HOUSE RULES

The Good, The Bad, and The Lucky! by Paul O'Connor with Chris Ulm

Introduction

Our group greatly enjoys The Rules With No Name. After playing a half-dozen or so gunfights in the streets of Valhalla, California, we've developed a number of house rules to speed and streamline the game, collected here as The Good, The Bad, and The Lucky (GBL). Most of our work has centered around rebuilding the activation system, as the greatest complaints about the game have arisen from the inequity that results when characters are "frozen" for several turns by inopportune joker draws.

All standard elements of The Rules With No Name are in force unless noted below.

Additional Equipment

This variant requires the use of a standard deck of 52 playing cards (plus one joker) and a set of poker chips. Also required is a supply of green, red, and blue markers (we use little glass beads, flat on one side, that we found in a craft shop, identical to the stones used to mark life points in collectable card games).

Set-Up

1) Arrange terrain in any mutually agreeable fashion.

2) Roll 2D6, and distribute that many Treasure Spots on the table (use red poker chips). Treasure spots can be placed in any mutually agreeable fashion, but they shouldn't be placed in buildings, they shouldn't be placed within 18" of a table edge, and where possible they should be placed under or next to an appropriate terrain object like a tree, crate, cactus, or barrel.

3) Determine number of characters per player. Two or three characters per player are ideal, but games with more than a dozen characters total are going to drag.

4) Deal RWNN character cards to players. Allow each player to refuse one card, drawing two more from the deck and selecting the replacement he wishes. Select the appropriate lead. The character cards should be arrayed in front of the owning player. Unlike the original rules, these cards will NOT be used to form an activation deck (that's the job of the playing cards). In GBL, character cards are primarily used to track the wounds each character suffers.

6) Shuffle the poker deck and deal one card per character to each player. Count down from ace to deuce; as their card comes up, the owning player may deploy any of his characters. Characters may not be deployed in buildings, or within 6" of an enemy character or Treasure Spot. The joker can be played at any time, and automatically trumps any other card. Any characters not deployed after the joker comes up must start from the player's home edge (determined by where they are sitting).

The game is now ready to begin.

Activation

1) Each turn, deal one playing card per character to each player.

2) After examining the card, each player nominates one of their characters for activation by placing a poker chip on top of it's character card.

3) Count down, from Ace to deuce, with players activating their nominated character when their card comes up. Players can reveal Jokers at any time.

If there is a tie for card value:

Check character class. Break ties by Legends/Shootists/Gunmen/Citizen If still tied, check for card suit: Joker, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs If still tied, roll 2D6.

4) Once activated, a character can do anything permitted by the RWNN. An additional option is available if the character is on top of a Treasure Spot ("Search"). Required recoveries are taken at this time.

5) Once a character has taken his turn, place the nomination poker chip above the character card, to indicate that he has made his move for this round. The controlling player then immediately places a nomination chip on the character that he next wishes to move. If all his characters are moved, he doesn't nominate anyone until next turn.

End of Turn

Once a character has taken an action, he may not act again until next turn (unless he plays a bonus card). A turn ends when:

1) ALL characters have moved,

or,

2) Someone plays a Joker.

Reshuffle the poker deck after the joker appears.

Jokers & Random Events

When a player lays a Joker, immediately roll 2D6 for a Random Event:

2: Place CITIZEN bonus card.
3: Place GUNMAN bonus card.
4: Place SHOOTIST bonus card.
5: Place LEGEND bonus card.
6: Bonus action for THIS character.
7: Scenario event.
8: Bonus action for THIS character.
9: Place LEGEND bonus card.
10: Place SHOOTIST bonus card.
11: Place GUNMAN bonus card.
12: Place CITIZEN bonus card.

When a bonus card is placed, it may be claimed for a bonus action by the next active character eligible to use it. This may or may not be the character that played the Joker. As in RWNN, this card can be played straight away or held for later use.

If a six or eight is rolled, then the activating character must take his bonus action right now (no card is awarded). In effect, he gets a double move.

After determining the random event, the character activated by the Joker may move.

Scenario Events

Scenario Events should be unique to each scenario. Here are some boilerplate scenario events (re-roll unlikely duplicates):

2: Zombies!
3: Activate random NPC (roll on NPC chart to see what he does).
4: Stage coach arrives. Moves through town as per stampede. Determine random edge to start.
5: Stampede!
6: Activate random NPC (roll on NPC chart to see what he does).
7: Activate random NPC (roll on NPC chart to see what he does).
8: Activate random NPC (roll on NPC chart to see what he does).
9: Stage coach arrives. Moves through town as per stampede. Determine random edge to start.
10: Stampede!
11: Activate random NPC (roll on NPC chart to see what he does).
12: Lawmen!

Wounds & Character Cards

Wounds should now be marked on the character card with stones:

red stone: flesh wound
blue stone: serious wound
green stone: recovery required

Either write appropriate wound locations on the character cards, or just envision the location of the arms, head, etc. and place the stone as appropriate.

Discard green stones after a recovery action is taken. Wound stones may only be removed by drinking whisky.

Poker Chips

We put poker chips beneath character figures after certain events have occurred: Unloaded: One white chip.
Jammed: Two white chips.
Character is Hated (usually after backshooting someone): One red chip.

Treasure Spots

Characters at a Treasure Spot can spend an action to search. Roll 2D6 and consult the search table below:

2: Loot!
3: Dynamite Bundle
4: Dynamite
5: Whisky -- remove 1D3 wound stones
6: Nuthin'
7: Nuthin'
8: Nuthin'
9: Whisky -- remove 1D3 wound stones
10: Dynamite
11: Dynamite Bundle
12: Loot!

Characters can drink whisky as soon as they find it, or save it for later, when they must spend an action to drink it.

Characters may pick up loot on the ground by ending their move within 1" of it.

Discard Treasure Spot poker chips after rolling.

Victory

If a player can move Loot! off any table edge, he automatically wins the game. Otherwise, victory goes to the last gang standing.

Miscellaneous: Other House Rules We Use

Aiming: Characters may maintain aim so long as their target remains in their line of sight and does not duck behind cover. Aim is spoiled when you lose sight of your target, you move, or you suffer any wound. You can aim once, then let off several shots over succeeding turns, provided you maintain a line of sight to your target. You may not blaze away with an aimed shot.

Tracking: If a character already in line of sight passes within 8" of another character, the stationary character can turn to face him while he passes by. This reduces the possibility of a character running behind his target for a backshot. Aim may be maintained while tracking.

Moving Over Obstacles: Characters may jump fences/barrels/etc. or move through rough terrain by discarding their highest value movement dice as unused.

Move To Cover: Characters may always elect to ignore the final die of their move by stopping short at a Treasure Spot, behind cover, or on top of some object on the ground (like a dropped bottle of Whisky). This significantly reduces the incidents where characters "overshoot" while moving. It also reduces "back & forth" movement gamesmanship engineered to accomplish the same thing.

Design Notes:

Our variants primarily address the activation system, which we found to be unsatisfactory under the present rules. Our games were invariably big gunfights (with as many as 20-30 figures in a game), and players were frustrated when a bad joker draw could see them frozen for turn after turn while other characters moved several times. Our revised activation system ensures that in most cases, characters will move once per turn ... but you can't control exactly when you'll move, and the joker can still create some nasty surprises.

Bonus move cards come up a lot less in this system, but we haven't missed them much. Shootists and such still get a significant advantage thanks to the activation tie-breaker, the movement rules, and the bonuses awarded for firing.

We're still working through rules changes here and there that cascade out of this new activation system. For example, to determine when dynamite explodes, we take the top card off the poker deck and place it face down beside the dynamite. The next turn, after everyone has been dealt a poker card and nominated the first character to move, the dynamite card is revealed -- the dynamite then goes off when that card is called. If it's an Ace, for example, it will go off straight away. If it's a low card, then characters have a chance to move away.

We hope you can use these ideas in your own games. Have fun.

--Paul & Chris

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