RolePlay in the Old West with Boot Hill

I had only a passing interest in roleplaying in the old west until a friend of mine took it upon himself to try to get a Boot Hill campaign going after he bought a set at a garage sale. The session was sadly short-lived, the town we went into was a death trap and all of us died in the first hour. It was a case of inexperienced players and a very inexperienced GM, that sadly pushed Boot Hill off our gaming table for a while.

Years later I would get to play with the Skycastle Games’ Desperado RPG system and really enjoyed the setting. I even took a turn running a game for a couple of sessions. This would inspire me to pick up a worn copy of Boot Hill, which while I never ran a game of, still sits on my shelf for my reading enjoyment.

Boot Hill was the third Boot Hill role-playing game from TSR and appeared not long after Dungeons and Dragons (still own) and Empire of the Petal Throne (recently sold). It was developed by Gary Gygax, Don Kaye, and Brian Blume.