Back in the Saddle with Hurled into Eternity

Well, after a fairly busy and interesting fall I'm now finally ready to *ahem* "climb back in the saddle" with Hurled into Eternity.  Whats that you ask? Well my on-again off again western RPG game is now undergoing internal play testing to see how it works. My main focus of the play testing is to make sure I have the mechanics specifically nailed down. Lets face it the heart of any RP is the combat engine if that is not good then the RPG it's likely that the game is not so good.

My gut instinct tells me that the mechanics for the game work well, the conversion to an all card based mechanic is complete, now its simply a matter of making sure all of the parts line up with any gaps in a many they actually do, rather then what I think they do.

The next order of business is to take the combat chapter and pull it into a quick play doc to make sure that it flows. The parts that have been tested thus far are High Noon, (the imitative phase) in which the Judge and the players engage in 5-card draw. While its optional to deal it each round I prefer once per combat as it makes it battles go faster. Next up the hit determination. Some feedback I received was that it was bit to heavy with the modifiers so I scaled it back. Now the mods are reasonable and are fairly easy to calculate. Damage is likewise fairly straight forward. 

One nagging thing has been the inclusion of poker chips. Now I feel it adds a nice western feel but at the same time I am mindful of the implication that it has been used in Savage Worlds. While my game is sufficiently different I don't want it to appear that it is lifting the idea. Currently they serve as a visual reminder of Luck (L) in the game and nothing more; they are not required for play.

The rest of the rules have been tightened up here and there and look to have missed almost all loopholes and areas that could be broken. 

In the end game is fast, exciting and deadly. Cant wait to fully try it out.