[Cutthroat] Revised Edition!

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

First off let me thank James from Blankshield Press for lending me a hand by hosting my pdf document.  Give his site a once over if you get a chance.

Second, Cutthroat has been revised!  You can download it here.  There are some significant changes from the version that won a Ronny in the September Contest.  The most drastic changes are outlined below.

1.  The Girlfriend Approach mechanic has changed.  GFs no long her have a Stat.  They instead use their Talent + a roll trying to get a total greater than the Biker's Stat that they are Approaching.  This cuts down on Chargen handling time, and speeds along the whole process of Approach.

2.  The Resolution system has changed somewhat.  Players are now allowed to take on the roll of any "NPC" in the game to oppose a Biker.  All rolls are contested.  Each player rolls 2d6 adds their Stat, the highest gets to say what happens.

3.  There are new wrinkles when it comes to dealing with Police.  Now Bikers are not just shot for the first time, they become Wanted and are put in Jail.  There are ways to bust out of Jail, but it requires cooperation among the players- which is something new to Cutthroat all together.

4.  Now at Rallies, a Biker can perform a Job.  These are basically 1 man heists that accomplish a specific goal.  The Biker may invite others to come, but they don't have to.  It's mainly a way to add a bit of strategy to the game.

Those are the major changes.  There's probably some minor ones I'm forgetting.  What I'm really looking to do for Cutthroat is add some depth of play.  In the origonal game, it was pretty shallow IMO.  There wasn't much for players to do.  Hopefully some of the new stuff I added in will spruce up the game some.  Please feel free to give me any positive or negative feedback you have.  Appreciate it! :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

The things I'm really looking for some feedback on are the new Girlfriend Approach mechanics.  The idea was to streamline and speed up chargen and gameplay in general.  I just want to see if folks think I accomplished that.  Second, I'd like some thoughts on the Wanted and Job mechanics.  Like I said in the initial post, I'm trying to add a few wrinkles to deepen play.  Just wanting to know if I have uneccessarily complicated the game.  I don't feel I have, but still some feedback would be great :)

Thanks,

-Troy

[TonyLB]

Well, the Approach mechanic is definitely short and sweet.  I'm not clear on whether a biker gets a mechanical benefit from knowing the Secret that the Girlfriend gets for him, but I probably just missed the mention of it in the rules.

I guess my question is how streamlined you want to make the encounters?  It seems like a lot of the fun of the game could be there, if there were intermediate strategy steps involved.  But then, the whole game looks to play very quickly, at more of an iconic level ("I beat my chest!  I'll take all comers!") than a political one, so maybe the approach should consist of simply "She sidles up.  'Hey big stuff,' she says" and roll dice.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I very much appreciate the feedback, Tony.  You make a good point in the mechanical benefit of learning a Secret is minimal.  I think I might have to up the bonus for learning it.  Thankfully, I'll get a chance to playtest it very soon.  I'll make a post in actual play at that point.

Your question where you say:

I guess my question is how streamlined you want to make the encounters?  It seems like a lot of the fun of the game could be there, if there were intermediate strategy steps involved.

Speaks to the heart of the uncertainty I have with Cutthroat.  The depth of play (read levels of strategy) is very thin.  There's not a whole lot of different things for a player to do.  I'd like to include more options, but at the moment I'm not seeing very many.  The point of the game is indeed to play quickly, but I don't want it to play SO fast that it's unsatisfying.  I'd love to hear anyone's suggestions on what could be added or made more robust in the game.  That's what I'm really searching for right now.

Peace,

-Troy

[TonyLB]

Well, I think you can have more strategy, without increasing the bulk of rules, if you figure out what common thread you want to follow between the various activities.

For instance, Jobs and Raids look very different in the system.  And yet, they look very similar in the fiction.  Why have two rules-sets?  Why not figure out what the big deal is (to you, for this game) when Bikers take on the norms, and make a system that represents that?

I'll toss out a random way of conflating things:  The World is a Biker.  It has a place in the pack hierarchy.  Other Bikers challenge it, for bragging rights and for standing.  Sometimes they win (a successful raid!) sometimes they lose (Jail, death).  There are things they can do that aren't a full-out challenge ... Jobs they can pull that don't get them the same prestige, but which build up their resources to take on The World (or other Bikers) at some later date.

In just the same way, Bikers can pull Jobs against each other ... finding resources and equipment that will help them.  But this is entirely different from having the Girlfriend Approach.  Bikers operate on the physical plane:  Girlfriends on the mental.  Which says (by symmetry) that Girlfriends can also Approach the World, to try to figure out its rules and its weaknesses.

Is this, in actuality, what the Girlfriends Needs are?  Her contninual Approach of the world?  Her accumulation of the mental resources that will let her get an edge and ferret out the secrets of the Biggest Biker of them All?

Anyway, that's one way you could lean towards rules unification.  I think that when you've got the rules unified then you can get a lot more intriguing strategy.  Do you challenge the Rat, or challenge the World?  The World's got all those cops, but the Rat is downright creepy ... anyway, I suspect you get my drift.  Simpler rules, do strategy bettter.  That's my opinion, anyhow.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I'll toss out a random way of conflating things:  The World is a Biker.  It has a place in the pack hierarchy.  Other Bikers challenge it, for bragging rights and for standing.  Sometimes they win (a successful raid!) sometimes they lose (Jail, death).  There are things they can do that aren't a full-out challenge ... Jobs they can pull that don't get them the same prestige, but which build up their resources to take on The World (or other Bikers) at some later date.

In just the same way, Bikers can pull Jobs against each other ... finding resources and equipment that will help them.  But this is entirely different from having the Girlfriend Approach.  Bikers operate on the physical plane:  Girlfriends on the mental.  Which says (by symmetry) that Girlfriends can also Approach the World, to try to figure out its rules and its weaknesses.

-This makes a lot of sense to me.  I totally dig the GF attacks on the Mental front and the Biker attacks on the Physical front.  I'm going to imnplement your suggestion for Jobs in the next redraft.  I hav ea good idea about "tools" bikers can get to use against other bikers.  It'll be fun to try out once I have it more thought through

-Thanks a lot for your feedback, Tony.  It's good stuff.  /bow

Peace,

-Troy