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Just wondering what you guys think of the idea of generic characters?

In the expansion, for the Skinwalkers and other creatures, I wasn't going to give them names. Instead you would just add a Werewolf Savage or Werewolf Stalker or Werebear Brute to your pack, they'll always have the same stats and skills.. same idea for adding a chubacabra or sasquach.

I'm not going to change the rules for humans now, but just looking ahead to the future, once we get the different expansions out of the way we'll put together a big full color hardback rulebook as an all new version of the game. So this is a change that could happen then. Basically you'd have some kind of named guy for your gang leader, and then different types of professionals and henchman. So, you add a gunslinger and they always have the same stats and come with 2 pistols. Or a ranger would come with a Winchester repeater, lumberjack comes with a 2-handed axe (Yes, the lumberjacks are OK!). Also thinking I would make it that henchman get level 1 - 3 weapons, professionals 3 - 5 and only leaders & hired guns get level 6.

The rules for creating your own custom gang would still be there, especially for campaigns. But I'm just thinking for right out of the box to your tabletop, would it be easier and more balanced to use generic characters like that? Or keep everything more personalized with stats all over the place like now?

I've been using the existing character cards as examples when I customize my gang. I don't see the harm in putting some generic archetypal characters in the back of the book. All I ask is that you don't abandon BWG's character building system (which is a little complex but interesting and effective) and don't get rid of the existing gang character cards.

Another thing I was pondering when working up my gangs is that each of the named "canonical" gangs appears to have a special ability that only applies to those members. Perhaps you could implement a system like that for customized gangs, such as a "Cunning Plan" that the gang leader chooses before the battle, so that the canonical gangs do not outclass custom gangs.

I also don't see the harm in naming your monsters. Otherwise how would we tell the difference between "Grshnkl the Sasquatch" and "Urklcackle the Bigfoot."

The plan for the gang leader skills was to just make Leader's Luck be for custom gangs, but I realized after the fact that I didn't really separate the 2. but, yeah, I could list out a bunch of different leader skills. I want to make the custom gangs more robust, but also with more of an emphasis on using custom gangs for campaigns and pre-mades for basic games and things where balance is more of an issue like tournaments.

What I was thinking though was like each character would still be there, but they would have the same stats depending on their profession. Something like maybe if each bounty hunter would get 2 pistols, a repeater and a bowie knife, Lee Roland from the Clancy Gang and Cabo Mendoza from the Bandidos would be the same exact character on paper, but different models.

Lee Roland from the Clancy Gang and Cabo Mendoza from the Bandidos would be the same exact character on paper, but different models.

Having a small group of unique characters is what appeals to me. If I wanted all the characters to be identical archetypes, I'd still be playing LOTOW.

One of the reasons I stopped playing GW stuff was that I got tired of having a squad of ten identical Space Marines shooting stuff. I see nothing wrong with holding up characters or archetypes as examples, but that's not what I'm personally interested in.

-Solo Sam

Hmmm... a pulp version of the game, with droves of nameless cowboys dying each round.

We can set it in space, in the far future, too... It'd be in the year 41,890.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Hmmm... a pulp version of the game, with droves of nameless cowboys dying each round.

We can set it in space, in the far future, too... It'd be in the year 41,890.

*puts on Knights of Cydonia*

Seriously though, for a game this size I think customised characters works really well. Henchmen could be more generic, but Professionals and Gang Leaders are better when they're special.

Also, I don't think the process for gang creation is all that difficult. It can be a bit hard at first making sure you've got enough points in certain attributes to cover the skills or weapons that you want, but after a few models it tends to fall into place. (It would be even easier with some kind of gang-building app, of course)

As for making models with fixed weapon options, at the moment I swap models around to change things up. If I'm making my own gang I could use the Mickey Finn model as a gunslinger, for instance.

OK 1 more idea, how about.. same stat line, but you can add your own skills & weapons?

That's how I was planning to handle the skinwalkers.. Werewolves would all have the same stats, but a werewolf stalker would just have different skills & special attacks than a werewolf savage.

Custom gangs and especially campaign gangs would be a totally different matter though. You can build your characters however you want, this would all just be for the pre-made character cards that you get in the box sets. Trying to think of a good way to standardize thing for balance and also introduce a whole lot of new professions and abilities.

Also, an idea I had for campaign gangs.. take away the 50% henchman rule.. but, there are no professions at first.. everyone starts with 1 XP and is basically a henchman. At 50XP you get to pick a profession and your max XP is 75, except the leader can go up to 100 XP. Just thinking as your characters develop you might want to change your mind, maybe you were planning to have one guy be a bounty hunter but would rather make him a gunslinger instead when the time comes.

Same stat line sounds good to me. It will help those new to the game quickly put a gang together.

The campaign gang idea sounds interesting, too. But, maybe start the leader on a slightly higher XP to help differentiate them from the rest.

Still plenty of time to think about it, Version 2 is a long ways off But yeah the idea is to make it quick and easy for new players to build their models and jump right in, and also to standardize things a but more for tournaments, but you'll always be able to make your own guys from scratch if you want.

And yeah, for campaigns the leader was going to start with 25xp, everyone else with 1.

Once I get the rules more finalized, I guess in the next month or so, I'll post a test PDF with everything

I built a list last night and I was thinking that it would be nice to have some pre-generated archetype or template characters for henchmen. It would have been nice to have that character tweaked to perform a roll in combat, such as sniping or melee. I would have liked to look at a pre-made character that is legally constructed for X amount of XP and then be able to make minor adjustments to my taste, shift a few points here and there. You could name the templates based on their roles, such as 'sniper' or 'brawler'. I think that the leader and professionals have enough going on that templates really wouldn't help much when building them.

I dont mind the idea of a few basic unnamed options. Sometimes when a gang needs bodies to bulk up their numbers for a fight, they grab the first folks who will hire on. The are just another gun in the fight, not likely to survive long.