INTRODUCTION
Set in 1881 in the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory in the middle of Wild West. This is a game of social deduction, strategy and some luck.
This is the story of Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan, who were US Marshalls of Tombstone. Together they are trying to create a safe, productive town free from the scourge of social issues which threatens the expanding US territories.
Three days ago an unknown cowboy arrived on the daily Arizona Stage & Mail Company stagecoach from Tucson. The suspicious townsfolk are always wary of the new arrivals to the silver mining town. He was last seen at the Oriental Saloon.
Then yesterday afternoon a stranger rode into town from the South East. As per local laws, he forfeited his weapons with the sheriff at the local courthouse on the corner of Fremont & 4th Street before checking into the Silver Nugget Bed & Breakfast.
Then this morning, about 10 miles out of town, several masked men attempted to hold up a Wells Fargo stagecoach that had left Tombstone. The coach was carrying $26,000 dollars and eight passengers. The driver and a passenger were killed. The governor of Arizona has posted a $1000 reward for each of them DEAD or ALIVE!
It is believed the outlaws are in Tombstone and it is in everyone’s best interest to remove them from society.
GAME
Tombstone is AUSOnline Games’ most ambitious game yet. Using the same mechanics as Mafia and Werewolves players are divided by alignments and roles. The principle aim is to identify the bad guys and run them out of town trying to identify and rid the town of the Outlaws. These are four townsfolk with questionable character that are alleged to have held up the stage coach earlier today.
There are three phases of the game: Day, Sunset and Night.
DAY PHASE
The day phase will start at 9PM AEDT each evening and the public discussion will take place in the Tombstone Chat. The Tombstone Epitaph newspaper shall be available which will give information of overnight activities and court proceedings. It will go for 45 minutes. During that time players discuss the game and nominate and vote on who they believe are the Outlaws hiding among them. They submit their votes in the Courthouse Chat. This chat is only for voting and announcements from the hosts. Any people that break those rules, will spend a night in the Tombstone Courthouse Cells located on Fremont & Fourth Streets.
At the end of the day phase the two players with the most votes shall face off in a public duel just before sunset.
SUNSET PHASE
Sunset occurs for 15 minutes at the end of the day before the night phase begins. This is the time of day where townsfolk settle for the day. They begin to close their shops and businesses, they prepare stocks for licensed premises during the night phase and most importantly they settle any scores. Those that are put forward to the courts as being possible outlaws are tried and all cases settled.
Either by duel or by public hanging.
NIGHT PHASE
At the conclusion of the day phase and any subsequent duel, night descends on the silver mining town. A time when townsfolk relax and unwind in the many licensed premises in town. Some drink, some gamble and some choose to go bowling. The Outlaws are also very active visiting dwellings robbing people, stealing cattle and killing. The lawmen are out also trying to maintain peace.
During the night there is to be no talking in Tombstone chat. By chatting you give away your location of where you reside. During night phase, some characters will be active, leaving their dwellings and heading to different locations in the town. All routes are to be communicated to the host in a private chat. All routes must be communicated using references to the town map provided to you.
TOWN OF TOMBSTONE
In this year of our Lord 1881, the township of Tombstone has a population of 7500, excluding all Chinese, Mexicans, women and children residents. At the height of the town’s boom, the official population reached about 10,000, with several thousand more uncounted.
By mid-1881 there were fancy restaurants, Vogan’s Bowling Alley, four churches—Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist —an ice house, public baths, a school, the Schieffelin Hall opera house, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, several Chinese restaurants, several upscale “Continental” establishments, and many bordellos and brothels.
The mostly young, single, male population spent their hard-earned cash on Allen Street, the major commercial center, open 24 hours a day, with saloons and gambling halls offering the miners and Cowboys their kind of bawdy entertainment. The prostitutes worked the saloons in the southeast quarter of the town, as far as possible from the proper residential section north of Fremont Street
The respectable folks saw traveling theater shows at Schieffelin Hall, and the Bird Cage Theatre.
All players will get a detailed map of the south east quarter of Tombstone including the current dwellings which are occupied. The game is multi layered in which you do not know who lives where.
HOW TO DUEL
In the courthouse chat, the two players with the highest amount of votes shall face off in a duel. Each player shall choose a weapon for their opponent. These weapons have differing qualities in relation to speed, accuracy and the damage inflicted.
The duel will always consist of three shots from each player. The players must each submit three numbers ranging in between 1 and 5 in as quick succession as they can, submitting individually to the chat. Just like a real duel either player can draw first.
These scores will be added to the Tombstone register to determine the players speed, accuracy and damage inflicted.
The results of the duel will be communicated in the evening paper “The Tombstone Epitaph” which is located on Fremont Street.
In this example Bill Hutchison drew first, then Andrew Ritter The Undertaker, responded with 3 quick shots. If the heart was randomly valued at 5, Bill would’ve been 3 inches away when the bullet hit Andrew, but the response of 5 hit Bills heart with high damage followed by two follow up shots. Bill’s bloody body would be lying in the street awaiting the crows to pick at his corpse, meanwhile The Undertaker gets to work with an in flux of business.
Accuracy
Accuracy measures the distance from major organs that the three shots have hit. If the random number generator determines the heart is 1, and the number the player submits is 4, they are 3 inches from the heart and therefore not great accuracy on that shot.
The choice of weapon and its accuracy attribute is also taken into consideration.
Speed
The amount of numbers that the person drawing first submits to the chat before the other can react will determine the reflex speed. If the player who draws first submits three numbers before the 2nd player submits their first, their speed is far superior by 3. If the player reacts and submits one straight after the first number, the reaction speed is classed as 1.
The choice of weapon and its speed attribute is also taken into consideration.
Damage
The amount of damage inflicted on the other player is determined by risk of failure. If you submit numbers at the end of the scale (1 and 5) they are less likely to be accurate based on averages, however if you hit a bullseye the damage is multiplied. The choice of weapon and its damage attribute is also taken into consideration.
Pressure
The player with the most votes has more pressure on them to win the duel and save themselves from becoming a resident of Boothill! Some characters like the stress and perform better, some are natural gunslingers and confident with a weapon.
This factor is also taken into consideration.
Duel Score
A duel score is a confidence multiplier. Roles that have history with a weapon have more experience and confidence with certain weapons.
These factors will all be used to calculate a winner and who dies a painful death in the street.
OUTCOME
Should the duel result conclude with both characters remaining alive the player with the most votes from the townsfolk shall be put TO the gallows and hung from the neck till they are dead. If the public vote was a tie, both characters shall remain in the game, but will not be able to take part in town discussion nor vote for the next day phase, due to their injuries sustained in the gunfight.
WEAPONS
All weapons featured in the game are historically accurate based on records at the time. Each weapon is given characteristics based on these records such as an accuracy rating, speed rating , based on how quickly the mechanism fires the primer and powder as well as the a damage rating inflicted by each weapon and ammunition type.
The choices of weapon are:
- The Peacemaker
- The Hammersmith
- Cattleman
- McFarlane
- Schofield
- Smith & Wesson Rattler
- Western Six Shooter
Weapons characteristics shall remain secret until they are chosen in duels. Only then will players be told of their weapon specs. This will also be shown to the gathering crowd of onlookers.
CHARACTERS
Players will be given character profile cards. This is their character for this game. On this card you will learn:
- Title
- Abilities
- Duel Score
- Name
- Occupation
- Alignment
- Where they reside
- What the character shows as when investigated by another player
- What the character is shown as when they lose a duel, are hung or when found dead.
- Winning conditions
The current known characters in this game are:
Virgil Earp
The town Marshall aligned with the Lawmen and in charge of trying to keep the peace in Tombstone. After legislation was passed in 1880 the township has a “no weapons” policy and all weapons are to be forfeited to the Courthouse whilst in the South East Quarter.
You may visit one dwelling per night and learn that residents identity and alignment.
Wyatt Earp
Deputy Marshall of Tombstone and younger brother of Virgil.
You may visit one dwelling per night and learn that residents identity and role. That resident will not know that they are being watched.
Morgan Earp
Deputy Marshall of Tombstone an younger brother of Virgil and Wyatt
Each night you may visit another player, thus learning their their residence, and also follow their movements. If they are attacked you shall provide protection. That resident will not know that they are being watched unless they are attacked.
John Henry Holliday
Tombstone resident medical dentist and gambler.
You may visit one person per night for a dental checkup. If they are attacked, you admit aid and save their life. Afterwards you may frequent a gambling saloon. If you are challenged to a game of Poker and win, you will learn the identity of your challenger.
James B. Hickok
Tombstone resident and professional gambler, showman and entertainer.
Each night you may challenge someone to a hand of poker at the most opulent hotel in town. If you win, you learn that players moves from the previous night.
Beware of the Dead Man’s Hand!
Frank McLaury
Tombstone ranch owner and cattle farmer
Each night you may stake out a section of the town and find out who passes, as well as block them from completing their journey.
John Peters Ringgold
Ex soldier, cowboy and gambler.
Each night you may visit another dwelling and discover who lives there and their alignment. You may also carry out a robbery on a dwelling overnight. All night movements must be communicated using references to the town map provided to you.
Martha Jane Cannary
Cook, dance hall girl and entertainer.
You are a sharpshooter and may shoot the gun from the hand of a participant of a duel once per game. For the first two nights you are booked to perform at the Oriental Saloon, thus protecting you from any overnight attacks.
Batholomew Masterson
Ex-soldier, journalist and private contractor.
Each night you may visit one of the licensed premises and learn if a bounty is there. If you are there at the same time, you go to a shootout. If you win the duel you win the reward posted for his bounty and win the game.
Madam Emma Parker
Entreprenuer and business owner
Each night you may invite one player to the House of Ill Fame Bordello located upstairs at the Oriental Saloon for some “social interaction”.
If they accept they shall visit you and will be safe from overnight attacks.
Andrew Jackson Ritter
Tombstone mortician and business owner
Each night you may visit one of the licensed premises and learn who else visits the establishment. As Undertaker, you also find out the residence of each dead character.
William “Curly Bill” Brocius
Tombstone cattleman, cowboy and contractor
Each night you may visit another player and follow their movements. You may also carry out a robbery overnight on any dwelling.
Roderick Ferdinand Hafford
Local businessman and avid bird watcher.
Each night you attend your saloon. By morning you learn which players have come into your licensed establishment.
William Hutchison
Tombstone businessman, entertainer and theatre owner
On alternating evenings you visit either the bowling alley or your favourite saloon, the Crystal Palace. If you are challenged to a hand of Poker, and win, you learn the identity of that person.
Joseph Isaac Clanton
Tombstone ranch hand and young cattleman
Each morning you may pick one player to lend cast iron armour for the day. You may use it yourself or lend it to another player. The same person cannot have it for consecutive days. Each night you may visit one of the licensed premises.
Ed Schieffelin
Tombstone founder, miner and businessman
Each night you work moving illegally acquired dynamite to a local mining company. It is way too dangerous to be moved during the day. If you are seen en route by more than one player your wagon will explode, killing you and the second person. Routes are automated.
William H Bonney
Gunfighter, bank robber and murderer.
You have now been identified as being in town. You are a sharpshooter and may shoot the gun from the hand of a participant of a duel. You may also carry out an overnight robbery of a dwelling. There is a bounty on your head. Routes are to be submitted using references to the map.
John Montgomery
Business owner of Old Kindersly Stables and Livery based in Tombstone.
Each night you may challenge a player to a game of Poker. If you win you keep that players horse meaning they cannot perform any overnight tasks the following day.
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