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There west is a dangerous place. Many aspects of the world are very dangerous and deadly. A crafty Judge will bring more challenges to bear than just weapon toting baddies. This chapter will help you understand how your Hero can withstand whatever stands in his way.

Drowning

Swimming in a backyard pond is pretty safe, as long as you can swim, of course. There is no need to check in ideal circumstances such as those unless the character has no swimming skill. During rougher conditions, however, everyone needs to perform a swim check. The TN depends on the movement of the water as shown below. Failure causes the character to take CT equal to the difference between the result and TN.

Falling

A fall of a few paces might not be deadly, but long falls spell doom for any character. A fall of 5 paces deals (1)6 in damage with the deadly attribute. For each additional 5 paces, shift the damage level down 1 level to a maximum of (7)6. Apply the wounds as a standard attack, to the location on the card.

Landing in water can potentially break a fall on a Fair (5) swimming roll. Success divides the damage row by 2, rounded in favor of the character. This check can be made up to 50 paces; up to 20 paces the damage can be completely negated by a successful check. Landing on a haystack, awning, or other soft obstacle reduces the damage by half if the character makes a difficult (7) Dexterity check.

Smoke and Fire

Characters in dense smoke have to make a difficult (7) Fortitude check before their action each round to avoid suffocation. A wet cloth over the mouth and nose — or similar makeshift protection - adds +2 to the result. If the character fails the Fortitude roll, he takes the difference between the roll and the TN in CT. Characters who fall unconscious due to this CT loss continue to take this damage each continuous action Phase IV, and are subject to environmental death.

Damage from fire varies based on the size of the flame and the body coverage. A small fire, such as a burning sleeve, causes 5d4 damage at the end of every continuous action Phase IV, dealt to the flaming area. A larger fire, such as from having an oil lamp dropped on you, causes 5d6 to the affected areas. A character totally consumed by flames takes 5d8 damage, with the wounds applied to every area at once.

Whenever the deck is shuffled, if there are any fires on the board cut the deck once for each fire. If the toggle result is yes, the fire continues burning. If it is no, the fire burns itself out.

Suffocation

A choking character can withhold oxygen for 6 turns (one minute) per column of their Fortitude while performing light physical tasks, half as long when doing strenuous tasks. Each time a character takes CT while withholding oxygen, subtract half the CT taken from the number of turns he can continue to withhold. A character who reaches the end of this period immediately falls unconscious, with their CT being set to zero. They take (1)6 each round and are subject to environmental death.

Temperature Extremes

When the temperature gets too hot, or cold, the character risks serious consequences. In extreme heat, like Death Valley, the character must make a Fortitude check versus a difficulty (5, 7, 9 etc.) based on the level of heat every 6 turns. Access to clean water can double this time. Failure means a loss of 1d4 CT for each failure. A character who falls below zero CT due to heat exhaustion is subject to heat stroke and environmental death (for temperature extremes).

In extreme cold situations, such as being trapped in the Rockies in the dead of winter, check Fortitude with a TN of 9. Failure shifts the column of the character's Acuity by 1 to the left. When Acuity falls to 0, the character is unconscious and subject to hypothermia (environmental death for temperature extremes, below).

As soon as a character fails a roll he becomes noticeably impaired, slurring his speech and having difficulty making decisions. A character who has failed two checks will be subject to extreme apathy and will be noticeably shivering. In either of these cases, the malady can be diagnosed with a Standard (5) First Aid check. Each failure is equivalent to confusion from blather (see social combat, chapter XX) versus all actions. Failures are cumulative.

Environmental Death

Whenever a character is subject to environmental death, set their CT to 0 (if it has not already been set to zero by another calamity). Their CT is now their "sudden death threshold". During each continuous action Phase IV, add the listed damage for the environmental factor in CT to the . When the CT dealt is equal to their starting CT, they die immediately. Any CT dealt from any other factor also adds to their sudden death threshold.

Miranda Valentine has 14 CT. If she falls unconscious due to smoke inhalation, she will die when her sudden death threshold is 14 or more.

Temperature extremes have special rules. Continue making the tests as noted above, but do not apply any CT or sudden death threshold unless a CT result of greater than your Fortitude column is revealed. Any amount greater than the column value is added to the character's sudden death threshold.

Miranda Valentine has a 2d8 Fortitude. If she has fallen unconscious due to heat stroke, any time she takes 9+, apply the any amount over 8 to her sudden death threshold.

Darkness

In reduced vision conditions, shift the Acuity 2 columns left (minimum d4) when performing a task or check where vision is vitally important. The penalties for partial lighting apply to targets greater than 10 meters away. Of course, if a target is somehow illuminated (such as carrying a lit lantern), the penalty should be adjusted by the Judge, if not negated entirely.

Movement

It is often necessary to know exactly how far something can move in a standard combat round. The number of paces a Hero, extra, or mount can move each round is its Movement Rate.

The Movement Rate of Heroes is his Dexterity value. An animal has a value located in the bestiary. Living creatures and vehicles such as trains can move as standard actions, or as continuous actions. Resolving continuous actions is discussed in the continuous action section.

example

Running is defined as moving more than the listed movement rate, up to double the listed value, and incurs a -4 penalty to all of a character's actions. Passengers in "running" vehicles such as stagecoaches or horse-drawn carts or on mounts suffer the penalty too. The faster you go, the bumpier the ride.

A character or mount may push it, and go faster than their listed speed. This may only be done when running. On a successful TN 3 Fortitude check the character can add half their Dexterity die type to their final movement.

Miranda Valentine is spies one of the vaqueros from the Laroq ranch heading into town on his horse. She needs to get into the saloon before he can run her down, so she declares she will push it. On her action she runs, with her Dexterity of d12, her speed is 24, and after pushing it, 30.

Encumbrance

Each character and mount has an encumbrance value which is approximately how much can be carried as a standard load. The encumbrance value is based on Strength. If a character with an 8 Move Rate is carrying a heavy load, his Rate is effectively reduced to a 2 for the round.

For instance, Miranda’s Strength is 1d6. She can carry up to 36 pounds with no problems. From 37lb up to 60lb is a light load. From 61lb up to 90lb is a medium load. From 60 kg on up is a heavy load.

Lifting

What if a character needs to lift something momentarily and not carry it a long distance? The lift value of any character is equal to the heavy load value multiplied by 1.5. This very heavy weight, however, is not automatically hoisted. If time matters, a character must make a Strength test to lift anything heavier than their Heavy load. If a character has as much time as necessary, he can automatically manage his full lift...eventually.

A lift is a standard check. Lifting between the heavy load and Lift value is TN 3, lifting over the Lift value is TN 5. The character may lift his Lift value on a success, and +5% for each bump. Do not draw or use extra cards on increased effect, unless the Judge says otherwise, of course.

Wounds

Everyone — Heroes, aliens, and geriatrics alike - can take the same number of wounds in each body part: five. Most heroes can shrug off a wound or two, but more than that is real trouble. The following table describes wound penalties.

Scratches are bruises, shallow but irritating cuts, and muscle strains.
Light wounds are sprains, deep but non-threatening cuts, or multiple bruises.
Serious wounds encompass fractured or broken bones or deep and bloody cuts.
Critical wounds are the worst case scenario. He is one step from death.

*The Stun Save value applies for wounds consisting exclusively of CT, as well.

Figuring Wound Level

There is no need to keep track of every wound a character takes to determine penalties. Only the highest value wound determines what penalties the character suffers. Therefore, if a new wound is inflicted, and it is not higher than what is already inflicted, the wound level is not adjusted. The character still must make a shock test for the new wound, however!

Risk

One of the most important concepts in TWTW is know your players, and play the game you want to play. Rules are malleable, and we strive to make a system that can work within many sets of constraints that your group may have to ensure the game is fun for them.

Risk is an optional system. Without it, the game is assumed to always be in a state of risk. In other words, Heroes can always die if the appropriate amount of damage is dealt. If, however, your group feels that true heroes will never die in an unimportant circumstance, then the risk system is made for you.

When using the optional risk system, any wound that would be critical in the head or torso is instead treated as a serious wound and the Hero is out of action for the remainder of the scene. The Hero should devise or accept some kind of complication (permanent or temporary) related to the situation, and the player and Judge should describe how the situation resolves itself.

During any combat scene (the Judge has the final say on which scenes qualify) a player may designate that his Hero will risk death. This declaration must be made during (or very near, Judge discretion) the first round of combat. A player may make this declaration no more than once per session. At the conclusion of the session the Hero (if he survived, of course) is awarded one extra experience point.

It goes without saying, that if you choose to risk death with your Hero, nothing can save you. The combat may be taking place next to a coach full of doctors, but if you declare the risk, then for some reason your character cannot be saved by any means once that final wound is taken.

Wound Markers

Damage can be taken in six locations: head, torso, right arm, left arm, right leg and left leg. The wound level is the highest wound inflicted. Wounds are only added together when they're taken in the same location. For instance, a character who takes a light wound to the right arm in one round and another light wound in the same arm later would then have a serious wound in that arm. If a character takes a light wound to the head and then takes a heavy wound to his leg, they aren’t added together.

A character can’t be killed by wounds to the arms or legs. He can take enough Concussion (see below) to put himself out of action, but he can’t die until he bleeds to death or someone plugs him in the head or torso. Only a hit to the head or torso will spell the end.

Wound Modifiers

Wounds are a terrible burden. Shock distorts senses, pain distracts concentration, and damage to arms and legs make holding things and movement of any type nearly unbearable. All of this is manifested with check penalties based on the highest wound that has been inflicted. The previous wound chart lists them in the Stun column. Wound penalties are never subtracted from "effect" totals such as damage dealt by weapons, but they do apply to everything else (including other kinds of effect generated by the character, such as social directives).

The penalty depends on the highest-level wound your hero has suffered. If he has a light and a serious wound, for instance, subtract the penalty for serious wounds (-2) from all action totals, irrespective of wound location.

Shock might be more than a lingering distraction, it might conspire to cause a Hero to miss an action or two. Whenever a character is dealt damage he must make a Fortitude check, called a Stun check. Previous wound penalties apply, but do not adjust the TN for the current wound. The TN is listed in the Stun column of the wound penalty table. Failure causes the character to be stunned until he succeeds in a recovery check. Each round, stunned characters use their action to make recovery check to shake off the stun, with a TN determined by the current wound level. Your character needs to make a stun check every time he takes a wound unless he's already stunned. Success, of course, means the character is not affected by Stun.

Recovery

A hero may try to recover from being stunned during any action. This is called a "recovery check", and it takes one entire action. A recovery roll is made just like a stun check, except the difficulty is your highest current wound level. Any character that critically fails a recovery check immediately falls unconscious. The amount of time he stays down is 1d6 hours or until someone makes a Fair (5) First Aid roll to wake him up.

When a character is reduced to 0 CT or lower he becomes “Concussed”. This doesn’t necessarily mean he’s passed out, but he is otherwise unable to participate in the combat. Concussed characters generally fall by the wayside, and are not able to participate in combat at all (not even to talk). Heroes who continue to take CT after they reach zero risk death (if applicable).

Character Death

There are lots of ways to die. The west is an unforgiving expanse, even to the Hero.

Optional Bleeding Rules

Serious damage greatly increases bleeding. Whenever a character takes a heavy wound, he begins bleeding, losing 1 CT per round. Seriously wounded characters bleed 2 CT per round. Critically wounded limbs bleed 3 CT per round. A character reduced to negative his starting CT level by bleeding has bled to death.

Healing

Concussion is easy to get rid of. On a simple (3) Medicine check anyone can provide the necessary care to restore all CT in about 2 minutes. Otherwise your hero gets his CT back at the rate of 1 per minute.

Only those skilled in first aid (the Medicine skill) may attempt to treat real wounds. This attempt may be made up to one hour after an injury. The doctor may check once for each wounded area. If successful, reduce the wounds in the given location by one. The TN depends on the wound level.

A character may attempt a Fortitude check every 5 days, against the listed difficulties, to heal any wound. If the roll succeeds, the wound improves by one level. Natural healing rolls are made for each area individually. A character with wounds to an arm and his torso would check twice, possibly improving the condition of each location by one would level.