Boot Hill (role-playing game)

Boot Hill is a western role-playing game designed by Brian Blume and Gary Gygax. First published in 1975, Boot Hill was TSR's third role-playing game, not long after Dungeons and Dragons and Empire of the Petal Throne.

System


Boot Hill has been both praised and criticised for focusing on gunfighting. The first edition was specifically marketed as a miniatures combat game, but even in the later editions, most of the rules are combat resolution, with relatively little setting or social interaction rules. Combat could be short and deadly, with death often coming from a single gunshot. Boot Hill had no character levels per se, but attributes could be raised over time, and in no game of Boot Hill do player characters truly have an advantage over non-player characters in strict observation of the rules. There were also no non-human enemies, or alignment rules, as in Dungeons and Dragons, making the difference between the "good guys" and "bad guys" a matter of interpretation or choice.

It was one of the first games to only (or mostly) use ten-sided dice as percentile dice, for character abilities and skill resolution.

Publications



 * 1st edition, printed in 1975, 34 pages, no ISBN.
 * 2nd edition, printed in 1979, ISBN 0-394-51875-6.
 * 3rd edition, printed in 1990, ISBN 0-88038-976-1.

Boot Hill, 2nd Edition was supported by a referee's screen and five 32 page adventure modules:
 * Referee's Screen and Mini-Module, ISBN 0-394-52590-6.
 * Mad Mesa (BH1), printed in 1981, ISBN 0-935696-71-7, and 1982, ISBN 0-394-52705-4. Written to be playable solitaire, as a gamebook, or as a multiplayer module.
 * Lost Conquistador Mine (BH2), printed in 1982, ISBN 0-394-52594-9.
 * Ballots and Bullets (BH3), 1982, ISBN 0-394-53067-5.
 * Burned Bush Wells (BH4), 1984, ISBN 0-394-53466-2.
 * Range War! (BH5), 1984, ISBN 0-88038-105-1.

TSR also released a three-figure pack of gunslinger miniatures for Boot Hill.