Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
A TRULY GRITTY OLD WEST RPG
BY MATT SNYDER
Introduction reform. He cant farm, he can barely ride his old, sway-
backed horse, and he cant shoot worth a damn. Yet, when
There comes a time when you got he finally snaps after they kill his best friend from his wilder
to shoot or give up the gun. days, Ned, hes no longer comical. He becomes a frightening
avenger. In the end, Munnys past comes up to haunt him
again as he shoots down five or six men, including his rival
D UST DEVILS is a role-playing game set in the dust-rid-
den Old West. Players portray gunslingers, gamblers,
cowboys and outlaws who must not only survive in a
Lil Bill, and scares away as many more. His legend lives on
that hes a "known thief and murderer, a man of notoriously
vicious and intemperate disposition. But is he really?
rugged land, but conquer their own Devils, the dark
Thats the great issue in the movie, and its just the kind of
secrets that keep them from being honest decent folk.
thing Dust Devils should facilitate for players.
Dust Devils asks, Can a no good sunnuvabitch make
Shoot or give up the gun. Which is it gonna be?
right with his ugly, evil past and be a man the God-fearin
Both these movies exemplify Dust Devils premise, which is
people of the West respect and admire? Or, will the Devil
the point of the Devil mechanic (see Devil below).
get the best of him, and everyone see that hes a cheat, a liar
or a no-good killer.
Or, as we might say nowadays: Can a person reform his
or her dark past and become a hero, or will that past haunt
Characters
their actions until death?
Or, perhaps simpler: What does it take to be a hero in a
lawless place where its hard to just stay alive?
C HARACTERS have four attributes: Hand, Eye, Guts and
Heart. Players divide 13 points among the four
attributes for their character as they see fit.
Or, simplest of all: Can a person change?
Hand represents physical action, i.e. anything a character
Dust Devils is a game in the tradition of films like The does with his hands or body. Hand covers everything
Outlaw Josey Wales and the more current Unforgiven. In the from the brawn needed to knock a fella into next week to
former, Josey Walesplayed by Clint Eastwoodis a real the finesse required to rope an outlaw. (Hand is associat-
sunnuvabitch, yet hes a hero. He doesnt reform his killin ed with the playing card suit of Spades.)
ways. Indeed, he makes use of em right up to the end of the Eye measures a characters senses and intellect. Eye
film, at which point we know Josey Wales may be one hellu- might test a characters ability to sense a canyon
va gunfighter, but he aint the outlaw he used to be. ambush or challenge his knowledge of Apache tradi-
Unforgiven is very much the inverse (in fact, the inverse of tions. (Eye is associated with the suit of Diamonds.)
Westerns in general). William Munneyalso played by Clint Guts reflects a characters vigor and health as well as his
Eastwoodis an outlaw, and makes no bones that he was a courage and cool. It take Guts to take on the whole
no good sunnuvabitch. In the movie, though, hes reformed. Bolivian army, and it might take a lot of Guts to keep
your shootin hand steady with a .45 round in your
I aint like that no more, he says. Yet, hes terrible at thigh. (Guts is associated with the suit of Clubs.)
1
Finally, Heart gauges a characters social competence as well A poor example of a Devil is something the player might
as his heroicor perhaps villainousnature. Heart makes be able to solve neatly in one or two sessions of play.
the ladies swoon, and it sure comes in handy when youre For example, it might be just too easy to say a characters
trying to convince the town to fight the railroads thugs.
(Naturally, Heart is associated with the suit of Hearts.) Devil is Get revenge on the sonnuvabitch that killed his
wife. Should he do just that, well, he might just as well
settle down and see what all this mail-order bride hub-
Traits bub is all about.
A characters Devil may come into play as part of a con-
2
conflict may not draw additional cards, unless they spend
chips (see Stakes below).
POKER HANDS
Call
W HEN ALL players, including the Dealer, settle their
hands, the Dealer calls and everyone shows his hand.
For situations pitting character against character -- like
1. ROYAL FLUSHThe five highest cards in
sequence and all of the same suit. For example,
a shoot out -- highest hand between two sides (i.e. two 10, J, Q, K, and A.
combatants) wins. Keep in mind that the dealer plays 2. STRAIGHT FLUSHFive cards of the same suit in
non-player characters hands. sequence. For example: 5, 6, 7, 8, and
In situations pitting a player character against some 9. Ace can be counted as lowi.e. A, 2,
3, 4 and 5 but in this case the high card
challengelike scaling a cliff face, for examplethe deal- will be the 5, not the A.
er sets a difficulty number for the encounter and draws
that number of cards. The dealer might also elect to make 3. FOUR OF A KINDFour cards with identical face
values. For example, Q, Q, Q, Q.
situations more challenging with a draw difficulty, so
the situation can draw back cards just like a skilled char- 4. FULL HOUSEThree cards of one rank and two
acter does. In these situations, the character must beat the cards of a different rank. For example, J, J, J
and 9, 9. When comparing two or more Full
situation hand to overcome the conflict. So, in the case of Houses in a hand, compare the rank of the three
climbing a cliff, the player needs a better poker hand that matched cards. Highest of these wins.
the situations dealt hand to scale the rock face.
5. FLUSHFive cards all of the same suit in any
Note: Just as in Poker, without a pair or better hand, order. For example, 3, 6, 7, 10 and Q.
high card wins. Also note that Jokers act as Wild Cards.
6. STRAIGHTFive cards of mixed suits in
sequence. For example, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Fastest Tongue in the West 7. THREE OF A KINDThree cards with equal rank.
For example, A, A, A.
hand with just a single high card indicates a relatively order from lowest to highest: Clubs, Diamonds,
Hearts, Spades.
mundane or routine success for the character.
W ILD CARDSJokers serve as Wild Cards, and
count as any card necessary to complete any of
Stakes the above combinations.
3
important challenge. The Dealer offers rewards as Chips;
players are encouraged to use actual poker chips to repre-
Draw additional cardPlayers may draw back one
additional card in the Draw. This is in addition to any
sent these. The Dealer generally sets Stakes at one Chip, drawn cards for the character's Knacks. Players may
but he may offer two or three Chips for especially impor- draw back only one additional card per hand. Note
tant moments in game play. that players must keep at least one card from the Deal
in their hand, which may preclude spending Chips in
The Dealer should offer Stakes for any situation that he this manner.
thinks will be a dramatic turning point in the game. For
example, should the players finally get into a shootout
with the notorious outlaw they chased from St. Louis to
Santa Fe, the Dealer should offer Stakes. Such dramatic difficulty
moments may also be more spontaneous. For example, a
He ran into some difficulty round Abilene way.
character could show a love interest in a minor character.
Though the Dealer didn't expect it, he should react
accordingly and offer Stakes when the character tries to
sweet talk his newfound darling.
C HARACTERS who lose combat, conflicts or other haz-
ardous challenges lose attribute points. Compare the
hand that beat the character in the round. Subtract a
Also, the Dealer should offer Stakes any time a charac-
number of attribute points equal to the number of cards
ter deals with his Devil in a substantive way. For exam-
in the winning hand. The player subtracts the points as
ple, a character whose devil is massacred an Indian vil-
desired from the attributes related to the suits played.
lage could earn stakes when he deals with that history
An example: Lucky Luke Johnson isnt living up to
positivelyperhaps by successfully befriending an Indian
his name. A rival gunslinger shoots at him, playing three
scout, even though the Heart based challenge would be
of a kind in the hand to do it: the Five of Hearts, the Five
difficult due to fewer cards drawn as a result of his Devil.
of Clubs, and the Five of Diamonds. Lucky loses three
points from his Heart (Hearts suit), Guts (Clubs suit)
When the Chips are Down and/or Eye (Diamonds suit). Luckys player subtracts the
three points of damage as he sees fit. He can subtract 3
PLAYERS may spend earned Chips for the following: from a single attribute, or subtract 1 point from all three
attributes if he chooses.
Improve AttributesImproving an attribute costs a When Jokers constitute part of a hand, subtract damage
number of Chips equal to twice the new rating. only from the suits played in other cards. In the above
Attributes cannot be higher than 5. example, if one of the gunslingers cards had been a Joker,
Improve or earn additional KnacksIncreasing a Lucky Luke would have subtracted 3 points from his
Knack costs a number of Chips equal to the new Heart (Hearts suit) and/or Guts (Clubs suit).
Knack rating. Knacks may be increased only one point
at a time. Purchasing a new Knack at Novice level (1)
costs 2 Chips. Characters may have a maximum num-
ber of Knacks equal to their Hand + Eye attribtues.
Assume narration of a handBy spending one
Its all right, Ma (Im only Bleedin)
Chip, a player can assume the narration of one hand,
pre-empting narration by the player with the high card
as described in the rules above. Doing so allows the
I TS IMPORTANT to remember that while player lose attrib-
utes, the Difficulty inflicted may not be grievous. Its up
to the describing character to give his account of the
player to reduce any damage to his character by one
point. Should another player or players attempt to do injury or reason for attribute loss. For example, if Luckys
the same, the players may bid for narrative control of player decided to subtract one point from each attribute
the scene. The player who spends more Chips narrates. hit in the example above, the describing character might
Receive extra cardPlayers can receive one extra say the gunslingers wild shot grazed Luckys forehead.
card in the Deal by spending one Chip. Players may The blood trickling into his eyes explains him losing a
draw only one extra card per hand. point of Eye. Getting shot at explains his reluctance to
4
carry on, which explains the loss of Guts, and the ugly Dealer deals to himself to challenge the character per-
wound makes him a gruesome sight to everyone, hence the forming the Knack) for recovering damage is equal to the
loss of Heart. He may look a bit worse for the wear, but total amount of damage the character received. Success
maybe Luke is lucky after allthe wound could be worse. usually indicates the character is back to his usual self,
Alternatively, the same hand could be described a bit An example: If the narration described the character's
more comically. Say the describing player says the gun- damage as physical injury, he may need the help of Doc,
slingers wild shot knocks down a chandelier that falls on who might use his Doctorin' knack. However, if the narra-
poor Luckys head. The loss of a point in his three attrib- tion described the damage as an embarrassing encounter
utes is a reflection of his being a bit dazed by the event resulting in a loss of Heart and Guts for the character, the
(loss of Eye and Guts), not to mention more than a little solution for recovery may be a little lovin' from ol' Sally
embarrassed (loss of Heart). upstairs in the saloon, or maybe just a shot or two of
whiskey downstairs to get back to his old self!
REcovery
C HARACTERS recover all damage to attributes at the end
of each game session. The Dealer may rule that dam-
Dyin
age carries over into the next session if he thinks events We all got it comin, kid.
are unfinished or so closely tied that characters have little
chance for rest and recovery.
Characters may recover lost attribute points during the W HEN A CHARACTER reaches zero in any single
attribute, hes finally cashed in his chips and gone
to visit St. Peter or roast over the coals of Hell should his
course of a session. This requires the successful use of
Knacks, and the treatment must fit the description of the Devil get the best of him after all.
damage. The difficulty (i.e., the number of cards the
5
Name:__________________ KNACKS TRAPPINGS
Occupation:_____________ Knack Rating ____________________
Chips:__________________ ____________________
1. _____________________ ______
____________________
2. _____________________ ______ ____________________
Attributes 3. _____________________ ______ ____________________
____________________
4. _____________________
5. _____________________
______
______
____________________
Hand Eye ____________________
6. _____________________ ______ ____________________
____________________
TRAITS ____________________
_______________________________ ____________________
____________________
_______________________________ ____________________
DEVIL
Guts Heart ________________________________________ QUOTE
________________________________________ ____________________
________________________________________ ____________________
DUST DEVILS charater sheet