GUNFIGHTER'S BALL BUILDINGS; A TEASER

A little teaser for the new buildings.
This is a really simple one from the new line of Gunfighter's Ball buildings (but it's the one I happened to have assembled); it's pretty bare-bones basic because it's going in the new Desperado Deluxe Box Set (a no-frills introductory set). It has no added features like hitching rails, a porch roof, or scrollwork on the crown of the fascade as some others will have. We're even designing buildings that will come standard with cast furniture.

Features to note:

This was designed by a team that includes Lee Beheler, the original designer of the TCL line of buildings, so you will see a certain similarity in style that makes them look good on the table together, even though the new ones are slightly larger. And because Lee designed them, they are dead simple to assemble.

Metal-cast doors and windows with interior woodwork that mates up from the inside to meet the outside frame and glue together (primed grey in the photos). The shape of the sashes and moulding of the woodwork is modeled digitally and cast crisply. Some buildings will have entire panels of resin detailing on the fascade to model the kind of woodwork a bank or other substantial building would have.

The boardwalk has been given proper framework underneath it and floor-level is up a quarter-inch off the ground to simulate a foundation. No more toylike flat-bottomed building as with TCL.

The cedar shake pattern is smaller (although this design does away the woodgrain texturing effect in order to keep the cost down).
Generous proportions to allow room for lots of interior action, and to accommodate the larger figures and bases in use today with games such as Malifaux and Wild West Exodus. We spent a lot of time at the shop comparing the buildings to different sizes of figures, and we found a size that seems to work pretty well with all of them, even the old-school Knuckleduster figures of ours at the small end of 28mm. Since O-Gauge figures have no bases to make them look taller, they even look good in that scale, believe it or not!
In about a week-and-a-half, three of these will be available; a saloon, store (pictured here), and blacksmith, as well as a corral and outhouse. We'll roll them out at a fairly brisk pace after that and hope to have a very substantial selection rivaling the old TCL line by mid-summer.

Cost will be comparable to the TCL buildings, but not that we've figured out how to keep production costs down, we're going to be able to distribute them to stores, which we couldn't do before. This gives you the ability to go to the game shop and do some "tire-kicking."
Pick up your first buildings at Adepticon in a week's time, or watch for the online release at the end of the month!

SON OF DESPERADO!

Later in 2017, Knuckleduster will be launching Gunfighter’s Ball, a new game system with its roots in Desperado. Gunfighter’s Ball will keep the things people have loved about Desperado while smoothing out some rough edges and adding some really useful new rule mechanisms.

The launch of Gunfighter’s Ball will make it easy for Desperado players to upgrade. When the rules are published, two additional documents will be available free online.

·       The first is a Player’s Guide, which includes a reference sheet and just enough explanation to get a casual player up and running.

·       The second is another version of the Player’s Guide which includes additional material to give Desperado players the info on how to incorporate the changes into their games.

The complete Gunfighter’s Ball rules (the Judge’s Guide) will include everything needed to play, and is currently in playtesting.

SON OF DESPERADO FIRE MODIFIERS

Below is a reference sheet entitled “Son of Desperado.” This incorporates a few of the ideas from Gunfighter’s Ball; namely, some re-vamped modifiers.

In Classic Desperado, you find yourself doing lots of dividing and figuring fractions. In order to remove that chore, we’ve developed a super simple list of modifiers.

The only time you have to cut your shot in half is if you moved or are considered Immobile (a serious wound, as found on the Wound Chart).

Other modifiers are simple adjustments up or down. These merely take you up and down the specified amount; if your shot was 65%, a 10% penalty takes you down 10% to 55%.

·       All cover penalties are a 10% penalty. To make things simple, cover is anything that obscures the shooters view of the target.

·       Shooting from horseback is a 10% penalty.

·       A new 10% penalty is doled out for shooting with non-dominant hand (simplified as “left” hand).

·       A brand spanking new modifier is “Blind Shot Through Cover.” It’s a big one: -30%. In Desperado, we noticed numerous situations where you want to pepper the outhouse with gunshots, knowing darned well the bad guy is in there. Likewise, if someone shouts at you from behind a door, you know he’s there somewhere! With this modifier, you can blaze away at a target your character can reasonably assume is behind a door, fence, or wall, but can’t be seen. The shooter must have a good reason to assume the enemy is present within a 3” swath of area, and nearly adjacent to the target surface. It’s up to the game-master to decide if the shot is allowable.

That’s all the changes this time around. Keep a close eye on Knuckleduster.com for updates on the progress of the next chapter in the Desperado saga!

UPDATE

It's summer vacation time. I can still receive order and they'll be waiting for me. If one of my part-timers is available and familiar with order filling, he may be able to get something out in a pinch, but no guarantees. Any orders placed at this time will definitely be shipped the last week of June (assuming no backorders). I'll be monitoring my correspondence, so if you have any questions, please let me know. PS I will be sculpting while I'm gone, so I will continue to post work-in-progress (I hope I make progress!).

WHY I SELL DESPERADO

Every Year, like clockwork, a new Wild West "game system" comes out. I've sold Wild West game figures for almost 20 years, and I've seen what seems like that many games come and go.

The thing that has endured, since 1992, is Desperado. Sure, it's not the best rules ever written; there have always been grainy areas which we've all shrugged off with a laugh and a pronouncement of "hey, it's only Desperado." Maybe therein lies its charm. Desperado gave us permission to have fun.

You may not remember what came before Desperado. First there was Boot Hill, a TSR roleplaying game. A lot of people enjoyed Boot Hill campaigns, but as a tabletop skirmish game, it required a lot of tweaking. For one thing, combat was broken into increments of a fraction of a second.

Then there was "Once Upon a Time in the West," a small, beige book with incomprehensible rules. There was a shot clock that the user was supposed to assemble; I never could make mine work.

Then came Desperado. It started as a crib sheet that Tom Kelly used to run shootouts for the dealers after-hours at the big Eastern US conventions. He had to be persuaded by his friends to actually publish the rules, and when he did, they were comb-bound and xeroxed, in the finest 1980's style of wargame publication (it was 1992). It came in two "editions," which were actually just one rules set, the second booklet being special rules, errata, and scenarios. Together, and against all odds when put alongside the glitz that the industry was beginning to turn out, the two volumes sold thousands of copies. 

Why did it sell so well? I think it's because it made us laugh. You can easily tell if people are having real fun or just "theoretical fun." In the case of "theoretical fun," people come away at the end of the game exhausted, rubbing their tired eyes, saying, "that was interesting; I like the way the initiative system works. I think I could adapt that to the Boer War." People who are having real fun do one telltale thing: they laugh. I've yet to see a Desperado game where people didn't laugh. Not only do they laugh, they practically trip over one another in haste to tell their friends what happened to lefty behind the outhouse.

The rules were easy to learn, and even if it lacked detail in certain areas (short lists of modifiers, hand-to-hand combat system that was somewhat of an afterthought), it put detail where it was most appreciated by the players. The hilariously (or brutally) specific wound chart, the chance of getting pinned under your horse, the ability to set fires and throw dynamite, the ability to challenge your opponent to a showdown in the middle of the street while all play stopped and everyone watched; all of these things endeared Desperado to a generation of gamers. 

There is another aspect of Desperado I find extremely appealing. I think it captures the American mythology of the West very well. It's not about "factions," it's about individual gunfighters. 

Think of movies like "Rio Bravo" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales." The protagonists aren't neat and orderly factions of "outlaws," or "cowboys," any more than they are Austrian grenadiers or Portuguese Cacadores. They're a ragtag band of individuals who work toward a common goal. If you study the historical outlaws and cowboys, you don't have to delve very deep before you realize that they too were individuals, each with a different story. Our experience of the West should not be a paramilitary exercise where one "unit" goes up against another. That makes for boring, and rather un-American storytelling.

For all of these reasons, I'll continue to sell Desperado, and the game products I have planned for 2016 and 2017 will be built on the foundation that was laid with these humble rules. Be looking for Gunfighter's Ball, a system of short scenarios and optional rules, as well as a system of terrain and figures, all of which produce quick, fun games with lots and lots of gunfighting. 

I can't wait to hear what happened to your character in the next Desperado game!

Adios Amigos,

Forrest Harris

Knuckleduster

THE DESPERADO STARTER SET

Our hobby has come a long way from the days when you sent a self-addressed stamped envelope and a dollar for a catalog from an ad in the back of a wargames magazine. We now live in a faster-paced world where many people don't have the time to piece together a collection from multiple sources and figure out how everything can be jumbled together into a game. These days, rules, figures, and terrain are presented in unified systems, and it can be helpful, especially when starting out in a new game.

For Desperado, we've created a boxed starter set that includes everything you need to start having Old West gunfights; the Desperado rules, 12 figures (including 10 gunfighters and 2 bystanders), three buildings, an outhouse, a corral, a graveyard, character and turn sequencing cards with illustrations that match the figures, easy reference sheets, and all the dice you'll ever need to play the game.

For $150USD, this set gives you about $180 worth of gear. Check it out at www.knuckleduster.com. CATALOG PAGE

Adios amigos,

Forrest

Knuckleduster

DESPERADO; A PRIMER

So what made Desperado a wargaming classic?

MINIATURE GAMING
First a little something for those new to the concept of miniature gaming. In Desperado, as many as 8 or 12 players gather around a game board where model buildings, figures, and animals are used to set the scene. The board becomes the arena that players of online games like Team Fortress are used to, but created with physical models instead of pixels. Dice are rolled to control movement and combat and charts are used to decide who shot whom (and where).

DESPERADO'S STYLE OF MINIATURE GAMING
Desperado is an old-school skirmish wargame. It is not designed for point-based tournaments with one-on-one match-ups. Rather, it is a social game where several people play together, each controlling one or two characters. Generally, players are divided into teams working toward common objectives. I call it a "social" game, because the emphasis is on having a few laughs, and not on cut-throat competition. Losing in a spectacular way is far more entertaining than winning in a game like this.

NUTS AND BOLTS
The turn sequence is driven by cards, with each character taking their entire turn when their card comes up. Movement is limited by dice rolls, so a carefully planned move may be thwarted by a bad toss. Fire is accomplished with percentile dice (two 10-sided dice which represent the "ones" and "tens" places), and  takes into account range, type of weapon, the number of shots taken in one turn, and a very, very short list of other modifiers.

The wound chart is what probably made Desperado's reputation. When you score a hit, you roll for location and severity on a table that includes probably 30 different results. Players subtract health as they accumulate wounds, and they write down and apply specific penalties (limping, etc.).

Melee rarely happens in this game due to the lethality of fire, but when it does, the system is an opposed die roll with some bonuses and penalties.

The GM (or referee, or judge) is absolutely indispensable, because unlike a game like 40K, there is a subtle role-playing element. The scenarios are not clear "capture the flag" types of things. The game accommodates off-script situations with a generic skill test.

To understand Desperado, one must also grasp the nostalgic element of it. This game came out in 1992, and was one of the first "beer and pretzels" rules. It is by no means perfect, although some of the gaps in the original were filled in with the house rules provided in this edition. Thousands of gamers have played this game, and it is beloved by many. When people describe a Desperado game to you, they generally smile and begin recounting a hilarious string of mishaps, explosions, quips, and spectacular shots just as if it had happened to them in the real world. I've watched rules lawyers who start off scoffing at these humble little rules end up laughing alongside everyone else as unlikely but entertaining things unfold on the game table.

THE FINAL ANALYSIS
If you're looking for a point-based "faction"-building style of western game, Desperado is not your ticket. It is, in fact, meant to be the game you play at 8:00pm at the convention after a day of hard tournament gaming. It takes no preparation from the players, and a minimal amount from the GM. If you play Desperado, I guarantee you will never have to see a therapist because a 12 year-old crushed your ego with his 750-points of Elven gunfighters!


by Forrest Harris,
Editor and co-author of Desperado; The Knuckleduster Edition

THE RETURN OF DESPERADO!

If you are a gamer of a certain age, you will fondly remember Tom Kelly's Desperado. The humble pair of comb-bound, type-written booklets arguably launched the "beer-and-pretzels" revolution in American wargaming. It preceded Volley and Bayonet, Brother Against Brother, and a host of other "light" games that displaced the massive rulebooks that by the early '90's were beginning to collapse under their own weight.

Tom Kelly, as the story goes, used to run a wild west shootout for other dealers after hours at Historicon. It became so successful that he was encouraged by his fellow dealers to publish them. The rules were written down one year in the car on the way home from the show, and first published in 1992 in the form most of us remember.

Knuckleduster sold the original two volumes for many years, but Tom eventually stopped having them printed and invited me to re-publish them with up-to-date graphics. What resulted is a testament to this most hallowed of all Wild West games. In 66 pages, we cover the original rules verbatim, with sidebars which contain rule interpretations and house rules, plus scenarios, painting tips, and information about building your own scenery. Charts and a summary of house rules are also included.

Knuckleduster has also created a figure which exemplifies the spirit of Desperado. Named "Groin Shot McGhee," he sports a well-used boilerplate over the part of his anatomy Desperado is famous for including on its wound charts. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

Desperado is available now at www.knuckleduster.com.

Desperado
Groin Shot McGhee, 32mm (big 28mm, "heroic") with slotta base
Groin Shot McGhee, 28mm with integral base

Paperback: 66 pages
Publisher: Knuckleduster
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0966704649
ISBN-13: 978-0966704648
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.2 x 11 inches

KNUCKLEDUSTER DIGITAL!

Has Knuckleduster just rung the death knell for hand-sculpted figures?

No.

With traditional sculptors like Sebastian Archer and Tom Meier stalking the Earth, the future for traditional sculpting remains safe.

That said, Knuckleduster's new digital sculpts do have the capacity to raise eyebrows.

Three years ago, I took a look at state of digital technology and made the decision to dive into it head-first. I did not want to go the way of the village blacksmith. After throwing lots of time and money at this new art form, I arrived at figures with detail and crispness to match or exceed hand-sculpted figures, and a skillset as an artist that allowed me to fully take advantage of the new medium.

I will now present the fruits of my labor!

THE BASICS

A figure being sculpted in Zbrush.

 First of all, I should point out that digital sculpting produces a master that takes the place of the "green" that a traditional sculptor makes. These prototypes go into the mold-making process just as a handmade model does, and the product you receive is a highly-detailed metal casting, not a plastic print. I'm using the highest quality mold material for these pieces, and my tin pewter can produce razor-sharp castings that capture every detail. These are not Scruby Napoleonics!

A TALE OF TWO SCALES

The Dame With No Name in Digital 28, A Woman of the Gun in 28, and The Dame in 32 (Heroic 28).

These three figures are, from left to right, 28mm digital (the new OW28-500 series, which you can find in the 28mm Old West listings), 28mm traditional (this is from OW28-111, Women of the gun), and 32mm (large 28mm) digital, from the Gunfighter's Ball product line.

Notice that the two digital figures are the same character rescaled; this is a big advantage of the digital technology. I can continue to support the old 28mm scale with the same releases that are added to the "heroic" 28, aka 32mm collection.

With this scaling capability, I'm able to keep the old hand-sculpted and new digital 28mm Figures in the same product line, and I think you will find that they blend very well. I worked very hard to achieve a digital sculpting style that was not sterile and that did not look "computerized." I wanted my current customers to be able to place their old Knuckleduster figures with the new ones on the same wargame table and not have them seem mismatched. You may not realize that one of my current packs, OW28-310, Wagon Riders, are digitally-sculpted.
Here we have the old, traditionally-sculpted figures alongside the new digital sculpts:

A digital cowboy with an analog horse.

Wyatt, meet Wyatt. Size and general style are the same, regardless of the obvious quality improvements wrought by the digital technology. Care has been taken to give digital Wyatt (actually Mysterious Dave Mather) the same, exaggerated proportions of a traditional 28mm figure.

32MM; "HEROIC" SCALE

"Gunfighter's Ball" figures square off. Knuckleduster's new 32mm/Heroic 28mm line. Shown here with plastic slottas; MDF straight-sided slottas are provided in the same size as other current Old West games.

Ever the set-in-my-ways historical wargamer, I was slow to embrace the "other" side of the hobby. But after exhibiting at Adepticon, a large game convention in Chicago, I learned how the rest of the world prefers their miniatures made. While showing my old figures, I was repeatedly asked "are these 20mm?" Even though I patiently explained how this was a grand old scale with the most variety available in it; that they could get stagecoaches, civilians, animals, and even potbellied stoves in this smaller scale, they persisted in viewing the like of Knuckleduster, Foundry, Old Glory, and Dixon as passe--geezer figures--not deserving of consideration. It was clear that I had to come up with larger and better figures to offer this more sophisticated market.

So the new scale I've introduced is 32mm, which is sometimes called "heroic 28mm", or even simply called "28mm" by some manufacturers. Almost all fantasy and sci-fi figures now use this scale, so if you're looking for western characters for a Malifaux game, my 32s will fit scale-wise with any of the figures in that genre. They feature a slotta-base arrangement, but I've elected to sell them with MDF slotta bases that are almost identical to ones distributed with integral-base figures such as Dead Man's Hand. I will be filling this line out with mounted figures, casualties, and lots of characters. I will even have some weird characters for those of you who like that sort of thing!

Knuckleduster (slotta) alongside another recently-produced "Heroic" scale Western figure.

COST
The price is higher for the digitally-created packs; I cannot lie. I have to recover the cost of some very expensive equipment. For the 32s, expect to pay about the same as a Reaper Chronoscope figure. The 28s are still considerably cheaper than Dead Man's Hand or Foundry figures. Additionally, I will not be replacing or removing the old 28mm figures; they will remain in the catalog at the old price, so you will always have the cheap and cheerful alternative available to you.

THE FUTURE
What's next? Flying cars? Robots? Silver jumpsuits?
 I don't know about any of that, but as for Knuckleduster, we have a digital horse being rigged out with his western tack at the moment and is almost ready to ride. I'll be producing new sculpts using him, and will be creating mounted versions of characters to go with them. I have lots of funky gear and strange characters mapped out, so be watching!

California Kate; surely you've seen her by now.

Dan McGann; the Three-Legged Man. Extra dice for movement?

Dan McGann and all of the other Gunfighter's Ball characters are now available, as well as a six-figure set that includes 28mm versions of the same in the old format.

www.knuckleduster.com

1812 SCENES FROM THE FRONT LINES

I spent the evening taking photos of my 1812 collection. Tonight I focused on Crysler's Farm and dabbled a little bit with the Kentucky Mounted Militia. I forgot to bring my "sky" backdrop home from the shop, so I did some creative angles and cropping. Also, my sons had taken up much of my table with summer projects, so I made the most of what I had to work with, and here are the results!

Brown-Coated Americans on the Right

A Flank View of the 49th and the 89th in the British Center.

"My Regiment, Damnit. 'Paid for it. It's mine."

Mohawks Sizing up the Americans.

Drone's Eye View.

Ripley's 21st in Line in the American Center.

Look Men, Canadians! How Hard Can This Be?

Kentucky Cavalry, Wind Their Way Through the Deep Michigan Woods.

Parade of New Releases; 28mm Mounted Robbers, Poker Set and Wounded, PLUS New 32mm Ranges

So much news for May that I don't know where to start!

Oh, well, let's just start with the new 28mm Old West items.

First off, we have mounted versions of the figures in the Robbers set, ow28-115. These figures give your James Gang the ability to get away in a hurry! As with the other mounted sets, they feature three two-man packs which correspond to the six figures in the dismounted packs.

Next, we have, by request, more wounded figures.I like to give a variety of costuming in order to give you the ability to find a figure that roughly represents your character.

I have replaced the Poker Set (the old KDP-OW012). The mold tore and the masters were woefully out-of-date, so I spruced it up by replacing.....EVERYTHING. I sculpted the figures separate from the chairs so you can use them with any furniture you happen to have. The chairs were designed digitally and come in two pieces; the bottom legs and rungs are one piece, and the seat and back are the other piece. The table is in one piece, with nicely detailed poker chips and glasses cast right on the table-top.

The next news item really merits its own story; I have added a line of 32mm Old West characters which I'm calling GUNFIGHTER'S BALL. I have some customers who prefer the larger 28s (which are increasingly called 32mm) such as Dead Man's Hand, Copplestone, Reaper, or Black Scorpion. In order to serve that segment of the market, I am digitally sculpting some very highly-detailed slotta base figures. I will also be issuing these in 28mm with integral bases--I would never leave my loyal 28mm customers in the lurch!

Finally, I've added two product lines from Australia, both by master sculptor Sebastian Archer. I first saw these figures in the Crystal Brush Competition at Adepticon in Chicago last year and was so impressed, I tracked down the sculptor and began importing them.

He has two product lines: Guild of Harmony is a small collection of nifty steampunk characters.

Twisted is the beginning of a line that will blossom into a full-fledged Steampunk game universe. The initial two offerings are limited-edition resin kits with outstanding detail.

Finally, I'm now on Facebook! Never fear; if you're not a Facebook person (I wasn't until business forced me into it), I will continue to issue news through the newsletter and my website.

The Home Page of the website will be changing--www.knuckleduster.com will soon be taking you to the home page of the shopping cart. All of the links you need will still be there--the downloads page in particular, but also the newsletter signups and links to our various blogs such as this one and Tumblr.

Happy shopping!
Forrest Harris
www.knuckleduster.com

NEW RELEASE: 28MM ROBBERS

I've just posted a new figure set for sale--28mm Robbers.
These are meant to represent one of the notorious gangs of thieves that plagued banks, railroads, and stagecoach lines. The James and Dooling-Dalton gangs spring to mind.

These characters wear long dusters--not the layered canvas anachronisms worn in low-budget Hollywood movies and TV commercials, but the garment that Westerners called a "duster." It was more like what we would call a "lab coat" today; a simple, white linen coat meant to protect your suit from dust. It had only a simple collar, no lapels, and certainly not the cape over the shoulders that modern trench coats and Nashville "dusters" have. I've included several variations, some more fancy than others.

Another historically-accurate feature of these figures is the headgear; more specifically, the face-gear. Real stagecoach robbers wore gunney-sacks over their heads with holes cut out for the eyes and mouth. I've given you figures with these, and some with the more familiar bandannas, both over-the-mouth and pulled down.

Several of the robbers carry shotguns and rifles; "longarms" were more popular than pistols among these criminals, and they were part and parcel of their costuming strategy. The long coats aided in concealment of a longarm until the trap was spung. Particulary popular were fearsome sawed-off shotguns, a real conversation stopper when it's pulled out.
Now I have to "steal" some time to do some painting!

All the Best
Forrest
Knuckleduster

PS.  You can find them in the shopping cart here.