An Official No Dice Adventure PDF

The Duchamps Mine Bounty By Suzanne Jordan Artwork by Justin Wyatt

No Dice Adventure PDFs If you're reading this then you've come across a No Dice Adventure PDF. Chances are if that's true then you've visited the home of No Dice on the web www.nodicerpg.com. If you've been there then you've probably read our Core Rulebook which is available to buy on paper but is also offered as a free PDF. If all that's true then you're probably about ready to start reading this adventure. Once you've read it, grabbed a PDF of the “No Dice-Ultra Simple Character Sheets” from the site (under downloads) and set a date to play with a group of two to six friends you're good to go. It's that simple and it doesn't cost you anything. Depending on when it is you're reading this there may be even more free adventures to download on the site. Because we plan to publish one of these every month. A complete adventure with all the rules included, fresh and ready to play. For free. So you're probably thinking. This is all great for me but what do you get out of this? When are you going to uberspam my mailbox? When are you going to ask for money? When are you going to act like a commercial enterprise? Well... as far as the free adventures go, never. As far as charging for a PDF of the Core Book goes, never. As far as stopping you taking part in our forum at nodicerpg.phpbbhosts.com, never. As far as making you pay to listen to our podcast produced two to three times a month and available at nodicerpg.libsyn.com, never. But, ahem, we do have some products that are not free. Buying a copy of the No Dice Core Rulebook on paper supports the No Dice project, plus, I can testify the product is gorgeous. You know those roleplaying books printed on fudgy paper with muddy artwork and loose binding? It's the exact opposite of one of those. If you have a good look about on the main website I'm sure that you'll find some other things that cost money. Anything you buy lets us know that we're doing good stuff out here. It moves us one step closer to being able to do even more. But even if you're, I don't know, in the vice-like grip of a recession at the moment then there is one other thing you could do for us that will help. Play the games. Tell people if you liked the adventure. Tell people if you liked reading the game, or the Core Book on PDF. Tell people if you want to buy one of our most excellent t-shirts, even if you can't afford one. Our biggest barrier isn't the quality of our product, we have enough endorsement from our enthusiastic and vocal fan base to know that's currently good to great. Our biggest barrier isn't evil pirates, or people not buying our stuff. Right now, our barrier is that people don't know about us. Please, enjoy this adventure and all the free resources we're offering. If you can afford to show your support in a monetary way that's good too. But, if you're digging this stuff, then if you could shout it from the rooftops, download some podcasts and swing by the forum and say howdy that would be the most awesome thing ever. Have fun! Leo, Sue and Justin The No Dice Team

Introduction In the second adventure PDF released on the No Dice site players will take the roles of cowboys in an unusual Western adventure. The scenario is designed to give the players the opportunity to indulge in some Western style adventure with a twist. The lads were talking about coming up with a game system for gunfights and I wanted to do a Western. While I was thinking about what I would like to do I came across the idea of using Australia and Australian mythology. I wanted there to be some kind of wild animal incident like a stampede or whatever and I just thought doing things in the Wild West environment of early Australia was a little bit different. The scenario should be action packed and is not a terribly long session. Three or four hours should be ample to give the players a chance to think about their characters and get involved in the gun battle. Enjoy! Sue

Overview The players are about to take part in a rootin' tootin' adventure set not in the Wild West of America but in the Wild Western Gold Mines of Australia circa 1885. All the familiar Western tropes are in place but maybe with a slightly different point of view than the players are used to. For example like the Native Americans Australia had Aborigines but these guys are a lot weirder than the Sioux or the Apache. It seems like a pretty normal sort of day in the small town of Duchamps Ridge but normality in the untamed colonial provinces is full of outlaws, shootings and the ever present threat of disasters, both natural and unnatural. This adventure uses the standard No Dice Vanilla Rules which are outlined in the Core Book. Player Set Up This adventure makes use of a simple class system that allows the players to begin the game with certain advantages from a stats point of view. The class should also be taken into account at a role playing level when a character wishes to take a particular action. The kinds of things each class is good at are described in the section on the Blank Stat. The characters are pregenerated in that they have names and broad roles within the action as described in the notes. Apart from their actual name and personal history players are free to assign the characters whatever attributes they deem suitable. For this reason before players fill in their sheets it might be advisable for them to pick a character.

Player Characters Sebastien Duchamps - Mine Owner Slim O'Reilly - Local Sheriff Luke Crawford - Sheriff's Deputy Paul "Potsy" Potter - Outlaw Dust - Bounty Hunter Abraham "Brammy" Richards - Outlaw Marlon Paper - General Store Owner There are seven characters, the ideal number of players is between four and six. If you

are playing with six then the seventh character is designed to give the last player a choice. As usual there is no specific prohibition beyond your own Hosting abilities as to how many people to allow in a session.

Character Notes These notes should be printed and divided up. Once a player has picked a character give them the notes that go with the character. To maximise enjoyment of the plot players should not read these notes until they are playing a character.

Sebastien Duchamps – Mine Owner

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A sharpshooter rifle (5 Rounds per magazine), a belt that stores five full magazines and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of pearl handle six shooters (6 chambers per gun). Mssr. Duchamps founded the town of Duchamps ridge when his well-to-do French famly sent him out into the world to make a name for himself. Duchamps used to be a hellraiser, quite decadent and amoral. As he has grown older here in the outback he has become focused on money and the fact that his younger years took a great toll on his health and he is finding it harder to get out of bed in the morning. Back in France they had a name for his condition, ennui. The weight of lethargy and his jaded appetites has left Duchamps looking for some purpose in life. For now his purpose is to generate wealth from his mine and wait until he can find some new, deeper purpose in life. So far he has acquired enough diamonds to keep him here for the rest of his days, five or six more and he might have enough to retire somewhere more salubrious.

Slim O'Reilly - Local Sheriff

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A shotgun (2 barrels), 20 cartridges for the shotgun in his office and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of polished wood handle six shooters (6 chambers per gun). Slim had never meant to end up a sheriff in a mine town. He had been a bad ass, an outlaw, a wold man. Wild men loved to whore and they loved to drink. Slim loved to drink and just lately his taste for whoring had gone into sharp decline. Actually at the same time his taste for whisky had gone through the roof. Turned out his bad man instincts had burned their way into his pickled brain. He was allowed to drink as much as he wanted as long as when trouble started he pressed his rapidly failing body into service to put an end to it. So he drank at his desk every day and made sure that any other bad men who visited the Ridge got a one way pass out of town, one way or another. One day Slim would be too slow, or his aim would wander or his survival instincts would fail. Until then, he had all that he needed and it came by the 20 oz. Bottle.

Luke Crawford - Sheriff's Deputy

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A sharpshooter rifle (5 Rounds per magazine), three magazines and ammo for twenty magazines in the sheriff's office and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of customised six shooters (6 chambers per gun). Once upon a time they were going to hang old Slim. Sheriff McMurty was going to die after the gun battle that had wounded Slim bad enough to put him in one of Duchamps Ridge's two jail cells and then Deputy Crawford would have ended up being Sheriff Crawford. If there was one thing that Crawford had learned in his fifteen years as deputy to eight sheriffs it was that the lifespan of the deputy far exceeds that of his superior. So Deputy Crawford had arranged to make Slim O'Reilly his new boss. Slim had done well for nineteen months now but that meant his tenure was surely close to an end. If a stray bullet didn't pick him off then a pickled liver surely would. They didn't call that stuff gutrot for nothing. So Deputy Crawford had to keep an eye out for Slim's replacement. Surely it couldn't be too long before the post above Deputy Crawford opened up again and he had to make sure he wasn't the most able candidate at the interview. NB Deputy Crawford's customised six shooters (if chosen) add 1 to checks made under Crawford's class with the six shooters. If anyone else who is not of the same class tries to use them they receive a -1 penalty unless they are a gunslinger in which case they do not take the penalty but receive no bonus.

Paul "Potsy" Potter — Outlaw

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A sawn off shotgun (2 barrels) 10 cartridges for the shotgun, a well maintained Bowie knife and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of badly maintained six shooters (6 chambers per gun). Potsy was having a great time. He had just robbed a supply wagon of ammunition which he'd managed to fence, along with his great mates Webber and Brammy, to some nice gentlemen in the Saloon at Mitchell's Pass before heading on to Kavanagh Creek where he'd proceeded to drink himself stupid and put his hands all over a sweet little whore called Katrina, or Candy, or Caitlin... whatever. The point was he'd had a fantastic night so far. He was just going to empty his bladder round the side of the bar and then he was going to show Katrina/Candy/Caitlin what he was made of. Then his plans changed when everything went black. The last thing he felt was his own urine soaking through the knees of his long johns as he tumbled to the floor. Somebody had lamped him and when he woke up he'd have a sore head because of more than just liquor. Note: Potsy's weapons start the game in the possession of Dust.

Dust - Bounty Hunter

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A shotgun (2 barrels), 16 cartridges for the shotgun, a bandolier of six throwing knives and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of antique wood handled six shooters immaculately maintained (6 chambers per gun). He'd been following Potsy's boys now for three days. He'd watched them take out the ammo cart, if he'd left them any longer they'd be halfway professional. Then he followed them to Mitchell's Pass and on to Kavanagh Creek. They didn't take too kindly to bounty hunters in those towns. There was a law enforcement cartel that liked to turn criminals over to the territory and clim the bounty as tax. So Dust had to be as careful as Potsy. More careful. The closest town that wouldn't give a crap on the map was a little dustbowl called Duchamps Ridge that seemed to be built round a crappy mineral mining operation. Word was the Sheriff there, Slim O'Reilly, was too fond of whisky to get involved with collection of bounty. So now he had the head of the gang he had to take him to Duchamps Ridge to claim his money. That's the way things go, Dust had always known it, he didn't think much beyond the next bounty. Sure he lived hand to mouth, but that was the kind of life he enjoyed. No doubt when it was time to be something else something else Dust would become. For now there was a night's sleep in the bush and then onto the Ridge for pay day in the morning.

Abraham "Brammy" Richards — Outlaw

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A sharpshooter rifle (5 Rounds per magazine), 2 full magazines for the rifle, two throwing knives and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of standard six shooters (6 chambers per gun). Brammy had looked out of the saloon window at just the right moment, it seemed. Just the right moment to see the bounty hunter sling Potsy's body over the back of his mount and saddle up. For a few moments Brammy considered pulling Webber off of that little girl he'd taken upstairs. Then he realised if he took the time to do that the bounty hunter would have got away. So he snuck out of the saloon, still the worse for drink, saddled up himself and followed at a discreet distance. When the bounty hunter stopped in the middle of the bush Brammy had intended to untie Potsy and make his getaway. Only problem was that Potsy wouldn't wake up to a light tap and the hunter seemed the light sleeper type. All Brammy could do was check out the Hunter's map and determine that the Hunter was headed for a place called Duchamps Ridge most likely. Then the bush noise made Brammy altogether too nervous and he decided to get moving. He could set himself up in the saloon there and wait for the hunter to come to town and then... and then he'd see what happened next. The problem overall was that Potsy was the planner in this gang.

Marlon Paper - General Store Owner

Gun Choices Starts the game with either:  A shotgun (2 barrels), a bandolier of six throwing knives and a standard six shooter (6 chambers).  A pair of top quality brand new six shooters (6 chambers per gun). Marlon's parents had been aborigines. Marlon, therefore, was technically an aborigine. But through some genetic quirk he had found himself attracted to living in a house, with a bed and he really enjoyed running a general store. It hadn't been his intention. Back when Doc Miller had run the Duchamps Ridge general store he had saved Marlon from dying of a snake bite. While being nursed back to health Marlon had come to enjoy the store and being a curiosity and local celebrity. He had been on walkabout and it seemed that the great spirit wanted him to go native with the white man. His life was quiet but he was still a celebrity, the aboriginal who sold grain, fancy goods and tinned fish to the town folk. He wasn't blowing his own trumpet to think the town was quite pround of its idiosynctratic store owner. He tended Doc Miller's grave and he put up with the funny looks he got from the local tribe. They were not his people and he felt less and less connected to the way he had been brought up as time went on. NB As owner of the General Store Marlon has access to as many cartridges for his shotgun (if chosen) as he needs.

Once the characters have been chosen players go on to fill out their character sheets in the following manner.

The Blank Stat - Class The blank stat is a place for an adventure specific stat. In this game the stat is called Class. Players have a choice of four classes for their character, each class gives a character stat bonuses as well as special advantages in certain role playing draws as determined by the Host. The classes are as follows: Quick Draw The Quick Draw class have an advantage in speed. Although no better or worse than others in terms of accuracy Quick Draw characters can have their gun from their holster and roughly targetted in seconds. This gives them an obvious advantage in quick draw contests but will also give them an extra chance in all speed based tasks such as running, and all dexterity based tasks such as pickpocketing. It is up to the Host when a check receives a class based bonus. When reloading quick draw artists do so a round faster than everyone else. Quick draw artists cannot receive bonuses on any gun larger than a revolver.

Base Stats Muscle 0 Speed 3 Wits 1 Craft 0 Fighting 0 Guile 1 Learning 0 Devices 0 Sharpshooter Sharpshooters have an advantage in accuracy. Although no faster than any other class, when the sharpshooter aims to shoot flies from a steer's backside the flies need be nervous while the steer can likely relax. This ability also gives sharpshooters a fine eye for detail, their perceptions are more finely tuned than an average person's. They also have better stamina than the average person as they are used to training and target practice which requires them to be very still.

Sharpshooters also tend to maintain their own weapons although this gives them an advantage in tinkering with devices it means they feel the impact of not having their chosen weapon more keenly. If they are not using their own guns add an extra round during reloads.

Base Stats Muscle 0 Speed 0 Wits 3 Craft 0 Fighting 0 Guile 1 Learning 0 Devices 1 Gunslinger Gunslingers have made a decision to keep a good all round knowledge of firearms. They can use all types of firearm and provide maintainance skills for broken weapons. They'll tend to be outdrawn by quick draws and less accurate than a sharpshooter but they make up for it in the sheer variety of weapons they can use. They can also coax weapons that haven't been broken too badly back to life given the right tools. Gunslingers are good weapons because they had to be and this gives them a basic advantage in any type of combat.

Base Stats Muscle 0 Speed 0 Wits 0 Craft 0 Fighting 3 Guile 0 Learning 0 Devices 2 Bushman Bushmen prefer to think of guns as tools. They tend to favour bigger guns that pack more punch per round and otherwise let knives and fists do the talking. Bushmen have learned to survive on the bare minimum that the outback has to offer. As such they are extremely knowledgeable about the natural world and about the georgraphy of their territory. They're also handy at staying alive in situations where other folk might just get busy dying. Bushmen get no advantages in a gun fight and take a one round automatic reload penalty on any handgun.

Base Stats Muscle 0 Speed 0 Wits 1 Craft 1 Fighting 1 Guile 0 Learning 2 Devices 0

Picking a Suit The character picks a suit that is theirs. Once they have picked it they cross off all of the other suits on the "Suit" row. On the "Off suit" row they cross off all the suits that correspond with a crossed out suit on the upper row. So the character should end up with a single uncrossed column of two suits: their suit and their off suit. Example: If your suit is clubs then your off suit will be hearts in the row below and all other suits and off suits should be crossed through. At this point the player may have a free +1 advantage in either the attribute (main part of the sheet, upper row) or the aptitude (lower row) with the same suit as their suit. During play when making a draw if you draw “on suit” add one to the result, if you draw “off suit” take one away from the result. Jacks and Queens are unaffected.

Assigning bonuses After picking a class the player can then pick a suit. They can add 1 to the score of either their suited Attribute or Aptitude. To help make the choice here is a guide to what the Attributes (top row) and Aptitudes (bottom row) actually are:  Muscle – Your raw strength as used for lifting heavy objects or competing in body building contests.  Speed – Your reaction time, used for plucking bottles out of the air or running away from a man with an axe.  Wits – Your raw intellect used to size up a murder scene or outwit a Sicilian when death is on the line.  Craft – Your general dexterity, used for wriggling free of ropes or jerry rigging an ice cream maker out of two plastic bottles and a corkscrew.  Fighting – How good you are in a ruck. Not necessarily of any use when bickering. Unless you bicker with your fists.  Guile – How convincing you are in a lie or half-truth, also how good you are at spotting Guile in others.  Learning – How good you are at on-the-spot research and how likely it is you'll know how to conduct a land war in Asia off the top of your head.  Devices – How good you are at driving a car through the mean streets of San Francisco, stripping down a Browning Cynergy or operating that sweet new VCR you just bought.

Players then get a further 2 points to spend elsewhere. They finish off by removing two points they may either reduce two scores that are positive or they can take any zeroes down to -1.

Hit Points Every player gets 3 Hit Points. You have then a possibility of Either: Adding 2 more points to your Aptitudes and attributes. Or taking 1 extra Hit Point and 1 more on any of your attributes or aptitudes. Or taking 2 extra Hit Points.

Adventure Set Up - Hosts Only Standard No Dice-claimer The Host notes in this adventure are specific to one way of running the adventure. If you are really nervous about Hosting or it's your first time then slavish adherence to the session plan contained herein is heartily endorsed. However if you're reading along and you start to think "Hmmm, I think this would work better if I just..." then by all means just! This is a roundabout way of saying "your mileage may vary" but the important thing here is that you feel supported as a Host. If you need less support than we're offering only use this as a basis for your own ideas. Enjoy your game!

Map Notes As Host you will definitely want to share the map of Duchamps Ridge even though it's more of a reference than a game board. There may be a temptation to start representing players as counters and moving them around on the map. Avoid this at all costs, fiddling about with your game pieces will just take all the pace out of the game. Descriptions of people's positions are approximate and can be adequately modelled by pointing at the map or even drawing on it in pencil. The game is an action western and it's far more important that people describe what they're doing in a cool way than that they know with radar like accuracy where everyone is standing. Aside from this the map is a piece of colour for the adventure. There are no hidden locations or further floor charts to worry about, so this map is all the visual reference the adventure needs. Take certain things into account. Like the supply sheds by the mine are likely to contain explosives. The water tower looks like a good think to randomly explode. The Storage Barns contain the town's grain and other long term supplies. The Sheriff's Office has two cells in the back.

Game Features Use of Weapons Obviously there's a lot of gunplay in this adventure. You might want to introduce the gun rules by explaining that any six shooter not described as a “standard” six shooter will cost a non-gunslinger a penalty of -1 to checks if they are not the owner. Apart from the starting weapons there are obviously more weapons in the Sheriff's office and the General Store. You may also choose to issue any other cowpokes killed in the course of the action with six shooters or other weapons. Essentially, you want to be careful the game doesn't turn into “hunt the guns” so make it quite plain that penalties will be applied for using six shooters other than your own and the incidence of heavier weapons is much lower. Those characters who have throwing knives are probably liable to be the only folks in town with such items, these not being something people usually use. Anyone attempting to use throwing knives who didn't own them from the beginning takes a -2 penalty to all checks using them.

Gun Combat All checks in the game are made the usual way with the exception of ranged combat checks. Each character will have a weapon or weapons (and may acquire others during play) and each weapon will have a number of chambers. If the character has a rifle, for example, each magazine may contain five shots, a shotgun may have two barrels, and a revolver has six chambers. At the outset of the game every weapon is presumed to be loaded and ready for action. For each shot fired the player must keep the card, to represent a spent bullet. When a Weapon is empty the player must use combat rounds to reload the gun before it may be used again. During those rounds the player may only defend themselves, if they take a defensive action then they must wait to perform their reload action until the following round. For the purposes of this game a "combat round" is the time it takes for a player to perform one of the following actions, every player gets to perform one action in every round:

Attack (Ranged): fire their gun. Attack (Melee): Punch, kick, stab someone. Defend: Avoid incoming fire or blows, take cover or otherwise defend themselves. Reload: Discard some of the spent bullet cards from their hand into the discard pile. When a gun is empty a quick draw character may immediately discard all on-suit bullet cards. In the first round where a reload action is taken quick draw characters may discard all bullet cards that are not off suit, all other characters may discard all on-suit bullet cards. In the second reload round quick draw characters discard off suit bullet cards and everyone else discard all remaining bullet cards that are not off suit. In the third reload round all off suit cards that have not been discarded so far are discarded and the guns are loaded again. A character may start to use a gun that is only half loaded with the obvious disadvantages that they have less bullets available and will therefore run out sooner. When drawing a card for a bullet hit anything above 5 removes a Hit Point from an opponent, anything above 8 takes two and an Ace is a kill shot.

Reload Example Phil is playing Tex Grande the gunslinger with a sweet six shooter. He is pegging it across town to the Saloon where Mississipi Lil, his sweetheart, is trapped inside on the upper floor and the building's been set ablaze by the Arkansas Kid. The kid's men are out to stop him, so he draws his gun and starts up main street. One comes out of the bath house and raises a rifle, BLAM, 4 of Clubs, not only unspectacular but off suit as well, but it startled the fella, he has to defend. So better fire again. BLAM, 9 of Diamonds, takes the mook out but there's two more now, one on the roof of the Prospector's office and one coming out of the alley behind the Shipping Offices. The one on the roof already has sight down a rifle, the one in the alley has a six shooter. Tex decides to be discreet. He uses a round to get behind a horse trough as a rifle shot kicks up dust and the six shooter fires wild, he hears a window go out. From behind the horse trough he can see the six shooter dude so he fires. BLAM! 7 of Spades, on suit, nice, so that would count as an eight and either way six shooter goes down for the count. Tex decides to go for the roof dude with a quick shot diving across the road he aims at where the guy was standing last time he saw him. Thankfully he's not too bright and is still there for BLAM! 3 of diamonds, rubbish. Enough to get him to duck back so BLAM! 10 of Clubs, sweet but still off suit. The mook falls off the roof.

Continuing Tex is lucky enough to draw a final Ace of Spades on the last of the Kid's men putting him stone down with a head shot but before he gets to the Saloon he's going to have to reload. Tex's Hand: Off Suit: Clubs 4, 10; Not Suited: Diamonds 3, 8; On Suit: Spades A, 7 Reload Round 1: The spades go into the discard pile, two chambers have been reloaded. The Kid sees his men are down and hurries into the street. Defence Round 2: Tex ducks back into the shadows as the kid fires his gun. He's bought himself a round while the Kid has to find him. Reload Round 3: The diamonds get discarded but the Kid's getting too close for comfort. Tex pauses his reloading. Melee Round 4: Tex hurls himself at the kid smacking him to the floor. He'll only be out for a second. Better to get reloading quick. Reload Round 5: The off suits go into the discard pile now the gun's back in action. The furious kid is up off the floor and wanting to lay on some hurtin' Now... was the Kid a quick draw? Quick Draws: If a quick draw contest is called for (either as a sporting event or because two opponents surprise one another) this is how it works. Each opponent draws two cards. One is the speed of the draw, the other is the actual shot (player chooses whether to be faster or more powerful). The quick draw class automatically adds 2 to the speed card. The fastest draw makes the first shot with attendant damage. If the damage does not equal the damage of the slow draw the slow draw's damage does the damage.

Quick Draw Example Tex now has to outdraw the Kid, they're already drawn so really this means who can get the best shot off quickest. So he picks up two cards one for his quick aim and another for the shot damage. He gets a Jack of Hearts and a Seven of Spades. He figures that being faster is no good if he is bound to fail the shot so he concedes the quick draw to the kid. The kid plays a seven of spades for his draw which, as he's a quick draw makes an almost unbeatable speed of nine. But the kid's only got a six of diamonds in the damage meaning that it's Tex's slower seven (on suit so eight) that does the damage

taking one HP from the cocky Kid. Tex now, obviously, has to keep the seven of spades as that's the shot he fired, same way the hid has to keep his six of diamonds. But they discard their speed cards. Sharpshooting: Any player can attempt to sharpshoot. To do so they must state specifically what kind of accuracy based trick shot they intend to try. The Host will then set a difficulty for the shot depending on the sound of the circumstances. The player then draws a bullet and hope it beats the target score. Sharpshooters gain an automatic +2 to all sharpshooting tests.

Sharpshooting Example Tex decides that as the Kid has staggered back under the Saloon sign he's going to try out a trick shot. He wants to shoot the chain off the sign's left side and thwack the kid into next week. As they're in front of the Saloon it's not too far, the chain's pretty thick but it is dark and there's smoke in the air the Host decides Tex needs 6 or better to pull this off. A Queen of Hearts is a better than needed shot setting the birdies spinning around the Kid's head. Once he's hogtied it's time to rescue Lil. The Queen is kept as that's another spent chamber. If the Host is drawing for an NPC the rules are the same but if the Host draws an ace against a player this is an indication that some kind of bizarre stroke of fate intercedes in the gun battle e.g. a barrel of TNT explodes, the enemy's gun jams, a stampede of cattle suddenly charge into the town etc. Adventure Timeline The Duchamps Mine Bounty is an adventure that runs on events. The events occur in a particular order and the characters are free to react to them in any way they feel is necessary. The major part of this one off is the gun fight. All the to-ing and fro-ing before then allows players to get into a slightly more advantageous position before things start to kick off. This timeline is what would happen if none of the players interfere with it or speed it up any. Before Game 0137 - Duchamps Ridge: Leonard Hotchkiss, Noel Martin, Christopher Grimes and Manny Simpson begin a fight in the saloon, Leonard has been accused of cheating at

seven card stud. Bob Raymond the bar owner makes them leave. 0142: Leonard runs for his life towards the mine pursued by Noel, Christopher and Manny, intent on beating the snot out of him. Their approach to the mine disturbs the aborigines who are quietly stealing as many pick axes as they can. They disappear into the night with their loot. 0157: Leonard ignores the rumours and stories about the mine by night and hightails into Shaft Three pursued by Noel, Christopher and Manny. 0206: Manny has a close encounter with a bunyip, the creature gores him and then drags his corpse outside where it eats most of his legs and internal organs. It abandons the rest of him behind some piles of pit props near entrance three. In Game 0600: Luke Crawford is summoned by Bob Raymond to take the Sheriff from the corner booth of the Saloon back to his office. 0600 - Elsewhere: Potsy Potter wakes up with a splitting headache. He awakes to see a snake crawling over the recumbent form of Dust; the bounty hunter who knocked him unconscious a few hours ago coming out of a bar in Kavanagh Creek. 0603: Dust wakes up and deals with the snake. He mounts up and begins the ride into Duchamps Ridge to collect his bounty. 0615 - Duchamps Ridge: Brammy Richards arrives in town and proceeds to the Sheriff's office where he attempts to find out if Dust has brought his pal in to be locked up. 0630: Clarence Biggins the foreman at the mine rolls up to the Sheriff's office to say that the body of Manny Simpson has been discovered in a bad way near the entrance to shaft number three. The miners are refusing to go down there until the area has been checked. He also wants to report that all the picks have gone missing from the supply sheds. This is not the first time that such sabotage has been detected, shovels and explosives have gone missing in the past. 0645: Either Slim or Luke go to get Sebastien Duchamps to deal with the impromptu strike over working conditions. 0652: Dust comes into town and heads to the Sheriff's Office to collect his bounty. He is observed by Brammy. 0658: An almighty explosion originating from some way down shaft three brings rubble down over the mouth to pit entrance three. None of the miners are working so it is presumed there are no casualties. 0713: It is revealed that Leonard, Noel and Christopher are missing. 0720: Efforts begin to move the rubble from the mouth of shaft three. This rock fall is quite light and it becomes apparent that the worst of the explosion is to be found inside the tunnel. 0750: If no one else manages to work it out Clarence Biggins notices that shaft two is

connected to shaft three via a redundant seam. It might be possible to get into the bottom of shaft three through this small natural fissure. 0813: Noel Martin, covered in blood and running for his life, emerges from Pit Entrance 2 and immediately runs for his house. He comes back a few minutes later with a rifle and heads back towards the pit entrance. He is incoherent and rambling about something coming out of the mine. 0827: A pack of bunyips, nine strong, emerge from the pit entrance. They charge through the town causing carnage, ripping apart houses and killing citizens indiscrimantely on their way west to Kavanagh Creek. Aborigines (The Jokers) The aborigines know that the Bunyips are down in the dank caves below the main mine shaft. When the Duchamps Mine was no more than a cave network they trapped the Bunyips down there by sealing the entrance to the caves with rocks. The original network only had entrances at shafts one and three. Two is an artificially sunk shaft created after a survey determined a few explosives would cut through into a cavern behind saving some time for getting the minerals back up to the surface. The aborigines know the more the white man goes poking around down there the more likely it is the bunyip nest will be disturbed. The aborigines at first tried to warn the original prospectors and Duchamps about the risk but even when they could make themselves understood the white man laughed at their concerns. The laughter was often followed by beatings, or shotgun blasts, so the aborigines decided it would be best to let the white man discover these things for themselves. Just recently the leader of the bunyip pack has been venturing out at night. The aborigines have noted that the bush near the ridge has been depopulated of good hunting prospects and they know what this implies. The aborigines know full well about the disaster about to befall Duchamps Ridge and they are keen to alert the authorities. The best way they know how is to appear before the more important people in town, point towards the mine whilst looking worried and then to just walk away. They know this unsettles ignorant white men. Even Marlon, who has aboriginal ancestry, is regarded with suspicion because he's taken to wearing shirts, living in a wooden box and using money. If someone is playing Marlon they might even talk to him.

If a player decides to go and see the aborignes in the village to the south then they must either leave their weapons behind or make a show of putting their weapons aside in the village when they want to speak. If they could bring food to share with the villagers that would help their prospects of meaningful communication enormously. If they fail to put their weapons aside the villagers will hide in such a way that they cannot be found. If the player get's the bright idea of attempting to damage the village a blowpipe dart will send them quickly to sleep and they will wake fifteen minutes later at the top of the path near the mines. Any attempt by a hostile player to return to the aboriginal village after this bridge burning moment will result in a dart before they come close and then they will be "reset" back to the top of the path until they give up. It is the aborigines who steal the mining equipment in an attempt to delay the inevitable. They hope the white man will start to listen before the worst happens.

Bunyips So what exactly is a bunyip, you may ask. In short a dog like creature about the size of a small horse. Its eyes glow, its pelt is black, it has loads of vicious sharp teeth and some accounts give it tentacles as well. They are said to like to gather at watering holes and other sources of water, some legends make them amphibious. The name sounds a bit ridiculous but the creature itself is anything but. Each one should have between 5-8 hit points and these should only be eroded by direct bullet hits scoring 6 or better. Super successful hits i.e. 9 or greater, may remove two Hit Points from the Bunyip at your whim. This means that the pack of nine will take anything between 45 to 72 successful hits to wipe out the lot. Set the exact stats yourself bearing in mind that the more total HP the pack has the longer the gun fight will go on for.