Boot Hill Rpg Pdf Download

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TSR Boot Hill RPG. For Discussion and Fan-based Community around the original 1975 TSR Western Gunslinger Game 'Boot Hill.' I'd really like to print out a physical copy of a Boot Hill 3e pdf I found (somewhere), years ago. But Lulu seems to have changed their standards when it.

Boot Hill Third Edition Character Sheet 1.0

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  • Authormadirishman
  • UploadedMonday, 18th November, 2013, 01:23 PM
  • Last UpdatedMonday, 18th November, 2013, 01:23 PM
  • CategoryCharacter Sheets for Other Games
  • Total Downloads245

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  • MI_BootHill3eCharSheet.pdf137.0 KB


Castles & Crusades Spell Planner Sheets 1.0

Another oldie I dug up, this is a functional character sheet for Boot Hill's third edition. Maybe I'll get around to working on this one again...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Character sheet created by Mad Irishman Productions.
Boot Hill
Designer(s)Brian Blume
Gary Gygax
Publisher(s)TSR, Inc.
Publication date1975
Genre(s)Western

Boot Hill is a western-themed role-playing game designed by Brian Blume, Gary Gygax, and Don Kaye (although Kaye unexpectedly died before the game was published), and first published in 1975. Boot Hill was TSR's third role-playing game, appearing not long after Dungeons & Dragons and Empire of the Petal Throne, and taking its name from the popular Wild West term for 'cemetery'. Boot Hill was marketed to take advantage of America's love of the western genre. The game did feature some new game mechanics, such as the use of percentile dice, but its focus on gunfighting rather than role-playing, as well as the lethal nature of its combat system, limited its appeal. Boot Hill was issued in three editions over 15 years, but it never reached the same level of popularity as D&D and other fantasy-themed role-playing games.

Creative origins[edit]

First edition cover.

Soon after TSR was formed by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye in late 1973, they and new business partner Brian Blume started development of the rules for a Western genre miniatures combat system and role-playing game called Boot Hill.[1] Kaye in particular was an avid supporter of Boot Hill[2]—he was a fan of the Western genre, and even his fantasy D&D character, Murlynd, was dressed and armed as a cowboy after being magically transported from Gygax's Greyhawk campaign to an alternate universe set in the Wild West.

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However, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack in January 1975.[1] Blume and Gygax subsequently published Boot Hill later that year in memory of their friend.[3] It was TSR's third role-playing game, after Dungeons and Dragons and Empire of the Petal Throne.[4]David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, described the game as 'the company's second role-playing game; it was set in the Old West and focused mostly on gun-fighting.'[5]

System[edit]

Boot Hill used game mechanics that were advanced for the time. Most games still used traditional six-sided dice, but Boot Hill was one of the first games to use two ten-sided dice as percentile dice for character abilities and skill resolution.[6] However, several factors limited its appeal.

  • Although the western was a popular American motif, the game did not have the same mass appeal as D&D's Tolkienesque fantasy setting.[6]
  • Boot Hill focused on gunfighting rather than role-playing. The first edition and second editions were specifically marketed as a miniatures combat game, but even in the third edition, most of the rules concerned combat resolution, with relatively little information about settings and few rules for social interaction.[6]
  • Combat could be short and deadly, with death often coming from the first gunshot.[6] This lethality did not change over time since, unlike D&D characters, Boot Hill characters did not advance in levels to develop better defenses or advantages over non-player characters; they remained just as likely to die in their hundredth combat as they had been in their first. As a result, most characters had a very short life span, and players generally had little chance to identify with their player character over the long term, as they could with a player character in D&D.
  • Unlike D&D, there was no large catalogue of non-human monsters, only human opponents. In addition, there were no alignment rules, making the difference between the 'good guys' and 'bad guys' a matter of moral interpretation or choice.[7]

For these reasons, although Boot Hill was published in three editions, none captured the public imagination in the same way as D&D; Boot Hill remained a very small and limited member of TSR's stable of games.[6]

Publications[edit]

Boot Hill Rpg Download

Mad Mesa cover.
  • 1st edition, printed in 1975, 34 pages, no ISBN.
  • 2nd edition, printed in 1979, ISBN0-394-51875-6. Reprinted with a different cover in 1984.
  • 3rd edition, printed in 1990, ISBN0-88038-976-1.
Rpg

Boot Hill, 2nd Edition was supported by a referee's screen and five 32 page adventure modules:

  • Referee's Screen and Mini-Module, ISBN0-394-52590-6.
  • Mad Mesa (BH1), printed in 1981, ISBN0-935696-71-7, and 1982, ISBN0-394-52705-4. Written to be playable solitaire, as a gamebook, or as a multiplayer module.
  • Lost Conquistador Mine (BH2), printed in 1982, ISBN0-394-52594-9.
  • Ballots and Bullets (BH3), 1982, ISBN0-394-53067-5.
  • Burned Bush Wells (BH4), 1984, ISBN0-394-53466-2.
  • Range War! (BH5), 1984, ISBN0-88038-105-1.

TSR also released a three-figure pack of gunslinger miniatures for Boot Hill.[8]Dragon Magazine issue 71 features the Boot Hill module 'The Taming of Brimstone' by Donald Mumma which was the winner of a module design contest.

See also[edit]

Boot Hill Rpg Pdf Download Free

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

References[edit]

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  1. ^ ab'In Memorium'. The Strategic Review. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc. (#2): 1. Summer 1975.
  2. ^Kuntz: 'Don was a great fan of the Western and an avid supporter of the Boot Hill rules.' 'Robilar Remembers: Murlynd'. Pied Piper Publishing. 2004-10-18. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  3. ^Lynch, Scott (2001-05-17). 'Interview with Gary Gygax, part 2 of 3'. RPGnet.
  4. ^'The History of TSR'. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2005-08-20.
  5. ^Ewalt, David M. (2013). Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. Scribner. p. 99. ISBN978-1-4516-4052-6.
  6. ^ abcde'Ride, Cowboy, Ride - The Forgotten Boot Hill'. Gamegrene. Disobey. 2000-12-29. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  7. ^Beddow, Dominic (Dec 1979 – Jan 1980). 'Open Box'. White Dwarf (review). Games Workshop (16): 23–24.
  8. ^[1]

External links[edit]

  • Boot Hill - TSR's Wild West RPG Kraków RPGs has a complete bibliography with cover photos.
  • Boot Hill, 2nd Edition - Review from the Museum of Roleplaying Games.
  • Ride, Cowboy, Ride - The Forgotten Boot Hill - Review from GameGrene.
  • Boot Hill - Demian's Gamebook Web Page, mostly on the solitaire module, Mad Mesa.
  • The Stuff of Legends - TSR: Boot Hill, Pope, Thomas.

Boot Hill Rpg Pdf

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