Ah, free… Free. As in “Don’t cost ya nuttin’ pal”, or “can’t beat the price…” FREE. Can a better word be? Maybe the great poets thought so, but they didn’t mention it. So this bit of doggerel, unearthed in the family rat hole er, archives, will have to do:
With such great joy we all acclaime
The notion of “Freedom’s” name.
To enjoy inspiration, Heaven-sente;
And best of all, pay not a cente.
Such freedom can, of course, entrap;
When contemplating a FREE dose of clappe.
- Dr. Roger Ratte Chirugeon to HRH Elizabeth, 1600-1601
Maybe you can pick up on the fact that I like free stuff. I’m the guy who goes to trade shows with shopping bags, or stands in line at Costco to get a free dinner from the ladies who hand out the samples. Or goes through the Hare Krishna pitch on the Mall on the Fourth of July to get a free lunch. Twice (that vegetarian faire is pretty light, after all, and they made a mean fudge). You might see me with an ice bucket, packing my cooler just for the living heck of it at some hotel some time… hey, I paid for it, right? My co-workers call me the Minister of Free Stuff.
The web explosion is a boom time for guys like me. The number of totally FREE game designs out there is staggering, and getting higher every day. Let’s face it; not every sure-fire, drop-dead hit is going to get published by a commercial game publisher. Faced with losing the time and creativity investment, many altruistic individuals are putting their labors of love on the ‘Net, available for anyone to download (usually in PDF format, but not always). Most games are turkeys, but some are real treasures. Such a game is THE RULES WITH NO NAME, a skirmish miniatures rules set that is set in the Wild Wild West– the American West that is. Now, I imagine that the gaming audience out there today must look at “historical” subjects with glazed eyes and coated tongue. After all, we’ve all read those depressing studies that indicate the average high school student couldn’t tell you who Abraham Lincoln was, doesn’t know who fought in WW2, etc., etc., yadda yadda yadda. These are all probably true for all I know– I’m no authority on education. What I DO know is that a significant number of gamers appreciate a milieu that offers a TON of action, a little violence (a little?) and can be resolved with relative non-complex rules. How else do you explain the predominance of Games Workshop with the early teen to young adult demographic? Okay, the multimillion dollar marketing budget helps… you don’t have to be obvious. THE RULES WITH NO NAME (TRWNN) Wild West Skirmish Rules delivers in the action, violence, and lack-of-complexity categories in spades…. And it won’t cost ya one red nickel, pilgrim.
TRWNN is set in the American West, but not precisely our historical frontier. It’s clear to me that Bryan Ansell, the rules designer (president of the Foundry, a miniatures company that, oddly enough, makes some great cowboy figures), has seen a movie Western at some point in his life. Ansell’s approach is simple and highly interactive: 1 figure (casting) represents 1 real individual. The time scale and ground scale are somewhat unimportant, I’ve played this game with 15mm, 25mm, and 54mm (even Lego figures). What are important are the activation rules and the combat tables. Each GM prepares a FATE DECK in advance of a game; this is a deck of FATE CARDS. Any cards will do; the backs of old business cards are particularly good for this purpose or you could use the Fate Deck Online that I created (see below). Some method of associating the card with a figure on the table must be devised (a roster, or writing on the cards, etc.) Each fate card is turned over, once a turn, and GM calls out who has the action card. The figure associated with the card can do one of several actions:
- Pass
Do nothing (except turn to face any direction)
- Move
Throw three dice, this is the maximum distance in inches that he can move, he may set off in any direction at the beginning of his move, but must move in a straight line, making no further turns. He must end his turn facing the direction he has moved.
- Move & Fire
Works just as above, except only two movement dice are thrown, and the character must fire at the end of his movement if an enemy is within his arc of fire.
- Fire
turn to face any direction then fire.
- Aim
the character aims at an opponent. He states who his target is, and turns to face him.
- Reload
the character reloads one of his guns, after suffering an out of ammo result.
- Recover
characters who are wounded or duck back must use a turn recovering before they can make any other action. Any number of wounds and duck backs can be recovered from simultaneously in one action.
- Get up
Characters who are knocked down by a bullet or in a fight must get up before they can make any other action other than recovering.
- Duck back
a character may voluntarily duck back, so that he can no longer see or be seen. He must recover before he can then make any other action.
- Fix gun
Attempts to unjam his weapon
- Challenge
Call one or more of his enemies out to a duel in the open.
- Fast draw
Go for his gun, often in a duel or backshooting situation.
Everything in TRWNN is a variation of this list above. Combat is extremely simple; you: 1) Measure the distance (“gun to nose”); 2) Look the shot up on the Range tables to get a base number, then modify that number based on a lot of variables– the rank of the firer, movement, wound status etc. 3) Roll a number of dice equal to the adjusted number. Any SIX result is a hit; Any ONEs more than sixes means the firing weapon is unloaded, two ones over a six means the gun is jammed; three ones (optional) means the shot is fumbled. Damage is a simple Location versus Effect table; most damage is accrued by number of wounds but some results are immediately deadly. Head shots, for example. There is a nice chrome level to this game, I’ve added to it myself on occasion. Some of the funner aspects of the game are the Ranking of the figure itself (Citizen, Gunman, Shootist and the notorious Legend of the West), Skills, and all sorts of other fun stuff that Ansell (and some volunteer tinkerers) have added on over time– the skills and ranks, in particular, make for a semi-RPG experience. See the Net.Sources at the end of this review for some interesting TRWNN material.
In conclusion, TRWNN is fast-paced, energetic, funny and not too serious. Best of all, it doesn’t require an expensive infrastructure of hard-bound rules manuals, expensive minatures, and/or some governing ordinance that states what is kosher to play with and what isn’t. You can definitely use ANY Deadlands miniature on TRWNN, or something in the 25-30mm line or roughly the same size. There is a wealth of miniatures in various sizes to use to play with, however they are not really necessary. You can get started with a cheap bag of 54mm plastic cowboys and indians from just about any reputable dollar store, using shoeboxes for buildings… I did, and it was a blast. If you have some old Lego sets laying around, Lego makes a great cowboy and indians line that is just fine for this purpose. Be inventive, you don’t have to spend every dime you make to have a good time at the gaming table.
NET.SOURCES: THE RULES WITH NO NAME
The Rules
The Foundry’s Page
Additional Material done by yours truly (a fairly accurate source of miniatures, too)
Some Games in Action (3 Pages)
