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It's a good book, so I'll start with its shortcomings: First of all, it's old. Well, 1991 doesn't really qualify as old, but the system used is still older (I'd put it at around 1985), and it's Klunky with a capital K. Characters, I gather, are defined by no less than 14 characteristics, and there is an abundance of acronyms and game concepts never explained. True, the author didn't need to do so, because Western Hero is just a campaign book, but the same holds for most GURPS books, and I have never had any problems understanding them even before I had browsed through GURPS Basic.

Phrases like ``use the optional combat sequence checklist in its entirety'' (p. 29) or ``melee weapons with +1 STUN Mod or Armor Piercing damage do additional damage at the rate of +2 DC per 15 STR over the STR Min (or +1 DC per 7½ STR over the STR Min)'' (p. 30, incidentally under the heading ``*SIMPLIFIED* Weapon Str Minima'' [my emphasis]) normally make me drop a game book like a hot potato, even if it's only two Euros. Luckily, I didn't have much time at the Essen fair this year, so I overlooked them and picked up the book. Two Eucks well spent!

Production quality isn't too high, either. There are a few typos, and now and again the type has acquired an annoying shadow in the printing press. Also, most of the illustrations are far too dark to be useful. This is a real shame, since the Hero guys tried to convey some late 19th-century flair with the fonts used (and they didn't succumb to the temptation of using a headline font for the body text) and the period photographs and engravings. Aside from the maps and suchlike, I can't recall any illustration by a modern artist. Nice touch, folks!

After all the bitching about the klunky rules, I should add that it is clear from his writing that Matt Forbeck didn't consider the Hero System an immutable natural law. Creative game moderating (the activity formerly known as ``cheating'') is encouraged on numerous occasions, and not limited to the ``Romantic Western'' sub-genre. Talking of sub-genres: About a tenth of the book is set aside for advice about creating and running an Old West adventure or campaign, and the author IMHO goes out of his way to accomodate different styles and flavours (including Weird West, SciFi, and Fantasy --- as early as 1991). To put it more bluntly: This book could be used as a general Western sourcebook for any RPG.

I can't comment on the historical (and, for that matter, fictional) accuracy of Western Hero. It looks reasonably complete and well-researched to me. American readers shouldn't have much trouble researching additional stuff themselves (having no history to speak of can be a boon :-), the rest of the world probably doesn't care since we only know the Old West from John Wayne films anyway. (Oh, and there is a small bibliography and a must-see filmography).

The campaign section is extensive (about 50 pages). It focuses on Deadwood in the Black Hills, in what today is (IIRC) South Dakota, at the time of the Black Hills gold rush, 1876 (while the rest of the book covers the time from 1860 to 1901). There is a house-by-house description of the town, six mini-scenarios, two full-fledged ones (plus the obligatory OK Corral Shootout), and ten scenario ideas --- fifty pages of ideas for your campaign, whatever it may be.

Summing it up, Western Hero truly deserves your attention if you're a GM who wants to run a Western campaign or adventure, or who just wants to capture the unique flair of the Old West. Each page is definitely worth more than the Eucent I paid for it. What I like best about it, I think, is the open-mindedness of the writing. While Western Hero clearly is a Hero System product, it doesn't limit itself to it, and neither does it limit itself to the author's preferred genre or style. This is perhaps most obvious in the filmography: Why should a sourcebook for the western genre include films like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Seven Samurai, or Star Wars?

Style: 3 (4 if the printers hadn't made a hash of the illustrations)
Substance: 4 (large, reasonably complete, open, and innovative at its time)