Wild West Rules - The Compilation

Something I would like to point out is that this is not an attempt to say that one of these rule sets is better than another. What they share is desire to in some way simulate the wild west of Hollywood and our imagination. Each takes its own approach to accomplishing this goal and that's what I want get into here. Do you prefer running one or two characters or a whole posse of characters? Do you like a lot of detail or keep it sketchy and simple? Those are the types of questions I want to answer here. Unfortunately blogger typically doesn't hand excel tables very well so I'll try and make this as reasonable as possible. I'll I'm giving you here is a taste of each rule set for more information you can refer back to the specific post for that set of rules.

1) Let's take a look at which of these games you can still pick up right off the shelf.

In Print                                  Out of Print
Dead Man's Hand                  Boot Hill
Desperado                             Legends of the Old West
Fistful of Lead; Reloaded
Gutshot
Shoot N' Skedaddle (Cards are out of print and being revised)
The Rules with No Name

2) There is certainly a theme with wild west games involving poker cards, not all of these games use playing cards though so let's sort out the ones that do from the ones that don't.

Uses Poker (Playing) Cards          Does Not Use Poker (Playing) Cards
Dead Man's Hand                          Boot Hill
Fistful of Lead; Reloaded               Desperado
Shoot N' Skedaddle                       Gutshot
The Rules with No Name               Legends of the Old West

3) Another common aspect is running a whole posse or gang instead of just 2-3 characters. 

Posse/Gang Oriented                    Character Oriented
Dead Man's Hand                          Boot Hill
Fistful of Lead; Reloaded               Desperado
Legends of the Old West               Gutshot
Shoot N' Skedaddle                       
The Rules with No Name
Something to note though is that really all of these games could be played with just a few characters per player. While several are definitely oriented towards the posse aspect its not necessarily a requirement that you have to play it that way.

4) Movement is an important aspect of the game for me. There is already a fair amount of luck built into any game that uses cards or dice or both in most of the wild west games that I like to have something that I feel I can control. So whether movement distance is random or a set rate is important to me. However, since movement is always part of some action you need to remember that in some of these games some characters are going to get several opportunities to move in a single turn. So temper your like or dislike of random movement and see if it is offset by multiple opportunities to move in a turn.

Random Movement                        Set Movement Rate
Desperado                                      Boot Hill
The Rules with No Name                Dead Man's Hand
                                                        Fistful of Lead; Reloaded
                                                        Gutshot
                                                        Legends of the Old West
                                                        Shoot N' Skedaddle

5) Combat; Shooting - This is a hard one to break down into a couple of simple columns so I'm not going to try. I'll just give the basic shooting concept for each game.

Boot Hill - Percentile dice roll with modifiers
Dead Man's Hand - D20 dice roll with modifiers
Desperado - Percentile dice roll with modifiers
Fistful of Lead; Reloaded - A target number based on the range using a D10 roll with modifiers
Gutshot - Each character has a target number to shoot their target using a 2D6 roll with modifiers
Legends of the Old West - Roll your shooting value or better to hit your target, no modifiers. Target gets a saving throw.
Shoot N' Skedaddle - A target number of 5+ is required to hit your target. Consult marksmanship trait to determine the type of die to roll to hit.
The Rules with No Name - Roll a Six to hit. Character ability and weapon type determine how many dice to roll. Modifiers affect the total number of dice thrown.     

6) Combat; Hand to Hand. Some of these games use the shooting mechanics for hand to hand and some don't. Again this will be broken down by game.

Boot Hill - 2D12 roll with modifiers
Dead Man's Hand - D10 dice roll with modifiers
Desperado - Opposed 1D6 die roll with modifiers
Fistful of Lead; Reloaded - Opposed 1D10 die roll with modifiers
Gutshot - 2D12 die roll to equal or surpass the target number based on the weapon used in HtH.
Legends of the Old West - Roll your fighting value or better to hit your target, no modifiers. Target gets a saving throw.
Shoot N' Skedaddle - A target number of 5+ is required to hit your target. Consult scrap trait to determine the type of die to roll to hit.

The Rules with No Name - Opposed rolls with the number of D6 rolled by each participant based on the weapon they are using.

7) Scenarios and Campaign Rules - Most of these sets have some form of campaign rules as well as scenarios to play.

Boot Hill - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - Yes, neither is particularly extensive though. later editions of Boot Hill had both available particularly the 3rd Edition.
Dead Man's Hand - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - No, but campaign rules are in the Legends supplement (which I don't own, guess I should fix that)
Desperado - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - No
Fistful of Lead; Reloaded - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - Yes 
Gutshot - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - Yes
Legends of the Old West - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - Yes
Shoot N' Skedaddle - Scenarios - Yes, Campaign Rules - Yes


The Rules with No Name - Scenarios - No, Campaign Rules - Yes

And there you have it kind of boiled down to the bare basic game play. I'm not going to sit down and rate any of these rule sets. I will say that while they all share the wild west theme yet the game play is actually quite different. It really comes down to your own preferences. Do you like using poker cards, do you like rolling a lot of different dice, do you want to keep it simple and just roll D6s. I think there is a wild west game to fit all of the different styles of play out there. If you haven't already read the specific blog posts about these different rules I would encourage you to do so. You can find the links to each one below.

Boot Hill

Dead Man's Hand

Desperado

Fistful of Lead; Reloaded

Gutshot

Legends of the Old West

The Rules with No Name

Shoot N' Skedaddle

Wild West Rules - The Rules with No Name - Foundry Publications

This is the first set of rules I purchased when I began the search for a rule set for my town of Calamity. I added it to an order of western miniatures during one of Foundry's periodic sales. Its the only hardcover wild west rulebook that I own at this point. In fact I'm not sure if there are any other rules published in hardback for the wild west (okay Aces and Eights but that's I consider that much more of an RPG for Wild West rather than a set of miniature rules). Probably because most of Wild West rules are pretty short and it would be hard to justify a hardback book for them. However, as you can see from the page count below, and like Legends in the Old West, this is another big book of rules and more! I'll do my best to distill this one down a bit. While the rulebook is big the basic rules to get you going are only about 14 pages long which is pretty close to some of the other rule sets I have taken a look at and should have you diving into your first game right away.

The Rules with No Name or "A Fistful of Dice"
Foundry Publications
In Print
Large Format (A4+?), Hardcover, 133 pages 
Original Price £25

Movement: Like many of the other western rules this one is based on characters taking actions when their turn (when their card is drawn from the fate deck) comes. In TRwNN how fast your character moves when they use a move action is random. A character simply moving gets to roll 3D6 for their movement. A character moving and shooting gets to roll 2D6 for their movement. Pretty straight forward with the possibility of you not quite getting to cover.

Combat: In the basic rules the only combat is shooting. Characters need a six to hit their target and potentially cause a wound. You get to roll multiple dice to get that six, it depends on the type of weapon and the range to the target. For example a character with pistol at close range (between 2" and 6") gets to roll 3D6. Modifiers are applied as well but instead of a + or - to the roll you add or subtract dice. If you are firing at at target in cover you are -1D6. You still need a six to hit you just have fewer dice to use.
Hand to Hand fighting is actually an optional rule. The attacker rolls dice based on his weapon as indicated on the fighting chart (a Fist is 3D6 a pistol is 2D6). The defender also gets to roll a number of D6 based on his weapon (A fist in defense is 4D6 while a pistol is still 2D6). Which ever side rolls the most sixes gets to roll for an "effect" (or wound) based on the weapon they were using. Again modifiers are applied just like for shooting and adjust the number of dice that are thrown.

Wounds:  For shooting the player rolls 1D6 for the location and then another 1D6 for the Effect. Wounds will run from a graze to dead! Fighting has its own chart as mentioned above. This game is not quite a bloody as some of the others but the use of a D6 does keep the range of possible results quite low and deadly. There are modifiers to a character's ability to take actions based on the type of wound they have taken

Weapon List: The weapon list, again is very short, just pistols and rifles in the basic rules and shotguns and hand to hand weapons in the optional rules

Campaign rules: There really isn't a set of campaign rules for TRwNN but there is a section for improving a characters class and adding skills. There is definitely an RPG component here there is even a gamemaster section in the back that allows someone to run a game and really customize the citizens (NPCs) and create a town with personalities that could be the ongoing location for all a gaming group's wild west interests.

Rules Bling: This is a pretty heavy bling book. Its hardback with lots of excellent pictures (featuring Wargames Foundry miniatures of course) and some nice drawings (that I think are basically clip art or old drawings that are no longer under copyright). Its in a two column format with pictures, drawings and charts/tables spreading across the page as needed. The table of contents is extensive and it includes and an index & reference page which is good because I don't find the book particularly well organized. I found the use of basic rules and then everything else being optional a little perplexing. Going with an advanced set of rules to ease players into some of the new stuff would have made more sense to me. There is an extensive section in the back that gives you everything you need to create your own fate deck (I would suggest scanning these cards) along with some extras that would let you skip the dice like; shooting chits, skill chits and even event cards for bystanders (event cards are part of the fate deck normally). And in the very back are the quick reference sheets!

Unique: These rules have a couple of unique aspects to them. As you can tell from the shooting and fighting section the number of dice based on the weapon approach is definitely unusual and I like that. I find it quick and fun to deal with. 
And then their is the fate deck. It has some similarities to a couple of other games (notably Fistful of Lead) as it uses cards to determine when character gets to take an action. The difference here is that there are also "Fate" or action cards in the deck along with a joker. If the card turned over is a character then that character takes its action. If an action card is drawn it will be placed face up next to the deck. It will have a level on it and only a character with a level equal to or higher than the one listed is flipped over the player can pick up and use the action card. When the joker is drawn then all the cards in the discard pile are shuffled back in. Action cards have to be played or discarded to the deck when this happens as well. In other words the joker really resets the entire deck. Makes for some nerve racking terms and really adds tension to the game. 

My Thoughts:  Don't be overwhelmed by the size of the rule book. While its extensive as far as rules go there are a lot of sections that some people may never use. While I have a problem with how the optional rules are presented you aren't in anyway required to use them. I still would have preferred and advanced rule section as some of those rules, like hand to hand, I don't really consider optional. There are rules for challenges and horses and dynamite in there so take some time and read through them and see what tickles your fancy. There is a painting section by Dallimore that I would view as required reading as well as a whole section on building your own buildings along with signage to go along with them. For those with a more military pent you will find sections for both Soldiers and Indians. This book really does cover a lot of material and even if you don't decide to use it for your rules its a wonderful reference for your library.