From the introduction: Roleplaying games such as The American West provide a structure of rules that depict how to design your character and control the character within the RPG. Rules are provided to permit shoot-outs, powerful battles, chase scenes, and even parties and investigations. These rules require one of two things, dice rolls and roleplaying while performing an action. Dice rolls add the factor of chance while roleplaying adds the human element of performing simple actions or narrative exploration.