"Boot Hill the “RPG”, 3rd Edition" Topic

A (slightly early) Christmas gift from my wife (after I carefully pointed her to it on DriveThruRPG…), this was TSR's classic Western game. Originally, it was pretty much a skirmish shoot-out game using percentile dice. 3rd edition seeks to give it a little more umph as an actual roleplaying game, and replaces the percentile dice with a d20, though I'm given to understand the function is essentially the same.
The combat is intriguing, splitting the system into two distinct approaches: a Shootout, which is simply when two or more combatants try to out-draw and rapid-fire each other, and a longer form of combat where actual aiming takes place and more detail is applied to what happens (not all that much more…).

So, has anyone used this for tabletop Western action? Or ever even made a real role-playing campaign out of it?

I played Boot Hill RPG back in the early 1980's. It was something we could not wrap our heads around to create ongoing campaign adventures. It just was not that interesting to us.

Now for something completely different… LOL!

I would recommend the inexpensive, 54mm Cowboy figures. Prime them with Krylon's Spray Paint for Plastic, in their base colors, then paint, and apply a dark wash to give them the proper gritty look. This is how I paint up HDPE/LDPE Army Men figures, applying Minwax Polyshades Urethane Stain, in a dark brown Walnut color, followed by a matte clear coat, Hot Gluing them to 50mm MDF square bases; I paint on Wood Glue to the bases, swirl them in mixtures of colored sands, to finish their bases.

For terrain buildings, you can go with either corrugated cardboard (very inexpensive!), or MDF.

If you go with MDF, cut rectangular panels; seal them with wood sealer, otherwise paint will go on splotchy -- really bad. On the inside wall edges, use E6000 Glue to attach plastic drinking straw sections, 1" – 2" long, alternating on each wall -- when the Glue cures, hold the walls edge-to-edge, with the straws lined up, and insert a round wooden dowel into the straws, to hold the wall sections in place.

This is my project in the works for 54mm Army Men city terrain, using MDF panels. I need to finish sealing my MDF panels so I can bet the building walls painted and assembled. Cheers!

I was a big fan back in the 1970s and 80s. I bought all the supplement scenarios. Played it a ton. Still have it and haven't played it for a while. Should get it out again.

I used the 1st edition all of the time back in the day. It required a lot of basic math regarding speed, accuracy, and firing multiple shots, but you got used to it if you played it enough. We used to run small campaigns, but that was many years ago. I don't know anything about the 3rd edition.

Our group played 1st Ed Boot Hill for years. We had a group of 5 (sometimes 6) players. We were a Posse for hire/bounty hunter group.

1 Long Range rifle guy
1 scattergun-shotgun guy
2 pistol guys
1 greased lightning gunfighter guy.

We played once a month for almost 3 years in the late 1990s.

Finally got wiped out when we tried to bring in some bandito horse thieves. We thought there were 12-15 of them…turns out there was 45 of them.

We took down 20 or so before they got us.

We played Boot Hill 3 about 6 years ago for about a year.
Group of 5 – we were gringos hunting down the enemies of the Mexican government (so not really good guys)

Met our match when one of our guys mistook a stable boy for a thief and shot him……..angry villagers are no joke.

Haven't played for a while but if you get a good GM it can be alot of fun

We used it for regular gunfights using named movie/Tv characters. The Tin Soldier in Dayton Ohio would sometimes have a game called shoot out at MGM Studios. Most movie/Tv characters had been rated up for the game. Each player put 50 cents in a pot. They got two characters. That could be Artemus Gordon and James West, Butch and Sundance, Lone Ranger and Tonto and so on Some teams had had more than two like the Over the Hill gang and some only had one like Yul Brenner in Westworld. He was one nasty hombre! Anyway, we used Boot Hill and had a lot of fun.

Thanks.

John

Hey John, that Shoot Out at MGM was the game I put on at the Tin Soldier with my friends Joe Otto and John Seitz! We used to do it at some conventions as well

This past summer we talked about revising that scenario using the "What A Cowboy" rules for Historicon and came up with this:

TMP link

Like the original we had both TV and Movie western characters (16 of them) only this time it is on the Warner Brothers back lot and includes the main studio with sound stages, office buildings, movie theater and restaurants.

The actors, in their iconic roles search the studio, getting clues from WB cartoon characters (Toons) as to where the studio boss has stashed a large cash box that he is trying to embezzle that the cowboys are battling each other to find. The race usually breaks over from the western town set to the sound stages ala Blazing Saddles!

We even included Doc Brown and Marty McFly who are trying to get "Back to the Future" in their DeLorean (with the help of the locomotive) and even former western actor Ronald Reagan makes a guest appearance (including his Secret Service bodyguards!)

We ran this at Historicon and Fall-In and won awards at both cons. Also put this on at Advance the Colors too. We are considering Doing it again at Origins as well.

Thanks for bringing back the memory of the original inspiration!

Kim

A bunch of we Texans played back in the day. My favorite game was when the Good Guys had to stop the nefarious Gallo brothers (Ernest and Julio for you young fellers) from taking over the town of Buckshot.

Having read through the rules, there don't seem to be any rules for starting cash or equipment, unless I missed a paragraph somewhere. Is this just a case of equip a PC according to personal preference?

IIRC, in the 1st edition you started out with X amount of dollars, and there was a pretty decent weapons and supplies price list.

79thPA is right. First addition did contain all that information.

3rd does have a nice price list, and even wages for various potential professions. Just no indication of what a PC might begin with.

I would suggest the players start with all the basics and have "A Few Dollar More" to buy some special items.