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You may of noticed that I recently invested in a game called Dead Man's Hand, which is a Wild West themed skirmish game that leans towards a 'Hollywood' style of playing. Whilst reading through the rules I wondered if this sort theme was popular in the US or is it something that you guys stay away from?

Would tipping up and playing a game like this be considered insensitive or if nobody is fussed about it is just that, nobody is interested?

Expanding on this, are there any other gaming backgrounds/systems that are frowned upon in other countries?

Could you elaborate? I'm not seeing the connection between a 'Hollywood' style (presumably by this you mean it's focused on cinematic effect over realism?) and appearing 'insensitive'.

Sorry, the 'Hollywood' part is a bit isn't really that relevant, it was just describing the game system. It was the actual theme that was the more important part. Is there a market for Wild West skirmish games in the US, basically. If not what is the reason? If for political correctness reasons, are there other countries where other systems are frowned upon.

Does that help?

I don't think there is anything especially "politically incorrect" about games set in the old west. Maybe need to be a little careful around any native american characters you might have but other than that there are probably no big issues.

Ah, I get it!

Just guessing here as I have no experience of US gaming culture, but since cowboy movies basically owned US pop culture for the middle section of the 20th Century I can't see there being huge issues around it. Especially if people are fine with gaming WW2 (globally one of the darkest and most horrific periods of human history and still in living memory) or ACW (still something of a political an issue in America today) then I'd be very surprised if it's a cultural thing.

I'd imagine it's simply a case of the genre having had it's day, it's the same reason very few Westerns are actually made these days. Stetsons and six-shooters have been replaced in popular culture with starships, superpowers and swordfights, so that's what gets made these days.


On a tangential note, have you played DMH yet? I'm looking into it, so I'd be interested in your thoughts.

I think Wild West games are pretty popular in the US.

I don't play DMH, but I do play Wild West Exodus, which has both Warrior Nation and the Confederacy (granted, a very different Confederacy) as options for factions. And this was published by a US company.

Infinity is a good example of how different gaming cultures influence the way a game is played.

In Europe, there's a smaller amount of terrain used. There's enough to block lines of sight down the table, but still some fire lanes with a bit of cover to give longer ranged weapons their place. Little scatter terrain, relying mostly on larger buildings for total LoS blocking.

In the US, the game is much denser. More large buildings, generally more levels, much more scatter terrain. The usual rule is no terrain is more than 8" away from another bit of terrain. This makes longer range weapons much less effective, usually limited to one or two decent positions, while short ranged weapons reign king.

This also create some balance arguments. US players price shotguns and chain rifles, and malign the fact that units equipped with these are cheap, while the less effective HMGs and missile launchers are seen as not worth their points. This runs counter to European playstyles and indeed how the game itself is balances - being a Spanish company, they play in the European style.

Yep played two games so far... the 3rd time should see us play it properly

It's a good system and the rules are easy to pick up (apart from one small section which was grammar issue). 7 piece gang sets are cool and means you get up and running quickly enough, add in 4Ground scenery and it looks great