US MARSHALS A SHARED STORYTELLING GAME OF JUSTICE IN THE AMERICAN WILD WEST Sample file By Lucus Palosaari 1 S US MARSHALS HAL S A SHARED STORYTELLING GAME AR OF JUSTICE IN THE AMERICAN WILD WEST Credits US M Author Lucus Palosaari Editor Troy Daniels Artist Frederic Remington Design & Layout Rick Hershey Fat Goblin Hoarde Ismael Alvarez, Jason Owen Black, J Gray, Kiel Howell, Taylor Hubler, Michael Ritter, Matt Roth, Lucus Palosaari, Troy Daniels, and Rick Her- shey. Developer Lucus Palosaari Publisher Rick Hershey of Fat Goblin Games We can not copyright game mechanics, only our text. We can not trademark game mechanics, only our branding of it. To republish these rules, you need to rewrite them in your own words. You must ask permis- sion to use any part of this text as it is presented herein — including the title of the book or the name Difference Engine — or to market your own work, but we cannot stop you from rewriting it all and releasing it under a different title. Many parts of this text uses terms or concepts which are common to other roleplaying games, including texts released under an Open Game License, and this is not an attempt to copyright any of that text. SampleUS Marshals © 2019 Fat Goblin Games file 2 CONTENTS Playing A Marshal 12 Challenges with The Difference Engine 28 Fightin’! 40 Weapons 50 Optional Rules 68 Gamemastering The Marshals 92 Character Sheet 110 Our game, US Marshals, discusses the United States Marshals Service in a historic con- text but is ultimately a work of fiction. We make no claim as the truth or veracity of any statements in this book about the United States Marshals Service, former U. S. Marshals, or related topics. This book was not produced with any affiliation to the United States Marshal Service, and the experiences of the game and its presentation of marshals is not meant to reflect any real, historic people or marshals. Any use of the terms marshals, US Marshals, United States Marshals Service, or related terms is not an attempt to copyright, trademark, or otherwise lay claim of ownership to these terms or phrases. About Fat Goblin Games Based in South Carolina, USA, Fat Goblin Games was founded in 2011 to create Path- finder Roleplaying Game compatible products. With a focus on high quality production values and providing a creative environment for our team of freelancers (The Fat Goblin Hoarde), Fat Goblin Games has quickly become a recognized force in the world of Third Party Publishers of not just the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and 5th Edition Fantasy, but also supporting the vs. M Engine and releasing official products for Castle Falkenstein, originally published by R. Talsorian Games. With hundreds of support books, visual aids, campaign settings, and quality stock art, Fat Goblin Games continues to provide excitingSample content and fantastic worlds in which gamers can immerse themselves.file Visit us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and check out our website at fatgoblingames.com. 3 S US MARSHALS HAL S A SHARED STORYTELLING GAME AR OF JUSTICE IN THE AMERICAN WILD WEST US Marshals is a rules-light tabletop roleplaying game that assumes the player-characters are Marshals (or Deputy Marshals) in the American Wild US M West, official representatives of the Federal government of the United States of America enacting the laws, subpoenas, and will of federal courts, Congress, and the President with broad-reaching jurisdiction. Some would say you’re there to “tame the Wild West” but the job is never that simple! All you need to play are these rules, a few scraps of paper, pencils, at least two six-sided dice (2d6), and a few friends! One person runs the game as the Game- master (GM), while everyone else plays as a Marshal; the more the merrier! THE IMAGINED WEST, THE SETTING OF US MARSHALS American historians sometimes use the term “the Imagined West” to refer to not specifically the actual, historical facts of the Western expansion of the United States across North America, but to the combination of fact, myth, leg- end, tall tale, fish-story, and plain hearsay, that is most often tapped and used as inspiration by Hollywood and beyond for docudramas and classic Westerns alike. Other popular terms like the “Old West” and “Wild West” are and can be used, but each has its own connotation, and US Marshals is written to be played in the Imagined West of the post-Civil War era known as the Recon- struction Era (~1865-1877), through the Gilded Age (~1877-1895) and even into the turn of the century and the Progressive Era (~1896-1916), but with some caveats from us as game designers. When we released our first Difference Engine game, Privateers [available now on DriveThruRPG.com], we felt comfortable leaving all the world-building up to the Gamemaster and Players. In part, this was an effort to keep the first release small andSample compact, but also, perhaps because we’re more far removed fromfile the primary historic period (the Age of Sail), or perhaps because its depiction in media is more diverse, we felt safe to allow you to create and play the game as you see fit. 4 For US Marshals, either because it is more close historically to the modern day, or perhaps because it is too often misrepresented in media — or perhaps just because the concept of playing a United States Marshal or one of their Deputies is less common than playing in a pirate-themed game — we felt compelled to include some resources for further exploring the setting. These include touchstone inspirational films, television, and video games that fea- ture historic marshals or other peacekeepers (sheriffs, town marshals, etc), but it also includes websites and actual books written about the subject that you might find useful. These are not definitive lists, and you’re always welcome to take or leave any of the ideas presented, but we felt we should give Gamemas- ters and Players alike some resources to tap into. FURTHER EXPLORATIONS FOR PREPARATION TO PLAY US MARSHALS It would be counter to the purpose of publishing a rules-light tabletop ro- leplaying game to have 10 pages of rules and then still need 250+ pages to explain the setting of the game. At the same time, there are numerous aspects that Players and Gamemasters alike should know and understand before run- ning a game. At least watch a few “topical” films or television shows — here are some starting points for you that we used while writing this game. None of these lists are exhaustive or even definitive, they’re merely resourc- es we tapped in writing this book and we think could be helpful to you to cre- ate your own adventures for US Marshals. Inspirational Films, Television, & Video Games Innumerable films, television shows, documentaries, and even quite a few “Western” genre video games exist. Particular ones we recommend, despite often historical inaccuracies, are the following (mostly for including marshal characters in some meaningful capacity): True Grit (originally 1969, remade 2010) The story of aging, one-eyed US Mar- shal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn (played by John Wayne in 1969 & Jeff Bridges inSample 2010) should likely be considered “quintessential” to the US Marshalsfile game, and even the 1975 sequel with Wayne reprising his role in Rooster Cogburn could be lumped in as exemplars of the assumed storylines you could play with a deeply flawed Marshal character (truth of the portrayal notwithstanding). 5 S Tall Tales vs. Facts From The West About Minorities HAL S In large part due to the popularity of the Western genre of films and tele- vision shows released from the 1940’s to 1960’s (and beyond), a specific im- AR age of “The Old West” likely comes to mind when the term is used. One thing that is almost always lacking in these depictions however are diverse cast of characters that include both fair and accurate depiction of the roles of women in society, and a proper blend of ethnicities that actually inhab- US M ited the land. On the role of women, depictions would lead you to believe that most are either “damsels in distress” that need a hypermasculine cis white male to come and rescue them from some ill of the world, or they’re harlot bur- lesque dancers in the local whorehouse. Obviously, greater variation existed historically, and in particular for US Marshals. The first woman who wore the badge of a Deputy for the US Marshals, Ada Carnutt, would by 1893 be- come known for single-handedly arresting two forgers and personally es- corting them to jail, though this was far from her only exploit in the service. And she was far from the only one! As for ethnic minorities, misrepresentation abounds. From horrific mis- characterization and villainization of Native Americans, to stereotyping and marginalizing Hispanics/Latinos, to just plain wrong representations of Af- rican Americans and Asian immigrants, Hollywood et al have typically done a terrible job of giving any of these groups fair and accurate representation. Again, in particular for US Marshals, while pre-Civil War and even during the war at times, marshals were tasked with capturing “runaway slaves” to be returned to their former owners, the first African American marshal — Fredrick Douglass — was given his badge and jurisdiction over Washington D.C. in 1877. And he was far from the only African American marshal or deputy, as Marshal Bass Reeves is arguably one of the most effective in the service’s history (many argue his exploits inspired the Lone Ranger).