My Gutshot Con-Game

Hey, that looks official!

I can't really say "I" ran my first game of Gutshot, as last mentioned here. I borrowed all of my buddy Andy's excellent Whitewash City terrain, and my other buddy Chrispy was also on hand to help out with the rules, bring some more terrain (including cool terrain mat), and even cooler action markers. My name was attached to the table though, but of course it wouldn't have even had a chance without my friends pitching in.


There were four players signed up, each person getting two characters. Frankly the game could've handled a whopping ten, but each person would only run one character each. There's a ton of great resources on the official Gutshot page, including a bunch of pre-generated characters ranging from shopkeepers and gamblers to bounty hunters and Texas rangers.


Before the game began we rolled randomly for characters, which yielded a pretty good mix of characters across the board. Skill levels are determined by the target number (TN) of the character. Starting with the lowest skilled TN's, players got to dive into a bin full of LEGO pieces and build their characters. This also yielded a lot of fun results, and got the players invested right off the bat into the game.


Every turn each character gets three actions, but these actions are random each turn (names drawn out of a hat). This makes for a very fun game 'cause you know you'll get your three actions each turn, you just don't know when!


Another thing I like about the Gutshot rules is that you don't play unless your character has a name and if that name isn't suitably "cowboy/western" it doesn't count! In case you were wondering, "the Man with no Name" also counts as a name.


Ammo is tracked in game, and if you're empty you're going to waste valuable actions later on down the road reloading. But why reload when there's perfectly good (and loaded!) weapons just laying around for the taking! Oh, and you can "fan" your revolvers too, so expect to run empty quite a bit.


As all good western tales should go, the final actions of the game were decided on in the center of the town, probably at high noon to boot. Interestingly enough, the solid TN characters like the Texas Ranger had good longevity, but it came down to a low-skilled townsfolk running around shooting everyone at point-blank with a shotgun that won the day.


Sure, you could do slips of paper, but this is a cowboy game! We used spent .45 Long Colt cartridges to track character actions, drawn out of a small bag. Drawing these out of a cowboy hat would be even cooler, maybe next time.

All in all, I love Gutshot. It plays fast and loose but guarantees a good time had by all. The rules are great for long term play and offer plenty of details, as much as you want. They can also be played simple, like we did here, making it a great pick-up or low-prep game.

I've never run a con game before and I was pretty nervous leading into it, but once people started building their figures and having fun, I started having fun as well and forgot all about my nervousness. I would definitely run this game again if given the chance.

Three Rivers Con

Earlier this month there was a local, one-day gaming convention called Three Rivers Con. It seemed like a pretty cool event, and in an effort to get outside my box, I went. I was surprised, I didn't know what to expect really, but all in all it was a good day. I met some good folks, played some good games...what more could you ask for?


First off, I wasn't just a con-gamer, I was a con-game runner! That's right, the practice session of Gutshot last time was just a warm-up for this. Needless to say, I think it was a success, I've got another post dedicated just for this game, so I'll be moving on.


There's an area club that I didn't know we had that centers around boardgames. Lots and lots of boardgames. They were the core of the con it seemed, and the table you see here had a nice flyer saying if you were interested in learning a game, just ask.


I was interested, especially in the new Dungeons and Dragons games. Around the corner is the new Legend of Drizzt version, and being a fan of the fiction I figured I'd pick it up. Of course a test drive was in order so I was able to snag a game of the Wrath of Ashardalon. How was it? Good stuff, it was definitely fun enough to start saving my shekles for October.


There was also a Zombpocalypse presentation, which was entertaining. Now I realize the Zombpocalypse is just around the corner and definitely no joke, but this tongue-in-cheek "how to" was still pretty fun.

The presentation also included a "survival grab bag" demonstration


I haven't played Battletech since the late eighties, but there's was a lot of it going down here. In fact, it seemed that was all that was being played for a good eight hours straight.


There was a paint-and-take demonstration as well (which I'm told is so hot right now). This proved to be a very popular spot and it stayed full most of the time. I was blown away by the sheer amount of quality paints, brushes, and the rest available to use. Also, for those new at it, there was plenty of help and assistance from some very knowledgeable "staffers".


Hetero-gaming lifemate Andy and I had the first ever "45 Minute Iron-Painter" paint off. The minis take 'em table had an absolute hoard of great figs, not leftover junk, but good stuff. There was a matched pair of survivor figs that formed the basis of the challenge, of course it was a good natured challenge and when awesome survivor figs like this free on the line, everyone comes out a winner. So which one do you prefer? The right or the left one?


There was a table full of silent auction goods, most of it roleplaying books and a good deal of boardgames. Being a huge boardgaming crowd I was surprised to see a complete Battle for Macragge box there. I was even more surprised to see no bids on it. I'm happy to say I picked this one up for a mere ten bucks, all I really wanted was the crashed spaceship to use as terrain, the ten marines, twenty-odd 'nids, and what-not was all a bonus.


This is Trio de Rio, I just made that up. I've also just declared him the official mascot of Three Rivers Con. There was a talented, young crochet chica there making these little critters. In a few hours she was able to crank this little feller out. I gave her my info and offer for a potential commission for a Cthulhu crocheted critters. Holidays are right around the corner and those would make for some awesome, mythos-themed gifts.

Three Rivers Con? Good stuff. Fun? Yup. Repeat? Probably!

Shootout at Sundown Ridge

It has been a while since we played Gutshot around these parts, but it seems Cowboy gamin' is on the upswing right now. There's a locally organized gaming con coming up next month and I've volunteered to run Gutshot there, so to get some practice for that we broke out the terrain and since I don't have any painted cowboys at the moment so I opted for some Lego figs (of course). There will be a Lego Thursday at one point detailing the figs themselves.

An unseen native scout observes the townsfolk below

In Gutshot you can pretty much play with just one character per player, which is one of the main draws to running it as a con game, you can play up to ten people with no problems. Combat isn't so deadly where you're going to die off too quickly, and there's plenty of detail on your character sheet to keep you focused and with your head in the game.


Surreal normally wouldn't be the proper term normally, but in a gaming sense, yeah it was a bit surreal. The Legos were a sharp contrast to the tabletop terrain and made for a neat overall setting. It was super-populated, with tons of NPCs and lots of random horse, even some livestock. We treated the bystanders as "portable cover", which was helped along by Gutshot's rule of near misses.

If you miss your intended target, and there's someone within an inch of said target, well, collateral damage occurs. I've been watching a lot of western movies (mostly old but some new) lately and this almost rarely happens so it's interesting to see in Gutshot.


The player characters are mounted on larger, display type bases but the bystanders were equipped differently. Originally I had envisioned a bunch of random actions of the civilians and what-not running around. It was quickly determined that this would only bog the game down quite a bit, so the random NPC movement got canned.

NPCs on yellow bases are, well, yellow. Each turn when their activation would've come up they would have randomly moved for cover, or a marshal, or the like. Those on black bases were just regular folk, they'd just move regular I guess. Ahem, as you can see I didn't fully flesh out the random NPC movement thingie. Last are those on red bases (red for danger!) and their activations would center around making attacks, usually ranged, on those PCs that are closest to them. Even writing all of this sounds complicated!

Never bring a knife to a shovel fight!

Here the "Thug" (high ground with the poncho and the knife) dukes it out with the "Sodbuster" character, who was given the shovel as an afterthought. I really like melee in Gutshot, the shooting and what-not are solid but nothing spectacular, but it's the fisticuffs that stand out for me. Instead of just making an attack you choose what kind of attack you want to do, whether it's a jab punch, a long punch, a backhand, what-have-you.

Each type of attack comes with its own target number, and each attack deals specific damage. So a backhand might be easy to perform, so it has a low target number. The catch is it's just a backhand, so it is going to do little damage. A kick on the other hand is going to do a lot of damage to your target, but it's going to be the hardest type of attack to pull off.

"Marshal! You've got to protect me, not use me for cover!"

Homesteaders...can't live with them, can't live without 'em

The dual-wielding Texas Ranger stalks his target across the pen...

...and brings the Gambler down

It was a fun game for sure, and although the rules are easy to pick up on the fly we still had to some learning on the fly as well. If you're looking for a good skirmish game set in the wild west, I'd strongly suggest Gutshot. It's good for pick up games, spontaneous games, and the like. Not to mention the book itself is quite an enjoyable read with lots of side text and other fun nuggets about six-gun life west of the mighty Mississippi.

Iguanodon Juan and the Fracas at Pistachio Flats

The bustling cowtown of Pistachio Flats

Gutshot! made the rounds the other night and we were able to squeeze in two games (and still finished up early). The more and more I play this game, the more and more I like it. It's fast to learn and just plain fun to play. It's not complicated, but it lends itself enough to create memorable, cinematic shootouts every game.


Chrispy (Flounder of Minions infamy) has been pretty serious about getting into the wild west genre. He had more figs painted this time around, and had even picked up some great, new buildings. Well, new to him anyway. Back in the 90's, the Ertl company put out some toy sets as part of the "cowtown" line. These sets are now the "holy grail" of 28mm cowboy gamers, and as you can see, they look great on the table and painting is optional.


The cowtown buildings are very cool. They have multiple hinged portals, from double wide barn doors, to regular doors. Doors are everywhere too, with multiple entry points on any given building. Staircases and other nice touches are also there and if you get a complete set like Chrispy did, you get lots of cool extra accessories, like pianos, desks, stools, and the like. There's also other nifty things like a stagecoach, livestock, and fences.


The rooftops are removable and some have interior balconies


Iguanodon Juan demonstrates that the scale is dead on


There's a reason it's called a "cowtown"


Horse stables and corral


Better than poker chips...

In the rules, technically, it says to draw your initiative chits from a hat. Well, Chrispy one-upped the chits and put numbers on empty .45 Long Colt shell casings! Remember my one-time cowboy escapades? Well I dug my "official" cowboy hat out from the closet and voila, we had a really cool initiative system. Gimmicky, sure, but that's what makes it so fun!


A busty Texas Ranger stands beside some of the initiative 'chits'


Too far a shot for a pistol? Yeah, probably...

Gutshot! is pretty cool in that you can have a quality game with just one figure per player. Of course a game of this size doesn't take very long, so you can rack 'em up and play a second game in no time. We did just that, played a first game with everyone randomly rolling what type of character they had. Sure, some characters seem higher powered than others, but in this first game it was the total rookie greenhorn who won. Feeling comfortable enough with the rules (and we also had a first-time player at the table tonight) the second time around we played with two characters apiece in the same type of "shoot 'em up" scenario.


I played Iguanodo Juan in both games, this fig is just too cool to pass up...and he was painted nicely to boot! Here we've got the outlaw coming through a door on the second floor to leap to the ground floor inside the saloon from the interior balcony, bottle in hand.


"Take cover!"


The middle of the town's main street was bullet-filled no-man's land


Twitch McGuffin, severely wounded, hides inside the stagecoach


Iguanodon Juan, taking cover behind a cow, shoots at Lady Sunset


Someone's running out the side door of the building...


The shots fly from doorway to doorway


The Greenhorn strikes again, and wins two games in a row!


In a pistol vs. rifle fight at range...the one with the rifle doesn't need cover!


Dead-eye Jenkins hightails it out of town on a hijacked stagecoach

Another text-light battle report tonight troops. Needless to say the two battles we fought were fun, and had a lot of cool moments go down (like the above stagecoach pic). Iguanodon Juan was severely wounded, he only had one hit point left and it was a nail biter to see if he would make it to the stagecoach in time or not. He did, and since Dead-eye Jenkins had the reins, they took off and headed out of town. No, it wasn't part of the scenario.

Iguanodon Juan at one point during the battle rolled snake-eyes, which meant he rolled damage against himself as the gun blew up in his hands! Rolling double ones, as you can see, is very bad for one's health, but rolling double sixes is bad for your opponent's health! In the same battle where Iguanodon Juan lost a few fingers, Dead-eye Jenkins rolled boxcars against the Texas Ranger, and further rolled mega on the damage shot felling her in one blow.

I can say with confidence that I'm sold on Gutshot! at this point. It's more intuitive than PKowboys, just as cinematic, easier to learn the rules, faster to jump in with both feet, and a thousand times more accessible. We're going to test the waters on some Warhammer Wild West pretty soon too, so I should have a good snapshot of a few of the more popular (as well as lesser known) rulesets out there. I may just buy me some cowboys too...

Cowboy Action and Gutshot!

"Head 'em off at Eagle Pass!"

We played Hawgleg publishing's Gutshot! rules last night for the first time, and wow, I loved them. But first, before I get into that, let me talk about the above film clip, speaking of cowboys. That's me in the white shirt in my first ever SASS event a few years back. It turned out to also be my last event, it just wasn't the right speed I was looking for, not as much "action" as I thought it would be. Anyway, as you can see from the video, it was a lot of fun regardless. It can be pretty expensive outfitting your 'character' with all the right clothing, guns, and leather though, almost prohibitively so. I sold all of my gear, but at least I still kept my boots! Playing Gutshot! last night kind of took me back though to the days of "Mankato Mik". I only did it once, but at least I can say I was cowboy at one point, haha.


The sleepy, little town of Big Rock Flats

I forgot to head over to Andy's house and pick up his painted cowboys and Whitewash city terrain. You can see most of that in our last game of PKowboys here. We made do without, Chrispy had some cowboy figs, and a single buildings, the rest of the terrain were some fantasy buildings and a load of rocky terrain. It was more than suitable.


The dastardly Iguanodon Juan and sidekick Twitch McGuffin


Sheriff Mankato and his date for the evening, Lady Sunset


As the couple exits the saloon, unaware of bandits on the hill

In Gutshot! your characters have different levels, each level giving them a different ability or two. The levels are cleverly named, "sheriff" doesn't necessarily mean you are an actual sheriff, just you have sheriff-comparable stats and abilities. The same goes for townsfolk and the like. There were at least five or six different types of characters I remember being available. Some characters come with standard perks, but some, like my sheriff, have a few options you can pick from. Everyone also gets two gun types each.


Drunken laughter echoes from the edge of the cliffs...

Each character has a single target number. This is your base roll you need to achieve in order to perform an action, rolled on 2d6. This is further modified by positive effects, such as aiming, or negative effects, like being in cover. The mechanics themselves are actually very straight forward, in a a given turn you can usually perform two actions, but from the list of choices you have, you can never do the same action twice in a turn.


Iguanodon Juan lines up a shot on an unsuspecting dame

In our first game, we played with just two characters per side. But even with a posse of five to ten characters or so, the rules keep the game moving at a fast clip. Our first game was also a stand up and shoot scenario, but it looked like the book has all kinds of cool sounding scenarios. One Chrispy described as a young cowboy who was wanting to elope with a rancher's daughter, except dad has decided to stop the couple and take out the suitor. It's true love, and posse on posse action as the young couple's fate is decided.


Combat is also deadly. Your characters have a set number of wounds, sometimes offset by skills and talents, but when they're up, your ticket's punched. There's two wound types; "pain" and "damage". The former covers things like melee damage, falling, and the like. The second is would be the lethal type of wounds from knives and guns. Also, when someone shoots and hits you, you can immediately do reactionary fire and shoot back, so it's possible to have cinematic moments where both combatants kill each other simultaneously.


"Hey man, watch this...WHOAAA!"

Gutshot! is more than just combat too. There's all kinds of actions to perform, and here we see Chri3 failing his 'climb' check. He tried to take a shortcut down the front of the clifface, and took a tumble. It didn't kill him, but he took a fair amount of 'pain' wounds. Although we didn't use them, there are options for dynamite, horses, and more.


Sheriff Mankato, severely wounded, hides atop the rocks

There's a neat way to track your ammo usage too, well, not "neat", but clever I guess. You definitely don't want both of your barrels empty on your stagecoach gun when someone rushes you in the middle of the street. You can also pick up equipment off of slain characters and make use of their gear. Pretty handy when you're a derringer-wielding saloon girl, but a bandit just dropped at your feet with a lever-action rifle. The initiative system was pretty cool too. Technically you're supposed to fraw numbers out of a hat each turn to see who goes when. We just rolled a die each round, and assigned numbers to characters. My gambler character had a trait that let her have two numbers 'in the hat' each round.


I'd be remiss if I didn't somehow compare Gutshot! to PKowboys, which has be the only cowboy game I've been playing for years now. In a nutshell, Gutshot! was faster to play, easier to setup, and simple to grasp. Fast enough where you can get in multiple games in a night, so a three fight mini-campaign is feasible. Easy to setup because all you do is roll on a table to see what kind of characters you get and pick their skills. Simple to grasp where after about a night or two of playing, you probably won't need to refer to the rulebook very often, if at all. Will I play PKowboys again? Sure, but I tell you, Gutshot! seemed a lot leaner and meaner to sink your teeth into. PKowboys is an older game, fun sure, but it's starting to show its age a bit. Plus, throw in that Gutshot! is also coming out with zombies...