The Legend of Dead Man’s Hand is the campaign source book in which players take a gang of no good crooks or a posse of untried but honest, good men and endeavour to make their mark on the Old West. Rivals develop business schemes or criminal enterprises, gain skills and experience, expand the size of their respective bands, and engage in plenty of Wild West gunplay in their rise to glory or descent into an early grave (or the bottom of a bottle).


The Legend of Dead Man's Hand - Starting a Gang

"So, you think you can just move out west and stake a claim? Or maybe you think you're gonna make a name for yourself. There are thousands that think they can make it. Most are fated to live a life of daily struggle or an early grave, destitute or diseased."



Starting gangs in the Legend of Dead Man's Hand are fragile but determined. The "gunhand" class of character from the gang profiles are not available to gangs in the campaign system; you have to develop your own legendary gunslinger! A typical gang will be the boss and two dudes. Don't get kileld too cheaply; if you get a pasting in early games you'll only be able to replcae them with amateurs. If you do better you can quite quickly add dudes to your band, enabling you to support more business (or criminal) schemes.

The most important aspect of starting a gang is to give them cool names. Men with cool names do better on the tabletop.

Next step is to generate a common scheme - there are specific gang schemes available as the campaign progresses - from which your boys will generate an income, and which is bound to get them into all manner of scrapes with rivals.

Before we go on, it's important to talk about how to win the campaign.

“Many men have come to DeadMan’s Hand with ideas of gloryand wealth beyond their speedand ability with a gun. Othershave come looking for a simplelife, maybe trying to escape a darkpast and have brought a smallamount of peace and tranquility tothe streets, for a while at least.”

The objective of our Dead Man’s Hand gang bosses is to reach theirgoal. This goal can be whatever you choose it to be: to retire to a life full of peace and many grandchildren;to become the father of the town or even the region through economics or fear; to elevate yourself to theUnited States senate, along with all the attached backhanders and privileges; to run a farm of a thousandhead of cattle over a vast acreage; or to simply go out in a blaze of glory and become the subject of a majormotion picture a hundred years or so later. The list is only limited to the narrative that you imagine.

In game terms, once a gang reach 31 Reputation at the end of an "act", it wins the campaign. Reputation is gained through winning games, expanding your gang, gaining experience and managing your schemes.


The Legend of Dead Man's Hand - Schemes


Driven and enterprising men in the Old West won their fame (or infamy) through ruthless exploitation of people and resources. In the Legend of Dead Man’s Hand, gangs participate in business, political and criminal schemes to increase their influence and wealth, represented by their Reputation score. At the start of the campaign, when the gang is first generated, the player determines which scheme his gang is involved in. Additional schemes may be “purchased” as the campaign progresses.

A gang must always have at least one scheme on its roster. If the gang finds itself with no schemes, itimmediately generates a fresh one. In order to win the campaign, a gang must have at least three operableschemes.

Schemes cover all the sorts of businesses in the Wild West: saloons - ranches, mines, gunsmiths, saloons - plus some specific to particular gangs. Your gang may not necessarily directly own and operate a scheme; you may be a silent partner or just a friend or relation, or perhaps you have some sort of hold over the proprietor. Schemes can also take other guises, such as political influence, criminal enterprises and even the sowing of terror in the local populace!

Following an "act" of three scenes, each player checks what kind of income or reputation his schemes have each generated over the period. This increases the gang's Rep and can even affect future games or screw over the opposition!


The Legend of Dead Man's Hand - Death, Fame & Experience

Going “out of action” in a game of Dead Man’s Hand is not necessarily fatal. Characters may just be lightly wounded, their courage failing under intense fire or suffering from a serious but non-life threatening gunshot. Of course, it may also mean that the target is dead and being measured up for a coffin as his still-warm body still twitches. At the end of a scene, each player draws a card to determine each character’s fate. using a normal DMH full deck and consulting the table in the book.

Some injuries permanently affect a character, some have no game effect, and some can even be beneficial, life-changing experiences that really make a man out of a guy!

After you finish a scene and determine injuries, it's time to spend some of the Fame you've just earned. Winning and losing sides earn Fame and it has to be spent immediately after the scene. One Fame must be spent on giving a gang member experience. The rest may be spent on hiring more men, developing a new scheme or getting guns and horses.

“As your reputation begins to grow in town it is important todecide how your gang is going to grow and continue growing.The most obvious method is to increase your numbers as gunson the street provide a definite advantage. These numbers needsupporting though so more schemes need to be added to keepthe money flowing. Sometimes the difference in a fight can bethe weapons your men are armed with; nothing closes the gapbetween men’s quality like a shotgun. A balanced approach isalways the best way forward, focus on the final goal to stopyourself getting sidetracked with ideas of killing folks.”

Characters may improve attributes or gain new skills as their gunfighting career progresses. As with injuries, the card deck is used to determine character advancement. The experience gained varies according to the card value, suit and whether the card drawn is your ownsuit or not. Some results allow a character to unlock access to certain extra experience tables. The "amateur" class of character has their own skill table which may see their career divert into gunfighting or stay on a civilian path.

Most of the skills available will greatly benefit a man's worth in a gunfight but beware, some results may see the effective end of a promising career...

Players can tailor their characters quite flexibly. You may want a big gang of eager lawmen, or you may want a compact band where one man is the stand-out, Clint Eastwood type, a living legend of the West. Just remember that a bullet has no concept of reputation.


The Legend of Dead Man's Hand - Banditos & 7th Cavalry

As you probably know by now, there are four new gangs for DMH and here we introduce the Banditos and 7th Cavalry. They are presented in the book in the exact same manner as the DMH rule book, so are designed to be used in the same way as in that rule book. You can use them to play pick up games of three scenes, or select from their roster to recruit an ambitious and compact group of men.



“For years we have watched men heading south in to Mexico to escape the law. We have walked a different path all our lives, this path has lead us north on to the streets of Dead Man’s Hand. The north is full of rich cattle barons and banks bursting with so much money and gold that they struggle to keep it all in. We are here to help out, taking on the burden from those too weak to carry or protect it themselves.”

The profiles of the Bandito characters is the same as the other gangs, but they have one significant characteristic: A Plethora of Pistols. These guys are festooned with weapons and ammo so you will not have to worry about awkward out of ammo results. Importantly, if a model takes this option, he is only allowed to take pistols so you will have less flexibility in arming variety in a campaign.

In their gang rules (and in one of their cards) they have the ability to set up ambush points, disappearing from view and showing up again somewhere unexpected. Great for getting yourself out of trouble and also for mounting a concentrated attack when you're full of beans and feeling confident. There gang specific cards are fun; one that'll trump anything, one that makes use of living cover, the "guerrila" card and the card that reflects the tendency for these guys to always carry a bit of TNT.



“We bring justice to the far reaches of this country. Whether pacifying the savages or running down gangs of outlaws we are a symbol of the United States for all to see. For many this symbol is something to fight against, they buck against theinevitability of civilisation that follows in our wake. These men must either change or be changed and we will be the agent of that change.”

7th Cavalry are a very different gang in terms of play style, as you might expect from one with rifles as the majority weapon. This means you have to be a very disciplined player when using them, but thankfully they have gang rules and gang cards to help them. Drilled Cavalry (gang rule) and Roll Call (gang card) can be devastating when used in concert, but the most useful aspect of the gang is the former which means that they can advance or withdraw while maintaining effective fire with their carbines.

This is a thinking man's DMH gang, and the clever use of cards like First Call and To the Colors can keep them one step ahead and determined in the face of their foes who will often have a tendency to attack piecemeal. Some can get away with that but your troopers will really get cut to pieces in they divide too much. As a side note, you may struggle in some of those opening scenes when you have to face off against pistol armed men with your carbine. Just keep some distance and keep cool...



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