Mitchell Cancels Saturday OwlCon event We've received word that my wife's grandmother has passed away. We are packing and getting ready to drive to the funeral, which is up near Austin. I've notified the convention organizers and they are trying to find another event to run in its place. See ya'll next year. 2/4/2012 Read the full story here >>

Get Gutshot at OwlCon 2012
Go gaming and show those Mayans you ain't scared!
Feb. 2, 2012

Grab yer dice and pack yer saddle bags with minis, pardners, it’s time to hit the trail again to Houston’s premier gaming convention, OwlCon. Once again Gutshot co-creator Mike Mitchell will be on hand to run folks through their paces as the nasty undead make another attempt at munching some cowboy brains.
That’s right, folks, Mitchell will be running another test of Hawgleg Publishing’s upcoming game, Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood.

“This is probably one of the last OwlCon playtests,” Mitchell said. “We’re very close to having the major kinks worked out in this system, and we’ve begun the process of pulling everything into a final beta document that we can shake down with some playtesting this summer.”

After that playtesting is finalized, the book will move into production.

What a Twist!

This particular game is a variation on the convention classic, “Last Man Standing,” where a small town erupts into a free-for-all gunfight with everyone out to kill or be killed. In this game, though, it will be “The Last THING Standing,” as about half the players will start the game as zombies.

“This is a wild game idea,” said partner Paul “Mad Dog” Mauer. “Not only is it shoot or be shot, but it’s eat or be eaten.”

Mitchell said he was very excited about this adventure because it would let Hawgleg shakedown a specific area of combat that they have yet to explore.

“Up until now, all our combat tests have had zombies vs. humans. This will be the first time we’ve set up a scenario that will feature zombies vs. zombies,” Mitchell said. “I’m very excited to see how that will work out.”
Mitchell will run Gutshot at 8 p.m., Friday night, and a prize will be awarded to the last THING standing!

It’s all in the Cards

Also returning this year is another playtest of Hawgleg’s forthcoming card game, Saloon Showdown.
"Saloon Showdown is a light-hearted card game set in a Wild West saloon on a Friday night. It's got all the characters you'd expect to be there: outlaws, cowboys, drifters, miners, deputies and gunfighters. There's also some gents there who want to stifle the fun: the sheriff, the marshal, the judge and even the preacher are going to show up to help keep a lid on things. All in all, it's the most fun you can have at a saloon without getting tossed through a plate glass window... or waking up with a hangover," Mitchell said.

Saloon Showdown is in the final stages of development, and as such will not be for sale at the convention.

"We're still looking into the details on getting this printed," Paul said. "This isn't just your standard 52-card deck with cowboys pasted on them. This is something really cool and different."

Mitchell will start running games at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The game only takes about 45-60 minutes to play, so Mitchell expects to run three or four games during the four-hour time block scheduled during the convention. So, even if the official sign-in sheet says the game is full, come by and see if we there is an open seat. There will be a sign-in sheet and a sign posting the start times of the individual games.

OwlCon 2012 Feb. 3-5, 2012 -- Houston, Texas @ Rice University www.OwlCon.com 8 p.m., Fri. Feb. 3 GUTSHOT; Night of the Living Deadwood: Last THING Standing! Boot Hill has gotten overcrowded, so the outlaws buried there have crawled out of their graves as gun-slinging zombies! Will you be a brave human defending your town, or a rotting corpse hungry for flesh... and vengeance? A cool prize goes to the sole survivor of this bloody free-for-all. Join Gutshot co-creator Mike Mitchell at his 13th OwlCon appearance and help playtest Hawgleg Publishing's upcoming game, "Night of the Living Deadwood." Visit www.hawgleg.com for more info.  3 p.m., Sat. Feb. 4 SALOON SHOWDOWN (Prototype) -- It's Friday night in Miss Kitka's Saloon, and all the usual folks are coming in for drinks, cards, and maybe to talk with a purty lady. Can y'all keep the customers happy and earn the most money to win? Join Origins Award Winning game creator Mike Mitchell for a fun preview of his upcoming card game. We'll probably have enough time to play 2 or 3 games during this time, so feel free to mosey on by any time to see if we have an open seat. Visit www.hawgleg.com for more info.

Cowtown Chronicles Reviews Arnica Line
Sept. 1, 2011

Got an e-mail a while back from Grisby over at Cowtown Chronicles. We've been fans of his site for a number of years, and of the amazing work he does with his buildings. Seems that a while back he ordered some Arnica Real Estate buildings and did a slam-bang job of building, painting and customizing them. He's posted the review up at his place.Why don't yuh mosey on over and check it out: http://combatzonechronicles.net/coto/arnica.htm

Also, make sure you check out the rest of his reviews and tutorials while you're there.

Showdowns & Shootouts winner announced
Congratulations Tom Reed!
June 19, 2011 -- Houston, Texas

After a very lengthy and difficult judgment process that involved two barroom brawls, a night in the local jail, and threats of a lynch mob, The Hawgleg Crew were finally able to put their thick skulls together and decide upon a winning entry for the “Showdowns and Shootouts Contest."

“We were delayed quite a bit by real life and real world issues, thus our schedule was quite a bit off. I’m glad and happy to say though that we have finally been able to pick the top selection,” said Gutshot co-creator Mike Mitchell.

Partners Mike Murphy and Paul Mauer agreed that the judging was extremely difficult due to the quality of each of the submissions.

“To be honest, it was just dang hard!” Murphy said. “We had a “top three pick, but then each of us went back and looked at what we liked and didn’t like about each one. They all had great ideas. We looked at ease of play, scenario setups, what was required, any special rules, victory conditions, number of players, the whole nine yards.”

“And guess what?” Paul said. “All three of us voted completely differently!”

And the Winner is...

"Once we looked at the results, we realized we needed to have a conference and figure it out quickly, or Paul would be bailing Murphy and myself out of the drunk tank again because of another “night on the town!”

Finally, after many conversations and thoughts, opinions, death threats, and an occasional break for Murphy to take a swig of whatever was in the bottle nearest to him, the voting finally resulted in a winner!

“It wasn’t easy, but we did it!” Paul said happily

And thus THE WINNER OF THE HAWGLEG SHOWDOWNS AND SHOOTOUTS CONTEST IS: TOM REED for “The Great Drygulch Bank Robbery!” SS007

CONGRATULATIONS TO TOM!

"This was one that I was pushing for.” Murphy said. “To be honest, Tom’s module really stuck home with me. One of my favorite westerns is Rio Bravo, and this module seems to go hand in hand with that movie classic! It had all the elements of a 'classic western adventure' just ready to go!"

“Plus the fact that he just wants to be sheriff like John Wayne.” Paul said, completing Mike’s comments.

Mitchell was firm in his statements on the submissions. “All of them were excellent in their own ways and there is no reason that anyone should feel that we did not appreciate their efforts. We hadn’t actually expected the contest to last as long as it did, but as we said before, real life does indeed kick in at times to a small company such as ours and plans do get delayed.”

Murphy was appreciative of his partners also.

“I’d like everyone to know that Mike Mitchell and Paul Mauer did a fantastic job of reviewing these also. All credit to this endeavor goes to these two. To be honest, I am not sure we will be doing any more large contests like this for a while, due to the amount of material we had to sift through. We were simply overwhelmed,” Murphy said.

ALL of the “Showdowns and Shootouts” entry winners can be found and downloaded in pdf format on the Hawgleg site at:  http://www.hawgleg.com/2007_contest_winner.asp

What's next... more voting and more prizes!

Tom is the recipient of the Judge's Prize (see below) valued at more than $260. But there are also three other prizes, including one that will be selected by the Gutshot fans themselves. The Jury prize consists of  the following goodies:

Jury's Choice Prize (valued at about $105) Selected by the public

$40 Gift Certificate to Scale Creep Miniatures Arnica, Montana Hotel w/staircase resin building ($25 value) Whitewash City Starter CD ($15 value) One item from the Gutshot General Store (approx. $20 value) Gutshot miniature: ($5 value) We are halfway finished with the software necessary to run this ballot. It will be ready before the end of June 2011 (no, really, we mean it). At that time, we open voting for two weeks and then award the Jury's Prize, as well as conduct two additional random drawings to give away even more prizes. Stay tuned for more info!

The Grand Prize As the winner, Tom will receive the following prizes (valued at more than $260). Whitewash City 6 x 4 feet felt game mat (approx. $40 value) $60 Gift Certificate to Scale Creep Miniatures 25mm painted stagecoach with team from Knuckleduster ($80 value) Arnica, Montana resin Main Street Starter (5 buildings: $40 value) Whitewash City Starter CD ($15 value) One item from the Gutshot General Store (approx. $20 value) Gutshot miniature: ($5 value)