''Burned Bush Wells'' is an adventure published by TSR in 1984 for the

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

role-playing game ''

Boot Hill Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the given name of many cemeteries, chiefly in the Western United States. During the 19th and early 20th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who " died with their boots on" (i.e ...

''.

Plot summary

In the middle of winter, the

player characters A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

ride into the small range town of Burned Bush Wells,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

, with a load of furs to sell. They soon find themselves embroiled in a dispute as the wealthy businessman Lyle Underway tries to take over the entire town by forcing smaller business owners out. ''Burned Bush Wells'' is an adventure which consists of nine small scenarios or encounters and one larger adventure.

Publication history

The Old West combat and role-playing game ''Boot Hill'' was one of TSR's first products, published in 1975, only a year after ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''. No other supporting material was published until 1981, when TSR released ''Mad Mesa'', the game's first adventure. Several more adventures followed, including ''Burned Bush Wells'', the fourth ''Boot Hill'' adventure, a 32-page book with a tri-fold cover published in 1984 that was written by

Jeff Grubb Jeff Grubb (born August 27, 1957) is an author who writes novels, short stories, and comics and a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the ''Dragonlance'' campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the ...

with contributions by

Allen Hammack Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Unive ...

and

Brian Blume Brian John Blume (January 12, 1950 – March 27, 2020) was an American game designer and writer, principally known as a former business partner of Gary Gygax at TSR, Inc., original publishers of the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragon ...

, and interior and cover art by

Larry Elmore Larry Elmore (born August 5, 1948) is an American fantasy artist whose work includes creating illustrations for video games, comics, magazines, and fantasy books. His list of work includes illustrations for ''Dungeons & Dragons'', ''Dragonlance'', ...

Reception

In Issue 16 of ''

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

'', Doug Cowie liked the adventure, noting that it "continues the honourable tradition of ''Boot Hill'' modules. They don't get the recognition they deserve because the game is not that popular. Strange really, considering the fact that Western games are the apogee of the role-playing hobby." Cowie concluded with a strong recommendation, saying, "Anyone running any kind of Western RPG should nip out immediately and buy a copy of ''BH4 Burned Bush Wells''".

References

{{reflist Role-playing game adventures Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1984