"Anybody Used TSR's Boot Hill For Miniature Gunfights?" Topic

Hello Gents,

Every so often I come across a mention of the old Boot Hill rpg (generally 2nd edition, released 1979-early 80s)being an excellent wargame/skirmish system. Have any of you ever used it for gunfights with miniatures? Any detail or thoughts would be most welcome: I've been strangely tempted to get myself a copy and give it a try, but thought I'd ask here first.

Many thanks for any help,

Daryl

We sure did. Some good memories

It was a miniatures game before it was an RPG.

agreed, it is a nice set of rules – all in percentages

Sure did; always had a lot of fun with it. I'd hate to think of how many characters I rolled up back in the day.

Yep, they used to run it at the Tin Soldier near Dayton, Ohio several years ago. Shoot out at the Mgm backlot. 15+ players and everyone would put 50 cents or so for the winner. The Duke, Lone Ranger, Robot from West World (he was VERY TOUGH), Elvis, the over the hill gang, James West and Artemis Gordon and so on.

Great stuff!

Having all results range from 1-100 seemed claustrophobic, sometimes. Roll high, and you're dead. Period. It's amazing how in an evening of gunfighting, you'd see that result come up almost every time.

If miniatures play separates you from the roleplay attachment to a list of stats, then go for it. But it's sometimes meaner than a game of thrones.

Our group has played Desperado for many, many years. Have fun, so no reason to change.

Thank you for the responses. I already have Desperado (the Knuckleduster edition), Fist Full of Lead and have TRWNN on order. I see things in each one that I like.

But that tug of Boot Hill remains oddly persistent. There is the take-me-back-to-my-youth factor, of course, but I would also be interested in seeing the different adventures (modules?) the rpg had available. Hmmm…

Boot Hill was the first game I ever played with miniatures! Along with some of the others we had a great time and I have some fine memories.

You might want to tweak things a bit but you'd still get a good game out of it today.

Dan

Thosmoss – how very true! Crazy die rolls were the order of the day.

I prefer TRWNN with some tweaks we made, like to shotguns.

Boot Hill… the memory of that game.

GM had a special rule…. you can do anything, if you roll a 00.

So, for giggles and kicks…. I told the GM that one shot, fired across the entire town, with a repeating rifle, and into a crowded saloon on pay day. Hit the "bad guy" and drop him dead.

Dice rolled….. Bad guy drops dead.

Now, his "bad guys" around him figured out that the shot came from a 2nd story window, behind curtains, across town, after the weekly stage-wagon had rolled into town, kicking up dust. They fired back…… another body drop in the western town.

After that, beers all round as we couldn't keep a straight face.

Welcome to Boot Hill. I still have the original booklet.

Bought it new back in the late 70s. Still play it occasionally. I even wrote an excel programme with look-ups as part of a course I was on to computerise it in the 90s. Amazing how many hits were in the abdomen/groin area!

Still have my well-used mustard-yellow TSR book ^,^

First wild west game I played in skirmish was Boot Hill in 1976. This was the first edition -- I still have my copy. I found the system lacking in that it was really just a grouping of weapon tables and movement. Not much else to the rules. The guy who ran the game filled in the rest, but he never wrote anything down so without him, the game wasn't played much.

These days I play "full" sets of rules. These rules are better thought through and are better designed than other wild west skirmish rules. My two favorite are "Gutshot" and "Fistful of Lead".

I designed the Cheat Sheet for "Fistful of Lead".

Thank you for the input, guys! What I might do is buy a copy along with the modules just for inspiration's sake.

We used an orientation map of Jr. High School as the battleground, with Airfix Cowboys as figures!

Funny you mention that, Jeff. My Old West project is in 54mm and the cowboys by Airfix are next in the queue, once I get my banditos and Magnificent Seven fellows painted!

Haven't played it in years. Sadly my copy disappeared.

The other set we played a lot was "The Old West Gunfight Skirmish Rules" loved the dynamite table in that one.

Like Dave, we used the original Skirmish Wargames "Old West" rules but used the "Boot Hill" modules as inspiration for our games – definitely work getting for that alone.

Now, wonder where my copies are…