What's My Favourite Western Roleplaying Game? The Answer May Surprise You

Despite the many recent posts on this blog referring to Deadlands - and my long-history of fanboying over the game and its Weird West setting - I'm pretty certain my all-time favourite Western roleplaying game system is much the more modest Go Fer Yer Gun!

Written by the prolific games creator Simon Washbourne, and published by his Beyond Belief Games in 2010, Go Fer Yer Gun! (GFYG!) is a "mere" 77-page long, including a character sheet and a copy of the OGL.

Based on the ubiquitous d20 mechanics of a certain fantasy roleplaying game, GFYG! is a streamlined game with easy to grok stats and character classes, hit points, defence class (in lieu of armour class), equipment lists, weapons charts, etc.

As well as the delightfully thematic character classes with their specialised abilities, the game's novel tweaks include only rolling extra hit die for characters up to fourth level, so that guns are still dangeous - and potentially lethal - weapons, even when fired at high level characters. None of your Dungeons & Dragons superheroes here!

There's also statistics for a handful of generic folk and critters, as well as non-player characters, as well as three short scenarios.

While modern Deadlands is full of glossy and colourful art and slick layouts, GFYG! is black and white with public domain illustrations and a basic layout. However, both approaches serve the systems they are pushing.

Of course, the great thing about the minimalist approach of GFYG! is that, should tastes demand it, it's very easy to add elements to the rules. For instance, if I sought to Deadlands things up by introducing the supernatural, magic et al, I could easily lift chunks of my shelved Frankengame almost wholecloth to add into the mix.

On top of all this, a major selling point of GFYG! - should I ever try and convince the Tuesday Knights to trust me running another campaign - is that the "classic" d20 mechanics are easy for any reasonably seasoned gamer to quickly pick up. Even if they're not 100 per cent au fait with the setting, it's one less thing to have to worry about.

MONSTER MAYHEM: The Vourdalak (2023)

Having been attacked by Turkish bandits while travelling through an Eastern European forest, French nobleman the Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfé (Kacey Mottet Klein), an emissary of the King of France, seeks assistance at the isolated home of an elderly man called Gorcha.

The man of the house is absent though and the Marquis instead meets his children: the eldest son, surly Jegor (Grégoire Colin), crossdresser Piotr (Vassili Schneider) and ethereal "fallen woman" Sdenka (Ariane Labed). Also present are Jegor's wife, Anja (Claire Duburcq) and their young son, Vlad (Gabriel Pavie).

The Marquis d'Urfé discovers that the elderly Gorcha left the house six days earlier to go fight the invading Turks, warning that if he returned after six days he would be a "vourdalak" and his family were not to let him in.

The Marquis (Kacey Mottet Klein) and Sdenka (Ariane Labed)

That evening, while the residents of the manor are dining outdoors, Jegor discovers what appears to be the corpse of his father, lying at the edge of the property.

However the old man (voiced by the film's writer and director Adrien Beau) is alive. Kind of.

This is where things start to get really weird. Despite Jegor's refusal to believe in folk stories, his father, Gorcha, is, indeed a vourdalak, an undead corpse-like being that's part vampire, part ghoul, that thrives by feeding on its loved ones (rather than random strangers).

However, that's not the weirdest part of this darkly, atmospheric Gothic French movie. It's the fact that Gorcha is portrayed by a life-sized skeletal puppet (also operated by Adrien Beau), with a limited range of movement.

Luckily, I had been forewarned about this fact, as it comes as quite a surprise when it pops up in this grounded, period piece, set in the 18th Century.

Yet oddly, once you've adjusted your brain to the idea that the antagonist of this claustrophobic horror tale isn't an actor in a rubber suit or a CGI creation, it is a rather effective depiction of a creature that's alien to our reality and yet was once human.

This isn't Muppet Christmas Carol territory, but something much creepier and more unnerving (more so even than the spooky Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come).

Coming in at under 90-minutes duration, The Vourdalak is a fascinating French-language work of oppressive horror, where the tension ratchets up methodically to a gory climax.

What could have come across as a "silly experiment" on paper, is, in actuality, an eerie and atmospheric movie about a largely unseen supernatural predator preying on his own family, trapped on their own estate by both familial loyalty and fear of the Turkish invaders.

While our POV character, the foppish Marquis starts the tale as "powdered courtier" and a bit of an ass, his story arc sees him grow a backbone - partly motivated by his attraction to Sdenka - to just about become the tale's hero.

Based up the 19th Century novel The Family of the Vourdalak, by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (second cousin of  the more famous Leo Tolstoy), the film is an interesting twist on the ubiquitous vampire mythology and is worth watching for that alone.

Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson? You Can Count Me In!

A tale of revenge, dark secrets, and buried treasures, the film is set against the turbulent backdrop of 1870s Montana.

It picks up in the moments before the execution of Isaac Broadway, as he gives his estranged son, Henry (Brandon Lessard), an impossible task: Murder the man who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. 

Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, where an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove (Pierce Brosnan), the town’s upstanding new sheriff, and a mysterious figure named St Christopher (Samuel L. Jackson).

My 20/20 Vision

Image by Melanie from Pixabay

When my good friend Pete turned 50, he began a quest to achieve 50 extraordinary things in that year. 

With my recent acceptance of the fact that it's 20 years since I suffered a life-changing aneurysm and stroke, I've therefore decided that I shall embark on a similar - but much more low-key and sedate - quest.

While Pete's list included hair-raising adventures like feeding tigers, mine is much more geared to my own limitations (and fears).

My personal goal is achieve 20 things by this time next year that I wouldn't normally have done or haven't done for a long time because I've grown scared over the years.

This is separate to my ongoing PROJECT 60 (which is all about achieving geeky goals before I turn 60), but I guess there's a chance that the two strands might overlap at some point down the trail.

I will aim to chronicle these special "events" here on the blog, and keep this post as a "living document", adding links to the new experiences as I achieve them.

UPDATE. Due to my six months of being unable to walk properly in late 2025 (caused by osteoarthritis in my lumbar facet joints), I'm giving myself an extra six months - at least - to clock up the 20 special experiences/life changes etc

MY 20/20 VISION BOARD

(1) Build a rockery (to commemorate Barney The Bunny)
(2) Throw a party (to mark the 20th anniversary of my life being saved by the NHS) 

(3) Go to a comic-con (the return of the Tonbridge Comic-Con and Toy Fair)

(4) Solo walk down the hill to the dog groomer's to pick up Alice, and back up the hill heading home, in warm, Spring weather. Unaided and exhausted, but did it on my own (May 30, 2025)

(5) Grow a beard and keep it.

(6) Watch Fantastic Four: First Steps in the cinema
(7) Return to Raystede Animal Sanctuary (I wasn't expecting to be in a wheelchair!)

(8) Finally got to see Superman (even if not at the cinema as originally planned. It exceeded all expectations!)

(9) Switch to healthy (no snacking) diet - due to my high blood sugar count - and stick to it.

(10) Begin my "tree safaris" - walks in interesting local spots where I can photograph trees and landscapes.

(11) Play in (and win) a participation game at Cavalier 2026.

(12) Attend the first Geek Mania event (an excellent, new kind of geeky event in Tonbridge).

(13) Complete nine months of weekly Biscuit Club (with 100% attendance record)

(14) Start using my mobile as an actual telephone (like a grown-up)

(15) Return to Hever Castle, after long break, for the returning dog show.
(16) Saw the partial solar eclipse.

(17) Going to the gym regularly.

(18) Return to England's Medieval Festival (having missed it due to back injury)

(19)

(20)

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

... or WTF, George?

The infamous Star Wars Holiday Special had been a hole in my Star Wars education - as well as my DVD collection - until the start of 2011 when I finally caved and paid a few pounds on eBay for a bootleg.

Despite the best efforts of Royal Mail to smash the living daylights out of the DVD case, it arrived quickly and I eagerly put the disc in the player and sat back to enjoy...

The conceit is quite straight forward: Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) are racing back to Chewie's homeworld (Kashyyyk) in time for the important celebration of Life Day (it's like our Christmas), but are being pursued and harassed by Imperial stardestroyers.

Meanwhile, on the forest world of  Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's family are nervously awaiting his arrival. It turns out Chewie's home is your average American suburban home of the late '70s - but located hundreds of feet up the side of a giant tree - complete with flat-pack furniture, sink and oven etc as well as knickknacks and framed photos of loved ones on the shelves.

Chewie's wife, Mallotobuck aka Malla (Mickey Morton) even watches cookery programmes on her flat-screen TV (a bit of prophetic set design there) and there's a general sense that this is, somehow, all supposed to be a comedy... only it isn't funny (except in the "laughing at it" sense, rather than the "laughing with it" sense).

The Imperials have established a blockade around the planet for fear of Rebel activity, but human trader Saun Dann (Art Carney) turns up with Life Day presents for the family - delivered with some of the flatest, most lifeless acting I've ever witnessed - which includes a model kit for Chewie's son, Lumpawarrump aka Lumpy (Patty Malone) and what amounts to a porno tape for Chewie's dad, Attichitcuk aka Itchy (Paul Gale).

The tape gets plugged into what appears to be a hairdryer and beams images into Itchy's head of Diahann Carroll as a holographic water creature who 'oohs' and 'ahhs' inappropriately through a prolonged musical number, while the grey-haired wookie gurns like Les Dawson.

A detachment of Imperials then show up, looking for Rebels, which gives Saun Dann the rather random excuse to demonstrate Malla's Life Day present - a music box that plays a hologram of Jefferson Starship (!!!)

The centrepiece of The Holiday Special is a short animation, that looks like a cross between French-style comic strips and Marvel's comic book take on the Star Wars Universe, and marks Boba Fett's debut appearance.

Now this is rather odd if you think about it, because Lumpy is watching this cartoon (secretly) while the Imperials search their house - yet it also features his father, Han Solo, Luke, Princess Leia and the droids. So is it a piece of fiction in the Star Wars Universe? How does that work? It hurts my head just trying to work out the logic of that...

However, that cartoon is easily the best bit of The Holiday Special and probably worth the cost of the DVD on its own.

The home stretch begins with a couple of unfunny sketches featuring Harvey Korman, the second of which, set in a cantina on Tatooine, also stars the gravel-voiced Golden Girl Bea Arthur as bartender Ackmena and devolves into yet another easily fast-forwardable musical number.

After the Imperials leave and Harrison Ford drops off Chewbacca - then bails as quickly as possible - things get truly surreal as the wookie clan are suddenly clothed in red capes and walking towards a glowing sphere while holding snow globes.

The inside of the glowing sphere turns out to be the Top Of The Pops studio, filled with similarly red-cloaked wookies and then - for no readily apparent reason - out comes C-3PO, R2-D2, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and the lovely, but probably stoned, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) who proceeds to deliver some saccharine message about how we're all alike (or something) then bursts into song!

I couldn't believe this bizarre piece of Star Wars history actually lasted an hour and a half, but I can see why George Lucas would rather we all forgot about it... hence the rather cheeky quote, attributed to him, on the DVD cover: "If I had time and a hammer, I'd track down every bootleg copy and smash it..."

Shown only once, as far as I am aware, on November 17, 1978, it seems a shame that Lucas can't take this in good humour and simply release a cleaned-up, official DVD of the show. Sure it was a mistake, but it's done, it's out there and fans will want to see it. The more Lucas tries to deny it, the more bootlegs people will buy because that's the only route available to them.

However, I now also suspect that Colonel Kurtz was not contemplating the Vietnam War but had just watched The Star Wars Holiday Special when he spoke those famous words: "The horror, the horror..."

STAR WARS DAY: May The 4th Be With You

Today is Free Comic Book Day!

Today is Free Comic Book Day, the international celebration of the greatest artistic and narrative medium you can hold in your hands.

Support your local comic book shop, explore the epic multiverse of comic book adventures, and pick up some free samples while you're there (but don't be greedy - they may be free to you, but the store pays for them!)

"What's Your Favourite Superman Story?"

Hope. Legacy. The ultimate symbol of truth and justice.

Join DC’s superstar creators as they celebrate the timeless tales that made us believe a man could fly. What’s your favourite Superman story?

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