The Boot Hill 1st edition cover subtitle reads Rules for Wild West Gunfights and Campaigns with Miniature Figures on a Man-to-Man Scale, which is a succinct summary of the game.
TSR’s Boot Hill was a very simple game, either a tactical miniatures game and/or a rules lite RPG, depending on how you play it. It would appeal to OSR gamers who love simple rules sets and freeform table play.
Boot Hill 1e was released in 1975 – around the same time as Original Dungeons & Dragons. The booklet was re-released in 1977 with a new cover. Today’s focus will be on the 1st print passing through the shop.
Boot Hill (1st edition)
1975, 1977 … Brian Blume & Gary Gygax … 34 pages … Tactical Studies Rules
Folded sheet (map) leafed in the booklet [not in 2nd prt], plus a perforated, fold-out charts page in the back
Visit my RPG reference site Boot Hill page for more info about editions and printings.
The Book
The Map
Charts
The Charts in the back are a perforated fold-out page. In this particular copy, former owner detached the page and separated it into individual pages. Following is a photo from 2018 with the charts page still attached.
Second Printing (August 1977)
Judging how seldom I see the 2nd print Boot Hill booklet, I reckon it’s more rare. Mostly the same as the 1st print, save for the cover art, and the little folded map was not issued with the 2nd print.
A signed 2nd print Boot Hill that passed through the shop in 2012, with autograph of Brian Blume and Gary Gygax. It sold for $149 then. These days, it’d fetch considerably more with those signatures.
Visit my RPG reference site Boot Hill page for info on the various editions and printing notes.
Relevant here on my game blog:
Original Boot Hill box set (1979): With those TSR Low Impact Dice
Burned Bush Wells: Boot Hill module BH4 – Original vs. Reprint