Rules for Bystanders

[Elbows]

For SnS I opted for a kind of abstract version of townfolks (those who aren't necessarily participating in the mayhem).  They're represented in the special decks for each side.  I don't have specific rules for moving minis about the board - but it may be something I'd do later.  I assume most people don't have dozens of townfolk available to throw on the board (though if you do, that's awesome).

In the game it's generally stated that a town is assumed to be populated, but we're generally ignoring everyone except our main actors. The town does partake though, with people kicking Outlaws out of houses, turning some buildings into angry nests of townsfolk who shoot at nearby enemy models, giving weapons to friendly fighters nearby, etc.  The Outlaws can take hostages which hinders Lawmen's abilities to shoot or engage them, etc.

Townspeople also join the game by way of the Special Deck, allowing volunteers or accomplices to join the scenario mid-game.  So it's abstract, but the intention is to feel that random bystanders are indeed getting in the way for better or for worse.

[FifteensAway]

As is my won't - or my demonstrable mental instability? - I've gone way, way overboard on old west civilians, not dozens, no, not even scores, but actual hundreds!  And many hundreds at that.  But how else can I populate three towns?  The jumping off point metropolis, the southwest town on the old trail, and the railhead town to the northwest; and then there are all those other places - the stage station, the mining camp, the trading post, the fort's environs (pig farm!), etc.  And the wagon train, the stages, the trains.  It just goes on and on.  Though I think I have enough now.  In 15 mm, however, so not That crazy, though certainly a bit over the edge.  Of course, I'm also the bloke whose laid in 80 wagons, carts, and stagecoaches, and such as wheeled conveyances for the period.  Squirrel farmer, did one of you say?   

[Harry Faversham]

I'm kind of with Fifeteensaway on this one. It's a Cowboy town, so it needs townsfolk, to get in the way/hinder the gunfighters that turn their town into a battlefield.
'Open Range' is an example I try to follow in Dead Man's Gulch. Sometimes the Gulchers leg it and main street's deserted. Other occasions they decide its their town and take a very active though generally incompetent hand in repelling the baddies.

"You done turn our town into a battlefield!"



 

[DS615]

I just give them an activation, then move them randomly with a scatter die. D6 if it's normal, d12 if the shooting has started.  My rules have a check for missed shots if someone is close enough, so that sometimes comes into play.

It adds the look and feel of civilians, but doesn't bog anything down. I really don't want every civilian to be an individual I need to track stats on.
Why a person decides to run one way or the other, who can say? People are weird, they do odd things, so it all works out.