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I first purchased Wild West when it was first released by FGU.
I have found it to be totally unique from all ‘other’ games that have been published because of the way it handles Character Creation, Skills, Horses and Combat.
Character Creation: Each Character has Primary and Secondary Characteristics. There are nine Primary Characteristics and eight Secondary Characteristics.
The Primary Characteristic Values (CV) are determined normally by rolling 3d6 for a CV of 3-18. The Secondary Characteristic Values (CV) are determined by using various math formulas using the Primary CVs. For Example: Height-in-inches: Add the Physique (CV) to 54 + 1d6. The result will be your height in inches. So if your Physique CV was 12, then 12+54+1d6 (3) would equal 69 inches, or 5’9”. The Character’s “Damage Factor” (Total Hit Points) is one of the Secondary CVs. This is obtained by adding the Weight, Physique and Constitution rounded up to the next 10. For example: The Character weighs 202 lbs. You add Physique (12) and Constitution (12) to get 226, which is rounded up to 230. This 230 is then apportioned to the various parts of the body. The Head, each arm and Leg gets 10% (23 points) each. The Chest is 30% (69 points) and the Abdomen is 20% (46 points). This comes in later in Combat or injuries.
Skills: The Character starts with six Primary and four Secondary Skills. Each Skill has a CV and starting Experience Points. Some skills can only be taken in the first six Primary Skills (Doctor/Medical, Dentist or Veterinarian). This can pose problems for the Gamemaster, since many Players will choose Medical as one of the first six, and you will have a party of doctors running around in your campaign. This is highly unrealistic, since doctors were very few and far between in the Old West. You may want to limit your party to one, maximum. Or, you could state no one can learn it to make it more exciting, so if anyone gets hurt, they have to find a doctor. (Basic first aid can always be applied to stop bleeding, etc.) The last four skills can then be chosen. Lastly, there are a few Skills that can only be learned AFTER the characters are in-game. Each skill’s CV is determined by a formula. As an Example, “Quick Draw” is determined by adding Agility + Perception, then dividing the sum by 2 to get the CV. Thus, let’s say the Character’s Agility is 15 and the Perception is 13; 15+13=28. 28 divided by 2 = 14. This Character’s Quick Draw CV = 14.
Experience Points: Experience is also treated differently than on ‘other’ games. Each skill has its own experience points, so your skills are very important. Each successful use of a skill raises the Experience Points in that skill according to the difficulty (See below). So if the Character practices Quick-draw (which you see in many westerns), his experience will go up.
Horses: Horses were highly-prized possessions in the Old West. Horse thieves were normally strung-up on the spot if caught in the act (or once they were caught). To indicate this importance, horses are also created similar to characters. They have their own CVs and will also have Experience Points for Skills they have learned.
Combat: Combat in Wild West is DEADLY. One well-placed shot can kill the character! In this area, Wild West is very realistic. Remember apportioning the Hit Points earlier? If the person above gets shot in the right arm (23 points total), the rules explain the results according to the damage taken. As an example, if the person has taken 50% but less than 75% damage, the person has a 50% chance that the use of the limb is lost! So don’t think that your Character will be taking lead and shrugging off the damage. Combat is divided-up in 6-2 second segments. So each Combat ‘round’ will have 6 segments. Each Character will ‘plot-out’ his/her round. After each round, the Characters then do it again, until the end of the combat. Each Action takes up so many segments. As an example, Black Bart does not have Quick-Draw, but wants to shoot another person. Drawing a pistol without Quick-Draw takes between 1-5 segments! This is covered in the rules. Let’s say it takes him 4 segments. He lines-out the first 4 segments. This leaves him 2 segments left. Bart then decides to Aim (1 segment), and Fire (1 Segment). So, in the first Combat round, he draws his pistol and then aims & fires (in the last segment). However, the Character has Quick-Draw and is quite experienced. He only takes 2 Segments to draw his pistol, then he decides to aim, fire, aim, fire (each one segment). So, the Character is able to get off one shot while Bart is still drawing, hitting him in the chest. Due to damage, Bart has lost 50% of his damage points in the chest and has a 75% chance of losing consciousness for 1-20 minutes. Bart rolls the percentile dice and rolls a 71. Oh so close! He clutches his chest and falls in the street just as his gun was clearing the holster. He did not even get to aim and fire. Combat is now over. However, since this happened in town there is a good chance there is a doctor, and Bart can recover. Once again, Combat is Deadly!!!
The Role-playing Probability Chart (RPC): This chart is the meat of the game and makes Wild West different than all of the ‘other’ games. All chances of hitting a target or doing anything in the game relies on this one chart! Each point of experience and digit/point of CV makes a difference in the successful outcome, as well as the difference in the difficulty of the task performed. There are three scales of difficulty; A-Hard/Complex, B-Difficult/Medium and C-Easy/Normal, but not so simple as an automatic success. An example of this would be firing a pistol at a target at short range. It will be on Line C; since it will not be an automatic hit.
Looking at the Combat above, since the Character was successful in his quick draw and Pistol marksmanship, he will gain experience in each.
There are further modifiers for cover, running, distance, etc.
Wild West also has rules for wound recovery, damage taken while traveling wounded, TNT damage, Brawling (good Saloon fights, anyone?) etc.
Equipment: Wild West has a good list of equipment, guns (by year introduced), and such, plus how much money a particular job/profession made in a month. A normal run-of-the-mill Cowboy made $15 - $35 a month, while a full time Town Sheriff made $30 - $40 a month.
Overall, I have loved this game. It makes the characters role-play rather than shooting everything in sight. However, if you like “A-Team” type play (lots of shooting, yelling, running around with nobody getting shot), then you may want to play another game for combat.
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