Quick Reference

Every table names the chapter that owns it. Where a figure here and the owning chapter differ, the chapter governs.

Where to Look

Not reprinted: clothing, tools, blades, bows, tack, medicine, horse grades, livery, lodging, passage and the price record (Gear and Prices); the route and the news and mail tables (Places and Campaign Tools); the full jurisdiction table (Factions and Powers); the hazards and the outbreak table (Adversaries); the corridor's illnesses (Era Rules); the timeline (The Era); the pregenerated sheets (Pregenerated Characters).

Making a Character

Character Creation and Roles, Creating a Character.

Standing and Starting Stake

Character Creation and Roles, Standing and Starting Stake. The Stake is cash on hand after the kit; a Tribal Nations character holds it as horses, robes and trade goods. The Credit limit is twice the Stake, three times with Good Credit.

Roles at a Glance

Character Creation and Roles, Roles. Six profession skills each. Revolver is a Single-Action Revolver (Cap-and-Ball before 1873), repeater a Lever-Action Repeater, horse a Riding Horse with Riding saddle and Bridle and bit. Pay is the usual figure (Gear and Prices, Wages and Income).

A trade not listed: six profession skills, a Standing, five favored talents (one of Tier 1) and a kit at the value of the nearest Role (Character Creation and Roles, Other Trades and Offices).

Difficulty at a Glance

The Core Rules ladder: Simple, no roll; Easy, one Trial Die ; Average, two; Hard, three; Severe, four. The owning heading is in brackets.

Era Talents

Skills and Talents, Era Talents. Tier 1 costs 5 XP, Tier 2 costs 10, Tier 3 costs 15 and is earned in play; a favored Tier 2 or 3 talent costs 5 less. The Effect column is a summary; the chapter prints the rule.

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3, earned in play

Era Rules at a Glance

Era Rules. At a table that plays The Old West an Era Rule takes precedence over the Core Rules and the sourcebooks it names.

Illness

Replaces Fortitude for resisting illness.

1. Start. The GM spends a Calamity rolled by an exposed character, or announces an outbreak before the scene. An outbreak starts a player character at Mild or Serious; Grave needs a Calamity or the player's agreement.
2. Each day, at its start, the ill character rolls Willpower alone against the Severity. Conditioned removes 1 Bane Die .
3. Success: mark one. Two successes, in any order, end the illness. A Breakthrough marks both.
4. Failure: Strain by Severity and 1 Bane Die on all checks until it ends, cumulative to the cap. A Calamity also costs Strain equal to half the Strain left before incapacitation, rounded down, and a complication.
5. Course. When the checks run out, the illness ends; a Grave illness takes one last check first.
6. Incapacitated by Strain: bedridden, not dead, still rolling. Only a Grave illness kills: the first failed check after incapacitation inflicts a Critical Injury, a failed last check a second, never more than two.
7. Care, once a day: Medicine, Average (Hard without clean water, rest and supplies). Each net Success gives the patient 1 Boon Die on the next check; 2 Boons one more; a full day in bed one more; no more than 3 from Care. Once per illness a Care check with 2 or more net Successes marks one of the two successes. A Calamity exposes the caregiver.
8. Recovery. Illness Strain does not recover while the illness runs; when it ends, all Strain returns after a night's rest. Consumption runs as Serious, remits for a season, and never kills a player character without the player's agreement.

Keeping a Horse

Living expenses cover feed and stabling in towns, at stations and on the roads. Away from them a horse keeps itself for three days; from day 4 it is unkept: 1 Bane Die on its checks and its rider's Riding checks, 2 on day 5, 3 on day 6, when it will not be ridden. Good grazing, bought forage or a day at a station ends it. On poor grazing a horse that is not Hardy is unkept from day 1; a plains-raised horse counts as Hardy. Hired mounts include upkeep; Army mounts are not tracked.

Attitude (Prejudice)

Prejudice is set in the scene, never on the sheet. The GM names up to three markers the audience reacts to and an Attitude for each. It touches Charm, Negotiation, Leadership, Deception and Intimidation with that audience and any check to be served, hired, paid, heard or let through; never an attack, a defense or a skill rank. Total Bane Dice from Attitude never exceed 3.

Cover (an identity the audience respects) and Sponsor (a respected person present who vouches) each move one marker's Attitude one step toward Neutral; both can apply, to one marker each. A Name within its Reach is a marker at half the Notoriety, rounded up, maximum 2.

The Showdown

1. Trigger. A principal names it; the other answers or the GM rules it qualifies. Both within Medium range, weapons not drawn. A Surprised principal cannot be called out. Walking away from a call is Backed Down.

2. The Stare: opposed Willpower and Readiness. A tie goes to the principal who was called out.

3. Result. The winner holds the street. The loser suffers Strain equal to the net Successes (maximum 3) and chooses Stand Down (yields, is Backed Down) or Draw (structured play; the winner's side takes the first slot of round one).

4. Backed Down: 1 Bane Die to Intimidation and to Stares before that audience until the character wins a Showdown or leaves that town or county for a season.

5. Limits. One Showdown per scene for two principals. A Minion group only through one Minion acting as principal.

6. Spending. Two Boons: one of the loser's allies stands down, or one onlooker's Attitude to the winner moves a step toward Welcome. Breakthrough: the loser cannot Draw this scene without a Story Point. Calamity, either side: someone who is not a principal fires early; both sides Surprised, no first slot.

Notoriety and Bounty

Earning: +1 (at most 1 a session; a Fortune Point or a Peril Point buys a second) for a Showdown won before five or more witnesses by 2 or more net Successes, a deed printed or posted, a trial the town talks about, or a rescue, capture or escape before a crowd. Losing: drops 1 each season out of the news; Lie Low makes it each month.

1. Posting. An authority posts for a Serious or Grave offense at any Notoriety; for a Minor offense only at Notoriety 2 or higher. The sum sits in the band by Notoriety, top of the band at 4 or 5. A posted Bounty raises Notoriety by 1 (maximum 4); it counts as the session's gain unless a Point is spent. The character is Wanted within the poster's Reach (a county, a territory, a railroad's line); when an NPC there identifies the character, the GM may spend a Calamity to inform an officer or a hunter.
2. Find: extended Streetwise or Survival, Average, threshold 3, one roll a day; after five rolls the trail is cold.
3. Identify: Perception or Lore, Average.
4. Take: a Showdown, an ambush or an arrest.
5. Claim: Negotiation, Average. Paid within a month or by the end of the next session; two Boons add expenses. On a failure the authority pays after trial or conviction, or pays the bottom of the band; argue again a week later. A Calamity: the identity is disputed, or someone else was paid first.
6. Ending: a pardon, a trial, death, or twelve months without a new offense. A service for a withdrawal: Negotiation, Hard.

Stakes

For any contest with something real on the table. Not for treaty councils.

1. Ante. Each side names a stake: cash, property valued by Gear and Prices, a favor, or a Name (1 Notoriety or a Backed Down mark, removed if the staker wins). The Pot is the total.
2. Exchanges: an opposed check each. The winner gains 1 Lead, 2 if the margin is 3 or more net Successes. First to 3 Lead takes the Pot; after five exchanges the higher Lead wins and a tie splits it.
3. Raise, before any exchange: add cash of at least a quarter and at most the whole Pot for 1 Boon Die on that exchange. The other side Calls or Folds; a Fold forfeits everything put in and the Raiser takes the Pot. Twice a contest. A side that cannot match may borrow on Credit, Fold, or Call short with everything it has (the excess returns to the Raiser).
4. More than two sides: each exchange the highest net Successes gains the Lead (2 if ahead of every side by 3 or more); every side still in must Call a Raise; the Pot holds every ante.
5. Cheating, before an exchange: Subterfuge, Hard, for 2 Boon Dice on it. Any onlooker opposes with Perception; either principal may call a Showdown. A Calamity exposes the cheat.
6. After: the winner takes the Pot. On the last exchange, two Boons: learn something about the loser; two Banes on the winner's check: one onlooker's Attitude moves a step toward Hostile; Breakthrough: one more concession; Calamity: a third party intervenes.

Law in Play

1. Warrant. Swear a complaint before a justice or judge: Lore (Law) or Negotiation, Average. On a failure the justice wants a witness or a sworn statement. The warrant gives the officer 1 Boon Die on the arrest.
2. Arrest, an Action: Leadership or Intimidation, Average, with the steps and Bane Dice in Difficulty at a Glance. Success: the subject submits unless the subject calls a Showdown; two Boons name an accomplice or a place. Failure: the subject refuses; the officer may call a Showdown or let it go. Calamity: a crowd gathers or a friend fires.
3. Without a warrant: only for an offense in the officer's presence; otherwise 1 Bane Die.
4. Holding a prisoner. A crowd that wants the prisoner: Leadership, Hard, to hold the jail, or a Showdown at the door.
5. Posse. Leadership, Average (Hard if unpopular or the audience Wary): a Minion group of 2 plus net Successes, maximum 8, on the Posse Rider entry, led by the officer, paid $2.00 a day each by the county or the marshal's account. Morale at half numbers or the leader down: group Willpower and Readiness, Average, or it disbands. A posse pays no upkeep for three days.
6. Pursuit is a chase under The Stable, Riding, Chases.

Jurisdiction in Brief

Factions and Powers, Who Answers to Whom; Era Rules, Who Acts Where. A town marshal's power ends at the town limits. A sheriff serves his own county; a warrant in another county needs that county's sheriff or an endorsement. A territorial judge's writ runs across the territory. A U.S. marshal and his deputies handle federal crimes and the federal side of the district court anywhere in the territory, and stop at the Colorado line; a deputy marshal arresting for a territorial crime is a citizen with a star unless the county or town has commissioned him too (Outside Jurisdiction, 1 Bane Die). The Army can hold a man on its own ground or help an officer who asks, and it can expel an intruder from Indian country, but it does not try him; before 1878 it could serve in a posse. An agent reports and requests; he does not arrest. A Tribal Nation governs its own people on its own land; a wrong between its people and others goes through the agent and the federal court, not the sheriff. Railroad agents, stock detectives and vigilance committees have a private citizen's power or none.

Arms in Town

Cheyenne barred carrying arms in town from 30 September 1867 (fine $5 to $100, or up to 30 days); Wyoming Territory barred it in every city, town and village from 1875 (fine $5 to $50); Colorado Territory barred concealed weapons in any town from 1862 (fine $5 to $35) and said nothing of open carry.

1. An officer who sees a stranger's weapon tells him. He has thirty minutes to leave it at a lodging, a store or the marshal's office.
2. A stranger who does not comply is subject to arrest: Leadership, Average.
3. Hiding a weapon: Subterfuge against the officer's Perception; the weapon's Concealable rating adds Bane Dice to the search.
4. A character the marshal knows and trusts may be exempted: Negotiation, Average.

Travel Rates

Era Rules, Travel at the Table; Places and Campaign Tools, A Day's Travel. Journeys are narrated, with one hazard check at most and only when something is in the way (Difficulty at a Glance). A flood that is the whole scene uses the Flood hazard instead. A Calamity on the hazard is the moment to expose a character to illness.

Defense is 0 / 0 for all; traits, barding and the grade rule are in Gear and Prices, Mounts. Distances are in Places and Campaign Tools, Rail Routes and Road, Stage and Trail Routes (Cheyenne to Fort Laramie 89 miles, to Custer City 246; Omaha to Cheyenne 516).

Money and Credit

Adversary Numbers

Adversaries. Wounds and Strain (Nemeses only), Defense Melee / Ranged, Resistance, each attack as Damage / Crit / Range with its qualities, and the Stare pool as Willpower and Readiness. A Minion's Wounds are per member and pooled. Before 1873 a Single-Action Revolver is a Cap-and-Ball Revolver (5 / 3 / Medium; Limited Ammo 6). A melee weapon's damage is Might plus the number. Abilities, Tactics and Use are in the entry.

Stat Block Pattern and Encounter Sizing

Defense is 0; Ranged Defense 1 for one figure in a scene who fights from cover or on the move. An animal's entry sets its own Wounds and Resistance. A Minion from an Elite: the Elite's characteristics and Resistance, Wounds 8, every skill rank 1 lower (minimum 1), the same Equipment. Minions and Elites cannot spend Peril Points; Nemeses can.

Raise or lower the group by one for each player character above or below four. The Stampede, Blizzard and Flood hazards and the outbreak table are in Adversaries.

Gear and Prices in Brief

Gear and Prices owns every dollar figure; the owning sourcebook owns every stat line.

Firearms (The Black Powder Armory, Master Tables)

All use the one skill Ranged. The Single-Action Revolver reloads in two maneuvers, the Cap-and-Ball Revolver in six, or two with a spare cylinder ($3). Cartridges: $1.25 a box of 50 for a revolver or repeater in .44, $1.50 in .45; $1 a box of 20 for a Sharps or Springfield; shotgun shells $1 a box of 25. Blades, bows, tack and medicine are in Gear and Prices, The Essential Gear Table.

Price Bands

When no price is printed, use the band (Gear and Prices, Price bands).

Most-Asked Prices

Gear and Prices, the table named in brackets.

Wages in Brief

Gear and Prices, Wages and Income. Monthly unless stated.

• Wage: a cowhand $30 and board (a top hand $45); a laborer $2 a day; a section hand $1.75 a day; a miner $3 a day; an Army private $13, a sergeant $17; a servant or cook $25 and board.
• Trade: a teamster $28 and board, a stage driver $50; a deputy sheriff $60, a town marshal $100, a deputy U.S. marshal fees only (about $40); an Army scout $75; a teacher $60 (a woman $50); a minister about $67; a station agent $75, an operator $60.
• Professional: a store clerk $75; a doctor about $150 net; a lawyer $10 to $100 a case; a hired editor $30 a week; a lieutenant about $117, a captain $150.
• Hire: casual labor $2 a day; a posse rider or a deputy for a day $2 and the horse's keep; a guide $3 to $5 a day; a drover $30 a month and board.

Dates to Use

Places and Campaign Tools, Dates to Use; the Historical Reference owns each date. Each is a fixed point the world reaches whatever the players do: a deadline, a rumor or news.

The play range is 1869 to 1876, the history range 1865 to 1880, the map date 1 September 1874 (The Era).

Glossary

Index of Rules