Game one for Tentcon 2025 was What a Cowboy. I executed a modified version of the scenario The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from the 2023 Lard Magazine. It was an overall success but I definitely learned a few things and had to modify the scenario on the fly to have it reach a conclusion.

First, the good: by their second or third activation the players were humming along and really understood the systems quite well. As a GM that helped me greatly as I got to focus on just making sure the game flowed smoothly and they avoided core tactical errors. The players had a lot of fun and there were a few cool moments in the game. We had a player bring some Star Trek characters, so Captain Kirk used a trick shot to try and shoot something through a wall with a phaser! Unfortunately, I lack a photo so here’s a random photo of another one of the characters.

We also had someone successfully use a Hollywood stunt to have a character tie up some bed sheets and swing from a balcony to a nearby roof. She landed just fine but quickly discovered sitting out on a roof is a good way to get shot.

The winner came close with two players discovering the correct location for the treasure and competing to dig it up. The winner managed this by first… well, blasting the other guy in the face with a shotgun. Good strategy, that.

Now for the issues: with four players and four cowboys each the game moved slow. As the game uses a “Chit from a bag” activation style (using cards in a deck) we had issues with one side of the board seeing a lot of action for prolonged period and the other side seeing far less action. I tried to resolve this by peeking at the next card and handing it to players in advance so they could roll their dice and make decisions ahead of time. This helped but I only implemented it an hour into play.

Next time, I’d likely change the activation system such that we rotate around the board but players drawer from their own stack of cowboy cards at random. This allows forward thought and planning to keep things moving. You can roll for and decide the moves of your next cowboy while waiting for a full cycle of the board. I think four cowboys per player may have also been a bit much. It was fine in terms of span of control but also meant more time was spent moving and less time was spent shooting. Perhaps I could let them deploy closer or shrink the board in general–there’s likely more than one way to solve this.

Last, I made a serious error in modifying the scenario. The original scenario was for three sides, requiring each side acquire a clue off the two other sides before running off with the treasure. I changed this to requiring one off all three opponents (because I bumped the game to being four sided). In order to finish in time I had to drop it to gathering just one clue.

Shows what I get for modifying a scenario I have not played. The other option, obviously, is to just play the scenario as written with three sides and up to nine players, each controlling 1-2 cowboys. My concern then would still lay in the amount of time spent waiting on your next activation–it definitely stretched on a little long.

Now, again, the players had fun. I got a lot of interest and if I were running What a Cowboy as a normal club event I suspect I’d get a few players. Maybe the right route in the future would be to setup a two sided scenario with perhaps 3 cowboys per player and have them do a bank robbery escape: sheriff versus the outlaws as they try to escape. It’s one of the things I need to think over if I run the game again in the future.

I’m not opposed to running it again. It was easy and everyone had a good time. The issue always comes back to time and interest. By next Tentcon, it’s anyone’s guess what game I’ll want to promote! Either way, with some focus on time, I think What a Cowboy proves a rousing success for a convention game. The players interacted with almost every rule, save for townsfolk and mounts which I now realize they could have readily picked up.

Picture this: we start in medias res with a team of six bank robbers set to escape. Their horses are hitched some distance away–but wait! What’s that? Local lawmen have repositioned their horses with three of them acting guard. Three more are approaching, each considerably skilled, ready to make the outlaws pay. Will the outlaws get away with the loot? Will the sheriff save the day? Find out next time on… uh… wait, I really should do that. Time to go paint a cowboy town…