Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.
Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she can still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.
It is a sixty-four page, primarily black and white book with colour maps.
The quick-start is nicely illustrated with some decent maps.
How long will it take to play?
Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure can be played through in a single session, or two sessions at most.
What else do you need to play?
Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure requires multiple six-sided dice. These should be divided between two different colours.
Where is it set?
Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure is set in and around the town of Carson’s Folly, a hunting and trapping town in Colfax County, New Mexico.
Who do you play?
There are five ready-to-play Player Characters given in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure. They consist of an African American fur trader, a Caucasian grifter, a Native American Ranch Hand, an Irish Settler Homesteader, and a Mexican Cibolero Tracker.
The diversity of the ready-to-play Player Characters reflects the efforts of the authors to make the setting as accessible as possible, without resorting to stereotypes. This is balanced against the need to make the game fun. There is no general advice and certainly mention of the X-card that might be appropriate given the genre.
How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character has four attributes—Grit, Quick, Cunning, and Docity—and a single stat, Faith, plus several skills. Faith need not be religious faith, but can instead be a firmly held belief. Examples include ‘I want to make my father proud’ or ‘I will find myself a family on the frontier’ or ‘the Lord is my shepherd’. He also has two Talents, a big dream, some gear, and some background. Of the four stats, Docity is the ability of a character to learn.
How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure and thus Tales of the Old West, uses the Year Zero engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. To have a Player Character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of dice equal to a combination of attribute and skill. The pool of dice consists of ‘Trouble’ dice and standard dice. There will always be ‘Trouble’ dice in the dice pool, up to five. A single roll of a six on either die type indicates a success. Multiple successes improve the outcome and allow the Player Character to perform stunts. In combat, these might be to inflict extra damage or inflict a critical injury, but the players are free to create other effects as well.
If no sixes are rolled, the action fails. If ones are rolled on the ‘Trouble’ dice, these have no effect unless the player decides to ‘push’ the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice that did not roll a one or a six. However, if there are any ones remaining after the roll has been pushed, they trigger a check on the ‘Trouble Outcome Table’. There is a ‘Trouble Outcome Table’ for conflict and physical situations and for social and mental situations. The effects vary depending how many ones have been rolled.
For example, if a Player Character has generated two ones in a conflict, the outcome might be “You stumble, slip or trip. Lose your next slow action.” or “Your attack is underpowered, or your action is weak. Lose a 6 from your pool of successes.” This is a pleasingly random set of effects, and it is a pity that there is not a corresponding set of tables that can be used when a player rolls multiple successes, if only as inspiration.
However, it costs a point of Faith to trigger a Pushed roll and in roleplaying terms, it should ideally tie into the Player Character’s Faith statement as this is a way of gaining Experience Points, but it need not do. Faith can also be spent to negate the effects of ‘Trouble’ dice, on a one-for-one basis. In Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure, a Player Character starts play with four points of Faith, but they can go up to ten. It is possible for a Player Character to lose his Faith and be Shaken.
How does combat work?
Conflict in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure uses the same core mechanics and allows a Player Character to act twice per round. This is either a fast action and a slow action, or two fast actions. A Slow Action might be ‘Shoot’, ‘Melee Attack’, and ‘Mount’, whilst a ‘Fast Action might be ‘Quick Shot’, ‘Aim’, and ‘Draw Weapon’. The conflict rules cover social situations as well as fist fights, shootouts, and of course, duels. The latter covers the face-off at the start of the duel followed by the duellists going for their guns. Along with a ‘Critical Injury Table’, the rules are fairly compressive and cover most situations in the accompanying situation.
What do you play?
The adventure in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure is ‘The Last Cibolero’. A ‘Cibolero’ is a Mexican buffalo hunter and the scenario is all about buffalo hunting. The Player Characters are involved in the fur and trapping trade, but like the rest of the townsfolk, do not hunt the herds of buffalo indiscriminately and this is the issue at the heart of the scenario. When the New Mexico Mercantile Cooperative, a well-backed outfit working out of Santa Fe, moves into the town to take as many hides as it can, it sets up a tension between the locals and the outsiders. As first one Cibolero and then another is found dead, this tension ratchets up and civility breaks down until the town is on the verge of open conflict...
The scenario includes four maps and floorplans. These are all well done. Besides the scenario, there is background information upon the local area and the town of Carson’s Folly and its inhabitants. The Game Master can develop more stories based on some of the secrets and wishes of the inhabitants with some effort.
The core rules presented in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure are easy to prepare, especially if the Game Master has any experience with the Year Zero engine. The scenario itself is quite straightforward and overall, it requires relatively little in the way of preparation.
Yes. The Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure are a solid introduction to both its setting and its concepts, which are very easy to grasp as everyone is familiar with the Wild West, although the included scenario, ‘The Last Cibolero’, will be unfamiliar and unlike almost any tale of the Wild West seen on screen.
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