RPG Review: The Sixth Gun

“It was suffering that called the Six into existence. And The Six gave the humans the power to recreate the world.”

The Sixth Gun is a Savage Worlds system sourcebook set in the Wierd West comic book setting of the same name. The game centers around the mythical Six Guns, incredible supernatural revolvers with cosmically damaging powers. Players will create characters who find themselves involved in the ongoing struggle of Good and Evil.

This is not a stand-alone book, and needs Savage Worlds to play, but this shouldn’t bee a hindrance, because the Explorer edition is so inexpensive. I want to make sure, however, that you’re aware you’ll need another book to play.

Character creation is standard Savage Worlds fare, with a few new Hindrances and Edges. Characters will also get $200 instead of what the core book offers, and the equipment tables are elaborate, covering anything in the mercantile store, from boots and suspenders, to hardtack and spectacles. The weapon section is pretty extensive, with most guns that were available in that time period statted out, differentiating between a Remington and a Colt. The prices are true to the time period, so it’s fun to see how much $200 will get you.

The book gives a good breakdown of all Sixth Gun comics published up through the time the game was published. The summaries are brief, but give a good idea of what you could expect to see in a Sixth Gun game. This kind of supernatural is a creeping dread. A little bit Deadlands, a little bit D&D, with immensely powerful magic artifacts.

The Sixth Gun Gazeteer gives a brief overview of both the real and fictional towns and locations in the Sixth Gun universe. Each location is about one paragraph explaining how it ties into the setting, or, in the case of real places like New Orleans, explains what it was like at the time and what makes it different than what you’d expect to find in a history book thanks to the supernatural elements.

The town that gets fleshed out in the most detail is the town of Brimstone, New Mexico. It’s a rough-and-tumble down full of the worst the West has to offer. Each location in the town gives a brief rundown of what can be found at the location, and who lives and works there. Each building has a story, something capable of sparking a new adventure. The town features your standard fare: A few hotels, a bank, a tavern, a church, but they’re all crawling with possibility, and are left obscure enough for you to make the town your own.

The Game Master section is where the game really shines, providing new ways to use magic such as Shamanism or Voodoo, and as such has a few new powers for spellcasters to use. There is also a great selection of eldrich magical items such as the Fool’s Lantern, which, when lit, casts shadows on the walls showing the past, present and future, but may cause the person do be driven mad, or even pulled into the Winding Way, a sort of space between spaces. It also has the rules for each of the Six Guns, with powers such as hitting someone with a shot that rivals a cannonball, or one that grants the wielder eternal youth and healing by transferring the life force of those who die to them. Each of The Six has a psychosis that can take effect to corrupt the mind of the wielder.

The book has a whole series of tables to help you generate adventures on the fly, while also giving lots of details you can use to generate interesting stories manually. You can also pick and choose from a series of adventures provided, which are each only a few pages, but really hook you in, such as one featuring an evil circus.

The book concludes with a large bestiary, featuring all kinds of animals, both supernatural and mundane, some varieties of monsters, and some great NPCs, both good and evil.

I really enjoy this book. It has a ton of plot hooks, makes you feel like you can easily run this setting, and doesn’t skimp on the details of the world. I haven’t read The Sixth Gun series, so don’t feel like it’s meant for fans of the comic at all. I just enjoy Wierd West wildness. The art is fantastic throughout, taken from the pages of the comic series.

You can also leave out the supernatural elements very easily if you’re just looking for a good book for a Wild West campaign. I think it’s able to separate the supernatural elements of the game well enough, which is why I’d prefer to run this Savage Worlds campaign over a Deadlands one, if I was just hoping for a non-supernatural campaign.

You can pick up The Sixth Gun here at DriveThruRPG, or check out Pinnacle’s website about the game here.