USR Gunslinger Character Sheet

I've gone and made up a character sheet for USR Gunslinger with the idea of writing up a rules hack of TSR's Boot Hill. I've posted it to my Summonings page here at The Vanishing Tower.

So this means I will actually have to write up these rules some time soon or I'll just have characters running around with no rules to govern their behavior. Now that sounds like the Wild West...

USR Sword & Sorcery Play Aids

The Summonings page now has links to download your USR Sword & Sorcery Character Sheet, and USR Sword & Sorcery Campaign Notepad pages... sweet!

First Strike explained...

At least as it applies to my USR Sword & Sorcery campaign. The Equipment List includes some weapons, such as the flail, which come with a "first strike" attribute.

First strike weapons allow a character to make an initial melee attack without their opponent being able to inflict any damage against them, even if they win the contested attribute roll. This initial attack roll is made in conjunction with the character's regular Action roll for the combat round, in effect, giving the first strike weapon two attack rolls versus your opponents one.

Once engaged in melee a character cannot make a first strike attack. If two or more characters are attacking each other with first strike weapons, no one can make a first strike attack.

First strike does not apply to ranged weapon attacks.

LotFP Language Rules for USR Sword & Sorcery

My players came upon a book, and, after a year of play, for the first time I had to know if any these motley louts could read. True to their sword and sorcery roots these adventuring heroes have yet to approach any task without crushing blows, and flashing blades. Illiteracy among them all was a real possibility, so I ruled that none of them could read. But that didn't feel complete. I mean, what is the chance that they are all illiterate?


I needed a mechanism to decide an unknown question such as this and James Raggi's LotFP rules for language is the only one which ever struck me as a functional, in-game method for literacy and language questions. So the following is how I've hacked them to suit my USR Sword & Sorcery game.

Language Rules for USR Sword & Sorcery

Most PCs are assumed to begin play being fully fluent in their native tongue.

They are literate as well if they can pass a 6+ difficulty roll against their Wits.

Any specialism which can modify the results, good or bad, should be applied. Any specialism which implies literacy (scribe for example) would confer automatic literacy in the PC's native language. Any other modifier the CK wishes to impose can be added to this initial literacy roll.

When a PC comes into contact with another language their chance of speaking the language is determined by passing a 6+ difficulty roll against their Wits. Did they make it? If they did then you need to determine if they are literate too. Make another Wits roll against a 7+ difficulty.

To learn an unknown language takes six months of full immersion, fluent in two years. A language can be taught by a tutor, but that takes two years of at least five lessons a week (at 3sp a lesson) to become comfortably conversant, and fluency does not come until being immersed in the language.