Saturday, June 5, 2010

Playing Weird Wild West with Modified Goal System Rules

Once in a blue moon a geek comes up with a great or particularly twisted idea (which in the geek world amounts to about the same thing). I had one such brainstorm this morning as I drank my tea and read my email. I have lots of Old West terrain and models painted. I want to use my collection more often. I also peruse the Chaos In Cairo rules quite regularly and would love to try them out. And then it occurred to me... why not use the Cairo rules to play a Weird Wild West skirmish game?

If you're still reading, here's what I've come up with so far. As it turns out, there would be very little modification at all since most of the skills and abilities are generic enough to be transferable.


CinC warband WWW Equivalent
Archaeologists Good Ole'Fashioned Human Beings - Lawmen, Outlaws, Trailblazers, and out of necessity, Hunters of the Arcane and the Undead. These folk are just trying to survive in a world that has gone horribly wrong.

No modifications needed.

Cult of Set Evil Humans - The Cattle Baron or perhaps the Small Town Politician with big dreams. Some folk truck with demons and magic and, one way or another, they always pay the ultimate price.

No modifications needed, although, converting a few cowboys with daemonic gifts would be fun.

Mummies Zombie Gunfighters, Daemonic Creatures, and the Supernatural Horrors that the Native Tribes have always known to be real. As if the Wild West wasn't unforgiving enough to begin with.

No modifications needed, however, one would do well to avoid optional upgrades that are desert-specific.

Swords of Ra First Nations People in any and all incarnations. Just like in the CinC background, the warnings of these tribal people were ignored, and now true evil has found physical form in the world of men.

Minor modifications needed - Allow Chieftain, Warriors, and Tribesmen to swap Combat Attack x2/Crack Shot x1 for Combat Attack x1/Crack Shot x2.




Starting Warband - Big Sal's Boys

Big Sal is rich. Filthy rich. He owns Lucifer's Rock and pretty much everything in it. Which isn't much as it turns out, so perhaps "filthy rich" is a relative phrase in these dark times. The few surviving citizens do what they can to squeeze a living out of their desolate surroundings. Now that most men have dropped their quarrels with each other and banded together, Sal has surrounded himself with a motley bunch.

Sheriff John Weston and Justice Montgomery Mills are still his most-trusted companions, but his main muscle is provided by Brice and McTavish, two outlaws who Sal would have seen hung before all hell broke lose, as well as the mysterious foreigner Jet Fhang.

L to R: Brice, McTavish, Fhang, Weston, Big Sal, Monty 

Big Sal (expedition sponsor)
MV: 5 | DR: 4 | Str: 3 | Agl: 2 | Mnd: 3 | Res: 3 | Fate: 6 | Vit: 3
abilities: combat evade x 1, crack shot x 1, gypsy's luck, resources, scholar x 1

Justice Montgomery Mills
 (professor)
MV: 5 | DR: 3 | Str: 2 | Agl: 2 | Mnd: 4 | Res: 3 | Fate: 3 | Vit: 3
abilities: combat evade x 1, dodge, hunch (1), scholar x 3, sharp senses x 1

Sheriff John Weston (expedition leader)
MV: 5 | DR: 4 | Str: 3 | Agl: 3 | Mnd: 3 | Res: 4 | Fate: 4 | Vit: 3
abilities: combat attack x 1, crack shot x 2, combat evade x 1, leader x 3, scholar x 1, sharp senses x 1

Jet Fhang (guard)
MV: 5 | DR: 4(1) | Str: 3 | Agl: 3 | Mnd: 2 | Res: 3 | Fate: 3 | Vit: 3
abilities: combat attack x 2, combat evade x 2, knife-fighter, tough, dodge, sharp senses x 1

Brice and McTavish (guards)
MV: 5 | DR: 4(1) | Str: 3 | Agl: 3 | Mnd: 2 | Res: 3 | Fate: 3 | Vit: 3
abilities: crack shot x 2, combat evade x 2, tough, dodge, sharp senses x 1, combat attack x 2 (McTavish only), Shootist (Brice only)


Chris has the Zombie Gunfighters from Foundry painted up, so we've decided to try it out and see where it leads. As with most adventure-type games, a little imagination goes a long way. Although the Mummy warband lists entries such as "Royal Mummy" and "Soldier Mummy," they become "Ghoul Leader," Zombie," or whatever else the monster player can dream up. As long as the skills and abilities match something plausible (and what isn't plausible in this setting, I mean really), it can work.

Of course, when I looked at some of my other Old West miniatures, painted and unpainted, I noticed a western doctor (CinC: doctor), my preacher (CinC: holy man or woman), a newspaper boy (CinC: Street Urchin), and even a reporter with his head under a camera hood (CinC: Journalist). Recycling the miniature collection was always one of the great drawing cards when I first discovered adventure gaming. It's nice that I'm finally getting the chance.

Thanks for reading,
JET

4 comments:

MIK said...

Great writeup here, I love your tweaks. I didn't see any points values on the characters, I'm guessing you're using the newer edition of CiC?

Looking forward to more...

CounterFett said...

This looks great. Funny how sucha fitting rules set is overlooked by (almost) everyone simply because of "what it says on the tin"

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Very nice looking group of figs!

Cheers
Christopher

Monty said...

Love the Chinaman...