What A Cowboy - First Game

Our club is trying out What A Cowboy (WaC) this week, so I thought I'd get ahead of the game by giving them a try at home. So yesterday evening I set up a simple game with Mrs Kobold.

We had two figures each, one a shootist (the average category) and one a gunslinger (who is good, but not the best). Each had a single revolver. We started in opposite corners and it was a simple shootout; last pair (or survivor of the pair) standing would win.

Here we are ready to go. I had Martha (gunslinger) and Webster (shootist) at the bottom left, whilst Catherine had Scar (gunslinger) and Sack-Face (shootist) top left.

Webster moving into position. WaC uses an action dice pool system. each figure starts with six dice which they roll when activated. Each roll allows a particular type of action; ones allow movement, for example. Sixes are wild and some types can change dice to other scores to give them some flexibility. As a shootist Webster just had to work with what he rolled. He got plenty of movement rolls but movement is also random, and he consistently rolled low for distance. This is why he is plodding slowly across open ground. Beyond him you can see Martha adopting a more cautious approach. As a gunslinger, she could change one of her dice to any roll she liked.

On Catherine's side the outlaws were moving more quickly. Sack-Face was already in cover and Scar was moving confidently towards some.

Martha got the opportunity to move, spot Sack-face, shoot and then move to cover. She took it. But Sack-Face managed to duck out of sight before she could fire by using up his Bonanza token. These allow you to interrupt someone's action, but you only get a limited supply of them; one for a shootist like Sack-Face. Martha missed her chance, but Sack-face wouldn't be pulling the same trick again.

Martha moved across the board to the cover of some rocks. She had a clear shot at Scar, but he still had tokens to play and I suspected that Catherine would use them, so I had Martha go for Sack-Face again, who was lurking in the scrub behind him. She hit, and forced him to go to ground. A hit is assumed to be a shot in the general area of the target, who may possibly dodge it. If they fail then they take a damage effect. If they pass the shot has no effect but forces the target to duck into cover and go pinned. Pinned characters are restricted on their next move.

Sack-Face quickly recovered from being pinned and got a great set of moves allowing him to get the jump on Webster. Fortunately Webster was only hit for shock; this forces a character to temporarily lose action dice (wounds cause a permanent loss of dice).

And that's what happened to Martha; Scar fired a fusilade of shots inflicting both shock and an arm wound. Martha's dice pool was looking very puny.

Webster finally got his act together and blazed away at Sack-Face, forcing him to duck for cover with his dice-pool depleted as well.

Sack-Face went for revenge, and rushed into fisticuffs, partially because Catherine wanted to try the rules. Webster actually had a significant advantage, mostly through having a full dice-pool, but the fight ended in a frustrating draw, and both parties pulled back exhausted.

Too exhausted for Sack-face. The fight left his dice-pool empty. When that happens a figure either runs for it or is too wounded to keep fighting. In Sack-face's case he skedaddled.

This left Scar fighting alone. He stayed hidden whilst he reloaded.

Martha and Webster started to close in on Scar. Martha had played a Bonanza token to remove some shock and rolled well, ditching all of it and getting back to an almost full dice-pool (she was down one for the wound).

Scar came out fighting. Webster got in a useful volley of shots that left Scar floundering, allowing Martha to come in from behind and finish the job. Scar fled for the hills, his dice-pool deleted, albeit that he was only lightly wounded.

Reading the rules after wards I found that we only made a couple of minor errors. The game flowed well, and I didn't have to much trouble looking up stuff as we needed it. True, we were playing with foot figures only, and simple weapons, but it was fun, with the dice-pool mechanism forcing some interesting decisions. Catherine struggled with the spotting rules a little, but they're pretty good. I think each character needs a small, unique, marker to place next to whoever they have eyes on, though.

Anyway, I feel a lot more prepared for this week's game.