The original poster (you all remember
Elf Witch) was looking for firearms to run a
Western. Sure there will still a few muzzle-loaders around, but the six-shot revolvers, breach-loading shotguns, and lever-action rifles were a heck of a lot more common.
Simply add a wizard and a cleric to this [scene from a Hollywood Western]
Naturally, the shoot-out at the OK Corral was exactly the kind of thing
Boothill was made for.
I never owned the game, but it defined characters through five characteristics appropriate to the genre: Speed, Accuracy, Strength, Bravery, and Experience.
Bravery stands out to me as (a) lacking in D&D, for the most part, and (b) profoundly important in both real and fictional combat. In a gun-fight, the difference between the "high-level" and "low-level" characters is that the true gun-fighters can and will keep their nerve enough to hold their gun steady, to focus on the front sight, and to smoothly control the trigger, rather than jerk the trigger with the gun poking out from behind cover.
"
You need to take your time in a hurry,"
Wyatt Earp said.
In fact, a big part of both real and fictional fights is the stand-off that may or may not lead to weapons drawn and shots fired. Tales of the Old West often come down to who credibly
could and
would fight without
turnin' yella:
Wyatt Earp is one of the few men I personally knew in the West in the early days, whom I regarded as absolutely destitute of physical fear. I have often remarked, and I am not alone in my conclustions, that what goes for courage in a man is generally the fear of what others will think of him-- in other words, personal bravery is largely made up of self-respect, egotism, and an apprehension of the opinions of others. Wyatt Earp's daring and apparent recklessness in time of danger is wholly characteristic; personal fear doesn't enter into the equation, and when everything is said and done, I believe he values his own opinion of himself more than that of others, and it is his own good report that he seeks to preserve. . . . He never at any time in his career resorted to the pistol excepting in cases where such a course was absolutely necessary. Wyatt could scrap with his fists, and had often taken all the fight out of bad men, as they were called, with no other weapons than those provided by nature. -Bat Masterson
[Wyatt] Earp is a man who never smiled or laughed. He was the most fearless man I ever saw. . . . He is an honest man. All officers here who were associated with him declare that he is honest, and would have decided according to his belief in the face of an arsenal. -Dick Cogdell
Wyatt Earp was a wonderful officer. He was game to the last ditch and apparently afraid of nothing. The cowmen all respected him and seemed to recognize his superiority and authority at such times as he had to use it. -Jimmy Cairns
I don't think D&D is a great model of Western action, realistic or cinematic.
In a Western, plot-protection means spotting the glint off an ambusher's rifle in the glass window, not getting hit, maybe taking a shot to the shoulder rather than the heart, etc.; it does not mean taking six or seven gun-shots to go down. (That may make a good Last Stand, though.)
