It's Ole Doc Murphy here once again. I figgered
it was time fer me to get off my rear end and tell y'all all about
things going on here at Hawgleg. So take a load off yer feet and
have a seat!
OwlCon Owlhoots
Well, our latest play-test at Owlcon this year ran smoothly. True, when
fellers are shootin’ at one another, it’s hard to call things
“smooth”, but in the terms of the game, it was a full crowd,
and word of mouth has passed about how popular a feature we have become.
True enough once again, justice was brought to the little town of Beaver
Creek, as the Gutshot players made sure that the crooked land agent got
what was coming to him, old west style.
Owlcon has been our main play-test convention bed for the last few years,
mainly due to its location and the amount of players that are open for
the game. We decided to focus on one convention not only for play-testing,
but also for the testing of seeing how well our game is received each
year. We’re plumb happy with the way we’ve been treated, and
the Owlcon folks have always been good to us.
Sad to say for all of us though was that this was our LAST Owlcon play-test.
Now you might hang yer head and shed a tear, but don’t fret because
that means that something better is coming round the bend!
Gutshot's A Coming!
If you all read the previous paragraph and then guess, “Well that
must mean that they are ready to release Gutshot.”, then you must
be a mind reader like that feller that recently come to town selling snake
oil.
But it’s true.
See, we’ve been busy wrapping up the last of the rules editing
and arguing. Sometimes developin’ a game system is easy, and sometimes
it ain’t. In this case we had to keep true to what we were doing
at all times. We ran into the everlasting problem that all miniature game
players come across, (fast, simple rules vs detail), and we knew that
at times we were going to have to draw the line, somewhere.
Now I needs to let y’all know out there that as we have explained
before, Gutshot is gonna be a “simple game”. We ain’t
gonna bog you down with page after page after page of fancy charts, tables,
and graphs in print so small that you would need a pair of glasses to
see them. We are not gonna detail the range, and damage capability of
every weapon and caliber that was available in the Old West, (However,
if you DO want that much detail, then we can point you in the right direction.).
What we are trying to do with Gutshot is to recreate the high excitement
and drama of the Old West with the flavor of the Hollywood Westerns. Heck..sometimes
when I watch this game being played, I can almost smell the popcorn in
the theater!
So we think we have accomplished what it is that we were going to set
out to do. So I can hear you saying, “Enough already…when’s
it coming out?”
So I am proud to say that we are looking at Gutshot to be on the shelves
in time for Christmas 2004.
That’s right, when Christmas rolls around, you can wander up to
Ole Saint Nick and sit on his lap and tell you that you want to “get
Gutshot”. I’m sure that either he or his little elf helpers
will oblige.
So What Does This Mean?
Well, for us, it means that the hardest part of getting the rules together
is over with. We know that they work, and that they are fun for folks.
We have a nice following of dedicated play testers who have helped us
over the years. We have gotten support from play test groups across the
nation and words of encouragement from retailers. Believe me when I say
that even though we know we had a good thing going, it was mighty nice
to get all of these nice words to help keep us riding along when the trail
got a little rough.
So now that the main rules will be out in December we are looking at
the first expansion. You see, there was way too much good stuff to put
in just one book, and if we did, then there would be so much material
that some folks wouldn’t use and felt that it was a waste.
So what we decided was to add the new material in module form. We figgered,
that by doing this we could keep the cost to you our supporters down and
that it gave you the option of which materials you wanted and which materials
you didn’t want.
We’ve currently started working on the outline for our first expansion,
which focuses on “Cavalry and Indians”. It’s going to
include new specialties and abilities, along with new character templates,
and scenarios. As usual, once we get it up and running we will also add
scenarios onto our website here that will be available as FREE downloads.
All the downloads on www.hawgleg.com will be FREE, (but if you would like
to send us money we will be happy to take it off yore hands).
Conventions Aplenty
Once we release Gutshot in December we are looking at supporting it not
only through the site, and with our In-Store Demo Program, (IDP), but
also with conventions. Currently we are looking at attending a wide variety
of regional AND national conventions, among them will be Origins, Gen-Con,
Bayou Wars, and Historicon. We are also looking at being at the GAMA Trade
Show in Las Vegas in March 2005. So if you are there and you see our booth,
stop by and say “howdy!”.
I would be lower than a snake in a wagon rut if I didn’t also talk
about our supporting the retailers. It’s the game stores that make
sure that our products are out there. It’s the game storeowners
that allow us to show off our games in their stores and to help increase
their sales. It’s the local game store that is the gathering point
for gamers and we can never ever stop tellin’ folks, to SUPPORT
YOUR LOCAL GAME STORE!
Gutshot Stuff: "You shore look purty in that
t-shirt..."
For those of you that haven’t had the gumption to get into our contest,
because you think that “you’ll never win anything.”,
then I would tell you to get yore high falootin’ self over to our
General Store, and see what nice stuff we git in from the stage. You can
bet yer bottom dollar when I tell you that if you get one of our fine
t-shirts for yore lady, then she’ll be so happy with you, that she
won’t remember that she was gonna hit you with a fryin’ pan!
You can mosey through our General Store and see a fine selection of our
items with our wonderful logos on them. They are sure to be collectors’
items, or the envy of your friends.
Our Contests
That’s right folks, we just had our recent drawin’ for our
contest winner and his picked up one of our steel coffee mugs. These fine
mugs seem to be one of the favorites of our winners, and we think that
they can handle all the hot joe you can put in them in, or you can use
them to whump yer partner upside his head when you catch him cheatin’
at cards again!
It’s easy to enter our contests, and remember, your name stays
in the hat until you win. Just click on the contest information on our
website, and get your name in today!
And Finally
We here at Hawgleg are mighty grateful for all the support and patience
that everyone has shown us and given us while we were working on this
project. Now that we can see the results coming out and heading your way,
we feel that it’s best that we tip our hat and say that we are very
thankful to have such wonderful support. It sure makes our day.
Well, that’s it from Ole Doc Murphy here. I will be shuttin’
up for a while, until something else comes along, and I just gotta feel
the need to flap my gums again. So send your cards, letters, and e-mails
my way, asking anything you want. If you want to send me money my way,
I will go ahead and take it off yore hands.
