New to Western and some Rule Questions

[Witigis]

Hello,
finally I found a forum discussing Askfagelns Western Game....
As I am not able to speak (or read) Swedish (my native language is German), I am using the currently available English material (and desperately waiting for more).
So far I am preparing my first sessions gamemastering Western (I am playing and mastering RPGs since the 1980s, but concerning Western RPGs I know so far only GURPS and Aces&Eights).
I do have some questions concerning the rules and hope to get some help here:

First, am I right, that the maximum number of actions you can have in one round is 6 (skill level 20 max plus twice the maximum attribute bonus of 5 equals 30, divided by 5)? But as the minimum Weapon Speed I found in the rules is 1 (not 0), no one will ever get these 6 actions?

Which skill level will be used for the calculation - the one actually USED in this combat or the best combat skill of the character.

The rules state, how far you may move in one round, but there is no hint, how this movement will be split between the available actions - so, how may I handle this?

Also, there are no movement values for animals, with the exception of riding animals. Or did I overlook something? I think, it might be important to know the movement rate of a bear or wolf (especially if it is coming right at you...).

These are the question which came to my mind, while reading the current English rules - I am sure, there will be more when actually playing the game. Otherwise, it really looks great and I have high hopes, that the English product line will be continued.

Greetings from Germany,

Thomas aka Witigis

 

[StradhLestat]

I have tried to summon higher authorities to answer your questions.. We will see if he arrives
Unfortunally I have not had the opporunity to play (or read) Western...yet

 

[Beastslayer]

If I am not out riding my bike in the swiss alps, 6 is the "maximum", but not the actual maximum since you substract the weapon speed, which never is zero , so the maximum is in fact 5. I hope that made sense and that I remember correctly. It´s been a while sinse I read Western.

 

[Witigis]

Is there someone, who is currently playing Western IV (probably the Swedish version)? May be, they can help me? Do not hesitate to answer in Swedish - Google Translator isn´t that bad any more...

 

[Witigis]

If I am not out riding my bike in the swiss alps, 6 is the "maximum", but not the actual maximum since you substract the weapon speed, which never is zero , so the maximum is in fact 5. I hope that made sense and that I remember correctly. It´s been a while sinse I read Western.

Okay, so that is exactly how I understood it as well. Unfortunately, this system seems not entirely reasonable to me. It doesn´t make sense, that simply holding a gun in hand will influence the number of actions I could use for non-combat actions... What about switching weapons in Mid-Action? And so on....

 

[Beastslayer]

Okay, so that is exactly how I understood it as well. Unfortunately, this system seems not entirely reasonable to me. It doesn´t make sense, that simply holding a gun in hand will influence the number of actions I could use for non-combat actions... What about switching weapons in Mid-Action? And so on....

Quite heavily flawed system, yes, unfortunately.
I do not remember the rules part on a deep level so cannot help out with your other questions, somehow the part about actions and guns stuck however.

 

[Witigis]

Yes, the more I delve into the rules, the more I think there are indeed some serious flaws.
One thing is the combat system. I have thought long and hard, but there just seems no way to make that one plausible as it is. The one thing I will try, is to separate non-combat actions from combat actions. Therefore, non-combat actions within a round (6 seconds) will NOT be related to any sort of Combat Speed - being the worlds fastest gunslinger doesn´t let you jump through a window or pass through a door faster then someone else. This will make it necessary to redo the Action-cost table on page 35 of the English ruleset, making that time- and not action-related. That way, combat actions can (hopefully) stay as they are.
If there is need to know, who goes first, I might consider either opposed rolls or just Quickness (the Attribute). I will try it this week (first gaming session).
Unfortunately, the Talents and Obstacles also make not much sense as they are. You are a Leader (or Born Rider, or having Night Vison) ONLY when you have a token to spend? I can see the thoughts behind this (roleplay your weaknesses to get some advantages), but, imho, this will cause a lot of head-shaking with my players (as it did with me). It simply does not sound right.
In addition, the rules are really bad organized (for example, if you spent more points on education than is recommended in your role description, you gain $1 per point more on money. This is mentioned only somewhere in the beginning of the book, but not in the rules on education. The same about the meaning of Quality relating to horses. Combined with an unclear text (well, that may be my fault, being not a native English speaker), that caused me a lot of headaches, until I found the explanation by accident, reading the skill description for horses. Alas, there are still some problems, as the chapter about horses doesn´t give you combat values - these are found in the common chapter about animals in the table there - which raises new questions (Defense of a horse 5+breed? Never ever again mentioned, but would make a cavalry horse almost unhittable, even if you stand right in front of it....). I have already mentioned the complete absence of movement rates for animals, which should be in the game, again imho. Also, i consider the separation of, for example, weapon values and cost and weight (found in the equipment chapter) unnecessarily awkward.
There are also quite a few typos and, especially in the Talents and Obstacles section already mentioned, it seems, that the translations and additions were not thoroughly cross-checked: Nerves of Steel will give you a bonus on self-discipline! Nice, but what the hell ist this? It is no skill, no attribute, so what? Probably Cool under Fire?? One does not know.... Also, quite regularily, Tokens are still called Drawback points.
I could continue, but as you see, some of these remarks are rather slight (some are not), but it sums up and makes me feel, that the whole version is probably version number 0.8, but not 1.0 - and therefore simply unready, yet. As the people in the English kickstarter were promised almost a year ago, that the books would go into printing soon, I do not (anymore) consider it ready for printing (well, I got the PDF version printed by a professional company for quite a substantial amount of money, but that is my own business).
I won´t give it up, though, as I have spent quite an amount of time and preparation (did an english GM Screen, equipment and weapon cards, an action tracker, and so on) and actually some parts of it are the best I have ever seen in an rpg of this kind (once you get over the difficulties): like the horses section actually is great, as it is the weapons section (including customization) - not to mention the artwork. So, at least for me, it still has a lot of potential. Lets see, how it develops...