WELCOME TO "GET THREE COFFINS READY...."

NOTE! We now have a PAGE 2, which holds most of the TRWNN material NOTE! I have found a page dedicated to SIX GUN SOUND.  Not much there yet. Six Gun Sound Reviewed I am working on collecting DESPERADO resources.  Until we have enough for an entire page, visit THE JACKSON GAMERS PAGE on Angelfire, lots of good Desperado replays and scenarios. HERE is their variant for Desperado called FILL YORE HANDS If you have a fansite, replay site or house rules site for the games DESPERADO, HIGH NOON, HEY YOU IN THE JAIL, or SIX-GUN SOUND , please get in touch with me, I'm easy to find. Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive is a new German PC game set in the wild west. Review HERE | Screenshot | Screenshot | Screenshot

FOUND! The SCARY MONSTERS OF THE GOLDEN WEST material (in PDF) FOUND! The files to resurrect the older, 'cuter' Fate deck.  See the TRWNN page. FOUND! Links to all of the other missing files. Courtesy of the Internet Wayback Machine! This is a Wild West Skirmish web document, dedicated to the play of man-to-man combat games using miniatures or board games, set in the time period alternatively known as either "the Old West", "the Wild West", or "the American Frontier period." This time period usually encompasses the Plains Indian Wars and sometimes the Mexican-American War, but often those conflicts are not presented as skirmish games. Western skirmish games are by nature very tactical and fast moving in time scale, and almost always utilize 1 figure/counter= 1 man as a physical scale. NOTE TO LONG TERM FANS OF THE OLD WILD WEST SITE: Fortune City, in their infinite wisdom and technical incompetence, deleted most of the files from the old site, many of which I am unable to recover.  Please be patient while I try to figure out to get these back.  A tip of the Stetson to Mr. John Leahy and Mr. Dave Markley, who are assisting in the recovery of this older data.  NEW ITEMS Kenzer and Company has released some different silhouettes for their shot clock system (which I am still in awe of). Go HERE to download new ones. On the same page, they have some print and play PDFs useable for "cover" objects. I had opportunity to give Warhammer Historical's LEGENDS OF THE WEST a try on Thursday. It proved to be like most GW products-- 2-4 useful pages surrounded by forty pages of high-color fluff. Read more about it HERE. Kenzer and Company have a brand new Wild West Roleplaying Game coming out; by the name of ACES AND EIGHTS. Their gunfighting skirmish games (somewhat barebones, but quite brilliant) is now out as SHOWDOWN. Read the first glance review I put on my blog if your'e interested. Their "shot clock system" is purty danged amazing. Reviewed: 1  2 ERIC HOTZ' Survey of Wild West Rules Systems On the WhiteWash City Website Westamunda "Buffalo Chip".. Another cut and paste western town. Not cheap but very well done. Gunslingin' isn't just a manly pastime.  SHADOWFORGE has a small but well made line of female western figures.   Available in the USA from Brigade Games and Hobbies. NEW! I just found out about GUTSHOT, from HAWGLEG PUBLISHING.  Dunno much about it yet.  I have to admit, I love their sense of visual style!! UPDATE: "tberry7403" recently posted THIS REVIEW of GUTSHOT to the Miniatures Page. Dunno who tberry7403 is or what his relationship is to HAWLEG PUBLISHING, but the review is fairly complete and very useful. (copyright, tberry7403 and TMP)

Me?  Who, ME?  I'm Walt O'Hara , der webmeister, but I didn't come up with everything here. David Markley, my partner in crime, has also contributed to some of the stuff on this page. We have both been running skirmish games at home and at conventions since 1996, and hopefully can pass along some items of interest to you.

What will you find here? At first, not a lot. I have participated pretty avidly in playing, playtesting and adding to a rule set called THE RULES WITH NO NAME (TRWNN). TRWNN was developed by Brian Ansell of the Foundry-- one of the preeminent miniature figure companies available today. TRWNN is available for free from Tim Peterson, courtesy of the Foundry Web Page.

SITE NEWS!

Older Fate Deck now onlline PAGE 2

Broke off the Rules with No Name material to PAGE 2

Removed mention of Pass of the North

Changed the title of the site to GET THREE COFFINS READY

Mission Builder Cards (in PDF format).  These are fun little 'adventure builders' in three flavors: Black Hat Missions, White Hat Missions, and Neutral (Brown Hat) missions. The ones in Green Font Color have a SCARY MONSTERS flavor (See Below). Download the File

SCARY MONSTERS VERSION 1.3 is released.  Go to the Scary Monsters Page to download.
(I have located this file during a scan of some old zip disks... have at it!)

Added: Wild West RULES compendium, courtesy of the Miniatures page

Added: The Wild West Ghost Town Project

Added: Link to Solitaire rules for THE RULES WITH NO NAME ("Lone Star Rules") by Ruggero Romano (Thanks for the tip of the cap at the end, Ruggero!)

Wild West Skirmish Picture Albums

Here are some pictures of past Wild West skirmish events. These are exclusively using The Rules with No Name rules, heavily modified. I hope to add material from different rule sets at some point, but that's what we're playing these days.

Wild West Skirmish Gunfight Board and/or other type games not done in a miniature vein.

Thundering Guns: Thunderin' Guns (note the dropped "g"): This is a boardgame version of a Western roleplaying campaign. The board shows a typical stretch of Hollywood West: there's a town at the center with a rail line and a stage line running through it, a badlands in one corner where the outlaws hide out, and an indian village in another corner. Players take the roles of outlaws, sheriffs, marshalls, or gunfighters; round up gangs or posses; and then either rob the stage/train/bank/whatever, or chase those that do, or challenge each other to gunfights, based on their profession and location on the board. Gunfights are abstract and are handled by a single roll of the die on a CRT. Outlaws win by stashing away loot, lawmen win by stashing away outlaws, and gunfighters win by reaching a high enough reputation level. It's a decent game, but nothing at all like the tactical combat-oriented "Cry Havoc" games the company is better known for. Cry Havoc.  [Courtesy of Steve Winters]

Gunslinger: by Avalon Hill. Nice game, breaks actions down to degree of granularity that I find a little stultifying, but it has some decent potential. Recommended. Here is some information on Grognards: A , Article Index, PBeM Report

Bounty Hunter: by Nova Games, the people who brought you Ace of Aces. Basically this is a port of that system to Wild West gun fights. I played it once, long ago, and thought it was pretty cool, but lacked the suspense and action pacing of the air combat games. Here's a on Grognards.

Outlaws: Outlaws (Lucasarts computer game): Absolutely fabulous game. IMO, the best 1st-person shooter on the market until the release of HalfLife. Uses the original "Dark Forces" engine. Graphics are stylized to resemble French Western comics (or the animated graphics that frame episodes of "The Wild, Wild West")--everyone is lanky and craggy. There aren't any monsters to fight, only desperadoes with guns, and it's well behind the technological curve these days, but the gameplay absolutely kicks ass, as does the soundtrack. I remount this game about once a year and replay the whole thing, plus the expansion levels; it's that good. If you can find it anywhere, snap it up. [Courtesy of Steve Winters]

Here's a nicely done Outlaws Support Page

Saloon: Cute little "Bar Fight" game.  Like many Euro themed games, this could just as easily be about anything else, like: "Hey, girls, the Fleet is in town!"  Still, the artwork is funny and the game easy to go through.  Nice model for fisticuffs, if you are looking for such.  In German.

Way out West: A nifty tile-placement themed game, lots of fun, sort of ambivelant about the Western theme:

Wyatt Earp: Call this one "Mystery Rummy set in the old West" and I think you have an idea of how this game works. HERE is the boardgame geek listing, with several comments and a strategy article.

BANG! a game by Italian publisher DaVinci games, remains true to the gunfight theme but with very simplified mechanics. I hear the game gets a tad repetitive but cannot attest to this. Click HERE to view cards. Click HERE for the boardgame geek listing

Some historical source material, mostly game related. This symbol:means the site is defunct or out of service the last time I checked. If you administer this site, please contact me to give me the new address. I will carry the listing for a while, then delete as I see fit.

• Triggernometry, by Ed "Six Gun Sound" Texiera
• Gunsharks, rules for converting The Rules with No Name to a science fiction setting, is available on the DOGHOUSE Yahoo Group, in the Files Section.  You'll have to join up to get them.
• The Rules with No Name Page, run by a pal of mine, Tim Peterson, has many of the rules you see in the Addendum page above, plus some pretty bitchin' scenarios contributed by TRWNN fans (myself among 'em).
• Domain of Darkness, the FREE WESTERN RPG
• Tim Greene's Pony Wars Page has lots of interesting stuff about inter-tribal warfare and some skirmish rules reviews that are pretty valuable. (lots of popups)
• The Last Square Gamers have a wonderful website. Of particular interest are the Wild West/Victorian miniature database (top page) and their Warperado with No Name rules description (hit the "what" button, then Skirmish Games). Good work, Jim!
• Steve Burtt put up a set of Wild West skirmish rules HERE.
• Mark Hannan, major contributor of the GAUNTLET magazine, posted his "Dog Soldiers" rules HERE.
• Jim Janke's Old West Links
• Skirmishing, Shooting and Scalping (on the Jackson Gamers page, simple Wild West rules... worth a visit!)
• Victory Conditions for Western Games-- VISIT THIS ONE.. a big problem with Western skirmish games is the descent into general mindless violence.  The Jackson Gamer guys put some thought into this. Paranthetically, I try to do the same thing with the "Mission Cards", above.
• The U.K. Skirmish Wargame Group: described as '... a mixed bunch of skirmish players who have been together since the 60's.  Our main focus is 54MM figure games at a skirmish level - usually "Western" '
• The Kansas Gunfighters Page Good source of pictures if you need them.
• Okay, you're probably looking for this; here it is: the Deadlands Home Page
• Rattlesnake Jack's Old West Clipart Parlour Absolutely invaluable!
• Shootist: Free rules from the Schild und Vriend wargaming group in Belgium (postscript)
• Rencounter: Another Skirmishing rules set, this one done by Ed Allen of Ed's Hobby Hovel. Suitable for the Wild West or Colonial periods, this has material for the American Frontier period.
• This guy is playtesting rules for those bags of Cowboys and Indians (roughly 54mm scale) that you can pick up in dollar stores. Join in the fun, I'm gonna run it in the wee hours of the evening one of these conventions coming up soon! BTW, TRWNN works just fine with dollar store cowboys!
• Terragenesis is one of the best terrain sources on the net today. Check there for how to model desert terrain, bridges, water...
• Major General Tremorden Rederring's Colonial-era Wargames Page may be a little incompatible with the Wild West in terms of geography but the terrain, figure and especially BUILDING tips he presents on these pages are outstanding and very fitting with our period. Recommended!

Contents Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003 Walter O'Hara (email note: remove the obvious)

UPDATED 02/04/03

This Old West Gunfight Ring site owned by Walter O'Hara (email note: remove the obvious)
[ Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List S ites ]