Aces and Spades
Aces and Spades is a lightweight gaming system designed to facilitate roleplaying in the Weird West. To play, gather a few ladies and fellas and pick one to be the GM. The others are players.
The Cards
This system uses a deck of standard playing cards to provide a random factor. There are some things you should know about how the cards are used…
High is Good: Higher value cards generally beat lower value cards. The only exception to this rule is on a draw--you can’t take advantage of a card that’s higher than your skill.
Spades Trump: The suit of Spades trumps all other suits. Even a Two in Spades beats a King in any other suit. Against other Spades, they are resolved normally.
Aces can be High, Low, or Ante Up: When playing an Ace, you can play it Low (as a one), High (as above a King), or Ante Up—if you Ante Up, you draw again for double or nothing, as described below.
Character Creation
Each character in Aces and Spades has six skills which describe his or her capabilities. Skills are determined by drawing cards. For each skills, draw two cards and keep the higher of the two. Aces can count as high or low, but ya can’t Ante Up here. Remember—High is Good.
Book Learnin’: This represents the character’s knowledge and intellect, for whatever that’s worth in the West.
Brawn: Raw muscle. Ain’t bad to be brawny. More muscle and bone means ya can take a beatin' too.
Charm: Sometimes a slicker can get by on charm alone, if he’s slick enough.
Guts: Are ya yellow, or are you a man? Guys with guts make good leaders.
Quickness: They say there’s two types in the West—the quick and the dead. Heard that somewhere.
Sharpness: Bein’ quick ain’t much good if you can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
Once two cards have been drawn for each skill and the better value written down, you may swap any two skills. You'll have another chance to swap skills once you got yer reputation and job worked out.
Reputation and Job
You also got to figure your character’s reputation and job (and ya can do this first if you want). Draw three cards and consult the reputation/job chart. You can pick which card to use for your reputation, and which to use for your job--and no, they can't be the same card! (Aces can be high or low, but ya can’t Ante Up on this draw.)
Once that’s done, if the one skill most important for your reputation and job ain’t your highest skill, you can swap skill values to make it yer highest. 
Now your skills are final. 

Reputation	Job	
A- Sharpshooting	A- Gunslinger	
2- Fast-Talking	2- Trader	
3- Inspiring	3- Mountain Man	
4- Reliable	4- Bar Gal	
5- Lucky	5- Cowboy	
6- Veteran	6- Outlaw	
7- Religious	7- Post Rider	
8- Hard-Bitten	8- Preacher	
9- Handsome	9- Soldier	
10- Expert	10- Doctor	
J- Charming	J- Gambler	
Q- Well-Informed	Q- Soiled Dove	
K-Wealthy & Respected	K- Sheriff	
A- Other/GM Choice	A- Other/GM Choice	
Skill Tests
At the beginning of each session, the players are each dealt five cards. The first three are dealt into the player’s hand; these he can look at freely—but don’t show no one! The next two are played face-down.
If the player don’t like any of the cards in his hand, he can trade ‘em in—but the new draws go down on the table where he can’t see ‘em. Feelin’ lucky, dude?
The Draw
When a skill test comes up, figure out what skill yer testin’ first. That’s the GM’s job. Then each player who’s in must choose and play a card either from his hand, or from the table in front of him. The goal is to play a card of as high a value as possible—without goin’ over the skill in question.
If ya play a card that’s higher than yer skill… well, I hope you left your will in good hands!
Otherwise, whoever played the highest card wins the draw and the skill test—but remember about the cards: Spades Trump, and Aces can be High, Low or Ante Up.
Ante Up
So you drew that ace and you don’t want to use it as high or low, eh? Time to Ante Up.
Put that Ace out on the table for everyone to see and say yer gonna Ante Up. Whatever comes next, it’ll be extra—extra good, or extra bad. Some folks like to say the results’ll be ‘critical.’
Draw again—this time, for double or nothin’! The GM’ll determine the exact results.
New Deal
Once a player gets down to jes’ one card left, he can turn it in and get a new deal, just like at the beginning of the session.

Now ya know how to play, git out there and tear it up!