Boot Hill BH4 Burned Brush Wells – Classic TSR Old West Module

Cover art for BH4- Burned Brush Wells

BH4- Burned Bush Wells
The 4th module of the Boot Hill series certainly has a weird name, at least to me that is. It really, really does not roll of the tongue either.

Much like the other Boot Hill modules I did not play Boot Hill back in the day as we were not into Westerns at that time (a shame) and most of our time was spent playing Warhammer Fantasy Role-play and AD&D. For my own part I used to watch a lot of westerns with my father, but drifted away at the time. A few years back I started watching them again and got hooked on Boot Hill. In any event BH4 - Burned Bush Wells is a module produced by Jeff Grubb with some input from Allen Hammock and Brian Blume.  

BH4- Burned Bush Wells is one of the later Boot Hill modules. I say "later" because the graphic design had changed noticeably from the earlier releases, reflecting TSR's increasing focus on Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as the company's primary breadwinners.

The power struggles within TSR during the mid-1980s may also have played a role. It's possible there simply were not enough people interested in developing the Boot Hill line. Donald Kaye's untimely death certainly could not have helped the game's long-term prospects, though that is only speculation on my part.

In any event, Burned Bush Wells would become the second-to-last Boot Hill module, following the same general format as its predecessors. It is strange to think that it was released in 1983, with only Range War following in 1984. From BH1- Mad Mesa in 1981 to Range War in 1984, the entire line of Boot Hill modules spanned just four years.

Art by Larry Elmore for Burned Brush Wells

The cover and interior art
Elmore seems to be a polarizing figure for some in terms of TSR era art. In the realm of Boot Hill (and others) I think his stuff is very good and it certain captures the feel well, certainly for a western RPG. Another thing to ponder the American West isn't usually depicted in the winter, whether its a movie or art; usually its baking, scorching hot deserts and cactus. I also like to point out the crop with the snow on the bottom right corner outside the frame. In short, I like it. One thing that detracts is some of his art in the interior. Not that its not done well, but a lot of his characters tend to look alike, a certain feel to them if you will. Perhaps this is where people object?

Content

Like BH2, the Game Master is presented with an outline of events rather than a rigid sequence of encounters. Much like a movie, certain scenes occur at the appropriate place and time. As I've discussed with like-minded folks over at the OD&D Pro Boards, it is not so much a "sandbox" as a "jungle gym." The module provides a framework for the players without becoming overly railroaded.

This is an area where all of the Boot Hill modules struggle to some degree. A Western is built around a series of largely self-contained scenes that collectively tell the story and inevitably lead to the final showdown. That structure works well when the adventure is treated more like the script of a Western film than a fantasy sword and sorcery adventure with six-guns and Winchesters.

One thing that stands out in this, and every other Boot Hill module, is the sheer number of NPCs. In most cases, I cannot see this level of detail ever becoming terribly important. The local saloon keeper? Yes, we need to know his name. The names of all of his children? Probably not.

The main action takes place in the eponymous town of Burned Bush Wells during the dead of winter. As the module explains, winter is a lean season in the West, and the wolves are hungry. Since Burned Bush Wells is surrounded by cattle ranches, predators are naturally a problem that must be dealt with. Rules are provided for hunting and trapping wolves, along with the animal rules that seem to make an appearance in nearly every Boot Hill module.

The principal mover and shaker is Lyle Underhay, the wealthiest man in town and the businessman with the widest range of interests. He fills the role of the thoroughly unlikable, power-hungry entrepreneur. Underhay is squeezing smaller businesses and ranchers in an effort to force them out. In response, they unite to form the BBBC, the Burned Bush Business Council, and fight back over the ownership of the Waterhouse deed, specifically the deed to the Old Stage building.

Underhay wants the deed, the player characters will most likely end up with it, and from there the central conflict unfolds. It is a classic Western premise that translates well into an RPG. The challenge lies in locating the former owner of the Waterhouse deed so the transfer can be made legally, thereby foiling Underhay's plans. Naturally, a man as powerful as Underhay is not willing to let matters end there, especially since he effectively has the town's lawmen in his pocket.

The BBBC is a particularly well-conceived idea that echoes real historical events such as theJohnson County War in Wyoming, which eventually drew in the U.S. Cavalry. There, the powerful Wyoming Stock Growers Association found itself opposed by the smaller Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers' Association. Another obvious parallel is the Lincoln County War, the conflict that famously involved Billy the Kid.

The adventure's most likely course sends the player characters toward Gordon, where the next phase of the story unfolds. The overland journey feels authentic, thanks in part to the random encounter table. Having recently watched Will Penny, I especially appreciated the inclusion of a line rider as a possible encounter. It is a minor detail, but it demonstrates that the author had a solid grasp of the setting.

Another aspect I enjoyed is the inclusion of a ghost town. Gordon, an abandoned mining town, provides an atmospheric backdrop for several of the adventure's key scenes. Ghost towns are common throughout the American West, but we tend to view them through the lens of nearly 150 years of history. In the context of the game, a town that has only recently been abandoned makes the campaign world feel lived in and believable. By comparison, many Western RPGs published over the past two decades have leaned heavily into supernatural horror, largely following the influence of Deadlands.

Finally, a brief word about the maps. They are consistently clear, easy to read, and well executed. Their style matches the cartography found in many TSR products of the era and would have looked perfectly at home alongside the maps that later appeared in Dragon magazine.

Conclusion

Much like the modules that came before it, BH4 plays out more like a script than a traditional adventure. It presents a series of events rather than the dungeon crawls most gamers were accustomed to. I know I sound like a broken record in these Boot Hill reviews, but it is an issue the line never fully solved.

By this point in TSR's history, the company's focus was clearly on Dungeons & Dragons. Add in the growing power struggle between the Blume brothers and Gary Gygax, and it is no surprise that TSR's secondary games, such as Gamma World, Top Secret, Gangbusters, and Boot Hill, gradually took a back seat. Boot Hill was a solid game, and its roots as a miniatures-based skirmish game are evident throughout the rules. It was not until 3rd Edition that it fully embraced role-playing, but by then the ship had largely sailed.

The "cut scenes," labeled I through IX, are well executed and help establish the town and its inhabitants. My favorite section, however, is Waterhouse's Deed. The scene where the player characters are summoned upstairs to meet Underhay, under the guise of legal business, sets the entire conflict in motion. I can easily picture this sequence playing out in countless Westerns. The corrupt land baron confronts the heroes, demands they either leave town or surrender what he wants, they refuse, and from that moment on everyone knows the final confrontation is only a matter of time.

As an aside, by the time 3rd Edition Boot Hill arrived in 1990, my high school gaming group was barely playing AD&D anymore, let alone TSR's other games. We still occasionally broke out Marvel Super Heroes of Twilight 2000, but that was about it.

In a sense, Boot Hill never really entered my gaming orbit. I cannot remember anyone in my high school group owning it, much less suggesting that we actually play it.

Next up
In my queue to review in the not too distant future is review of the elusive BH5- Range War!

I say elusive as it has been eluding me on eBay (its not worth $75 dollars folks) I should take comfort some wags on Amazon think people are going to pay $400 for it...

Lastly, in order, to date here are my reviews of Boot Hill materials
Boot Hill itself
BH1- Mad Mesa
BH2- The Lost Conquistador Mine
BH3- Bullets and Balllots

On a completely personal note I bid a fond farewell to Eli Wallach who starred in incredible westerns like "The Good, The Bad, the Ugly" and "The Magnificent Seven" to name but a few.

Of hanging paper gravestones on the DM screen...

Gravestones on the DM Screen: A High School Foray into Ravenloft

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, high school was a golden era of gaming for our group—and few sessions were as brutal or memorable as our run through I6: Ravenloft. This isn’t a formal review of the module. Instead, it’s a blood-soaked recollection of how one sadistic DM tossed us headlong into the Barovian meat grinder—and gleefully hung gravestones for every fallen PC.

The players were mostly the same usual suspects: Dave, Jim, Daryl, Tom, Mike, and myself. Jeff, of course, was behind the screen. We'd just wrapped THECAMPAIGN and dabbled in some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Twilight 2000 before returning to AD&D for this deadly one-shot.

Jeff gave us some leeway with character creation, including a starting XP allotment and a short list of magic items (subject to DM approval). I rolled up a 6th-level human cavalier named Sir Alexander Silverglade—an absurdly noble name for a high schooler to dream up, though apparently I went all-in: Alexander William Christian Edward Kenneth Silverglade. Upper-Upper Class. Tenth in line to something or other. Clearly royalty, and clearly doomed. Naturally, Sir Alex for short.

I still have the character sheet. He wore full plate, carried a shield +2, and wielded a Rod of Lordly Might Jeff had forgotten the functions of—thankfully for me. My attempt to sneak in a +1 Flame Tongue sword was denied and replaced with a vanilla +2. But with high stats (18s in STR, DEX, and CON), full armor, and a preposterously low AC of -6, he was built like a tank. Cavalier perks from Unearthed Arcana gave him damage absorption, fear immunity, and mind control resistance.

Did it help? Only just, perhaps not even.

We were allowed three magic items. I picked strategically—borderline exploitative, really—but it didn’t save us. The adventure began in classic Ravenloft fashion: dropped into Barovia at dusk, wolves howling, villagers fearful, and death already sniffing around the edges.

We made a brief stop at the “Blood on the Vine” Tavern, then poked around Bildrath’s Mercantile and scraped together what we could. It wasn’t much. With night fast approaching, we barricaded ourselves inside an abandoned house to wait for dawn before approaching Castle Ravenloft.

Big mistake.

If you’ve read I6, you know the nighttime random encounters are no joke. Every three turns, 1–2 on a d6? With encounters like wolves, zombies, wraiths, ghosts—and oh yeah, Strahd himself, with his bat and wolf entourage? We got the full buffet:

• Strahd showed up with wolves and bats.
• Zombies broke through.
• Wraiths seeped in.
• A ghost floated through the walls.
• At least one PC was level-drained.
• My character was aged 40 years by the ghost.

I argued (rules lawyer alert) that my cavalier’s immunity to fear should also cover the ghost’s aging effect. Jeff didn’t buy it. Sir Alexander aged from 22 to 62 in an instant. The following week, Jeff reduced it to 10 years—maybe out of mercy, maybe not. Either way, I claimed a moral victory.

But the real gut punch came when Jeff unveiled a house rule (and a flair for the dramatic): whenever a character died, he’d hang a printed gray tombstone on his DM screen with the fallen’s name written in Sharpie. The first casualty? My squire, William, mauled by wolves in a side room. Jeff hung his gravestone like a trophy, grinning as the rest of us sat in stunned silence.

By the end, the screen was covered in tombstones.

We eventually made it into Castle Ravenloft—barely. Through random encounter rolls and pure chance, we ended up starting on the upper levels, near the “Rooms of Weeping.” I was the party mapper, so I still recall the progression ending abruptly near rooms K36–K46. We didn’t get much farther. Supposedly the hilt I carried was the Sun Sword, and the blade was in K41. Not that it mattered.

The final battle was a bloodbath. I remember Strahd attacking with a pack of specters and wraiths. Our cleric died almost instantly. I think I was the only fighter type left standing. Thanks to my AC and cavalier resistances, I tanked most of the assault while the rest of the group got drained or shredded. I was eventually dropped to 4th level by two wraith hits—but I lived. Barely.

Sir Alexander was the sole survivor.

The game ended there.

Jeff ruled that the mists of Ravenloft wouldn’t let him escape, so in my headcanon he found refuge at the chapel in Barovia, helping Donavich defend it nightly. Still aging, still armored, still bitter. I always thought that if I ever ran I6 myself, I’d reintroduce him as a weary old knight clinging to his code in a world long since lost to darkness.

We never played Ravenloft again. Our group wasn’t that into gothic horror, and while I later picked up the module (still in pristine condition), I’ve always felt the random encounters were more dangerous than the rest of the dungeon. Still, it was a hell of a session—especially the gravestones. That image of Jeff’s DM screen, covered in the names of fallen PCs, has stuck with me for decades.

And no, I’m not being paid for this—but if you want a legal, affordable copy of I6: Ravenloft, you can find it here.

Boot Hill BH3 Bullets and Ballots – Classic TSR Old West Module

Is that Brian Blume and Gary Gygax on the cover?

The next Boot Hill  module up for review is BH3: Bullets and Ballots. This should come as no surprise if you've been reading the blog. And you have been reading, right?

Unlike the first two modules, BH3 is almost a mini-campaign in a single booklet, though nowhere near the scope of BH4- Burned Brush Wells or BH5: Range War! It takes the players on a very different ride than either of its predecessors and explores a subject that few RPG adventures have ever attempted. Rather than hunting for treasure or tracking down outlaws, the players become involved in a local election and can potentially influence its outcome. I'm hard pressed to think of another RPG module, especially one from the early 1980s, that centered on electoral politics.

Written by David James Ritchie, the module expands on material from the Boot Hill boxed set by returning to Promise City and greatly enlarging the map and descriptions of the town. The events take place shortly after those in Tombstone, Arizona, following the famous Battle of the OK Corral. At 32 pages, BH3 is a standard TSR module, yet it manages to pack in a surprising amount of material. With the expanded treatment of Promise City, the Game Master is given a well-developed home base should the players decide to settle there.

The Story

The premise is that Promise City is every bit as lawless as Cochise County, Arizona, during the height of the cattle wars. Familiar historical figures, including Johnny Behan, Billy Breakenridge, Ike Clanton, and "Buckskin" Frank Leslie, are mentioned throughout the setting. In total, the module details roughly 300 NPCs, giving Promise City one of the largest casts of characters found in any Boot Hill product.

The central conflict revolves around the struggle between the Law and Order faction, representing the town's respectable citizens, and the Cowboys, who have no intention of surrendering their influence. With elections approaching, both sides are determined to win by whatever means necessary. The offices up for grabs include mayor, city council, and town marshal, making the stakes considerably higher than a simple local dispute.

The campaign unfolds over a twelve-week period, providing the players with plenty to do. They can run for office themselves or throw their support behind one of the competing factions. Public opinion shifts from week to week based on campaign events, speeches, newspaper editorials, rumors, financial contributions, and, naturally, the occasional murder. After all, this is the Old West.

The mechanics supporting the election are surprisingly robust. Players can funnel money into campaigns, spread rumors, publish broadsheets, and deliver speeches in an effort to sway public sentiment. The Civic Association, representing the current administration, can also use its influence to hinder the Cowboys' efforts. Should the violence spiral out of control and too many candidates wind up dead, the Governor may eventually dispatch the Arizona Rangers or even call in the U.S. Army to restore order. It is a clever way of showing that there are consequences if the town descends into outright chaos.

When election day finally arrives, the outcome depends entirely on how events unfolded over the previous twelve weeks. There is no predetermined winner, and that is perhaps the module's greatest strength. Different groups can experience entirely different results each time they play.

Like the earlier Boot Hill modules, the final pages include several short scenarios that can either be inserted into the campaign or played independently. I particularly enjoyed the obvious nods to classic Western films with titles such as Hang 'em High and Once Upon a Time in the West.

That is certainly one way to win an election...

The Art

The artwork is something of a mixed bag. Some pieces are excellent, while others leave me scratching my head. More than the previous modules, BH3 indulges in TSR's habit of inserting inside jokes throughout the book. I enjoy a good bit of irreverent humor as much as anyone, but here it sometimes feels excessive.

One example is "Zebadiah Cook" on page 16. The illustration appears to be by Jim Holloway. Normally I enjoy Holloway's slightly exaggerated, humorous style, even in Dungeons & Dragons, but for whatever reason it does not quite fit the tone of this module.

The front cover continues the hand-tooled leather motif of the earlier Boot Hill adventures, but the characters themselves were apparently modeled after TSR staffers Jim Roslof, Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, and Larry Elmore (they look like Brian Blume and Gary Gygax in the middle and left to me). I have no objection to inside jokes, yet this cover simply does not resonate with me. In fact, I like the module in spite of the cover rather than because of it. It is almost the opposite of N2: The Forest Oracle, where I love the cover but find the adventure itself rather disappointing (to say the very least). The back cover, featuring Mongo Bailey, likewise aims for humor but never quite lands for me.

Much like BH1 and BH2, BH3 demonstrates just how experimental the Boot Hill line really was. The more of these modules I read, the more convinced I become that the series lacked a consistent direction. Either there was no one steering the line with a long-term vision, or support arrived only sporadically as TSR found time and resources to devote to it. Given that the company's creative energy was increasingly focused on Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I suspect it was probably a combination of both.

Despite my criticisms, I genuinely like BH3. It does require a group willing to embrace politics, intrigue, and social maneuvering rather than constant gunfights, but that change of pace is part of its appeal. Not every Boot Hill adventure needs to end in a shootout at high noon, and Bullets and Ballots proves the game could successfully explore other aspects of life in the Old West.

Solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Let me know your thoughts on this rather unusual module. 

 

Restless Rust Monster Games- WA2- Assault of the Hill Giant Raiders, a Free Module

 

Raiding and pillaging just for fun!

 

(Edit 7-6-26) This post has been rewritten to allow for the free download of one of my modules WA2- Assault of the Hill Giant Raiders, set in my campaign world. In the end I decided against becoming a published module writer and focused on other endeavors.

WA2- Assault of the Hill Giant Raiders can be downloaded here. 

Original Post

I've mentioned it a few times on various websites, but I've been ever so slowly expanding my written modules for 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The ultimate goal of this is to get a number together for sale and make them available for print-on-demand at Lulu.

Eventually I think I might include some 1st edition ones as well but we'll have to see where this takes me first. One idea for 1st edition I've been mulling over is a Tiamat inspired adventure. Plus as time and creatively allows I'm re-writing the Planar Webs of Lolth (in place of Queen of the Demonweb Pits).

The Tiamat one could be sprawling and like the redo of the Webs is planar. Maybe I should key them as modules OP2 and OP3; after all I don't think there were any that I remember of after OP1...But I digress.

As of right now I've got my first one WA2 - Assault of the Hill Giant Raiders well underway, but at the rate I'm going it still could be a while. The reason it's WA2 and not WA1 is that WA1 is mammoth and is taking forever to write. What I need to do is focus and finish on something. WA2 is the closest to being done as I ran it in my 2nd Edition AD&D game a few months back. I'm at the point where the layout is largely ready and it's finally down to art being needed. And therein lies the tough part: As I've said at www.purpleworm.org (now mirrored here). I'm willing to meet an artist(s) in terms of "talking turkey", but the costs I've heard so far are way up there. 

Bear in mind this is an old school hobby individual (me), not a major, mid or even lower level publisher we are talking about.

In any event, keep an eye out for Restless Rust Monster Games in the future, but just don't hold your breath for things being quick unless I see a high level of demand.

Writing and Producing 2e Modules for sale, eventually.

For those of you not in the know I also play 2nd Edition AD&D. I am not a big fan of either 3rd or 4th edition and would play it if I had to, but fortunately I do not ;)

Right now I am DMing once a week and have been working on a high level adventure on and off for a while. Considering the success of the Word of Hashut I am pretty confident I can produce a good layout. I am thinking about writing a module and possibly selling it at Lulu. I am in the process of putting together a high level adventure based on a few ideas that I have had for some time now. Cool thing is there is a homage to both the remake and original Clash of the Titans in it.

I do not expect this will happen soon, but I do think that once I finish up Gold and Glory #4 I will have a bit more time.

So as time goes by I will update here with more bits and pieces.

(PS: Wow first time I made more than 2 blog posts in a month!) 

UPDATE: as of 7/4/26. I decided a long time ago to not push forward with publishing 2nd edition modules.