Boot Hill (role-playing game)

Infobox RPG
title=Boot Hill


caption="Boot Hill" Second Edition Cover
designer=Brian Blume and Gary Gygax
publisher=TSR, Inc.
date=1975
genre=Western

"Boot Hill" is a western role-playing game designed by Brian Blume and Gary Gygax. It was TSR's second role-playing game, not long after "Dungeons and Dragons".

ystem

"Boot Hill" has been both praised and criticised for focusing on gunfighting.Fact|date=August 2007 The first edition was specifically marketed as a miniatures combat game, but even in the later editions, most of the rules are combat resolution, with relatively little setting or social interaction rules. Combat could be short and deadly, with death often coming from a single gunshot. "Boot Hill" had no character levels per se, but attributes could be raised over time, and in no game of "Boot Hill" do player characters truly have an advantage over non-player characters in strict observation of the rules. There were also no non-human enemies, or alignment rules, as in "Dungeons and Dragons", making the difference between the "good guys" and "bad guys" a matter of interpretation or choice. [cite journal | last =Beddow | first =Dominic | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Open Box | format = review | journal =White Dwarf | volume = | issue =Issue 16 | pages =23–24 | publisher =Games Workshop | year = 1979/1980 | month = Dec/Jan | url = | issn = | accessdate = ]

It was one of the first games to only (or mostly) use ten-sided dice, either summed, such as 2d10 for characteristics, or as percentile dice, for skill resolution.

Publications

* 1st edition, printed in 1975, 34 pages, no ISBN.
* 2nd edition, printed in 1979, ISBN 0-394-51875-6.
* 3rd edition, printed in 1990, ISBN 0-88038-976-1.

"Boot Hill, 2nd Edition" was supported by a referee's screen and five 32 page adventure modules:
* Referee's Screen and Mini-Module, ISBN 0-394-52590-6.
* "Mad Mesa" (BH1), printed in 1981, ISBN 0-935696-71-7, and 1982, ISBN 0-394-52705-4. Written to be playable solitaire, as a gamebook, or as a multiplayer module.
* "Lost Conquistador Mine" (BH2), printed in 1982, ISBN 0-394-52594-9.
* "Ballots and Bullets" (BH3), 1982, ISBN 0-394-53067-5.
* "Burned Bush Wells" (BH4), 1984, ISBN 0-394-53466-2.
* "Range War!" (BH5), 1984, ISBN 0-88038-105-1.

TSR also released a three-figure pack of gunslinger miniatures for "Boot Hill". [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/tsr/boot-hill.html]

ee also

* Boot Hill - the Wild West cemetery, original meaning of the term

References

* Pope, Thomas. [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/tsr/boot-hill.html "The Stuff of Legends - TSR: Boot Hill"]

External links

* [http://www.waynesbooks.com/BootHill.html "Boot Hill" - TSR's Wild West RPG] Krakow RPGs has a complete bibliography with cover photos.
* [http://rdushay.home.mindspring.com/Museum/Other/Boothillrevw.html "Boot Hill, 2nd Edition"] - Review from the Museum of Roleplaying Games.
* [http://www.gamegrene.com/node/59 Ride, Cowboy, Ride - "The Forgotten Boot Hill"] - Review from GameGrene
* [http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=57 Boot Hill] - Demian's Gamebook Web Page, mostly on the solitaire module, "Mad Mesa".