Shootout in Grizzlyville AAR

With Jeff down with a flu, I stepped into the spurs and took on the challenge of hosting a tabletop game at the Courtenay area game event Dak-Kon XV.

Grizzlyville is a wild crazy-horse town where you never know when the next throw-down gun-slinging gang fight might break out.

We started with a really simple 1-1 gunfight in the middle of this one-horse town to demonstrate the simplicity of the "Fistfull of Lead" rules and let a few folks hear the "ace" - "king!" - "queen!?!" calls (which brought in some more players). The players were also feasting their eyes on the Whitewash City buildings by Eric Hotz.

With the quick & the dead cleared up we were able to get into a fast 3-way gunfight.

One gang setup tight together and on the roof of one of the buildings.

Storming around Patterson and Brothers GUNS was another gang, carefully avoiding contact with ROY (we'll see more of him later).

Fighting broke out fast around the Grand Hotel, here we see one man pinned behind the privvy.

Out in front of the Grand Hotel, life was carrying on...

The street in front of the Saloons had been cleared (mostly) now was filled with whizzing lead. The first gunfight ended when the Corn hat gang rushed the brown hats pinning their last man behind a corner, then storming him to gun him down.

So a new group of three players had assembled, this time each controlled two gangs...

Roy had crossed the street and appeared ready to bring the news to the Sheriff about the gang activity.

The gunmen had shot at Roy as he ran into the Sheriffs office. Roy came out AS the SHERIFF now and demanded that they throw down their guns. The gunmen that he first saw did this, the rest ran for cover and continued their gang war in the back streets...

Roy was not amused.

A gunslinger, gang leader was dropped at his feet...pinned and wounded (you can tell from the PIN on top of him!). This picture also shows off the great detail in the Hotzworks Whitewash City buildings.

... meanwhile down the backstreets more of the townfolk were having to take cover from the battle raging between two of the rival gangs.

The gallows were ignored for now as the gangs battle out behind the sheriff's post and the Saloons.

Sheriff Roy had been forced to retreat for a time into his post early in the fight, not coming out from pinning for two rounds. Now the reason comes clear...he had called for the mounties to come clear out this bunch of rowdies!

Actually I had run into the next 'time period' and wanted to clear off the table so as to have enough time to run a bigger game with some of the registered players.

The mounties rushing onto the table brought another rush of interested players and now I had one that wanted to run the NWMP ... why you ask? He was a real-life (off duty) Mountie! After some discussion with the other players it was agreed to let him run the NWMP, though this time the 'attacking' gangs would be bigger...and better armed.

Random luck permitted the gangs to start at one end of town and the Mounties at the other. One group of police riders were in the livery stables, the other at the Hotel across the one horse town (mat) road. The gangs decided to throw away any cautious meeting or pretext of camouflage and shot Sheriff Roy with a rifle right away!

This brought all the combatants into the street and a fire fight ensued, with the pistol armed cowboy gangs coming off the worse for wear. Roy was NOT dead and came out shooting!


The Mounties were definitely doing well early in the fight, they were now dashing down the boardwalks, led by their officer, to catch those cowboys that had taken cover or were staying out of range.

CHARGE! was the command from the Sergeant to urge the Mounties across the last open street towards the gunmen.

The Corn hat gang leader had holedup in the Orient Saloon, it was then that he started to pick off Mounties ... starting with an incredible long-shot at the officer in charge!

The mounties put up a great cross-fire, but could not manage to kill off this man in the Orient Saloon. Meanwhile Sheriff Roy had gunned down four of the rifle armed cowboys and sent the rest running for cover behind the Grand Hotel.

The streets of Grizzlyville were silent and empty for a time as both NWMP and gunmen maneuvered.

Both groups then suddenly decided to occupy the Grand Hotel, gunmen ran in the back, Mounties in the front door. The close-quarter battles began.

There are rules to cover some 'interior' actions in Fistful of Lead, we did not have full interiors filled out for all buildings ... so I improvised. Along the way I think I have hit upon the simplest CQB fast result skirmish "cinematic" system I have yet seen.

Works like this, both the gunman and the mountie rush the building in the same round, one was already in there 'somewhere'. So the rushing in player draws from a standard deck of cards (not the whole deck as there are already cards dealt as part of the rules, these are the ones left), the 'defending player' in the building draws next.

If the suit (hearts, diamonds, club or spades) is the same they will have a hand to hand battle - no option. The one with the higher card will get to 'shoot first', however the result of the 'shot' will not count until AFTER the hand to hand.

If the suit does not match, then the high card gets to shoot, the lower card then may take action after that has been resolved.

This system was so good that it was used four more times in the Grand Hotel until the main staircase was soaked in blood.

One Mountie was now on the balcony of the Grand Hotel, with two dead NWMP inside and three dead cowboys with them. Across the street the Oriental Saloon had no windows left as Mounties and the corn had Gang leader had exchanged multiple rounds of fire, leaving the leader pinned and wounded inside.

Up on a balcony a young Mountie keeps cover fire on the Oriental Saloon, while in the distance a nearly dead Sheriff Roy has run out of luck.

The Sergeant rushed the smashed front of the Orient Saloon, while in the back another Mountie rushed that door. Both had shots at the Corn Hat Gang leader, both only managed to keep him pinned, as he had run out of ammo and was not shooting back they felt confident that the situation was under control.

Going for broke having a "6" card, the Corn Hat Gang leader instantly reloaded his guns and managed to kill the Mountie in the back and badly wound the Sergeant in the front.

A round later, having failed to recover from pinning, the Sergeant was shot by the leader of the Corn Hat Gang.

The Mountie on the balcony of the Grand Hotel was rushed by another gang and shot down off the balcony, finally succumbing to his wounds in the street.

Grizzlyville was quiet, now in the hands of the Corn Hat Gang of desperadoes...