Hawgleg releases new game aid,
Gutshot: Player & GM Handouts
June 30, 2009 -- Houston, Texas

The gents at Hawgleg Publishing are pleased to announce the release of the long-awaited gaming aid, Gutshot: Player & GM Handouts. This free PDF download includes 13 pages of tables and information to help people get Gutshot. "People have been asking for this for a while now," said Gutshot co-creator Mike Mitchell. "It's something we always intended to release, but it just took us a while to decide on the best format and then get it done." The PDF includes most of the tables and info that are already included at the back of the Gutshot Core Rule Book, which mainly focuses on combat tables and movement charts. It also includes additional tables for tracking NPC morale.

"I printed out five sets of these and keep them in my game bag to pass out to players," Mitchell explained. "We keep them around the table so they can quickly look up info during the game. The Snake-eyes and Boxcars tables are particularly useful!"

In addition to the tables, the PDF also includes a copy of the latest, updated index from the book.

"The index is always being updated and amended," said Gutshot co-creator Mike Murphy. "We have added at least 20 items since the book was first published. Even if you don't need the player aids, this document is worth downloading just for the index."

The tables have also been updated and corrected. Most of the corrections are minor, including typographic formatting (margins that don't line up correctly), or just correcting minor punctuation errors.

"I don't think any of the data has changed. We corrected that a long time ago. This time we were just focusing on correcting minor things," said Paul Mauer, the head of the Hawgleg Proofing Posse.

Gutshot: Player & GM Handouts is available at Hawgleg's Website: http://www.hawgleg.com/downloads.asp#handouts

Get Gutshot at Enfilade!
Go West young man... VERY far West!
May 22, 2009 -- Olympia, WA

There, he’ll be hookin’ up with our old saddle pal, Eric Hotz (of Whitewash City fame), to run a rousing game of Gutshot! The game is scheduled from 7 p.m. – 11 p.m., Saturday, May 23, 2009.

Paul said that he will be packing enough miniatures and terrain to run:

• Last Man Standing
• Holed Up! (see our S&S page)
• A Mystery Adventure

“Eric and I have not decided what adventure we will run,” Paul said. “We will choose one when we see how many people show up for the game.”

The game is open to all players, including supervised children and teens. All miniatures, dice and supplies will be provided: All you need to bring is a good attitude and enough gumption to get Gutshot!

	Enfilade is the annual gaming convention of the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society. It will be held Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-24, 2009 at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia, Washington. Please vsit their site for more info.
“Enfilade! 2009 features the same great combination of miniatures events, dealers, and camaraderie as Enfilades past. There are six gaming periods through the weekend: two on Friday, three on Saturday, and one on Sunday—with open gaming for the remainder of Sunday until it's time to pack up and go home,” states the game announcement on the NHMGS Web site.

White Water, Bloody Boulders released
11th Showddowns & Shootouts Adventure ready for download
May 4, 2009

The river runs wild as a straight-shooting lawman tries to evade the notorious Ghost Canyon Gang on a desperate river ride that can only end in blood! Ambushed while crossing the river on a raft, Marshal Thomas knew he was outgunned, so he cut the guide rope and sent the raft racing down the river… with the outlaws on shore in hot pursuit. It's sink or swim in a race to the death on a river in "White Water, Bloody Boulders!"

It is with great pride – and a sigh of relief – that Hawgleg Publishing announces the long-awaited release of the 11th  adventure in their Showdowns & Shootouts Adventure Writing Contest, "White Water, Bloody Boulders" by Tom Reed.

"I must say that I was surprised to see Mike Mitchell's congratulatory e-mail. I feel very honored to have a second adventure submission of mine picked to join company with all of the other authors' great adventures," Tom said when he heard the news.

Tom is also the author of the seventh adventure in the series, "The Great Drygulch Bank Robbery." By coincidence, that adventure also featured a haggard lawman trying to prevent a gang of outlaws from "rescuing" a prisoner from custody.

"I don't think any of us noticed that the two adventures had a similar theme of a gang rescuing their brother from jail," said Hawgleg partner Mike Mitchell. "We just appreciated the fact that this adventure had a great setting that moved the action in a new and exciting direction."

For this adventure, Tom moved the action from a dusty cow town to a moving gun battle between a raft moving uncontrollably down a river and outlaws on horseback racing along, firing from the river banks.

"I had a really fun time writing and working out the details of this adventure. The inspiration for this particular submission came from a couple of places. First and foremost being the John Wayne movie, Rooster Cogburn, in which he & Katherine Hepburn travel by (Gatling-gun-armed) raft down a raging river, all the while being followed by a gang of outlaws. The second was an episode of Gunsmoke, in which Marshal Dillon and several other people traveled by raft down a similar river," Tom said.

Moving the action out of town was definitely one of the reasons Mitchell voted to include this in the Showdowns & Shootouts collection.

"After a while, I just want my cowboys to leave town and shake things up a bit," said Hawgleg partner Mike Mitchell. "It's also nice to have an adventure that doesn't require any buildings.  Speaking just for myself, I really liked the fact that this adventure left the dusty streets and moved the action to a river. I liked the change of scenery."

That change of scenery, while exhilarating, was also a point of concern for one of the judges.

"I was worried that people might not have the terrain pieces they need to run this game," said Hawgleg partner Paul Mauer. "Not everyone has a giant river that they can use."

Paul's concerns were put to rest when, after a late-night phone call, they agreed to create some River Tiles and include them in a separate Map Pack PDF download, similar to what they did for the previous adventure, "I Hit a Vein!"

"The River Tiles and cardstock raft will help people run this adventure," Paul said.

In addition to including a Map Pack of river tiles, this adventure also includes some new rules and game mechanics:

• New mechanics for using a deck of playing cards to generate a random river.
• Rules for swimming (or attempting to swim!) in a river.
• The effects of drowning.
• A simple d6 table for determining the effects of water on firearms (here's a clue: gunpowder and water don't mix.)
• A new vehicle: The Raft

"Like all new rules, weapons, and mechanics introduced in the S&S contest, these should be considered as beta rules. At least for now," explained Hawgleg partner Mike Murphy. "Once the new material has been fully tested, it will be included in a future book or edition. For now, people should use this material, but they should be aware that we may tweak or change things in the future."

Contest Conclusion

"First of all, I want to apologize for how late this adventure is, and for how long this contest has been dragging out," Mitchell said. "When we started this back in 2007, none of us guessed that it would take this long to pull together this material and get it out there."

Mitchell added that many factors contributed to the delay, including a hurricane, family funerals, and Mitchell being hospitalized for a life-threatening infection in his leg.

"Another thing is that Mitchell is such a perfectionist," Paul said. "Most people wouldn't spend this much time on free adventures to post on the Website. Most people would just rush something out, especially for a free download. I don't think Mike is capable of doing that. He spends a lot of time on the graphics, typesetting and editing.  He insists that everything is really high quality."

The 11th adventure almost brings the contest to a close. The contest always had the stated goal of publishing at least 12 adventures for use with Gutshot. The contest generated about 50 submissions, which gave the three judges a wealth of material to choose from. "We really couldn't be happier with the quality of the submissions," Mitchell said. "We had so many good ones that it was actually difficult to pick just 12. Honestly, we could have doubled that amount… but I don't think anyone would want to wait until 2012 for us to wrap up this contest." The judges have already selected the final adventure and have started work on preparing it for publication.  At that time, the judges will select the grand prize, and then open the contest to the public and solicit their votes. If all goes well, the contest should be over by the end of June, and the prizes awarded thereafter.

"This has been a great experience for us and it has generated some incredible adventures for people to download and enjoy. Thanks to everyone who participated; you guys really deserve a round of applause for your hard work and imagination."

Thanks to our sponsors and previous winners.

As with previous winners, Tom is eligible to win part of the more than $500 in prizes, graciously provided by the contest sponsors:

• Arnica Real Estate
• Knuckleduster
• Scale Creep Miniatures
• Whitewash City
• Hotz Game Mats 
  

The adventure is available for free download from the contest Winner's Page: www.hawgleg.com/2007_contest_winner.asp So far, the winner's circle includes: Al Theobald, Ross Edwards, Carmen Cerra, Dan Hash, Lance Gamble, Richard Nelson, Tom Reed, Andrew Collins and Carmen Cerra, Dion Duran, and Tom Reed. In addition to the indescribable thrill and glory of having their names attached to a Hawgleg product, each winner will receive a limited edition ‘La Vaquera’ miniature. And remember, even though we couldn't possibly select every one for the contest, there are still about 50 great adventures posted in the Hawgleg Forums. Mosey on by and pick up some other great ideas that would be easy to use in your own campaigns: http://www.hawgleg.com/snitz/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=17

Special thanks to this adventure's sponsor: Hotz Game Mats

Sneak Peak
Preview of Hawgleg's upcoming miniature releases
March 29, 2009

SLING LEAD, PARDNER! We thought we'd start tempting you now with a sneak peak at Hawgleg Publishing's first miniatures, as skillfully painted by our ole saddle pal, Forrest Harris. These 25mm and 28mm figures include two lethal ladies, four zombie cowboys, and one dead cowboy. Click on the photo for a full-size view. These seven miniatures -- and more -- will be available in our online store by the end of the week, and also available to retailers soon after that.

Hawgleg announces Draw! RPG
New Role Playing Game under development
Feb. 5, 2009 -- Houston, Texas

Hawgleg Publishing is pleased to announce that development is underway on its first Role Playing Game, Draw!  In addition to being a new product line, Draw! is the first project that Hawgleg will develop by an author outside the company, Kevin G. Nunn. "This is an exciting step for us," said Hawgleg co-owner Mike Mitchell. "All three of the company owners started playing Dungeons & Dragons back in the 1970s, so we have a real affinity for RPGs. Creating one set in the Wild West just seems like a natural progression for us."

Mitchell said that there are a lot of RPG elements in Hawgleg's flagship product, Gutshot, and the owners had even discussed turning it into an RPG, but that those discussions didn't go very far.

"We talked about it, but decided that Gutshot should remain true to its roots and stay a solid miniatures game," Mitchell said, adding that they didn't want to confuse people by having two different game systems called Gutshot. "It has always been important to us that Gutshot stay true to its roots as a miniatures game."

Background: Starting down the trail in a new direction

Mike Mitchell met Kevin Nunn at OwlCon in Houston, Texas about four or five years ago.  Kevin is a game designer and an Origins Award nominee for his card game, Nobody But Us Chickens. Kevin is very active in the Houston boardgame community, and has designed many games, including the recently released game, duck, duck, Go!  Kevin is a prolific game designer with numerous games in various stages of development in both the U.S. and abroad.

"Kevin is an amazing talent and we're thrilled to be working with him," Mitchell said.

One of the games he had worked on was a Western RPG titled Draw! The game uses a poker mechanic to resolve combat and skill checks and was almost complete when he invited Mitchell to sit in on the final game of the initial playtest.

"I was asked to join the playtesters' last game as a guest-star to play the NPCs and the final showdown with the villain. It gave me a chance to play the game and get a feel for the mechanics. It was a very exhilarating game with a novel approach to resolving combat. It just really captures the mythic atmosphere of the Wild West," Mitchell said.

Informal talks continued between Kevin and Mitchell, who was also having informal talks with his partners at Hawgleg about whether they would pursue publishing this rule set.

"There was never any question about the quality of the game," said Hawgleg co-founder Mike Murphy. "It was simply a matter of internal resources and if we felt we could do a good job with Draw!"

Hawgleg partner Paul Mauer agreed, adding that the central game engine was very exciting.

"We like the game, and we like that it uses a poker mechanic. That just feels right in a Western game," Paul said. "It was always just a matter of being sure we could do it justice without hurting our work on Gutshot."

"As a creator, it is a pleasure to be working with Hawgleg.  They are creative folks themselves.  They understand the creative process and bring a great deal of quality ideas to the table." -- Kevin G. Nunn

After discussing it at length, and after making some internal changes to the structure of the company to improve productivity, the partners decided to go forward with the project. They were going to announce it last year, but Hurricane Ike struck the company's Houston headquarters, shutting them down for almost two months and throwing their plans into disarray.

"After the hurricane, we seriously thought about benching the project for another year, but decided to just forge ahead with it," Mitchell said. "Conditions will never be perfect and there will always be something distracting us, so we might as well just forge on and try to keep the whole heard of projects moving ahead. We'll get them out when we can as best we can, and that's the best we can hope for."

Right now, the partners are hopeful they can conclude a second round of playtesting and get the book through production for a release in February 2010.

"That's our goal: 2010," Paul said. "We'll try to make it, but if we need more time to make this a better game, then we'll take that time. We'd rather be late and great than early and bad."

A New Website for a new Game

Hawgleg has launched a new Website to support the new game: www.drawrpg.com.  The site is currently up and running, although it doesn't have much content… yet.

"Right now the site is little more than a placeholder for us," Mitchell said. "It looks nice, but there's not a lot of content. But that will change as time goes on."

The Hawgleg Posse is also still trying to decide if the site needs its own forums, or whether to combine them with the current forums over at Hawgleg.com. The three partners are torn on the issue, and may actually put it to a vote over at the forums and let the users decide which approach they would prefer.  Until that decision is set in stone, there will be a separate discussion area at the Hawgleg Forums site to handle discussion about Draw! as it moves through development.

Additionally, news stories about Draw! will be duplicated at both sites. General stories about the company will, for the most part, remain at the main Hawgleg Website.

"We're very excited about this new game and can't wait to see it in print," Murphy said, adding that it's just one of several announcements this year that will dramatically change the face of Hawgleg Publishing for years to come. "The next two years are going to be very exciting for Hawgleg and our fans."

The next steps

The next step for Draw! includes doing more playtesting, collecting artwork, editing the existing text, and then prepping it (and support material, such as a GM's screen) for publication.

Playtests will be announced at both Websites. The next playtest will be held next weekend at OwlCon in Houston, Texas. Additional playtests and details will be released as the details are confirmed.