Squinting at the Last Pale Light

Last year, inspired by among other things, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian I decided I wanted to run a western game. I read Boot Hill 1st and 2nd editions, Aces & Eights, Dogs in the Vineyard and Dust Devils. All of these games are awesome in their own way, but none of them were a perfect match for my table. Then I found Blood and Bullets by Simon Washbourne at Beyond Belief Games. http://beyondbeliefgames.webs.com/freestuff.htm

We were already playing a version of Swords & Wizardry and I am idiotically obsessed with old school D&D so I decided to steal some of the ideas of the other western games and cram them into the framework of Swords & Wizardry/Blood and Bullets. Interestingly at the same time I became aware of the 5th edition D&D advantage/disadvantage mechanic so I tossed that into the pot too.

The result is a spicy chili of the sometime incongruous elements of D&D red beans and Story Game vidalia onions. I called it The Last Pale Light In the West and it was a hoot. We made deals with the devil, had duels at high noon, got married, blew shit up, and hung the sheriff.

I want to get back to it.

So, I have been reexamining the rules. I am moving it a little closer to 5th edition in terms of combat and skill resolution, while at the same time bringing player narrative control and character development to the foreground. The game is gawdamn freak, but it’s an amusing freak.

One aspect is being re-written entirely. D&D’s Hit Point combat system doesn’t work well for mano a mano gun duels. Towards the end of the last campaign I was experimenting with a dueling system that did away with hit points. I’ve thought up something along similar lines that uses playing cards.

Here we go.

Duels

Duels do not use standard combat rules.

Each duelist draws a number of playing cards equal to proficiency bonus + dexterity modifier + number of duels won.

The challenger then names the stakes; graze, wound, or death.

The other duelist may either see the stakes, raise, or fold. Each tier raised allows both duelists to draw another card.

The best 5 card poker hand wins the duel.

The loser must make a CON Save (1d20+ CON bonus+ proficiency bonus) vs DC 15. Success means they suffer the effects of one tier less than the agreed stakes (death becomes a wound, a wound becomes a graze, a graze becomes a near miss such as a hat/belt being shot off) Failure means they suffer the effects of the stakes.

> Graze - Take 1d6 non exploding dice damage

>Wound - Lose half your hit points and you are wounded

> Death – You are dead

After the duel cards have been revealed, the duel is considered complete and the winner is declared. Any further combat is resolved using the normal combat procedure.

The winner of a duel records the win on their character sheet, and gains 100 XP per hit die of foe defeated.