User:CA374/sandbox
Western Gunfight Wargame Rules[edit]
.jpg) A placeholder image of a cowboy. I'll put in a photo of the game later. | |
| Other names | |
|---|---|
| Designers | Steve Curtis, Mike Blake & Ian Colwill |
| Publishers |
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| Publication | |
| Genres | [7][5][8] |
| Players | 2+ |
| Skills | |
| Website | http://www.wargaming.co/recreation/details/westerngunfight.htm |
Western Gunfight Wargame Rules is a Western skirmish wargame first published in 1970 by Steve Curtis, Mike Blake and Ian Colwill. Later editions were released under a variety of other titles such as The Old West Gunfight Rules 1816-1900 and Old West Gunfight Role Playing Game. The game is noteworthy both because Western Gunfight was one of the earliest published skirmish wargames[3][9]: 2 and because it could be considered an early tabletop role-playing game.[5][7][8]
Gameplay[edit]
Like other skirmish games, players of Western Gunfight control one or more miniature models, each of which represents a single character. Characters have individual ratings in skills such as hand-to-hand combat and revolver talent.[2]: 16 The first two editions used only six-sided dice, but Blake, Colwill and Curtis developed a new percentile-based system using twenty-sided dice for their 1972 game The Colonial Skirmish Wargame Rules, which was incorporated into Western Gunfight from the third edition onward.[5][10]
Narrative Approach[edit]
Western Gunfight was not the first wargame to use an individual scale. Some earlier wargames of the mid to late 1960s, such as Modern War in Miniature and Fight in the Skies, had focused for controlling individual soldiers or pilots, respectively.[11] However, an even more character- and narrative-driven approach to wargaming was encouraged in the rules to Western Gunfight, and more extensively promoted in articles and play reports published by its designers in gaming fanzines such as Wargamer's Newsletter.[2] Western Gunfight Wargame Rules was inspired by Western films, and the first edition rulebook directed players to "Create Interesting Games with These Rules."[2]: 15 Beginning with the second edition, players were instructed to select a "personal figure" to play, creating a one-to-one correspondence between players and their characters.[2]: 15-16 This would come to be a distinctive characteristic of Dungeons & Dragons and subsequent role-playing games.[11]: 23
"Individual Wargaming", Stock characters, Scenarios
"Is it really Wargaming"
Play both sides[12]
Impact[edit]
Miniature wargames of the 1950s and 1960s tended to focus on medium- to large-scale conflicts, with each model aggregately representing multiple combatants. To represent the smaller, more personal scale action of Western fiction, Western Gunfight Wargame Rules adopted a "man-to-man" scale in which each model represented a single figure. This style of wargaming proved immediately popular—the first print run of Western Gunfight quickly sold out, and an expanded second edition was released in 1971 to meet the demand.[5]
Western Gunfight and Colonial Skirmish influenced the design of the wargame Reaper, a precursor to Warhammer Fantasy Battle.[13]
Popularity, 2nd edition, American printing
Skirmish Wargames, Chainmail
Its development and release in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s and early 1970s was contemporary with David Wesely's experimental Braunstein games that contributed to the creation of Dungeons & Dragons in the United States. A Western-themed "Braunstein" called Brownstone may have been inspired by play reports of Western Gunfight published in fanzines.[12][14] Gary Gygax letter[5][14]
Due to the success of Dungeons & Dragons, it became common for publishers to re-release older wargames rebranded as roleplaying games.[11][2] Accordingly, Gamescience published a box set of Western Gunfight under the title Old West Gunfight Role Playing Game in the early 1980s.[2]: 282 Nevertheless, later editions continued to brand themselves as wargames.[3][4]
See Also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "The Old West Gunfight Rules 1816-1900". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Peterson, Jon (2020). The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity. Game histories. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-04464-6.
- ^ a b c d e Curry, John (2017). "The Old West Skirmish Wargames: Wargaming Western Gunfights". History of Wargaming Project. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
- ^ a b c "Old West, The - Part 1, Skirmish Wargames". Noble Knight Games. Archived from the original on 22 June 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f Peterson, Jon (2021-02-14). "Playing at the World: Western Gunfight (1970): the First RPG?". Playing at the World. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
- ^ "Old West Gunfight Rules, The 1816-1900 (4th Edition)". Noble Knight Games. Archived from the original on 23 June 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
- ^ a b Peterson 2020. The Elusive Shift. pp. 244-245. "Although Roos had used the term immersion as early as 1977, it would become almost boilerplate in TSR product literature at the end of the decade. Similar text appears in the revision of Boot Hill in 1979: "Players should strive to take on the role of their game character and fully immerse themselves in the very enjoyable fantasy aspect of the game. If they do so, they will enjoy it even more." We could say these sentiments transformed Boot Hill from a wargame into a role-playing game—but if we did, then perhaps the Western Gunfight system should rightfully displace D&D as the first commercial product in the genre."
- ^ a b "Gunfighting, Part Two". Awesome Lies. 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
- ^ Blake, Mike (June 1973). "The Skirmish Line" (PDF). Wargamer's Newsletter (135): 2–3.
- ^ "Gunfighting, Part One". Awesome Lies. 2024-02-04. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
- ^ a b c Peterson, Jon (2016). "A Game Out of All Proportions". In Harrigan, Pat; Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (eds.). Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 3–31. doi:10.7551/mitpress/10329.001.0001. ISBN 9780262334945. OCLC 936684796.
- ^ a b "Gunfighting, Part Three". Awesome Lies. 2024-02-04. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
- ^ Maliszewski, James (2020-10-16). "Interview: Rick Priestley (Part I)". GROGNARDIA. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
- ^ a b Peterson, Jon (2019-07-26). "From Figures to Characters". Youtube. Ropecon. Retrieved 17 June 2024.