Chapter One: Introduction The desire to make-believe - to pretend - begins in each of us at an early age. In childhood, make-believe games with parents are very simple and are often drawn from fairy tales - a father pretending to be the wicked wolf in pursuit of the three little pigs. These games of pretend become more complicated and formalized as children grow and begin interacting with other children of the same age. Such games of make-believe let us learn and experience what it is like to be other people or things - at least as we imagine them to be. There are no rules in these childhood games. Instead, everyone agrees to play within a certain made-up universe which works the same way for everyone involved in the game. If someone refuses to play accordingly - for example, refusing to fall down and play dead after being "shot" - the game breaks down as the players become upset and angry. Such a world of make-believe works only as long as all who are involved in the game agree to what the rules are. There is still the desire in all of us to make-believe, often expressing itself in the form of daydreams - such as being Jesse James. Since you picked up this book, you are most likely wondering what "role playing in the world of Gun Slingers" is all about. It is just another world of make-believe, except that the rules are all included in this book. The Gun Slingers Game allows you become an outlaw of your own creation. All you need to play are these rules, a table to sit at, and some pencils, paper, dice, and markers. The locations, people, and incidents will be visualized in your mind. The game can be played by as few as two people and by as many as seven. The action will be described verbally by the Game Master, and the plots will be resolved by the quick thinking of the players, the abilities of the characters they are pretending to be, and some luck (which is represented by the use of dice). The Gun Slingers Game is much like an improvisational theater piece in which the actor, who in real life are probably nothing like the characters they portray, have created their characters out of their heads and the director has written the script, but only as a loose outline of what is to happen. The director knows the story line and tells the actors bits and pieces of it, allowing them to react to the situations he presents as their characters would. The director creates the script as an outline for the actors' actions. The actors play only the major parts of the heroes while all the villains and minor parts are played by the director. An improvisational piece is flexible for it allows the actors through the choices they make to alter the plot lines of the script. Only when the whole script has been acted out will the actors and director know how things come out in the end. A stage play, however, is much more formally structured than a role playing game. In this game, the actors in the play are called Player Characters - the characters the players are pretending to be. The director is called the Game Master (usually abbreviated as GM). The players will act out the parts of the heroes, and the GM will handle all the villains and minor characters (called Non-Player Characters, or NPCs). The GM creates the script, presents the situation to the players, portrays all secondary characters, and acts as the final arbiter on the rules of the game - that is, the rules all have agreed to play by. This book contains a good deal of information, both about the games rules and also general information about the world of Gun Slingers. The person who ends up being Game Master (whether continuously or for only one session) has the final say about how these rules are to be used and interpreted. If the Game Master (abbreviated GM from now on) wishes to simplify the rules, he may do so; if he wishes to make them more complicated, he may do that as well. As long as he is consistent with his rulings and interpretations and his players generally agree with his decisions, all will be well. If each of the people in a group playing the game take turns being GM, then all should agree how to interpret these rules to their mutual satisfaction. These rules are presented in an organized format designed to help them be more easily accessible. It is helpful, but not essential, for each player to own a copy of this book. It is essential for the GM to own a copy. The Dice One type of die are used in this game: a ten-sided die, which may be new to you. This type of die may be found at any reputable hobby store that carries adventure games. The ten-sided die has numerals printed on it. By rolling the die, you will get a number from 1 to 0, which equals 10. Two of these ten-siders are often rolled together to generate a number from 1 to 100. This is done by rolling the two dice and reading them in sequence, first the colored die for the 10's and then the other for the single unit. Thus, if you are using a red die (for the 10's) and a white die (for the single unit), a roll of 6 on the red die and a 7 on the white die would be read as 67. A red 2 and a white 0 would be 20. A red 0 and white 4 is 04, or simply 4. A red 0 and white 0, however is not 0, but 100. If you roll the two ten-siders a few times and read them, you will easily get the hang of it. It will help speed play if more than one set of ten-siders are available for the GM and the players. Character Record Sheet This is a sheet of paper on which all the important information about the character being played is written down. In Chapter 2 the use of the Character Record Sheet is fully explained. Glossary of Terms The following terms are used throughout this book and it will speed you understanding of the game to read them through first: Adventure: A role playing session; it may consist of only one session or many sessions together. It is a generic role playing term. Character: A persona who appears in the game, either created by a player of the GM. Characteristic: Measures a character's physical and mental being; the five categories measure and Strength (abbreviated STR), Agility (AGI), Concentration (CON), Intelligence (INT), and Charisma (CHA). These are explained fully in Chapter 2. Characteristic Value: A number ranging from 1 to 15 that indicates an overall degree of excellence in a specific characteristic, with 1 being considered poor and 15 superb. Damage Points: Measures the amount of damage a character can take before he dies. Damage Points are figured by adding the characters Strength, Agility, and Constitution together. This figure is the most your character can take in damage before he dies. Difficulty Level: A number ranging from 10 to 130 that is used to measure how easy or difficult a task will be to complete. A 130 represents an extremely difficult task and a 10 represents a particularly easy task. All tasks begin with a difficulty of 70, which may be modified higher or lower by the GM to reflect the ease or difficulty of the task being attempted. There are guidelines in the rules to aid the GM in deciding on the proper modifiers. There is none lower than 10 or higher than 130. Game Master: The person who is in overall charge of the play of a game. He creates the adventures the characters will undertake, acts as rules referee, controls the Non-Player Characters, and makes sure every player has a good time. Game Session: One evening's play of the Gun Slingers Game; one get-together. Generation Points: Points which represent the experiences of a character in his life prior to becoming a Player Character. They are spent during the Character Creation (see Chapter 2) to purchase Characteristic Values, Skills, and Skill Bonuses. They are never used in play after the character has been created. Non-Player Character: A character created by the GM and played by him only. Abbreviated in the game as NPC. Player: The person pretending to be a character in the game. Player Character: A character created by one particular player and played only by him. Roll Modifier: Defines how experienced a character is with a Skill or Characteristic when used in a task. The Roll Modifier is added to the dice roll to increase the chances of making the roll. Each particular skill has a simple formula given in Chapter 3 for determining this modifier. Run: A generic term in role playing. When used as a noun, it means the same as a Game Session; when used as a verb, it means "play" - to run a character or an adventure means to play that character or adventure. Skill Bonus: A value from 1 to 15 which measures how adept or experienced a character is with a skill. Skill Points: Points accumulated by a character after a mission that indicate his growth through his experiences. These points are spent to increase the character's Skill Bonuses, Characteristic Values, and buy new Skills. Skills: Specialized training for characters in specific physical and mental studies which are used during adventures to complete certain tasks. Static Action Modifier: A positive or negative number which is added to or subtracted from the Difficulty Level to reflect greater than average ease or difficulty. A positive modifier reflects the greater ease; a negative modifier reflects greater difficulty. All modifiers in the game are applied to the Difficulty Level. The GM decides on any modifiers that apply to a task and announces the final Difficulty Level to the player making the dice roll. Task: A specific attempt to use a Skill or Characteristic that requires a dice roll by the player or GM to determine its success. Game Concepts When a character is created, he has five basic Characteristics (Strength, Agility, Concentration, Intelligence, and Charisma). The character will also be given skills which are based on the characteristics (the process is explained in Chapter 2). During a game, a player announces what he wishes his character to do. The GM decides whether this task falls under the heading of a skill or characteristic. Typical tasks include firing a gun, riding a horse, seducing a woman, playing poker, and so forth. The GM or the player then rolls D100 to determine if the task succeeded and to what extent it was successful. The central concept of the game is the Difficulty Level - an element which must be thoroughly understood by both the players and the GM. It is a number, ranging from 10 to 130, which is used to measure the ease of difficulty of performing a task. The higher the Difficulty Level, the harder the task, and the lower the Difficulty Level, the easier the task is to accomplish; thus a task with a Difficulty Level of 80 is much harder to perform than a task with a Difficulty Level of 30. All tasks start with a Difficulty Level of 70, and the GM adds to this number to indicate the task is harder to accomplish or subtracts from it to decrease the difficulty of the task. The Difficulty Level may never be lower than 10 or higher than 130. The GM may apply whatever positive or negative modifiers to the Difficulty Level he feels are appropriate to the situation. The Roll Modifier defines how advanced or experienced a character is with the skill or characteristic being used in the task. The more experienced the character is, the higher the Roll Modifier. If the character possesses the skill under which the task falls, the GM uses the Roll Modifier for that skill (which is recorded on the Character Record Sheet). If the character does not have the skill is question, the GM uses the characteristic(s) associated with that skill, but with the Skill Bonus at 0 (there is also a -3 Static Action Modifier since the character is not trained in that skill). If the task does not fall under any particular skill, the GM decides which characteristic is being used, and its value becomes the Roll Modifier. Once the Difficulty Level is determined, the GM or player makes a D100 roll to find out whether the task succeeded or failed. Then add the Roll Modifier to the dice roll. To be successful, the dice roll plus the Roll Modifier must be greater than or equal to the Difficulty Level. If the dice roll plus the Roll Modifier is less than the Difficulty Level, then whatever was attempted has failed.