I have ran about four tiny gunslinger one shots. Every time they've been a hit I know the bestiary is slim to none but I found it was not that hard to create creatures and other NPC's. In my gaming group loves this game. It seems really light, but if your story is action packed and there is tension, this is a great gaming system!

The full review is now available here: https://www.pa-mar.net/Hobbies/Games/TinyGunslingers.rw.html

Here is the "Conclusions" part:

I am really not happy with the system (take also in account that even if TinyGunslinger was sold as a "complete game" you better get a copy of TinyDungeons in any case or you have to invent lots of stuff, like stats for bears, horses and... average humans, too).

I am sure that after this playtest everything would work better (my players would know how to better design their characters, I would get more accustomed to the mechanics, and could start adding my own personal touches...) but I wasn't particularly impressed either by the system "per se" or by how it was used to model "old west" stories.

Tiny Gunslingers is a role-playing game and belongs to the TinyD6 game line and as such is completely compatible with the other TinyD6 games and genres. So if you want to mix your western with magic, sci-fi, horror, and so on, it's got you covered.

I will not review the TinyD6 game system per se, but rather just the rules as presented here.

Basically, characters are still created by assigning a series of traits, of which there are 19 new ones focused on the Old West, along with the usual assortment from the other books. There are no stats such as Strength or Intelligence, nor skills. There are no races or classes (both called Heritages in TinyD6 terminology). Characters are entirely defined by their traits which give them a mechanical advantage in certain circumstances, and can replicate such things normally covered by stats or skills in other RPGs.

There is a well done mechanism for resolving shoot-outs/duels using a version of the classic card game Black Jack. A lot of games attempt to mechanically draw out the rising tension before someone yells "Draw!" and the bullets start flying. Most are too complex and time consuming. TinyGunslingers answers the problem with an elegant solution that also increases the lethality of a duel over regular combat. A nice touch!

Another addition is the use of Grit and Bounty which mechanically seems incomplete. Grit allows you to perform extra special actions, and the only way to regain Grit is by getting Bounty from capturing/killing criminals/bad guys. Characters may never have more than 3 Grit, but there is no limit to Bounty. There is a mysterious sentence that states since one may only have 3 Grit, extra Grit better be shared with the posse. How? There is nothing in the rules to clarify what that means or how to go about it.

The game is only 36 pages in a digest format and if you believed that this makes the game too short and thematically incomplete, you'd be right. Tiny Gunslingers was meant as a bonus mini-game for those supporting the author's Patreon endeavor. As such it does not include any information about how the Old West was, real or imaginary outside of some perfunctory paragraphs about a fictional location. To further muddy the waters, the Enemies section nearly exclusively provides examples of sci-fi western threats. I don't fault it for the missing or genre-inappropriate information as it was never meant to be a complete western source-book...except...for one criminal lack of discussion...

Indians.

There are no rules or commentary presented in the book that address Indians, Indian culture, Indians as characters, and so on outside of a single sample NPC. In fact, on a random enemy table that presents threats to characters such as bears, other gunslingers, or angry railroad workers, hostile Indians are omitted. There is on the other hand a rather sanctimonious paragraph that scolds the reader about not causing real mental health issues by engaging in pretend colonialism. Perhaps that is why the game is devoid of discussion of Indians for fear of offending someone? The tragedy of the American Indian should not be forgotten and it should be treated with sensitivity, but the solution to possible offense and stereotypes is omission? That seems perhaps even more racially insensitive than a negative inclusion. I believe this to be a serious misstep on the author's part. There are several blank pages at the rear of the book and I would like to see a revised version at some point address Indians in those available pages.

The Nitty Gritty Total Page Count: 36 Pages Character Creation: 11 Pages Game Mechanics: 9 Pages Everything Else: 16 Pages

Judgement: In the end, I love Tiny Gunslingers. Although it is a stand alone game, I cannot recommend it as a stand alone game unless you already have a good understanding of the old west. There is too much missing. As an addition to the TinyD6 line, I think it is a great vehicle for exploring genre-blending worlds. If you have Tiny Frontiers, Dungeon, or any of the others, this is a must-have.