Appropriate Sized Planes Drifter

"The only problem you've got Sheriff is a short supply of guts."

- The Stranger

A chance to hit the old west you say? To claim glory or be left for dead? I like my odds... and my dice.

What's it all about?

The Drifter is a solitaire, story, dice game based in the fictional wild west.

The drifter is reminiscent of games like Barbarian Prince (1980), where every game is a unique story experience. You are a gunslinger who has been living a hazy existence. Your brief time in this world has been mostly spent on the outside of the law, killing, stealing, carousing with undesirables, living a dangerous life full of excess and violence. Recently, you feel life might have more to offer. You know this way of life will not last and now are looking to maybe put your wild ways away, buy a ranch and settle into obscurity. You determined you need $300 and are willing to get it by any means you feel necessary. Will you fall victim to one of the endless dangers that lurk in the wild west or will you enjoy your remaining days in a serene retirement, tending to your ranch?

Gameplay

I don't want to give anything away so I will be very general here. You wake up in a town and you have a lot of decisions to make. You will roll your initial stats and supplies and then you will try to figure out a way to try to earn money. $300 is the goal. In true RPG fashion, you will decide on a path and then you will roll different dice (D10, D6 D4), and based on those rolls different events will unfold. Do you rob someone, or be nice? outlaw or lawmen? It is impossible to map out your journey and each journey will be different.

The Takeaway

Do you like choose your own adventure books and RPGs? This game is 100% tailor-made for you. It gave me the feeling of having a built-in game master at times. Much like a comic book I filled in the gaps between my own narrative. Now I know some people may get turned off by printing out this game. Ias mean the narrative book is no joke, it's like 100 pages front and back. I used my tablet like the designer showed in his playthrough video and that worked really well and put me down to only a few pages to print out. I borrowed some cubes from another game in the house, grabbed some dice (we all have extra dice) and I was good to go. The thing that set this game apart for me is the very very ordinary things that happened to me. I tried to help someone fix a wagon. Did they draw their gun? did he jump me? nope. I just failed horribly at it and they just thanked me and I walked away. To me, that was the moment. Everything does not need to be this amazing high or low, sometimes you just have an ordinary encounter. The game is $5 on Drivethrurpg and is well worth the price of admission for entrance into the nostalgic and unforgiving wild wild west.