Last Updated 2001-07-01
These are culled from the GASLIGHTRules YahooGroup. They are the work of the stalwarts on the list.

Organisation
Q	How many figures do I need?
A	The rules have a lot of flexibility and games have been played with only a couple dozen, up to around 200 figures. We find a good number and mix for games to flow well is when each player has a unit, a vehicle, and a couple of Main Characters to run.
Q	How big is a unit?
A	The basic unit size in GASLIGHT is ten men.
Creating Main Characters and Extras
Q	Heroes leading units are TOUGH. That unit is too powerful unless you play balance it somehow.
A	Right. We usually reserve Heroes for those unattached Main Characters. On the other hand, in some circumstances, if might make sense to have an "elite unit" that kicks serious butt. Yes, you have to realize the powerful tool you wield when you put a Hero controlled unit on the board, and play balance the game accordingly. I recently play tested a Zulu game where there was a unit of Boer farmers led by a Hero. The Brits all stood around with their mouths agape, as the Boer unit almost single handedly cleared the veldt of all the natives.
Generating Vehicles and Conveyances
Q	What is the difference between Vehicles and Conveyances?
A	Vehicles can hold more than one person (i.e. a steam tank), and a Conveyance can hold only one person, (i.e. a bicycle). They both can be either armored or unarmored.
Q	What is the deal with Save Numbers and Unarmoured Conveyances? The Rules are TOUGH to follow - Unarmored vehicles do not have a save number...later in the same paragraph...Unarmored vehicles halve the results of the save roll. Huh?
A	Refer to the definitions of conveyances vs. the definition of vehicles on page 7. An example of unarmored conveyance would be a bicycle. An example of an unarmored vehicle would be a 2.5 ton truck.
Q	Do vehicles have to sustain EVERY TURN - even if they are just shooting?
A	Yes. Sustain keeps the motor from konking out. And finally, to clarify - if a Vehicle fails it's Sustain roll, it can take NO action, firing, reloading, move etc... This needs to be a GM call. If the weapon is powered, one could assume that when the engine conks out that the weapon cannot fire, but maybe it has batteries. If the engine conks out, crewmen manning Gattling guns should be able to fire, I think.
Q	Should my walkers/vehicles have Cannons - or should their weapons be something different? (Negating the amount of Arty wandering my table and wiping out units)
A	We often arm them with weapons rolled from the Heavy Weapons Chart.
How the Game is played
A	First, about cards. I agree. The problem with card-based systems is that someone is always waiting for something to do. In Blood and Swash, I got around that by only allowing one figure to perform one action, and the resolution of that action is very quick. The hope was that the actions were fast enough in GASLIGHT that this wouldn't be a problem. (In most of my other game designs, I have chosen other methods than cards to add friction.) As a GM, I find that I can flip three or four cards at a time, generally, without having any effect on the game. I only stop flipping cards when the next card will cause a conflict. Once the limiting action has been resolved, I start flipping cards again until the next conflict occurs. For instance, three players on the same team can go simultaneously in many cases. Players on opposite ends of the table can often take actions simultaneously.
Movement
Q	What about Charges?
A	The guidelines I use for allowing charges are as follows. First, I require that the charging unit has an actual chance of reaching its target; which for infantry, for example, would be 12" (6" move +d6 charge bonus). The second is that the charging unit must have a clearly defined objective, not necessarily a unit. A physical objective would do also. For example, I would let a unit charge towards a wall in order to occupy it first. These two rules combined, prevent charges just to gain ground. In your case, I would be tempted to rule that what you are describing is an ordered rout. Somebody (maybe the officer), shouts 'Let's get out of here!' , and the men, 'scared witless', as you say, interpret it as they want. Therefore, I would require the unit to roll on the Morale Failure Results Table. I would modify the table's last line from 'No Effect' to 'Move as Desired'. Most of the results would therefore be a move 12" (same as a maximum charge move), or greater away from the threat. This in effect would give you the effect of a unit gettin' the hell out of town, as it were, with only the thought of saving their skins on their mind. Chris
Firing at Personnel
Q	Can figures hide behind other figures or are you getting too skirmishy if you do that?
A	Figures cannot hide behind others. When you roll randomly for the number used to count through the unit, determining who gets hit (p. 19), everyone in the area gets counted. The idea is that a bullet can pass through one guy's shirt and hit the guy behind him. We didn't want to gunk up the game with allowing men to hide behind other men.
Q	Do figures, firing at a unit, hit only the figures they can actually hit? (are in their LOS) or do they affect the entire unit?
A	Again, figures (except for Main Characters) don't fire at individual targets; they fire at units. As long as the GM determines that the target is legitimate, anyone in the unit can be hit. Bullets keep going into the woods -- even though the men in the unit who are farther back into the woods might not be visible. Basically, I agree with Buck here. I would be inclined to rule, though, that any figures in a unit that are truly, within the laws of physics, impossible to be hit, be left out of the casualty determining count.
Firing at Vehicles
Q	Still kinda confused on a couple of points: The rules on Unarmored say that they get half a save number. So they do get to save? Or is that a modifier for the personnel? I know I am belabouring a point, but this resulted in one of the coolest vehicles - the Ornithopter - getting whacked in turn 2.
A	Unarmored conveyances don't get a save; you just roll against the people. In other words, you don't target a bike; you target the rider. Unormored vehicles (a vehicle holds more than one person) DOES get a save. If you fire at a truck, the truck gets a Save. The Save attribute is determined by rolling on the chart, but dividing the RESULT by two. So your ornithoper, assuming it only holds one man (and is therefore a conveyance), would not get a Save. If you shoot and kill the operator, it flaps crazily to the ground and cracks up. If your ornithopter holds several people (and is therefore a vehicle), it would get a Save. The notion here is that something so small that it could only handle a single person would be too fragile to take a hit. If you miss the person, you also hit the conveyance. If you hit the person and kill him, you also destroy the conveyance. Yes and no. The Main Character would get to use his save for himself personally, but I would rule that the conveyance had been destroyed anyway; either by receiving the hit directly, or crashing while the MC driver was distracted by a shell passing through his breeches. The MC would therefore be killed if he failed his save, or have to continue on foot, (without any benefits attached to the conveyance, i.e., weapon), if he passes his save.
Q	Seems that the vehicle fire charts are for ANY weapon firing at them? So a pistol or a Cannon fire on the same charts (I am in that case sure that Save Rolls affect the outcome pretty substantially)
A	Yes, you are right that any weapon uses the vehicle fire charts. And yes saving throws are a determining factor. More specifically the SRM (Save Roll Modifier) of the weapon firing is the big determiner. The basic save throw for the vehicle represents the basic toughness of the vehicle's hull. The SRM of the weapon represents it destructive capability. A pistol has a SRM of -10, which means whatever the vehicle's owner rolls for his save he subtracts 10 from it. So it's pretty hard to not save from a pistol shot. On the other hand, if you look at the Artillery Effects Chart, you will see that most artillery gets a + SRM modifier. This makes it more difficult for the vehicle to save. We always treat any Save roll of 20, as an automatic failure. This means that even a pistol can get a lucky shot. This happened in the Cold Wars Civil War Science game. A lone Confederate officer shot his pistol in desperation at a huge Armoured Steam Spider and scored a hit. The owning player rolled his save, never doubting he would succeed, but rolled a 20. This was treated as an automatic critical hit. The result was noxious gases filled the spider, incapacitating the crew. Apparently, we decided, the bullet had punctured some pipe, causing an internal leak. Surprise occurrences like this; we feel, make for a more exciting and fun game.
Swivel Guns, Cannons and Other Large Ordnance
Q	Artillery as is can be devastating - before our Vehicles starting shooting at each other, they commenced to pounding some infantry and doing great damage to units.
A	See above comments. I think maybe you just had too many large guns in the game.
Q	Does Artillery have any kind of increased effect against Conveyances?
A	No. Conveyances are merely vehicles that move only one person as opposed to a vehicle which moves more than one. The more important factor is whether the target is armoured or not. An armoured conveyance could be better off versus artillery than an unarmored vehicle. The only special case is an unarmored conveyance. In this case, we feel that the man operating the conveyance is the actual target, so any hit against it is really a hit versus a man target. This means the conveyance itself gets no saving throw, and the operator does only if it's a Main Character.
Q	Should Artillery shells really have a 6/8/10" diameter? (Very big when you put it over a figure...)
A	This was controversial during play testing and design. Recall that not everyone in the radius gets hit. You divide the roll on 1d20 by the divide-by number. Given and expected value (average roll) on 1d20 is 10.5, this means that a large gun will affect about 5 figures per shot. A small cannon, on the other hand, could affect at MOST 5, and probably only 2. When the enemy has artillery, you need to spread out your units. You could always modify the radii or the divide-by number to suit the tastes of your group.
Close Combat
Q	How do infantry Scuffle with vehicles? (We had an interesting phenomenon - one of the Federal Tanks was retreating to get a better shot at a CSA Spider, and some CSA infantry and Cavalry used it to screen themselves from Federal Infantry - pretty comical!)
A	This is really a game master call. The GM must determine whether the vehicle CAN be scuffled by infantry. In other words, do the hatches lock, is the skin thin enough to be punctured by swords and bayonets, etc. If there is no way for infantry to get into the vehicle, they must have something to help them, such as Professor Palmer's Armour Piercing Pneumatic Drill. They might be able to force the occupants to come out by tossing in some gas or something. The GM might also allow the infantry to attempt to inflict a mobility kill from outside. My thoughts on this are that you should generally allow attacking infantry to pry open a hatch or three and melee the occupants. It is pretty difficult to get close enough to one of these vehicles as it is. Go ahead and let them melee. We made the decision that there would be no modifiers to close combat rolls - for simplicity and speed. As a result, being behind cover doesn't matter in close combat. This would probably be a good time to say a few words about the reverse: Vehicles meleeing infantry. Usually what we do is let the vehicle move and any infantry it can contact becomes a potential target. The driver rolls his scuffle number to determine if the targets are hit. Extras that are hit are automatically eliminated; MC's get to Save, (thus rolling between the vehicle's treads, providing the audience with another heart-stopping escape!). Buck once got into the middle of my Bicycle Lancers with a Steam Elephant, (made from a Star Wars Imperial Walker), and got two cards before I was able to move out. Picture those huge heavy flat feet, and the poor cavalrymen trying to pedal and steer frantically on their penny-farthings. The result was not pretty.
Q	In a game last night the question came up about using a vehicle to crush enemy figures as part of its movement. At the time I didn't allow it but am curious if some sort of save or morale roll would be appropriate for figs in its path.
A	Basically, the way I have done it is to have the player move the vehicle over any figures that its' movement allows. The driver then roles his Scuffle number to see if he actually was able to collide with any of the targets. Extras would be automatically squashed, MC's would get a saving throw. Your situation seems to be slightly different, in that the vehicle was runaway, and therefore not deliberately trying to hit people. A simple answer would be to generate a random hit number for the vehicle. I would base it on the speed and relative size of the machine. Take the vehicle's speed, and add it to a number representing the size, then divided by two. This would give you a number you could use for random/accidental overruns. For the size number we could classify vehicles three ways: small, medium, & large. You can generate the random numbers by rolling a D20 on the MC Attribute Table, using Veteran for a small vehicle, Leader for a medium vehicle, and Adventurer for a large vehicle.
Morale and Tests of Manhood
	General hints and tips on Morale.
	Players can shorten the time it takes to determine the morale results if they do it 'assembly line' style, and as a team. First, the unit's owner should drop a number of d20s, equal to the men in the unit, all at once. Then he should start reading them off in some random order, (left to right perhaps, or maybe across the color spectrum: warm shades to cool shades). Starting with the highest MC, then to the Extras, the owning player reads a die number to another player reading the chart. The chart man then announces the corresponding result and the unit's owner moves the figure. He then reads the next die number, and the chart man reads the next result, and another figure is moved, etc., etc. This beats one player, rolling a die, consulting the chart, moving a figure, repeat, over and over again for each figure in a unit. The whole unit should suffer the effects of a bad morale check.

Gaslight Tips

Useful ideas and suggestions from those who have seen the elephant.

Unit & Character Cards
These can be produced in a variety of ways:
PC printer business cards
Most work, best effect. For The Rules With No Name I use a digital camera to take pictures of the figures and then print them right on the cards. No need to worry which figure is Catfish Sam. Just look at the photo. It could work with units too. (Robert Minadeo)
Make Your Own
To make the game flow faster and add to the general look, I have scanned pictures of my Main Characters & a figure from each unit for unit cards. I have then pasted them into a word document and put all the Shoot, Scuffle, etc ratings on them. I get 9 cards to a page. The only down side is scanning the figures but you'd be surprised at how quickly you can finish off most of your units. I'll save them on my PC until I need them, then print them off and glue them to some index cards I've lying around. (Barry Burman)
Playing Cards
For our group, the answer is quit simple... Take a standard deck of playing cards and assign each unit a particular card. Keep track of the card(s) on your record sheet. It works for us. (Mark A. Siefert)
Old Business Cards
Just write unit info on the backs. I even use stick figure-ish sketches of the miniatures to speed play. Much easier to match the figure to the picture than to look up the names involved. You can mark status changes on them, experience, whatever. Very disposable. (Robert Minadeo)
Poker chips
Basing Figures
You can mark the bases of your figures to distinguish Main Characters from Extras.
Paint
Paint the base, or just one or more edges a different colour to show a Main Characters. Use a different colour for each level of Main Characters.
Terrain
I use a very visible rock on my bases to distinguish squad leaders, two for officers and a twig as a log for Heroes. Just be careful the hero does not trip over the log. (Lee Barnes)
Equivalency for Extras
I have been trying to figure out a system where Squads of Extras of different nationalities are fairly balanced in overall effectiveness. First, I am trying to put a point value on a squad of extras, I assume that the Unit Leader and his sidekick are main characters and they are not included. That leaves 8 Extras to form a squad. Here is the formula I use to create an approximately even battle by applying the ratio between Squad points. Formula: Squad Points = (((Number Of Guns * Reload Factor) * Range Factor) * Shoot Factor) + (Number Figs * Scuffle Factor) Definitions: Reload Factor = How often do the majority of extras have to reload? No reload required equals 1.0, Reload takes 1 turn = 0.5, etc Range Factor = How far does the majority of weapons shoot? A breech loading rifle range is 12"/24" its factor is 1.0; a Pathan Jezail range is 18"/36" its factor is 1.5, Spears are 6"/12" factor is .5, etc Examples: British Troops as extras all carrying breech loaders, Shoot = 9, Scuffle = 8 Squad Points = (((8 * 1) * 1) * 9) + (8 * 8) = 136 Pathans as Extras - 4 armed with Jezails 4 armed with swords, Shoot = 8, scuffle = 10 Squad Points = (((4 * .5) * 1.5) * 8) + (8 * 10) = 104 Cannibals as Extras - 4 armed with Spears, Shoot = 6, Scuffle = 8 Squad points = (((4 * 1) * 0.5) * 6) + (8 * 8) = 76 Scott Mathews