Big Friggin' Game - The RPG of guns and violence [longish]

[Paganini]

WARNING: Brainstorming in progress

The Art of Destruction thread seems to have gotten derailed a bit into games of actual destruction. However, there were some really good ideas there that got me thinking.

Up front, the game I have in mind is First Person Shooter with a Point. The focus of the game is killing and blowing up things, but there's a bigger goal to be met as well. I'm thinking of something like Assault from UT (capture the enemy base) or Half Life (uncover the conspiracy), or Max Payne (track down the murderers).

This will be a genre game, rather than a setting game. It will present conventions but leave it up to the group to apply them in a particular instance. Think of it like this... the game is the Quake engine, and the GM's design the levels as the game progresses.

This is not a narrativist game of any type, although it might resemble one superficially. However, the point is not to end up with a good story, but to figure out cool ways of blowing things up while trying to get to the goal of the particular game (kill the main boss, recover the nuke, whatever). I'm looking at mainly Simulationism with Exploration of Situation and Setting, with a dose of Gamism.

Of course, Damion had this great idea that would mean players spend a lot of time in Director stance... just one at a time:

When a character dies the player narrates the death and then becomes the GM. The previous GM gets to narrate himself into the game as a player with a new character.

Woohoo, said I, this is perfect for a violence game (which was the context of the discussion). So, I started thinking.

The first thing that springs to mind for a game like this is that pre-planned scenarios are going to be pretty much useless. So, the game will need to have a fair amout of text devoted to GMing scenarios on the fly. My current idea is that pre-play goes something like this:

The players discuss what type of game they want and agree on some basic elements. This could be something like Pulp Detective, Government Conspiracy, Alien Incursion, International Intrigue, etc. The group picks one person to be the first GM. This GM decides on a setting for the players to start in, (I think some random plot element and setting tables would be great for when the GM gets stuck) and comes up withe overall goal of the game, and the goal for the setting. The overall goal could be "kill the alien motherbeast," while the session goal could be "find the scientist who let her loose and hope he can tell you how." The session ends *immediately* when the goal is completed. For one shots it's easy for the main goal and the session goal to be the same.

Note that while pre-planned plots would be useuless, preplanned *locations* might not be. Players could show up at the game with pre-planned locations (levels) resembling sound-bites: a paragraph or two of description, maybe some maps, and so on.

Whenever a GM switch happens, the new GM must use a different setting from the previous GM. Of course, this doesn't mean that locations can only be used once. If GM A is using the sewers and GM B is using the Jungle, something like this could easily happen:

The characters are in the sewers at the mercy of GM A.
GM B's character dies.
GM B narrates the characters finding the way into the jungle.
GM A's character dies.
GM A narrates the ground caving in dropping the characters back into the sewers.

:)

For the players who aren't the GM, the only way to influence the game is via the actions of their characters. So we're going to need action resolution and a balancing mechanic. This is very much a Gamist game in this respect... characters are pawns to be used to cause as much destruction as effectively as possible. For this reason character effectiveness will mainly focus on the destructive arts. Character interraction, dialogue, negotiation, and so on should take the from of cut scenes with the players acting their characters and the GM acting the NPCs. In other words, no mechanics used. The current GM decides what happens. There's no particular incentive to act in character other than the coolness it adds to the game. (When was the last time you saw a voice actor in a FPS act in character? :)

Since character roles are fairly limited in this game (they have to blow stuff up) I'm going to go with a template system. This will make it easy for new GMs to create characters on the spot. They can just grab the "Gun Bunny" or the "Heavy Weapons Guy," make up a few lines of background that ties the character to the game, and get going. This way the switch from GM to GM won't take too long.

Character creation will involve picking the main way your character causes destruction, the other way your character causes destruction up, and some other important game skill that your character is good at (sneaking around, jimmying locked doors, using computers, fixing hurt people, etc.)

Finally, each character has one other thing that doesn't really matter, but which adds color to the game, like Physicist, Knows Everything, Appeared on Wheel of Fortune, Raving Lunatic, Smokes Pot, Scared Stupid, etc. These don't usually do much, but they can help out *any* action if the player can work it in. (Hah, so I lied. There *is* incentive to roleplay.)

Here's what I've got so far:

Destruction:

Shoot Big Guns (Rocket Launchers, BFGs, Chainguns)
Shoot Little Guns (Pistols, SMGs, Sniper rifles)
Plant Explosives (Satchel Charges, Pipe Bombs, Grenades)
Fight with Arcane Skill (Atmoic Kung Fu)

Useful:

Jimmy Doors and Windows (Who needs a locksmith?)
Sneak Around (I don't think he saw me...)
Use Computers (Hack, program, write mission reports)
Do Athletic Stunts (Jump, run, climb)
Fix Hurt People (That's gonna scar...)

Anyone think of any others?

For damage, characters have a certain number of wound levels, and a bunch of armor. Armor works like hit points. Any hits that get through armor takes you down a wound level. No more wound levels, and you die.

Guns have accuracy, damage, and ammo. Two of them are high, one is low. (Sniper Rifle has High Damage, High Accuracy, and Low Ammo). The exact definition of High and Low depends on whether this is a Big gun, a Little gun, or Explosives. Anyway, you roll dice for the three different things, as well as your skill dice. Skill dice should be a different color from weapon dice. If you like some of your skill dice better than your weapon dice, you can exchange them. Otherwise, ignore your skill dice. The GM narrates depending on what you roll. Odd numbers = success, even numbers = failure. Success at damage but failure at accuracy means you missed what you shot at... but maybe you blew a hole in the wall, or shot the glass out of the Toxic Waste tank. Anyway, any time your Ammo fails you run out of ammo for the gun you're using. You can't use that gun any more until you find some ammo for it. After that you can use it again until your ammo fails again.

All the players get to shoot before all the badguys. Badguys have wound levels just like characters (but no armor). If they run out, they die. After the players go the badguys get to shoot (if there are any left). They use the same rules as characters, except they never run out of ammo and don't get to add skills (so they pretty much just roll the dice for the gun they're using.) Badguys always drop ammo for the gun they were using when they die.

Okay. Did I forget anything? :)

[Jake Norwood]

It's the game for me! Woo-hoo...

Well, I think so. Can't wait to see it.

Jake

[Paganini]

It's the game for me! Woo-hoo...

Well, I think so. Can't wait to see it.

Excellent, Jake! Sweet!

Uh... hehe... want to help write it? :)

[Lance D. Allen]

For your templates, there should be very, very archetypal roles, each with set skills with set ranges. And if you don't *have* the skill, you cannot attempt it. This would play up the roles of the various templates, such as:

Gunbunny - Indirect Fire is this guy's forte; artillery pieces, mortar fire, if it goes up and comes back down with a boom, this man can use it.

Heavy Weapons Guy - Pistols are for geeks. If it doesn't threaten to knock you on your tailbone everytime you pull the trigger, it ain't worth using.

Jon Woo Freak - Pistols in pairs, all the way. diving and leaping, crazy wall-running stunts. Flips. All the while blazing away.

Medic - Where does it hurt? Let me patch that up for you. Light weapons and a first-aid kit, but when he shoots, he shoots where it hurts.

Demolitions Expert - BOOM! Skilled in placing explosives for maximum destruction. Also your best bet for lobbing grenades and homebrew boom-boom.

Engineer - Another specialist, this time in building up and breaking down. Bridges, barricades, and foxholes. Uses light-medium weapons usually.

And you might even want to allow for destruction and mayhem up in a fantasy setting. Most of this stuff will transfer over pretty easily into your archetypal fantasy characters. Your gunbunny will be your support mage, Heavy Weapons Guy will be your... Heavy Weapons Guy (only we're talking mass-weapons) Jon Woo Freak will become your two-sword acrobatic warrior-type... etc.

As for powerups, I'd say let the guns be distributed on a random, chart-based system. A few different charts based on what sort of characters you have in your party. Grenades and C4 won't drop unless you have an Explosives Expert. The man-portable railgun won't ever drop unless you have the HWG. If you roll something you've already got, it becomes ammo for the same weapon.

For medical stuff, I'd say that medical item drops can only be used by the medic; if you don't have one, you'd better find a medic station. This would encourage your combat specialists to safeguard the medic, which is pretty standard for games which have a medic-class.

[Jake Norwood]

I would make the above templates into skills or "advantages" so that you can have more than one in a character, and to stay away from that particular rounding-out of things, which has been way overdone before.

I like all of the ideas that Lance had, just not as "classes."

Jake

[Ring Kichard]

Er, Jake, your reputation precedes you, but what do you mean?
-
Anyway, to get back to basics: If and only if the game supports X does the game encourage X.

If this is a game about violence, it must have encouragement to be violent. Rotating GMs is a fantastic start, but why not give the GM and Players something to shoot for (ehem). Suggestions include....

For every new or different way the players kill, blow up, or otherwise wreck something or someone they should get a point.

Every time the GM gives the players a good reason to blow something up he gets a point.

Players lose a point for failing to accomplish an objective due to a lack of firepower.

Problems resolved by means of anything but excess kinetic energy are only temporarily solved and the next GM is welcome to bring back the obstacle, as a convention of the system.

[Paganini]

Jake:

Multiclassing rules! Woohoo! :)

Seriously, I agree, because you never know how many players are going to be there, and you might want more than one specialization.

My thought is that the archetypes will determine the things I listed at character creation (main way to blow things up, other way to blow things up, useful skill) and let the player come up with the color skill. Then the player could have a couple of extra dice to buy other skills with. Something like this:

Main gun: 3 dice
Other gun: 2 dice
Useful Skill: 2 dice
Color Skill: 1 die

And give the character 2 dice for customization. So he could get two more single-die skills, or one more 2-die skill.

Mour Yajesty:

I think you're on the right track, but I don't want to make the game that Gamist (earning points for blowing things up). However, this idea really rocks:

"Problems resolved by means of anything but excess kinetic energy are only temporarily solved and the next GM is welcome to bring back the obstacle, as a convention of the system."

I expecially like that bit about "kinetic energy." :) If you don't mind, I think I'll work that quote into the text of the game!

[Mike Holmes]

I think you're on the right track, but I don't want to make the game that Gamist (earning points for blowing things up).

That's not Gamist, necessarily. It's only Gamist if they get the points for successfully blowing things up, and those points are for "winning". If instead they get the points for just staying in the appropriate form of exploration (which, in this case, I'd say blowing stuff up in new ways certainly is, whether successful or not), and the points are used to allow players to do further stuff that reinforces that sort of exploration, then such rules are fine to promote that sort of Sim, IMO.

Mike

[Bailywolf]

I see one big problem- how long can you play this before it gets boring and repetitive.  Yes, people play video games with exactly the same premise for DAYS on end... but there you have the zen-like lack of human contact, the flashing moving pictures, and the viscreal satisfaction of seeing your enemies pop- very little creative brainpower brought to bear.  If I am imagining the action, I am just inches away from imagining something more entertaining than keeping track of frag points or ammo dice or whatnot.  


Basicly, other than ultraviolence, what is the point?  I'm no stickler for the kind of meta-design stuff that gets a lot of attention here- I take GNS and such with a grain of salt.  I consider "is this game consistently fun and rewarding to play?" the most importiant question in game design.

But

What would you actualy DO in such a game?

[Paganini]

I see one big problem- how long can you play this before it gets boring and repetitive.  Yes, people play video games with exactly the same premise for DAYS on end... but there you have the zen-like lack of human contact, the flashing moving pictures, and the viscreal satisfaction of seeing your enemies pop- very little creative brainpower brought to bear.  If I am imagining the action, I am just inches away from imagining something more entertaining than keeping track of frag points or ammo dice or whatnot.

I think the "rotating GMs" idea will keep it interesting for a lot longer than it otherwise would. However, this is definately a beer & pretzels type game. It's not something you're going to play faithfully every week for years. It's a true genre game... you'll play it when you're in the right mood, and not when you aren't.

Basicly, other than ultraviolence, what is the point?

There isn't one. Violence *is* the point. (Go see Jake's Violence thread that started this off.) In GNS terms, this game is Simulationism with Exploration of Violence. :)

What would you actualy DO in such a game?

Well, like I said, this issue will be a big part of the text. Remember, this is FPS with a *point.* The first thing the group does is decide on the theme / genre / etc. (Pulp Detective, Alien Invasion, etc.) The first GM then comes up with the overall goal and the session goal. Overall goal might be "kill the alien motherbeing." The session goal might be "find the scientest who let her loose and hope he can tell you *how!*"

So, you do have a driving goal that puts the destruction in context... it tells *why* the characters are doing what they do. The player motive might just be "cos I want to blow stuff up!" but the characters have a real justification for doing so - as cliched as it might be in any given instance. :)

[Paganini]

Okay, I wrote the section on character rules this morning:

Characters

First off, you need a character to be your instrument of mass destruction. No problem - just grab one of these bad boys and get ready to play. Copy your skills onto the character sheet. Then pick something useless but interesting (like Appeared on Wheel of Fortune, Knows Everything, Physicist, Raving Lunatic, Scared Stupid, Smokes Pot, etc.) to be your Color Skill. The Color Skill doesn't usually do much, but it can help out any action a little - provided you can work it in. If you want, you can name your character. You don't have to though - things work fine if people just call you "the Sniper" or "the Gun Bunny" or whatever.

Marine - When you want something done right, send in the grunts. Bring it on. Marines are your basic killing machines. They get more interesting depending on what Useful Skill you pick.

 Main Skill: Shoot Medium Guns
Other Skill: Shoot Little Guns
Useful Skill:

Engineer (Jimmy Doors & Windows) - He can build it, and he can break it. Doors, barricades, bridges, and foxholes are his friends and enemies.

Medic (Fix Hurt People) - Let me patch that up for you. Carries a first-aide kit, but when he shoots, he shoots where it hurts.

Sniper (Sneak around) - If they can't see me, they can't shoot back.

Tech Geek (Use Computers) - If it's electronic, he can exploit it. Years of DOOM experience have made him a crack shot.

Gun Bunny - The hot chick that everyone wants to... uh, wants. Doesn't matter how sparse her outfit is, she's got guns out the wazoo. (No, not literally, you freak!)

John Woo - Gun Bunny for guys. Pistols in pairs, all the way. Diving and leaping, crazy wall-running stunts.

 Main Skill: Shoot Little Guns
Other Skill: Fight with Arcane Skill
Useful Skill: Do Athletic Stunts

Heavy Weapons Guy - Pistols are for nerds. It ain't worth using if it don't knock you on your butt everytime you pull the trigger.

 Main Skill: Shoot Big Guns
Other Skill: Shoot Little Guns
Useful Skill: N/A

Demolitions Expert - BOOM! Skilled in placing explosives for maximum destruction. Also your best bet for tossing grenades and home-made boom-boom.

 Main Skill: Plant Explosives
Other Skill: Shoot Little Guns
Useful Skill: N/A


Making New Characters

So you don't like any of the characters? Your punishment: Make your own. Creating new characters is easy:

Do Athletic Stunts (Jump, run, climb)
Fight with Arcane Skill (Atmoic Kung Fu)
Fix Hurt People (That's gonna scar...)
Jimmy Doors and Windows (Who needs a locksmith?)
Plant Explosives (Satchel Charges, Pipe Bombs, Grenades)
Shoot Big Guns (Rocket Launchers, BFGs, Chainguns)
Shoot Little Guns (Pistols, SMGs)
Shoot Medium Guns (Sniper Rifles, Machine Guns)
Sneak Around (I don't think he saw me...)
Use Computers (Hack, program, write mission reports)

Pick a way to cause destruction (Fight with Arcane Skill, Plant Explosives, Shoot some kind of Gun). That's your Main Skill - it gets four dice. Pick another way to cause destruction. That's your Other Skill - it gets three dice. Pick something else that you can do. That's your Useful Skill - it gets three dice too. If your Main Skill is Plant Explosives or Shoot Big Gun you don't get a Useful Skill. There. All done.


Character Sheet

Code Select Expand


Name (Optional):
         Armor:
        Health:

    Main Skill: __________ [4]
   Other Skill: __________ [3]
  Useful Skill: __________ [3]
   Color Skill: __________ [2]
Everything Else:            [1]

          Guns:
                   Damage    Accuracy    Ammo










Whatcha think?

[Jake Norwood]

Er, Jake, your reputation precedes you,

Woo-hoo! My uncontrollable desire for fame has been realized! I have a reputation that precedes me! ;-)

but what do you mean?

I'm thinking in terms of John Woo movies, mostly, and other action movies. The character types in Lance's (Wolfen's) post seem to fit squad play ala D&D, which isn't the genre that I'm interested in. What are characters in action movies, especially John Woo movies, and his emulators and inspirators? Cops--always undercover, Mafioso guys or Yakuza or Triad guys, Over-the top secret agents, big-shot criminals, soldiers (especially ex-special forces guys--think of every Steven Segal movie you ever saw and most Arnold movies). There aren't any "demo experts," "gunbunnies" or anything else. Those are all RPG stereotypes, and I'm not sure if they've ever really existed substantially outside of RPGs. So for me it's kind of ho-hum dull. It's been done before. Shadowrun, for example, has lots of cool divisions of character "archtypes" that more or less allready fit what Paganini or Wolfen have proposed. You've got heavy weapons guys, light weapons guys, the getaway driver, the sneak around guy, and all kinds of stuff. These are character types that appear in Anime, maybe, and RPGs, but that's it.

I want Chow Yun Fat or Nick Cage with two pistols bouncing off the walls. I want lots of random explosions and 173 expedable chinese "extras" to kill in every scene (*note: it has nothing to do with them being Chinese! That's just the way it is in all the Hong Kong gun movies--ever seen "hard boiled? You get the drift).

Here's some stuff that I would like to see (*note: I realize that this game isn't "just for Jake," but I think that these are things that make a lot of action movies great and that have been missed out by more traditional approaches to action-violence RPGs):

-Instead of hit points or the like, Luck points (or whatever). They could function more or less the same, but they allow a million bullets to whiz by a character instead of them taking a billion shots before they die. These are the in-game representation of why main characters in movies usually only get hit either in the 2nd act, or in the end. These refresh at key moments in the game (or through player accomplisment?). As time in the game goes on they get lower, representing the increased liklihood that the player will get hurt. Notice also that they should start our horribly high, so that the player has absolutely zero chance of being injured in the "opening scene" of the film, no matter how crazy their stunts are. Isn't that they way it always is?

-Simple but describable wound levels, for when those Luck points run out. More color than "moderate wound" and "heavy wound," but also not the TROS slew of tables (which have their place, but it isn't here, I think).

-Rules for really wild acrobatic stunts, like running on the walls, leaping off of a 500 foot dam to catch a prop plane, and all that other crazy stuff.

-Rules for wasting lots of "peons" all at once, ala 7th Sea.

-Enragement rules for when they kidnap your girlfriend/kill your partner/kill your brother/kill your parents/steal your hat/etc...

-A "mayhem" stat or the like, that covers how inadvertently destructive your character is. Some characters, like James Bond, are pretty clean. They kill their guys with realtively little mess. Others, like Chow Yun Fat in any John Woo movie, Trash everything around them somehow when a fight breaks out. I mean EVERYTHING. Big mess. This may be somehow connected to the Luck/hit point thing as well, as characters that make big messes also seem to dodge a lot more bullets.

-A generic Violence skill that covers non-specialty weapons. Action heroes never seem to have a big problem planting a bomb or using a heavy machine gun, even if it isn't in their character type. This rating could be somehow the inverse of their Mayhem stat (again, James Bond can smoothly use any weapon in any place, but Chow is *almost* as likely to nuke himself when using explosives. He never does, of course).

-An annoying attachment, be it a little sister, a sidekick, a hat you just can't lose... This should be represented mechanically somehow...hmm...

Anyway, I don't mean to tell you what you should put in your game, but rather what I would really want to see and what I would do if I had the time to write one. Go to the source material, not to other RPGs. It's like TROS...I stayed away from traditional combat models and rewards models and went for the source materials--combat came from the real thing and old techniques (what I was attempting to emulate) and advancement (SA's) came from stories I liked. Niether was borrowed from RPGs, but rather the thing I wanted to re-create in-game. If what you're trying to re-create here is action movies (and that's an assumption on my part, I admit), then go to the source material.

Hope I didn't come off to preacy. I do that sometimes. Sorry if I did.

Still really excited,
Jake

[Paganini]

Hey, Jake, sounds like you've changed your mind over the space of a couple of threads. The game you're describing sounds like Chris Pramas' Dragon Fist (for Chow Yun Fat) or Hong Kong Action Theatre (for John Woo). These (especially Dragon Fist) are "Over the Top Stunt" games rather than "Gratuitous Violence" games.

BFG the RPG covers those as a sort of subgenre, but in a pretty abstract way. BTW, I disagree with you about the archetypes... some of them are from anime / rpgs, but others are right out of movies and TV. The Gun Bunny is pretty much a female John Woo. For the Squad based stuff I've got the Marine (can be Engineer, Medic, Tech, etc.). The Heavy Weapons Guy is B. A. from The A-Team.

So, rather than being dedicated to any particular kind of violence BFG the RPG is dedicated to violence in general, with referrences to John Woo, Half Life, etc. It should work equally well in HKAT style game as in a recreation of Max Payne. But it does so by virtue of abstraction rather than detail. I thought this kind of dedication was what you were going for, but maybe I'm wrong. I've almost got a version 1.0 draft ready to post. You can take a look and tell me what you think.

Anyway, I'm too much in love with the concept to change it now. ;)

[damion]

Looks good Paganni.
Honestly, you could probably run this with Donjon Krawl pretty easily. But it's mechanics are a bit heavy. :)
Although it's 'Fact' based on successes system might be quite
usefull.

I would add the following:Just resolving stuff you didn't.

Combat is based on rounds: Rounds are concurrent. Everyone goes, every one should declare their actions ahead of time.   Also, everyone rolls a die with a large number of faces. This resolves order of narration. Doesn't change what happened though.


Things you can do in a round:


1)Attempt something violent
This uses a violence related skill. The damage you do is the
number of successes on the skill roll+ the damage roll.(provided the skill roll succeded)
(So pistol people are useful)

2)Use a skill other than a violent one(hacking, healing, whatever). It is concievable you might want to to do this.

All non-violent skill use will automatically succed, however
skill use takes 4-(# of successes) rounds.
Some actions require multiple successes.
If you don't have the skill, you can roll 1 die and try. You DO need a success in this case though.

3)Interact with the environment-Push a button, pull a lever, whatever. This can generally be combined with other actions.
I.e push a button and attack something.


4)Run like a little wimp-This always succedes and take 1 round. Roll a move skill if you got one, otherwise roll 1 die. Also, you can't do anything else. Attacks against you need more successes than this to succeded. Also, damage that hits is reduced by the number of successes.
-You can move and use another skill, but it' don't prevent things from hitting you, you Gamist!

Exception 2:Explosives based movement. (Like it sounds :)
In this case, roll your weapon skill like a movement skill. This determines how well you move. Also, roll the weapons damage and soak it. (You skill roll does NOT add to the damage in this case) GM determines what weapons can be used for this.  This works like action #4, but cooler and not wimpy.

Area weapons:Some weapons are area weapons. Area weapons generally reduce their damage by 1 success per range increment. Some don't though. Try one and find out.

Health and Bullet Absorbtion:
Players start with 50 health. Successes on enemy damage rolls reduce health.  In the rare event that one has a skill that increases health, multiply the health by the number of die in the skill. (So if you main skill was Health, you could take 200 hits. You can take it, but  you can't dish it out.)
Monstors have a variable amount of health, depending on how difficult they are.

To heal you need a medkit or other healing aid. To use a medkit with a monster in the vicinity requires a skill roll(usually one die).  Wimp, if you kill the monster and THEN pick up the health, it automatically works.
If you have a medic or other such skill,
roll the skill and add the successes to the amount of health returned.  Also, medics can always succed at using health in combat. Medics may also heal others, who will benefit from their skill.
Armor is basicly like health, but there is no limit to how much you can have and it can't be healed. Damage alternatly reduces armor and health, with odd successes going armor.


Weapons:Any GM may add a weapon or powerup to the game just by describing it's effects. Note that this powerup/weapon is unavailable until it is NEXT players turn to GM. The new powerup weapons/ are always accross a chasm, held by a big monster, whatever. No-one can get it until the GM kills a player and becomes a player though. Note that the next GM does not have allow the new item to be aquired, it just now exists in the world :).

Sample PowerUps:Powerups provide some sort of sort term
bonus. Some have a number of uses, while others last a period of time. Some may be picked up and activated on demand while others go into use when found.

Thingy that reduces damage: Roll 4 dice, all damage against you is reduce by that number of successes for the duration of the item, like you were Running around like a little Wimp, except it's not wimpy and you can do other stuff. If you choose to run around anyway, your still a wimp however, bu t nigh impossible to hit.  


Invisible Sphere:Makes you invisible untill you attack. Duh.
Better, rarer version don't have this restriction. In this case, all attacking skill rolls are reduce by 4 successes.

GigaDamage:Any damage roll is converted to ALL succeses for the duration of the item.

TeraDamage:Doubles the damage done by any violence skill(Total damge, not just the damage roll successes). Also the player gets double successes to describe how heiniously the target was gibbbed.

Medkit:Heals 10 damage.

BubbleGum:Heals 5 damage and adds a die to all damage rolls for a short duration after use or untill you pick up more BubbleGum.

Targeter:Adds 2 dice to all violence skill rolls for the duration. Gotcha!

EO(Explosive Object): Can't be picked up, may be pushed around though. If hit by a violence skill it explodes and does it's damage to everything in the area.


A powerup does not HAVE to do it's described effect. It may be cursed or a trap. This means it does something else. In this case, the GM can add the effect straight away, neglecting the previous describe effect.

Just some ideas, use or not.

Edit:Me and Paganni were going for a FPS type thing than Hong Kong action theater. Think Starship Troopers/Predator/
Final Fantasy/Rambo. You could go the other way though.

Alternativly, you could simple not describe a characher as being hit untill then run of damage, then they go down. This provides the 'First scene' immunity and  is pretty equivilent.

[Kenway]

Suggestions:

 -Maybe there ought to be dual "creativity/cool" and "yeah, right/believability" meters to judge the success of actions.  These could help define player expectations for Heroic Bloodshed (John Woo) or parody/silly (Wong Jing stuff like City Hunter or Conman in Tokyo-a character dodges *missiles* for Pete's sake!).

 -Also, there has to be rules to prevent identical PCs.  I mean that in Feng Shui, I've seen many PCs choose the same few skills.

 -To help with lengthening gameplay and adding some depth, you might want to add "kickers"-type stuff or "nemesis" rules.
 This probably goes completely against the "total carnage" style gameplay desired, but it's just a suggestion.
 eg.  In Hard-Boiled Mad Dog and Tequila (Chow Yun-Fat) spend half the movie shooting at each other but neither dies until the end.  Maybe when a PC gains a "nemesis" neither can die until a certain condition is met.  Gamewise, this could mean that both PC and DM (character) are temporarily given a huge (infinite?) supply of Luck points to spend.
 eg.  A Better Tomorrow 2[spoilers]
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 As far as I can rememeber, in ABT2, the 3 main guys raid the main villain's house which is guarded by probably 200 thugs.  Their stated goal was to avenge the death of one of the characters' brother.  When they avenge him by finally offing the head bad guy, all 3 can then die.  I'm thinking that this might play out like AD&D's berserker rules.

[addendum- several people have posted as I was typing this, so some of my comments may now seem redundant and/or inapplicable.  Sorry.]