(One Hour RPG) "Shooters!" Exploitive Drugpunk Action!

[Crackerjaque]

This is an RPG I made in an hour. Please critique, comment, and feel free to print out and playtest with your gaming buddies over some beer and pretzels.

The Basis of the Game-
"Shooters!" is a roleplaying game following the standard paper and pencil,
GM and players formula. If you aren't fammilar to roleplaying games go
read one of the many excellent explanations of such that can be found
elsewhere.

Core Mechanics-
Each Contest is a dynamic contest, a literal betting game between the
Dealer (GM) and the Shooter (PC). There are three kinds of Contests
based on the three traits. There are Action Contests, linked to the
Stimulant trait; Will Contests, linked to the Deppresant trait; and Insight
Contests, linked to the Hallucinogen trait.
Example:
The old west Shooter, Wiley Stan, is trying to keep his wagon from falling
apart as he races away from lawmen at breakneck speed. This is an
Action Contest. Wiley Stan has 7 Action Points, the Dealer decides that
for this situation he will be betting with 9 Action Points, as this is a very
difficult and tense moment. As Wiley Stan chose to engage in this
Contest (the wagon falling apart was a suprise to Stan but the fact that
he would try to keep it together rather than just keep driving suprised
the Dealer) he gets to make the opening bid. He bets 3 Action Points.
The Dealer throws in 3 of his 9 and they both roll a d6. Stan lucks out,
wins, and now he has 10 Action Points and the Dealer is trailing at 6. The
Dealer gets to bid this turn, going all in with 6 points. Stan feels pretty
confident and has no problems with meeting the bet, knowing that he
wouldn't be able to simply overbid the Dealer until it was his turn anyway.
They both roll their respective die and this time the Dealer wins. Now the
Dealer has a greater uperhand than ever with 12 to Stan's 4. However it
is no longer the Dealer's turn to bid so he can't simply overbid Stan to win
the contest. Stan plans to bid 2 Action Points and get back into the
game...

Paying attention to that example is the quick and dirty way of learning
how to play the core mechanic of the game. Simply put Contests are a
series of bets based on the random roll of a single die. Depending on the
situation in which the Contest has arisen in-character either the Shooter
or the Dealer gets to make the opening bid. The other gets to take their
turn making the next bid. Regardless each of their opening bids have to
be able to be met by the other, there can be no overbidding in the first
two turns. Additionally, only the opening bidder of the turn (for any turn
after the first two) has the option of overbidding; the side that didn't set
the bid has to match the bid or it is an overbid and they have to fold,
losing the Contest. The betting goes on until someone is overbid or
someone goes bust, losing all of their relevant Points in the betting. The
advantage of losing in an overbid is that you get to walk away with
you're points, to use another day in another Contest. Overbidding is the
quickets way for the Shooter to win the Contest but if he makes the
Dealer go bust he's bassically stealing as many extra points as possible
from the situation. A lucky Shooter may win one Contest when he wins a
Contest, but a smart Shooter may be securing the next Contest as well
when he wins a Contest by boldly mining the Dealer for Points that will be
invaluable should he be not so lucky the next time.
Points gained or lost from Contests all dissapear at the end of each
session, the character's Traits going back to their base number of Points.

However an integral part of the game is another way, outside of
Contests, of causing temporary gains and losses to Traits. This is the act
of Shooting. In-character a Shooter can gain the opportunity to take a
drug that it's either a Stimulant, Deppresant, or Hallucinogen. With these
drugs they can boost and drain two linked Traits to up to 1.5/.5 of their
original number of Points.
Example: Wiley Stan's base Traits are Stimulant 6, Deppresant 4,
Hallucinogen 2. He Shoots a Stimulant to the max, boosting his Stimulant
Trait (Action Points) from 6 to 9. However this Drains his Hallucinogen
Trait (Insight Points) from 2 to 1. Now Wiley Stan is a mean machine for
Action Contests but SOL for Insight Contests. The GM decides that in a few hours the effects of the Shooting will wear off and (barring any additions or losses from Contests) Wiley's Traits will go back to 6 and 2.

If it wasn't fairly self-explanatory, the three different kinds of Contests
equate to the following types of situations:
Action Contests involve physical action. If it can be done and seen being
done in the physical realm it's probably Action.
Will Contests involve resisting or overpowering the other side with resolve
or force of personality.
Insight Contests involve outsmarting the opposition or outwitting their
attempts to outsmart you.

Making Characters-
The Player-Characters, or Shooters, consist of base values for each of
the Three Traits. At character creation they have 12 points to divide (at
even values only) among these Traits.
Example: The Player Dave gives his character Slick Rick, a cyberpunk
Shooter, base values of Stimulant 4, Will 4, and Insight 4. This totals in
at the 12 base points. At the beggining of each session these will be Slick
Rick's trait values, though points gained and lossed from Contests and
Shooting will change these values during the course of sessions.

Settings and Gameplay-
Shooters! can be used to depict many settings. Suggested ones to try are: Wild West, Victorian England, and Cyberpunk Future.
This is a game probably best suited to one-shots but if you want to run a campaign with it good luck and good for you