Adding the Big Guns
to Desperado

Rules Ideas

by Eric Adamaszek


The following are rules for Desperado for the use of Cannons and Gatling Guns and have been approved by Tom Kelly the author of Desperado.

The Gatling Gun works as a rifle. It fires a "burst" of 1D6 shots; six bursts are held per clip. Blanketing fire is resolved with a -10% to hit each new target. Gatling guns jam as follows: on the third turn/card of shooting it jams on a result of 1 on a D6, on the fourth turn it jams on a 1-2 on D6, on the fifth turn it jams on a 1-3 on a D6, and on the sixth turn it jams on a 1-4 on D6. If the gunner uses a card to rest, the gun cools one stage. You may un jam the gun on a result of 6 on D6 per card issued.

Cannons have a 6 inch radius burst like dynamite. The close zone has a 1.5 inch radius, the medium zone has a 3 inch radius, and the far zone has a 6 inch radius. The ranges and drift die are as follows:

RangeDrift Die
Short 9"-18" D6
Medium 18"-28" D8
Long 28"-38"D10
Extreme 38"-48" D12

Exploding shot causes 3 damage roles in the close zone, 2 in the medium zone, and 1 in the extreme zone. Canister may only fire in the short and medium ranges and does damage as follows:

    Close zone has 4 chances at 90%
    Medium zone has 3 chances at 70%

Grape shot is as a big shot gun with a 60 degree cone of fire. Short range is 0"6" with three chances to hit at 90%, medium range is 6"-10" with 2 chances to hit at 70% and long range is 10'-15" with one chance to hit 40%.

A bow and arrow works as a one-shot pistol with a range of 18", and a tomahawk or spear are resolved as a knife.


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