These pages describe a Wild West skirmish scenario played by the Rivals games gang with 25mm miniature figures. 

The rules used were Blaze of Glory, the buildings were from Whitewash City, and the figures were from Foundry.

The scenario was created by James over 18-19 March 2006 and played on the 22nd.

Please e-mail me if you use or have any comments on this scenario.

The town was constructed from card printed with the excellent Wild West buildings available from Eric Hotz's Whitewash City site.  The detail of the buildings and the lettering on the signs are superb and constructing them was straightforward.  Here are some photos:

The five players were first given a newspaper (MS Word document) whose stories and adverts set the tone for what was about to go down in Whitewash City.   The copies of the newspaper were handed out randomly and on the back was marked which chair the player would take at the table, and so which faction they would play.   The atmosphere was complemented by Ennio Morricone's soundtracks to the classic spaghetti westerns. 

There were five factions in our game.  All of the names of the characters and gangs are historically accurate.  Search Wikipedia for background information.

The weapons recorded were those actually held by the figure.   The stats of the characters were generated as suggested by the Blaze of Glory rules.  Although we had Nerve stats, we didn't use them in the game as we wanted it to last longer.  Tim Eagling's Blaze of Glory rules worked really well and the only other minor deviations were:

• the gamesmaster drew coins from a bag to decide which faction (not which character) went next
• a quickdraw rule to allow characters who were surprised to shoot first if their reflex was higher
• and we forced characters in close proximity to fight hand to hand rather than carry on shooting

The following secret missions were handed to each player:

The Lawmen will see justice done! Murietta must hang at noon. Any of his gang must be apprehended. Watch out for other dirty dogs attempting to make mischief whilst the town's attention is on the hanging. Keep the peace - and remember, the good guys don't shoot first!

The Texas Rangers are in town so the aptly named Captain Love can keep an appointment with Daisy Duke at the Grand Hotel. But Jack Hays has had run-ins with the Five Joaquins before, and so is keen to see justice being done when Murietta hangs at noon, and knows there are still bounties on the rest of his gang. Watch out for other dirty dogs attempting to make mischief whilst the town's attention is on the hanging. Help the Lawmen keep the peace, and don't make their job harder by breaking it yourself!

The James Gang have learned that the safe of the Whitewash City is packed full of dollars ready to loan to all the prospectors arriving in the West hungry for gold and glory. Jesse James won't let an opportunity like this go by, and won't let anybody stop him! Frank James is also keen to pay a quick visit to Daisy Duke at the Grand Hotel - she spurned his advances last time but he won't take no for an answer today.

The Five Joaquins will have to change the gang's name if Murietta ends up with a stretched neck today. Rescue Murietta and show Sheriff Masterson what happens to those that mess with the Joaquins! Jack Hays of the Texas Rangers may be in town. He has led many a posse against the Mexicans in the past, and the Joaquins won't be pleased to see him.

The promised federal aid for the Indians is not arriving and the Sioux are starving. Following the rustling that the Sioux braves have been up to recently, Whitewash City has pulled its cattle in to the town, so now the braves have little choice but to enter the town and steal away some head of cattle. The braves don't want to cause too much trouble, but they will defend themselves and their people.

The gamesmaster controlled a handful of non-player characters, mainly for comic effect, for example allowing threatened store owners to shoot or run and hide.

Lots of fun.  Great role-playing.  Sneaky moves.  Lucky shots.

For a fuller description, read the blow by blow account.

The exploits were reported the following morning in the Whitewash City Gazette (MS Word document).