Showdowns & Shootouts: Get ready to vote!

As ya'll know, the Showdowns & Shootouts adventure writing contest took a LOT longer than anyone ever thought it would. You know, we had the usual delays... work, family, hospitalizations and hurricanes. But even still, we had no idea we'd lollygag so long on this contest.

Still, in spite of the long delay, it's actually been a big success in that it did exactly what we wanted it to do: We got some great ideas for Gutshot adventures. We collected about 50 submissions that are all fantastic. Honestly, there isn't a dud in the bunch. We had no problems at all selecting 12 adventures to develop into complete, printable material. You can find them here on the Winners page at our Website.

We finally printed the last adventure and selected the winner last summer. It was Tom Reed who won by penning The Great Drygulch Bank Robbery! It was a classic blend of cowhands, outlaws and a sheriff desperate to keep the peace. All in all, just the sort of thing that -- if it had been a classic Western movie -- might have starred Gary Cooper as the man with the tin badge. As the Judge's Prize Winner, Tom won a whole slew of goodies:

• Whitewash City 6 x 4 feet felt game mat (approx. $40 value)
• $60 Gift Certificate to Scale Creep Miniatures
• 25mm painted stagecoach with team from Knuckleduster ($80 value)
• Arnica, Montana resin Main Street Starter (5 buildings: $40 value)
• Whitewash City Starter CD ($15 value)
• One item from the Gutshot General Store (approx. $20 value)
• One copy of the Showdowns & Shootouts collected book (approx. $20 value)
• Gutshot miniature: ($5 value)

With the adventure finished, the last thing we had to do to finally put a bow on this thing was to have the readers vote on which was their favorite adventure. But there was one thing that had been holding us back. The survey software. I know this sounds minor, but we just couldn't find the right software. As sad as it sounds, we just didn't find the right software to collect the info we wanted. Okay, that's not true. For $25 a month (minimum) we could do it. But... we're cheap. Um, scratch that... we're frugal. We just didn't think it was a good time to dump a bunch of money into something that, in the long run, isn't going to be used that often.

So, I finally sat down and wrote it myself. I finally got it finished (well, except for one or two cosmetic things I may or may not address at this time). And I need to write a reporting module to tabulate the results. But, again, that's a back-end piece that I can do later, or just tabulate the results by hand.

So, at long last, the Voting is open to the public. The voting will open Thursday on March 1, 2012. At that time, I will add a link to this blog, and to the regularly scheduled update on Thursday.

You can cast your vote until midnight March 31, 2012. Oh, and did I mention that there is a prize being given to everyone who votes in this? We'll talk about that on Thursday.

Deadwood: Working on the new logo

When I was prepping for OwlCon (wow, was it only two weekends ago?), I found myself scrambling to create some new materials for the Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood game I was running. I had the evening's adventure mostly worked out (it was a simple event called "Last Thing Standing!" -- I set up half the players as humans and half as Zombies and had them go at it to eliminate each other), but I needed some new character sheets for the new Revenant zombies.In our game, this type of Zombie is also called a "Character Zombie" because it's a dead man who retains his memories and skills... and can now only be killed if you manage to blow his brains out (and trust me, folks, these tough sons-of-guns ain't killed by a single bullet to the head -- they're tough).

Anyway, we'll tell more about these bad boys later. Back to my rambling story...

I was working on the character sheets and it hit me that I just didn't like the logo I had created (in haste, I might add) a few years back. It was always intended to serve as a temporary logo, and here I was still using it. You can see it on our Website on the Deadwood miniatures packages (for sale at our Website -- you know I never miss a chance to plug our stuff). For those of you who don't feel like taking a mosey over there, here ya go.

It ain't bad, but it ain't great, either. And it definitely was worth the short amount of time I spent on it. The top font is Algerian (one of my personal favorite Western fonts because it's classy and easy to read). The name of the bottom font eludes me, although I could look it up if anyone really wants to know. So, in a hurry, I modified the logo and came up with this new version:

The logo isn't 100% complete (I need to tweak a few things and consider how much blood we want dripping from it), but I definitely like it more than the first logo. The top has remained the same (Algerian, which has been customized with a black "shadow line") and Bleeding Cowboy. Now, even though Bleeding Cowboy font is a bit overused these days (just go searching for any Weird West stuff and you'll find more than you can shake a sexton's shovel at), I do like the way it looks here. Nevertheless, I suspect this will be another "interim" logo for our upcoming game. Nevertheless, you should probably expect to see this (or at least a version of it) on the Website until we finalize it for print.

By the way, if you're interested in getting this font for yourselves, you can grab it for free over at DaFont.com.

Deadwood: Names for types of zombies?

Good news on multiple points. First, we have been setting up google docs so that we can more easily collaborate on material behind the scenes. As soon as Ole Doc Murphy gets his Internet connection back up and working, we're going to get him set up, too. That should really streamline or productivity.

In the meantime, Paul and I have been discussing some details about zombies. Specifically, what are we going to call them in the new game. Up until now we've been calling them Shamblers, Revenants, and Rage Zombies. All of these is a descriptive, they don't have the right ring to it.

Awhile back on TMP, someone suggested we use the name "Skeeters" for the fast zombies. Although it does have a nice ring to it (especially when you say it like Gaby Hayes: "Goldarnit, them Skeeters just ate the school marm's face!"), it just isn't what were looking for.

So, we have a short list of names that we are using internally. But... We thought maybe we would open to discussion up here again. Any ideas or suggestions? If we use your idea you will get credit in the book, thus earning you immortality among the pantheon of gamers.

Started working on new material...

I, for one, am very excited that my "day job" schedule has changed enough that I will be able to shift energy back to the various Hawgleg projects we've had sitting on the back burner.

Upcoming work includes:

• Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood
• Showdowns & Shootouts
• Draw RPG

Coupled with some upcoming changes to our back-end practices (scheduling, accounting, etc.), things are definitely looking up to make 2012 a very exciting year for us. Keep checking here, and at our website, for more updates.

www.hawgleg.com