Thus, an "adventurer" gains 1 point in Fighting and Skill every two levels, while a "magician" gains 1 point of Magic every level and 1 point in Fighting and Skill every three levels. Weird West is a class and level-based, though its classes (called "paths") primarily determine which attributes a character increases over time and at what rate. Such abilities, even the more overt ones, are still fairly limited by the standards of most RPGs, meaning that Weird West falls more on the "low magic" end of the spectrum, though, given its open-ended nature, it'd be very easy to add more impressive and potent abilities to the game if one so desired. For example, the abilities "Fastest Gun in the West" or "Horse Whisperer" are both governed by Magic. It's worth noting that "Magic" governs any unusual ability, not just those that are explicitly supernatural. Players have 4 points to allocate amongst these attributes as they wish, with 0 being an acceptable score for any attribute except Grit, which governs a character's Stamina (as hit points are called here).
Weird West characters have four attributes: Fighting, Grit, Magic, and Skill. For the chart averse, let me say now that it's the only significant chart in the game and, with the pocketmod, there's really no excuse for everyone, player and referee alike, not to have the chart readily at hand while playing Weird West. The last page is a Fighting Chart that cross-references a character's Fighting attribute against his target's Defense. The first page is its title page, with a superbly evocative illustration by Robertson that, to my mind, recalls Mike Mignola's work. Of the game's 8 single-column pages, only two are actually taken up with rules.
#Weird west steampunk mod
One is a traditional 8½" x 11" booklet the other is a much smaller (4.25" x 2.75") folded "pocket mod." I'm a big fan of small rulebooks, both in terms of page count and physical size, so I was very pleased to see the pocket mod version. Before I expand on that thought, let's talk more specifically about what you get in $1 PDF.įirst off, it's worth noting that Weird West comes in two formats, both of which you get when you purchase the game. Do so and what you're left with is a nifty little game system that, frankly, could easily serve as the basis for a wide variety of roleplaying campaigns, regardless of when or where they're set. Here's the thing: it's dead simple to remove the supernatural elements from Weird West, since, in the 8-page Basic Rulebook they're actually quite few. "Not another occult Western game," you may be saying. So, when Stuart Robertson released a Western RPG of his own, I took notice.Ĭalled Weird West, Robertson describes it as a "streamlined and fast playing adventure roleplaying game for weird western worlds of cowboys, kung-fu, magic and otherworldly malevolence." Now, I'm sure some of you are already disappointed to read this description. Despite this, I've long been on the lookout for a good Western RPG and have even been toying around with one of my own over the past year ( Saloons & Shootists is its working title).
That said, my direct experience with Western-themed RPGs is quite limited, with TSR's Boot Hillbeing the only one I played successfully for any length of time. Certainly I talk a great deal more about fantasy on this blog than I do about Westerns, but that's more an acknowledgment of how large fantasy looms in our hobby than it is a reflection of my personal tastes. After science fiction, I'm hard pressed to decide whether I like fantasy or Westerns more.
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