revised Boot Hill PC generation charts

By: Unknown on 04:11

2nd edition Boot Hill has this weird glitch when generating PCs.  The issue is that the stat charts are designed for generating ordinary, non-kickass inhabitants of the the wilden west.  For PCs you roll percentile dice like everyone else, but then if you roll a low score you get a bonus to the roll.  The bonus is on a sliding scale, so that the lower you roll the bigger the bonus.  The idea seems to be that Blume and Gygax were okay with a random NPC having a Slow speed or Very Poor accuracy, but they had a certain minimum awesomeness in mind for PCs.

I'm okay with this set-up, though I'd be okay with sucky PCs as well.  The problem is in the execution.  Rolling an 01-25 for any stat nets you a whopping +25 bonus, turning the roll into a 26 through 50.  But rolling a 26-50 gets you a +15.  So someone who rolled a 26 ends up with the result of a 41, while someone who rolled lower can end up with a 42 or higher.  That's arbitrary, unfair and dumb. And I hate having extra unnecessary steps in chargen. It makes me feel bad when I slaughter the PCs. The solution is to sit down and write separate charts for the PC-types only.

SPEED

01-10  Above Average +2
11-35  Quick +4
36-55  Very Quick +6
56-75  Fast +9
76-85  Very Fast +12
86-95  Lightning +15
96  Greased Lightning +18
97  Greased Lightning +19
98  Greased Lightning +20
99  Greased Lightning +21
00  Greased Lightning +22


ACCURACY (roll one for GUNS and once for THROWING)

01-10  Average +0

11-35  Above Average +2

36-55  Fair +5

56-65  Good +7

66-80  Very Good +10

81-95  Excellent +15

96-98  Crack Shot +18

99-00  Deadeye +20

STRENGTH

01-15  Average 13

16-45  Above Average 14

46-65  Sturdy 15

66-78  Hardy 16

79-85  Strong 17

86-95  Very Strong 18

96-98  Powerful 19

99-00  Mighty 20

BRAVERY

01-10  Average +0  +0

11-55  Above Average +1  +3

56-75  Brave +2  +6

76-85  Very Brave +3  +10

86-98  Fearless +4  +15 

99-00  Foolhardy +5  +15

EXPERIENCE

01-10  No Experience -10

11-40  One Gunfight -5

41-60  Two Gunfights -5

61-75  Three Gunfights +0

76-85  Four Gunfights +0

86-91  Five Gunfights +2

92-95  Six Gunfights +2

96  Seven Gunfights +6

97  Eight Gunfights +6

98  Nine Gunfights +8

99  Ten Gunfights +8

00  You Done Lost Track +10

As you can see, the stat mods in Boot Hill can jump around.  Apparently surviving that seventh gunfight is a big deal, but the difference between Fearless and Foolhardy is minimal.  I'm tempted to smooth them out a bit with some intermediary results but that would produce some egregiously long charts.  I like giving players brief chargen handouts, not vast sheafs of overwrought charts.  I keep the overwrought charts behind the screen.