KICKSTARTER EDITION

An Old West shootout game

By Tommy Harris & Forrest Harris

Artwork, written materials, and sculptures copyright © 2020, Knuckleduster Miniatures

What kind of game

is this?

This is a fair question!

This game began with a challenge from a distributor. If I could put our tabletop miniatures game into a

board game format, he could introduce Wild West shootout games to whole new group of people. I knew

this would not be easy, and it has taken two years to complete the playtesting and hone the game into

something that accomplishes what we set out to do; create a board game with the freewheeling, light-

hearted, yet tactically challenging feel of Gunfighter’s Ball. It is self-contained, easy-to-learn, free from

the ambiguity that plagues tabletop miniatures games, and does not require any modeling or painting.

It is not a Euro game, or a traditional board game; it’s roots are firmly planted in the world of tabletop

minis, yet those with demo and playtesting copies have found it to be a hit with their families and non-

gamer friends. The goofy minis, the cartoon artwork, and the evocative Wild West setting set people at

ease the moment they sit down to play. While it teaches some of the basic concepts of tabletop miniatures

(like to-hit numbers, modifiers, tactical movement), these are buried in board game mechanics that are

intuitive and explained by the graphics in front of the player; they need not be looked up in a book during

play!

If this sounds like it might be of interest to you, please support our Kickstarter. It will be running till

February 1st, 2021. We hope to raise enough for the first print run and some additional characters for the

game.

Thanks for exploring this game! Here are the rules and a bit more information. Please send us your

questions via Kickstarter, Facebook, or knuckledusterharris@gmail.com.

The figures

Gunfight Royale’s figures are in a cartoon style reminiscent of the cartoons of the 1800’s.

These had “balloon heads”, but the features were realistic.

This suited our game for several reasons. First, if 19th-Century game designers could have made

a shootout game, this might have been their first instinct for the look of the characters. I’ve

always liked to make game materials look and feel as if they came from the period portrayed.

Secondly, they are only 27mm tall. So I wanted to pack as much character into each one as I

could and make them easily identifiable on the board. In the Old West genre, the hat tells you

everything you need to know about a person. Finally, silly figures take the edge off the dark

reality of civilians gunning each other down in the street; this is only a game!

FIGURE FORMAT

The figures in the game are grey plastic and the base is octagonal. They measure 27mm from the

feet to the top of the head, and the base is 1” wide. When situated on a game square, the arrow

can point one of 8 directions, either straight or

diagonally from the square they’re on.

Metal versions of each character will be available.

They carry more crisp detail, and those who are so

inclined and might be inspired by vintage

illustrations may wish to paint them.

They have a round base, and can be mounted on

octagonal metal bases provided with them.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Gunfight Royale, a game of hijinks in the old west for 2-6 players. The details of how to play are in the

next 3 sections of the rulebook, the Rules, Appendix, and Quick Reference. The Rules section explains how to set up

and play the game. The Index contains optional rules, clarifications, and examples. The Quick Reference section on

the back of the rulebook has short explanations of the most important rules for you to glance at during play.

DIRT SIMPLE OVERVIEW

1. Gunfight Royale is a shootout game where a collection of gunslingers, misfits, and desperados fight to the

finish in the fictional town of Gunpowder Gulch. Each player controls one or two characters that take turns

roaming through the town, collecting items, attacking enemies, playing dirty tricks, and achieving

objectives.

2. Gunpowder Gulch is an iconic Western town, featuring a saloon, general store, bank, livery stable,

barbershop, corral, outhouses, sagebrush, and animals, with squares for movement and measuring ranges.

Here and there, spaces with ? marks contain tokens that can be captured and exchanged for a draw from the

Weapons & Items deck.

3. Each player chooses one or two figures.

4. Each figure starts the game with cards for weapons and chips for health.

5. Characters take turns in order of their bounty. Each turn, one of your characters does 2 things (actions),

either two different actions, or the same action twice. Sometimes you can sacrifice an action from a future

turn to interrupt another player who is trying to shoot at you.

6. To move, roll one or two D3s and go up-to that many spaces; you can move up, down, or diagonally.

7. To shoot, roll a D20 and try to score equal-to or less-than the accuracy number for your weapon and range.

8. When you score a hit, draw a Wound Card and apply the results to the target character. This might cause

them to lose health, which is kept track of with Wound Chips. It might also cause their movement or hand

use to be disabled, indicated with special chips played on their Character Rig.

9. Each character starts the game with 9 Wound Chips. When their health has dwindled to 3, they are

“mortally wounded,” and their fighting ability declines dramatically.

10. When a character gets wounded, they are compensated with a Dirty Trick Card they may keep in secret and

play at any time. Even after a character dies, they may play their Dirty Trick Cards!

11. When you eliminate an enemy character, you collect their bounty, listed on their Character Card.

12. The game ends when there is only one player or team with characters standing, when the objective of the

scenario has been achieved, or when the Lone Rider of Eternity completes his trip around the edge of the

board.

RULES

THE GOAL

The goal of Gunfight Royale is to score the most points (points are in dollars) by collecting bounties and items, and

achieving the objective on the game’s Gunfight Card.

COMPONENTS 1 Gunfight Royale Rulebook

6 Gunfight Cards

12 Character Cards

14 Starting Weapons Cards

34 Weapon & Item Cards

36 Dirty Trick Cards

32 Wound Cards

6 Large Reference Cards

12 Plastic Character Figures

1 Quad-Fold Board

1 String

4 Six-Sided D3s (sides 1-1-2-2-3-3)

2 Twenty-sided dice

1 Ten-sided die

3 Dry-erase pens

6 Character Rigs

36 White Health Chips

18 Red Health Chips

25 Item Tokens

12 Hand Disabled Tokens

6 Can’t Run Tokens

PLAYER GEAR Each player gets a Character Rig. This is a large card that holds most of the cards and chips that are needed for play.

1. Character Card

Each player draws a Character Card. The character card lists the unique qualities of the character you drew,

including abilities, starting weapons, and a reward value. Your character’s reward value, or bounty, determines what

order you go in. The character with the highest bounty goes first, and it proceeds in descending order from there.

Once the last character goes, it’s back up to the top.

2. Health Chips

On the circle labeled Health Chips, place a stack of 9 chips – 3 red Health Chips on the bottom and 6 white chips on

top. This stack shows how close your character is to elimination. As you suffer wounds from bullets, knives and

whiskey bottles, you will take chips off the top of the stack. When you are down to red chips, you Are mortally

wounded, and when you lose all of the chips, you are eliminated.

3. Stun Chip

Place 1 blue chip on the circle labeled “Stun Chip”. During the game, you will probably be stunned at one point or

another. When that happens, take the stun chip off of this circle and place it on your Character Card. You can’t do

anything until you get rid of it by spending an action.

4. Hand Slots & Inventory Slot

At the bottom of your Character Card you will find the words “Last seen carrying” followed by 1 or more weapon

names. Find the matching card in the red Starting Weapons deck.

Weapons go above, below, or to the right or left side of your character rig. If you have a 1-handed weapon, you can

put it face-up in either the “Right Hand” or “Left Hand” slot. If you have a 2-handed weapon, you can put it face-up

in the “Both Hands” slot. If you don’t want to hold a weapon at the beginning of the game, you can place it in your

Inventory slot. Cards that say “Concealable” can be kept face down when in the inventory!

5. Can’t Run and Hand Disabled

Some wounds result in hand or movement effects. Chips are placed on these spaces to keep track of them.

With that, your character rig is set up! Start on setup chore #5 to set up the board, and then you’re ready to play.

Character Card The Character Card is displayed in the center of the Character Rig. It

includes:

• A picture and description of the character, including any

special characteristics.

• The bounty (i.e. $2,600).

• The character’s starting weapon (i.e. Coach Gun).

Weapon & Item Card Weapons and items are shuffled into a draw deck and can be captured

by spending an action when on or next to a ? space. Weapon Cards

include:

• A picture and description of the weapon, including any

special characterists.

• A chart with the range (in spaces) and accuracy number for

each distance.

• Bonuses or penalties to things like damage and reloading.

• Ammo symbols to cross off with dry-erase marker as shots

are taken.

• Special quirks and characteristics.

• Item cards have only an illustration of the item and a

description of how it’s used in play.

Starting Weapon Card Each character begins the game with a weapon. These are kept in a

separate deck and handed out at the beginning of the game.

Dirt Trick Card Dirty Trick Cards are dealt to a player whose character has suffered a

wound result (one card per wound).

• They can be played at any time, regardless of whose turn it

is.

• They can continue to be played after the owning character is

dead.

• For instance, suppose your pardner’ The Gambler is about to

be shot at and can’t challenge because of a stun marker. You

can play this card to immediately remove the stun marker

and allow him to challenge.

SETUP CHORES

1. Shuffle the black Wounds deck, the green Weapons & Items deck, and the yellow Dirty Tricks deck.

2. Each player selects a character. Optional: Shuffle the character deck and draw characters.

3. Give each player a Character Rig, 3 red Health Chips, 6 white Health Chips, and a Stun Chip.

4. Give each character the Starting Weapon Card(s) listed at the bottom of their Character Card.

5. Draw a Gunfight card. The card will say either Free-For-All or Teams.

Free-For-All: In descending order of character bounties, place each character on the board.

To place a character on the board, roll the ten-sided die and find the space on the board marked with that

number in green.

Teams: Divide yourselves into 2 teams. If a team is short one person, that team may control 1 extra

character.

In descending order of character bounties, place each character on the board.

Follow the instructions on the Gunfight card to place each character.

6. Place item tokens on all 20 spaces marked with a ?. Always place the $ item in the bank vault unless the

Gunfight card says otherwise.

7. Each character may begin the game holding their weapons in a hand slot or stashed in their inventory.

8. Give each player a Reference Card play aid.

9. The character with the highest bounty takes the first turn. Turns go in descending bounty order.

TURNS A turn consists of two actions. The list of all 12 possible actions is on the front side of the Reference Card. You may

choose two different actions, or the same action twice. After you are done with your two actions, play passes to the

character with the next highest bounty. After the lowest-bounty character has taken a turn, it is the highest-bounty

character’s turn once again.

ACTIONS The 12 actions are divided into 3 categories: Move, Attack, And Inventory.

The Move actions are: Run, Walk, Crawl, and Climb.

The Attack actions are: Shoot, Throw, Brawl, and Aim.

The Inventory actions are Loot, Reload, Weapon Switch, and Drop.

MOVE ACTIONS

Basics

• To cross a dotted line or a door, pay 1 extra space of movement.

• Payment carries over from one action to the next

• You may move through friendly characters, but you may not end an action in the same space

• You may not move through enemy characters, even diagonally

• You may not move through walls, including diagonally past corners

RUN

Roll two D3s and move the up to the sum of the two dice. You must

be standing.

Afterwards, face the direction of the last space moved.

At the end of your run movement, you may hit the dirt if desired.

WALK

Roll one D3 and move up to the result on the die.

You must begin the action standing.

Afterwards, face any direction and hit the dirt if desired.

CRAWL

Move up to 1 space. You must begin prone.

Afterwards, face any direction.

You may get up if desired at the end of your crawl movement.

CLIMB

Move 1 space through a window or another obstacle marked with a white arrow. You must begin standing.

Afterwards, face any direction.

You may go prone if desired.

Note: when moving diagonally, check the corner where the two squares intersect. If it contains a wall, you may not

move there. If it is a dotted line, you must pay an extra space of movement to cross.

ATTACK ACTIONS SHOOT

1. Choose a gun in one of your hand slots to shoot.

2. Choose a target character. Check that you can see your target. Try to draw a line from the arrow on your

base to any point on theirs, without passing through a wall.

3. Check the distance to your target, diagonals allowed.

4. If the target character is within 6 spaces, can see the shooter, and are not stunned, they may challenge.

5. Look at the Range/Accuracy Chart on your Weapon Card to find your base accuracy.

6. Use the Accuracy Chart on the Reference Card to find your final accuracy. Roll at or below this new

number on the 20-sider to hit the target.

7. Mark off 1 ammo from the Weapon Card with the dry erase marker.

On a Hit Deal a black wound to the

target.

The target draws 1 Dirty Trick

Card.

Roll of 1 A roll of 1 is always a hit, and is a

Called Shot! Draw 5 Wound Cards

and choose one black wound to give

your target.

Roll of 20 A roll of 20 is always a miss, and is a

Malfunction! Roll a D3:

1 – Dud round, miss

2 – Jam, takes 1 action to un-jam.

3 – Busted, gun becomes a bludgeon

THROW 1. Choose a weapon in a hand slot to throw.

2. Choose a target character. Check that you can see your target (see Appendix).

3. Check the distance to your target, diagonals allowed.

DOORS & DOTTED LINES To pass through a door or cross a dotted

line, pay 1 extra space of movement. If

you pay with your last space of movement,

the payment carries over to your next

action.

VAULT DOOR The vault door is locked. In order to get in

from the outside, you must pick the lock.

As an action, roll 2D3. If you roll

doubles, the lock is picked and the door

acts like any other door.

4. If the target character is within 6 spaces, can see the shooter, and are not stunned, they may challenge.

5. Subtract the distance from 20 to find your base accuracy. Example: 5 spaces away = accuracy 15

6. Use the Accuracy Chart on the Reference Card to find your final accuracy. Roll at or below this new

number on the 20-sider to hit the target.

ON A HIT • Deal a blue wound to the target, unless

otherwise stated on the Weapon Card.

• The target draws 1 Dirty Trick Card.

• Place the thrown Weapon Card off to

the side.

• Place an item token at the feet of the

target.

ON A MISS • The weapon scatters up to 2 spaces in a direction

of the target’s choice.

• Place the thrown Weapon Card off to the side.

• Place an item token on the space where the

weapon lands.

• For dynamite, the nearest character to the target

space chooses the direction. If two players are

equal distance, they roll against each other.

ON A ROLL OF 20 The target may immediately throw the weapon that was thrown at them!

BRAWL 1. Choose a character in an adjacent space to brawl.

2. Choose a weapon in a hand slot to use, or fight with bare hands.

3. Each player rolls two D3s.

4. Subtract and add from the brawling table on the Reference Card.

5. The high roller deals a blue wound to the low roller, unless otherwise stated on the Weapon Card. The

wound recipient draws a Dirty Trick Card.

6. In a tie, roll again until one character wins.

AIM • Spend the action aiming at a character in sight.

• Gives you a +2 to accuracy against that character on your next action.

• Aiming twice in a row gives you a +4 to accuracy on your next action.

INVENTORY ACTIONS

BASICS

• Weapons and items not being held are kept in the inventory space below the Character Rig.

• Weapons that say “Concealable” may be kept face-down in your inventory. All others are kept face-up.

• You cannot hold a 2-handed weapon and a 1-handed weapon at the same time

LOOT

Take 1 item from an adjacent space or your own.

• If looting an item token placed at the beginning of the game, draw a card from the Weapons & Items deck.

• If looting a body, take a weapon or item from their character rig. You may look through their concealed

cards.

• If looting a dropped item, take the corresponding card and remove the item token.

• After looting, place the card in your inventory, or in a hand slot, returning whatever weapon is there to your

inventory.

RELOAD

1. Choose a gun in a hand slot to reload.

2. Roll a D3.

3. Erase that many crossed-off ammo symbols from the Weapon Card.

Some guns have a penalty for reloading, with a minimum of 0. These may take more than one action to reload

successfully.

WEAPON SWITCH

• Return 1 or 2 weapons from your hand slots to your inventory.

• Place 1 or 2 weapons from your inventory into your hand slots.

DROP

• Remove a card from your inventory, or 1-2 cards from your hand slots.

• Place an item token in an adjacent space or your own.

CHALLENGING

BASICS

• When shot at or thrown at from 6 spaces away or less, you may challenge. Challenging will sacrifice your next

action to allow you to shoot (or throw) back at the attacker.

• Both challenge participants roll a D3. The high roller shoots first, and the low roller shoots second. In a tie, both

shots happen simultaneously.

To challenge, you must:

• Not be stunned. If either combatant is stunned when it is their turn to attack, they miss the opportunity!

• Have seen the attacker this turn (even if they only ran past)

• Have a weapon in hand to shoot or throw.

• Be 6 spaces away or less.

QUICK DRAWING

If you don’t have any weapons in your hand slots, no problem. You may quick-draw a weapon with type “Pistol”

into an empty right or left hand slot now.

VISIBILITY

If you can’t see the attacker now, but could see them at some point during the turn, you can still challenge. Turn your

character to face them now.

TIES

In the case of two simultaneous hits, the character who initiated the attack deals a wound first.

STUNNED

• After making a challenge during another player’s turn, the challenger sacrifices their next action. This is

called being stunned (some wound results also result in a stun).

• Place a Stun Token on your Character Card. You must spend your next action removing it.

WOUNDS

Each Wound Card has a black half and a blue half. Use the black half for shooting attacks and the blue half for brawls

and thrown weapons. These two halves are referred to as black wounds and blue wounds.

Black and blue wounds are each made up of 3 parts: Name, Damage, and Effects.

1. NAME

The name is fun to read aloud.

2. DAMAGE

The damage number tells you how many

health chips you lose from a wound.

The black wound pictured has a

damage value of “1D3”. This

means you roll a single 6-sided

D3, and remove as many health

chips as the number that came

up.

For the blue wound example

pictured, the damage number

says “1”, so you only remove 1

health chip.

3. EFFECTS

The effects are listed underneath the title.

Unique effects are described on the card,

but common effects are represented by

short phrases.

The four common effects are:

STUNNED – Place a blue stun chip on top of your Character Card. You must spend your next available action

removing the stun before you can make any other actions.

CAN’T RUN – Place a boot token on your character rig. You may not make a run action for the rest of the

game.

HAND DISABLED – Place a hand token on the circle next to the appropriate hand slot. Immediately drop any

weapon in that hand slot, and that hand may no longer hold 1-handed weapons. You may still hold 2-handed

weapons, but you receive an accuracy penalty.

FALL PRONE – If standing, fall prone on the space you are standing, facing the direction you are facing.

DIRTY TRICKS • After you take a wound, draw a Dirty Trick card.

• Dirty Tricks can be played on friends, enemies, or yourself in order to influence the game.

• The card states any restrictions on when it can be played.

• You can play Dirty Trick Cards even if you’re dead!

• Discard Dirty Trick Cards after they are used.

MORTALLY WOUNDED • If you fall below 4 health and have only red health chips remaining, you are mortally wounded!

• Fall prone immediately. You may not stand up unless your health rises into white chips again.

• In this state, your only movement option is to crawl. You may not walk, run or climb.

THE LONE RIDER OF ETERNITY • The first time someone becomes mortally wounded, the Lone Rider of Eternity is activated.

• At the end of each round, after the lowest-bounty character has taken their turn, the Lone Rider of Eternity

moves 2D3 spaces along the time track.

• Follow any instructions which might be on the space where he lands.

• When he reaches the end, the game is over.

THE END OF THE GAME The game ends when one or more of the following criteria is met:

• There is only 1 gunfighter or team of gunfighters standing.

• The objective on the Gunfight Card is complete, and/or . . .

• The Lone Rider Of Eternity reaches the end of the time track.

APPENDIX

SCORE-KEEPING

If you want a longer play session, keep score across all 3 free-for-all gunfights. Each game, players earn points

based on this formula:

Total Bounties Collected

+ Gunfight card objective

+ 1000 for character with most Weapons & Items

______________________

= Game Total

After the third game, the player with the most money wins.

You can also play all 3 team gunfights in a row. Choose your teams at the beginning, and keep score for each team

rather than each player.

MODIFICATIONS FOR 2 PLAYERS

For a 2-player game, each player can take more than 1 character. In this configuration, you can play team or free-for-

all gunfights.

ADVANCED RULES AND CONCEPTS CORNERS

To find out how well you can see your target, make a line to each visible corner of their octagonal base. A visible

corner is a corner not obscured by a wall or a character’s base (including the target’s own base – you can’t count the

back corners, as they are obscured by the front). The more corners you can see, the less of an accuracy penalty your

shot gets. View the “accuracy” section on the Reference Card.

ADJACENCY

Adjacency is used for looting, brawling, and dropping.

An adjacent space is any of the 8 spaces surrounding the character, unless they are blocked by a wall.

As with diagonal movement, diagonal adjacency is blocked by the corners of walls. When in doubt, look at the

intersection between the two diagonal squares. If a wall touches the intersection, you are not adjacent.

LINE OF SIGHT

You must be able to see someone to shoot or throw at them. To find out if you can see another character, try to make

a line from the arrow on the front of your base to any point on the target’s base using the included string. If you can

do so without passing through a wall or another character’s base, the target is in sight.

The limit of your peripheral vision is 180 degrees. Imagine a line passing through your space, perpendicular to the

way you’re facing.

For the purposes of line of sight, a door counts as open if any character is directly in front or behind it and has their

arrow pointed at the door.

PEEKING

If your arrow pokes out from around a corner, you can see around the corner. However, you can’t see someone else

who is peeking past the same wall.

Quick reference

ORDER OF PLAY

Each round of play begins with the character who has the

highest reward bounty listed on his or her Character Card

and proceeds downward to the character with the lowest

bounty.

LONE RIDER OF ETERNITY

Starts when the first character is Mortally Wounded. Roll

2D3 when the last character in a round finishes their turn.

Apply any instructions on the time track space. When he

reaches the end of the track, the game is over.

MOVING

Roll 2 D3s to run, but you cannot adjust your direction at

the end. Roll 1 D3 to walk, facing any direction at the end.

Crawl 1 space, facing any direction at the end.

DOORS

To walk through a door, you have to pay an extra space of

movement. Payment can carry over to your next action.

OBSTACLES (- - - - -)

Obstacles with dotted lines also cost an extra space of

movement to cross, but they can always be seen through.

WINDOWS (WHITE ARROW)

Obstacles with a white double-arrow, such as windows

require a climb action to cross.

VAULT DOOR

The vault door is locked. In order to get in, you must pick

the lock. As an action, roll 2D3. If you roll doubles, the

lock is picked and the door acts like any other door.

SHOOTING

Count the spaces to the target and find the accuracy

number for that range on your Weapon Card. Apply

penalties or bonuses from the Reference Card. Roll at or

below that number to hit.

AMMO

Use a dry-erase marker to cross off each round of ammo

used from the card of the weapon being used.

CALLED SHOT

A roll of 1 while shooting is always a hit, and is a called

shot!

Draw 5 Wound Cards and choose 1 to give to the target.

Discard the rest.

WOUNDING

Draw a wound card when you hit an opponent. For

shooting and (most) other weapons, read from the black

half of the wound card. For brawling and some other

weapons, read from the blue half of the card. Follow the

directions on the card and roll one or more D3s to see how

many Wound Chips your opponent loses. Draw one Dirty

Trick Card for each wound you receive. When you have

only three chips remaining, you are mortally wounded and

can only crawl.

THROWING

To throw a weapon, subtract the number of spaces to the

target from 20 for your basic accuracy number and adjust

it up or down according to the Accuracy Chart on the

Reference Card. If you miss, the target character can

redirect the weapon up to two spaces in any direction. If a

20 is rolled, the target character can throw it back.

DYNAMITE

Use the rules for throwing. If a hit is scored, the target

character draws a wound, adding 3 points to the damage

listed. Any character within one space of the explosion

automatically takes a black wound plus 1 point of damage.

CHALLENGING

To interrupt your opponent with a challenge, you can’t be

stunned, and you must be within 6 spaces. Roll-off with

D3s to see who goes first. Put a stun chip on the

challenger’s Character Rig.

SWITCHING WEAPONS

Switching weapons costs an action, except when acquiring

a new weapon or making a quick-draw during a challenge.