2 yards or less for any type of weapon.
Pistol ranges are reduced when a character hipshoots or fanfires the weapon; the shortened ranges are listed on Table Weapons. Movement modifiers are applied if either the shooter or the target is moving walking, evading, running, trotting, or galloping. If both the target and the shooter are moving,. The Chance to Hit The likelihood of a character hitting what he shoots at depends on the type of shot being fired.
In all four cases, this is referred to as the characters chance to hit. A characters chance to hit with a careful shot is his Coordination score.
When the shot is fired, the player rolls one sided die. If the number rolled equals or is less than the characters Coordination score plus or minus appropriate modifiers, described below , the shot hits its target. If the die roll is greater than the characters Coordination score, the shot misses. A characters chance to hit with a steady shot is one-half of his Coordination score, rounded up. A characters chance to hit with a hipshot is one-fourth of his Coordination score, rounded down.
A character cannot shoot while he is evading. Wounds also reduce the characters chance to hit, regardless of where on his body they are. However, a serious wound in the arm or shoulder prevents a character from firing a pistol with that hand. Thus, a character with a serious wound in his gun arm has both the serious wound modifier -4 and the wrong hand modifier -2 if he continues firing his pistol.
If by some awful stroke of bad luck he suffers serious wounds in both arms, he can switch the gun back to his good hand this is strictly a game play thing; this poor fellow has enough problems without being completely denied the use of his revolver.
In extreme cases, the size of the target affects the characters chance to hit. Something the size of a house or a railroad locomotive is a very large target. A large target is smaller than a house but bigger than a horse. Horses and people are normal-size targets. A small target is something the size of a dog or a prone man. A playing card, bottle, or tin can is a very small target. The sniping modifier applies only if the shooters weapon is resting on a solid support: a rock or window ledge, for example, or even across the saddle of a standing horse.
This bonus only applies to the first shot, however. If that shot sets off a general gunfight, the sniper loses his sniping benefit on any subsequent shots. Shotguns and scatterguns get their bonuses at any range, under any conditions. An obscured target is partially screened by something that will not stop a bullet: smoke, leaves, curtains, stained glass, etc.
Cover that will stop a bullet is handled differently; see Cover. If a right-handed character fires a pistol with his left hand, or vice versa, he suffers the -2 penalty for using the wrong hand. This penalty also applies when a rifle is fired with only one hand, regardless of which hand it is. If a character shoots two pistols at once he has an additional modifier of -6 on all shots. The -2 modifier for using the wrong hand applies only to the shots from his offhand.
If a characters chance to hit is less than 1, the character can still hit his target by rolling a 1. However, this hit must be confirmed with a Luck check.
If the character subsequently rolls his Luck score or less on a sided die, his shot hit. Otherwise, it missed. Similarly, if a characters chance to hit is modified to 20 or more, that character can still miss by rolling a On a roll of 20, the character must confirm his hit with a Luck check.
In addition, a roll of 20 sometimes indicates a misfire see below. If the gun misfires, even a Luck check wont yield a hit. Misfires Faulty ammunition was common on the western frontier. Even the famed Colt-. The advantage to a revolver or a magazine rifle, of course, was that if a round misfired, you had several more to try.
Any time a player rolls a 20 when shooting a gun, there is a chance that round misfired, or worse. After rolling a 20, the player must roll a sided die again and check Table 5: Misfires to see what happened. No Misfire means nothing happened. The round fired just the way it should have though it probably missed. Dud means the round didnt fire at all.
Either the powder or the percussion cap is faulty. Neither of these is an option in the middle of a gunfight. Rolling a 1 or a 20 It is possible for a characters chance to hit to be modified below 1 or above One of these older guns with a dud round is useless as anything but a club for the rest of the fight. This result means that the round in the chamber fired, and every other round still in the cylinder also ignited and fired at once. If the round being fired is the last one in the gun, treat this result as No Misfire.
Otherwise, the character suffers a wound in his gun hand. Jam means that the round fired OK, but the cartridge cannot be extracted from the chamber properly. Clearing a jam takes three combat turns 18 seconds , or two combat turns if the character has Weaponsmithing skill and makes a successful skill check. Initiative Both combat turns and shootout turns rely on one side or the other having initiative.
The side that has initiative is determined randomly at the beginning of each turn. Initiative is determined once per side, not once for each individual character in the fight. While there are cases where the notion of sides doesnt fit, in most gunfights there is a clear distinction between us and them.
It is entirely possible to have more than two sides. In that case, each side rolls a die for initiative. One player from each side rolls one 6sided die. Reroll ties. The side with the highest roll has initiative.
Any character with Tactics skill can make a skill check at the beginning of the fight. If the check succeeds, that character's side adds. This bonus is never more than one point, regardless of how many characters on that side make successful Tactics skill checks.
If a characters skill check fails, thats it for that fight; he cant try again on a later turn. As an optional rule, the Judge may allow this: If a characters Tactics skill check fails, subtract his Tactics skill score from his die roll. Let him try the skill check again that many turns later. When rerolling ties, do not use the Tactics modifier.
This modifier already did its part in tying the first die rolls; it does not apply to tie-breakers. The advantage of having the initiative is that characters on the other side must declare their actions first.
They dont necessarily get to act first. They simply have to announce what they are doing before they know what their opponents are doing. Players on the side that has initiative get to hear the other guys plans for the turn before choosing their own actions. In any case, players should not deliberate over this decision. Remember, a turn represents only six seconds of real time. Anyone who spends much more than that deciding what hes up to is getting an unfair advantage.
The Judge is within his right to push for a quick decision and penalize players who ponder. During those six seconds he can shoot, reload, move, mount or dismount a horse, or do any number of other things as described below. These are some examples of when to use combat turns, instead of shootout turns: Indians or outlaws are chasing down the.
Declaring Actions When characters are declaring their actions for the turn, they must state whether they are: Moving, and if so, how fast; Shooting; Moving and shooting; Pursuing some other action, with any particulars the Judge asks for.
Combat Turn Action Sequence A combat turn is resolved in the order outlined here. All actions are sequential. If Wyatt gets to shoot first and his shot seriously wounds Isaac, then Isaac is subject to all the penalties for being seriously wounded when he tries to do something. One player from each side rolls a 6-sided die to determine initiative.
The side with the highest die roll has initiative for that turn. All the players on the side without initiative must announce what their characters will be doing that turn. All the players on the side with initiative must announce what their characters will be doing that turn. These decisions can be based on what other characters have already announced.
Every character on the side with initiative can fire one or two careful shots. Wounds inflicted take effect immediately. Every character on the side without initiative can fire one or two careful shots. Every character on the side with initiative can either move, or delay his movement. Every character on the side without initiative can move. Characters with initiative who delayed their movement can move.
Crawling is useful if a character needs to move through low cover without being seen. It is also the only type of movement allowed if the character has serious wounds in both legs. Walking is not something that a character usually does during a gunfight. It reduces your chance to hit someone else without making you any harder to hit in return, and doesnt get you where youre going very quickly. Still, for the character with nerves of steel, it is an option.
Evading involves lots of weaving and ducking while running in a crouch. It is the best way to get to cover through a storm of bullets, if getting to cover is all you care about.
Running needs little explanation. It is fast, but does not throw off an attackers aim very much as the target is moving in a pretty straight line. Walking, Trotting, and Galloping are also self-explanatory. In most cases where characters on horseback are involved in a gunfight, everyone will be galloping. Walking and trotting may come up when someone is being ambushed. Single-Action vs.
Double-Action The primary difference between a single-action and a double-action revolver is that a single-action revolver must be cocked manually before firing. A doubleaction revolver cocks itself as the trigger is pulled. Unquestionably, the single-action revolver was the most popular handgun in the West. Yet the double-action revolver seems like a better idea, and is the norm with police today.
The key is trigger pull. The trigger of a double-action revolver, because its doing more work, is much harder to pull than the trigger of a single-action revolver, which has only to trip loose the hammer. This slows down that key first shot by what could be a decisive fraction of a second.
With a single-action revolver, the shootist could pin down the trigger as he drew and instantly slip the hammer from under his thumb when he wanted to fire.
The second and third shots from the double-action revolver would probably be quicker than from the singleaction revolver, but that is dubious comfort when the first shot could settle the issue, fatally. It must be remembered that a pistol was not a sporting tool to a gunfighter.
He was staking his life that his weapon would perform exactly as expected on demand, at any time. Betting your life on something new and unfamiliar is not a very attractive idea. Professional gunmen stuck with the tools they knew could do the job, and of course, whatever the professionals used was what the amateurs wanted. A character who wants to move 6 yards this turn is not necessarily walking. He can just as easily run or evade 6 yards. The character does what the player says, not what the movement table says.
Movement Penalties Many things can interfere with movement: obstacles, wounds, and poor footing are some of the more obvious. The most common movement penalties are listed on Table 6, with explanations below. Obstacles: Crossing a window ledge or a similar obstacle consumes 6 yards of a characters movement. This penalty is simply added to the distance the character. A successful check does not reduce the obstacles movement penalty, it simply lets him keep moving if he has movement left.
Wounds: A character with a light wound in his leg can walk, evade, or run, but the distance he can move is halved. Crawling is unaffected. All wound penalties are cumulative. If Hapless Bob has a serious wound in his left leg and two light wounds in his right leg, he can only walk and his movement distance is halved three times, or divided by 8; i. Crawling is never affected by wound penalties, however, so he can get around faster by crawling than by walking.
It can also be applied generally whenever a character climbs up onto something or jumps down from something that is approximately horse-size. This action takes up half of the character's movement distance. Falling prone does not cost any movement. Standing up, on the other hand, eats up half of the character's move distance. For purposes of accuracy modifiers, a character who falls prone is always considered to be evading which, by extension, means he cannot shoot.
Jumping: A character who makes a significant jumpoff the dance hall balcony, out of the hayloft, from the roof of a trainmust make a Coordination check. If the check succeeds, the jump uses up half of the characters move distance and he can continue moving.
If the check fails, the character stumbles and his move ends immediately. Jumps of more than one story 10 to 12 feet are a different matter. There are far too many variables to cover everything, but here's the general rule. When a character jumps more than 12 feet, he must make both a Coordination check and a Luck check.
If he. If he only passes the Coordination check, he is probably OK but something else may be damaged: he lost his gun, the matches in his pocket ignited.
If he only passes the Luck check, hes probably hurt, but not terribly: he has a twisted ankle, a gashed leg, or a broken finger. If he fails both, he got badly busted up; a broken arm or leg, a concussion, a sprained back. The severity of all these things is up to the Judge, depending on the situation. A 20foot jump into gravel is more dangerous than a foot jump into deep water. Bear in mind that falling off a horse badly can kill a person, yet people have fallen from airplanes and survived.
And, since this is a game, if jumping is the only option, characters probably should have a chance to survive. On the other hand, if jumping was a stupid thing to do, go ahead and be harsh.
Bad Footing: If the footing is really bad, characters must make Coordination checks to stay on their feet if they are moving faster than a walk. Really bad footing would be knee-deep muck, grease, a swift-moving stream, or a bouncing buckboard. Shooting The only sort of shot that can be fired during a combat turn is a careful shot.
Sighting and Facing: A character can declare a shot against a particular target even if that target is not visible to him at that moment. As long as the target is visible when its time to shoot, he can shoot. If you use miniatures or counters on a map to display the action during a gunfight, only their position is important, not their facing.
A character can look in any direction any time during the turn: during movement, before shooting, after shooting. Of course, the Judge can restrict this whenever he wants, to. But in general, characters have degree vision during a combat turn.
In a case where a character might be able to do something in one turn, but it might also take longer, the Judge should have the player make a Coordination or Strength check, whichever applies. If the check succeeds, the action takes one turn. If the check fails, the action takes two turns. Or perhaps the character must keep trying every turn until he either succeeds or gives up a good example of this is trying to light a match in a stiff wind.
Allowable Actions Shooting, moving, and a combination of these two are not the only options available to characters during a combat turn. In fact, a character can do or at least try to do anything the player wants. The obvious restriction is that he has only six seconds to do it, if he wants to finish in a single turn.
Some examples of what a character can do in a six-second turn: light a fuse; load three rounds into a revolver; pour a glass of whiskey; dump everything out of a box or chest; tip over a table and crouch behind it; tie a simple knot. Other actions may take longer than six seconds to complete.
If a player announces that his character wants to do something that the Judge thinks will take several turns, the Judge should tell that to the player and then let him decide whether he still wants to do it. Some examples of things a character can do in more than one turn: clear a jammed breechloading rifle 3 turns ; unsaddle a horse 2 turns ; search a trunk for important papers turns ; nail a board across a door or window 2 turns ;. The Shootout Turn The shootout turn is used in gun battles where split-seconds make the difference between winning and losing, living and dying.
If any character wants to fire a steady shot, hipshot, or fanned shot, a shootout turn must be used. A shootout turn represents only one second of game time. This one second is further divided into six counts, which is nothing more than a vague term for one tick of the clock.
A count is not necessarily one-sixth of a second, it is merely one of six subdivisions of a shootout turn. The exact sequence of events in a shootout turn can vary from one turn to the next, but the sequence within a turn is very rigid.
Link to Expertise feats compendium v. Campaign Map: Eldorado County. Eldorado County map is the campaign setting for Boothill.
Below are links to two different maps: 1 version with all locations shown and 1 version which can be used as a players version for exploration if players are not assumed familiar with the area around them or only some of it. Link to Full map with locations. Link to "players version" without locations. February, Boothill Modified Combat Rules. After having played Boothill some modifications for better balancing of the game and also running some of the rules more smoothly is suggested.
Many of these are based on some of the mechanichs known from later and mature RPG systems. Modifications eliminates shootout rounds and only combat rounds are used. Tables are also simplified and chance of mortal wounds has been adjusted down. Modified Combat tables can be found here. Link to modified Boothill tables 1 v. Link to modified Boothill tabels 2 v. Boothill Optional rules: Healing and wounds. Link to alternative Healing of wounds rules v. June, The game did feature some new game mechanics, such as the use of percentile dice, but its focus on gunfighting rather than role-playing, as well as the lethal nature of its combat system, limited its appeal.
Soon after TSR was formed by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye in late , they and new business partner Brian Blume started development of the rules for a Western genre miniatures combat system and role-playing game called Boot Hill.
However, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack in January Ewalt , in his book Of Dice and Men , described the game as "the company's second role-playing game; it was set in the Old West and focused mostly on gun-fighting. Boot Hill. Rather than commanding hordes of troops, players typically have but a single figure, their "character". With these figures the players recreate the individual gunfights, saloon brawls, and Wild West action as handed down to us from the pages of history — and the celluloid of Hollywood westerns.
Generation after generation of American youth has grown up with tales of cowboys, Indians, Indian fighters, and outlaws to entertain them — first in dime novels, then in movies, and now through television although the book and movie are still there also. So while the "western" is by no means unique to us. Feel free to browse around and download the material you need.
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