Welcome back to the blog! I hope your week has been going well, mine certainly has. I know I am supposed to have some sample rooms from the first two levels of my Gygax75 Challenge this week but I have hit a wall there. I will eventually get in the mood to create those but for now I figure it is better to be productive so instead of spinning my wheels on that I am going to present you with the first post of a new solo campaign.

Today I am going to share a new campaign I have started in one of my favorite genres, the western, with one of my favorite skirmish rule systems, the Two Hour Wargames Chain Reaction system. We’ll be using the campaign rules from Six Gun Sound – Blaze of Glory. I hope you enjoy reading alone as much as I did playing.

The first thing I had to do is choose which sort of campaign to play, the opinions are Cowboy, Gunfighter, Marshal, Outlaw, Ranger, or Sheriff. Let’s go with a Gunfighter. The time frame of the campaign will be from the spring of 1875 through the winter of 1885. 

Now that we know what and when let’s find out who our gunfighter is! A player character in this system is called a “Star” because they are treated differently than the other characters who are called “Hands.” Stars have three important advantages, The “Larger Than Life” rule, the “Cheating Death” rule, and finally the “Free Will” rule. Some more important “Hands” may be able to use some of these. 

“Larger Than Life” means a character can’t be killed by anyone with a lower Reputation (or Rep) than theirs.  

“Cheating Death” means if a character with equal or higher Rep would kill a character they can invoke this to remove themselves from the scene without dying.

Invoking either of the above will cause mechanical penalties for the character. 

“Free Will” will not cause the character any mechanic repercussions and is the most powerful ability given to a “Star.” It allows the character to choose the result of a reaction test instead of rolling for it. The importance of this will become apparent as the game goes on. 

A character is defined by the following stats:

Profession: Their job
Veteran: If they served in the American Civil War

Reputation: A combination of training, skill and experience

Toughness: A combination of physical toughness and willpower or grit

Sand: Coolness under fire or ability to handle stress

Weapon: This is a miniature skirmish war-game after all

So let’s build our character for this campaign. There is a table to roll on to see what our starting stats are for a Gunfighter, first we roll to see if they are a veteran, 4 so no, not a veteran. Next we roll for the other stats, 5 so our character looks like this:

Profession: Gunfighter
Veteran: No

Reputation: 5

Toughness: 5

Sand: 5

Weapon: Pistol and Repeating Carbine but for scenarios that start in town just the pistol

Now we will determine their attributes and skills, they get one for each point of Rep at 3 or higher, so we will start with three of them. 

I am going to draw on randomly, you use a deck of playing cards for this, and choose the other two.

7 of Hearts, Tradesman – Townsfolk with expertise in chosen field. +1 to Rep for any occupation related Challenge. Apparently this was prior to the career as a gunfighter. 

Born Leader – Adds 1d6 to all Reaction tests except for the In Sight test. Any friendly character within 4” of him will react as he does.

Crack Shot – +1 to die score when firing.

Now we roll on the Life and Times on time for each point of Rep

1) Old family friend has hideout or “home”. No chance of being ambushed when a capture Encounter is generated in any one locale of choice. This is in addition to your own “home”.

2) Reputation as “Trail Boss”. Character will have one less Encounter during a Cattle Drive.

3) Have exceptional Quality 5 horse. 

4) Old family friend has hideout or “home”. This was rolled again but it stands to figure an experienced gunfighter might have multiple friends.

5) Have reputation for gunplay. When in any locale of your choice, and no Encounter is generated for his profession, test again. If an Encounter is called for it is automatically a Gunfight (GF-1). 

Because of the experience as a “Trail Boss” we will say his trade will have been with animals, perhaps as a teamster. 

Now we need to determine our character’s “home” or birthplace. There’s a table for that and we get:

Arizona

Time to come up with a name and see who our traveling companions are! I think we’ll call our gunfighter Tombstone Tom. I rolled a 6 (-3) for traveling companions so that gives Tom three brothers or good friends that he can depend on. Rolling we see that two are Gunfighters and one is a Marshal. Now I need to decide if any or all start with Tom or at different locations. If they don’t start with him they can be called for at the start any of season except for winter. The advantage of these three is that:

The last brother standing will not leave the table without his fallen brothers. At this point he is not subject to Runaway results and while in the act of moving to pick up a fallen brother is not subject to Duck Back results.

An Outlaw’s brothers will never challenge him for leadership of the gang.

If they are in the same location you could substitute one or more of them for one or more members of your outfit. 

I’m going to say that they are not with me. One, Tad, is Tom’s actual brother in Tombstone, Arizona. The other two are friends. Michael, the gunfighter, will currently be in Dodge City, Kansas, and Bob, the marshal, will be in Eureka, Nevada.

OK, last thing to do is randomly determine where we are going to start. At a trading post in Canada! Interesting. So in the Spring of 1875 we have:

Tombstone Tom, originally from Tombstone, Arizona currently at a trading post in Canada.

Profession: Gunfighter
Veteran: No

Reputation: 5

Toughness: 5

Sand: 5

Weapon: Pistol and Repeating Carbine, in town just the pistol

Tom has an exceptional Quality 5 horse

Former Teamster +1 to Rep for any occupation related Challenge.  

Born Leader – Adds 1d6 to all Reaction tests except for the In Sight test. Any friendly character within 4” of him will react as he does.

Crack Shot – +1 to die score when firing.

Tom’s brother Tad, another gunfighter, is still back home in Tombstone, Arizona.

Bob, his old marshal friend has a “home” in Eureka, Nevada. No chance of being ambushed when a capture Encounter is generated in Eureka. This is in addition to your own “home”.

Michael, a old gunfighter friend has hideout or “home” in Dodge City, Kansas. No chance of being ambushed when a capture Encounter is generated in Dodge City. This is in addition to your own “home”.

Tom has a reputation as “Trail Boss”. Character will have one less Encounter during a Cattle Drive.

Tom has reputation for gunplay. When in any locale of your choice, and no Encounter is generated for his profession, test again. If an Encounter is called for it is automatically a Gunfight (GF-1). 

Next week we’ll get started, until that time be excellent to each other!