History TabletopGame / AcesAndEightsShatteredFrontiers

* WesternCharacters: Stats for non-player characters include most of the stock characters of Westerns. In addition, player characters can gain more building points by following a 'profession,' most of which you can find in the list of WesternCharacters.

* DidTheResearch: There are a lot of little touches, particularly in the chapters on horses, firearms, and history, that show how much work went into the game.

''Aces and Eights'' makes use of the following tropes:

* CriticalMiss: Fairly frequent, although the provided table means that only about one in five is actually an EpicFail.

''Aces and Eights: Shattered Frontiers'' is an Old West-themed tabletop RPG released in 2007 by Kenzer and Company. The focus of the game, unlike earlier efforts like TSR's ''Boot Hill'' or the horror motif of ''Deadlands,'' is on WideOpenSandbox play: specialized rules are provided for gambling, prospecting, brawling, chases, cattle drives and so forth, but the game provides the tools to create virtually any nineteenth-century character concept and allow the game master to create almost any style of TheWestern. The hit-location system is particularly innovative and noteworthy; it uses target silhouettes and a bullseye transparency to allow the attacker to aim anywhere he likes: dice and playing cards then determine the amount, and direction, of deviation. The game also uses 'the Count' rather than initiative, a simultaneous-action system that takes quite a bit of bookkeeping but allows total player freedom during combat.

* AlternateHistory: The official continuity begins to diverge slightly in the 1820s, but the major breaking-point was the failure of the Clay Compromise, leading to an earlier War between the States (1851-1855), French intervention, and a Western frontier that really is being squabbled over by four or five different nations.

''Aces and Eights: Shattered Frontiers'' is an Old West-themed tabletop RPG released in 2007 by Kenzer and Company. The focus of the game, unlike earlier efforts like TSR's ''Boot Hill'' or the horror motif of ''Deadlands,'' is on WideOpenSandbox play: specialized rules are provided for gambling, prospecting, brawling, chases, cattle drives and so forth, but the game provides the tools to create virtually any nineteenth-century character concept and allow the game master to create almost any style of TheWestern. The hit-location system is particularly innovative and noteworthy; it uses target silhouettes and a bullseye transperancy to allow the attacker to aim anywhere he likes: dice and playing cards then determine the amount, and direction, of deviation. The game also uses 'the Count' rather than initiative, a simultaneous-action system that takes quite a bit of bookkeeping but allows total player freedom during combat.

* GunsAreUseless: Subverted. Combat is very, very risky. Natural healing is quite slow. And wounded survivors are still at the mercy of nineteenth-century medicine.

''Aces and Eights: Shattered Frontiers'' is an Old West-themed tabletop RPG released in 2007 by KenzerCo. The focus of the game, unlike earlier efforts like TSR's ''Boot Hill'' or the horror motif of ''Deadlands,'' is on WideOpenSandbox play: specialized rules are provided for gambling, prospecting, brawling, chases, cattle drives and so forth, but the game provides the tools to create virtually any nineteenth-century character concept and allow the game master to create almost any style of TheWestern. The hit-location system is particularly innovative and noteworthy; it uses target silhouettes and a bullseye transperancy to allow the attacker to aim anywhere he likes: dice and playing cards then determine the amount, and direction, of deviation. The game also uses 'the Count' rather than initiative, a simultaneous-action system that takes quite a bit of bookkeeping but allows total player freedom during combat.

* CriticalMiss: Frequent, although the provided table means that fewer than one in a hundred is actually an EpicFail.

* WesternCharacters: A variety of 'standard' NPCs of these types is provided. Characters can gain more building points by following a 'profession,' most of which you can find in the list of WesternCharacters.

* AlternateHistory: The official continuity begins to diverge slightly in the 1820s, but the major breaking-point was the failure of the Clay Compromise, leading to an earlier War Between The States.

Obviously, heavy use of WesternTropes should be expected.

* CriticalHits: Rolling the highest possible damage on a die allows you to roll another die of the same type (minus one) and add it to the damage. Since the system kills or mutilates starting in the 9+ hp range, one bullet can be fatal.

* GunsAreDeadly: Combat is very, very risky. Natural healing is quite slow. And wounded survivors are still at the mercy of nineteenth-century medicine.

* RandomNumberGod: One widely disparaged part of the system. Players get to spend points for talents and skills however they wish, but the six attributes they start with are randomly determined with a flat 3d6 roll - and bad rolls can be crippling.

* TheWestern: Straightforward or 'deconstructed', whichever style you like.