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

[Paganini]

damion:

Hey! Stop making it complicated! I gave very clear rules for combat pacing:

All the good guys go before all the bad guys.

:)

Anyway, most of the things you mention I have rules for, I just didn't post them cos they weren't finished. A lot of them are quite similar to what you propose. Watch this space for updates. :)

Kenway:

Actually, it's fine with me if everyone has the same character. Remember the theme: FPS with a point.

I think the thing will make this work is that characters are constantly being recycled. This is not a game where you stick with the same character for very long. If you have two identical characters you know one will die soon. Actually, they'll be differentiated *slightly* by their Flavor Skills, so in personality terms they won't be the same, even though the have identical effectiveness.

Anyway, you don't have to worry about the old D&D problem of overlapping fields of intrest, because you know that no one will be doing the same thing for very long. :)

[Kenway]

Paganini's violence game:
 Another source you might want to consider is the old computer game Wasteland (rpg).  It featured alot of the same skills you're describing, character types (Christina was the psycho gunbunny, Metal Maniac was the tech guy, Covenant was the tough hand to hand guy) and combat featured machine guns/rockets/ laser rifles/explosives against foes as varied as children to 3 story tall robot-tanks.  The best thing about this game (it was made in the 80s) was the hilariously over the top descriptions of combat.  For example, if you dealt a ton of damage killing a person, it would say something like "X is blown into a fine red mist/unrecognizable heap of gore/scarlet side of beef/ etc."  You could fire a single shot/a burst or go full auto (aka "ripping a clip" as the game said) to do even more damage.  You could walk into a casino and just *destroy* everybody there.
 Your game just might be the one that could do justice to Wasteland and Paul Verhoeven-style violence.

[Valamir]

"The pistolero explodes like a blood sausage"  Ahhh, the classics...

[Paganini]

This is the system for BFG without any of the "how to play" material about on the fly session creation and GM swapping. It should be playable right now, if you fake the meta-game stuff. :)

Big Friggin' Game
The RPG of Guns and Violence

by

Nathan Banks


Copyright (c) 2002
All Rights Reserved


Credits

Lance Allen
Jake Norwood
Richard Daly


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, and so on.) to be your Flavor Skill. The Flavor 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: (See Below)

Engineer (Jimmy Doors & Windows) - He can build it, and he can break it. Doors, barricades, bridges, and foxholes are his friends and enemies. Starts with Assault Rifle, Pistol, and Jacket Armor.

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. Starts with Shotgun, Pistol, and Jacket Armor.

Sniper (Sneak around) - If they can't see me, they can't shoot back. Starts with Sniper Rifle, Pistol, and Kevlar Vest.
Tech Geek (Use Computers) - If it's electronic, he can exploit it. Years of DOOM experience have made him a crack shot. Starts with Assault Rifle, Pistol, and Kevlar Vest.

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!) Starts with dual SMGs and Kevlar Vest. (If you want a male Gun Bunny you can call him John Woo. Pistols in pairs, all the way. Diving and leaping, crazy wall-running stunts. Starts with dual SMGs and Kevlar Vest.)

 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 every time you pull the trigger. Starts with Chaingun, Pistol, and Full Body Armor.

 Main Skill: Shoot Big Guns
Other Skill: Shoot Medium 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. Starts with Grenade Launcher, Pipe Bombs, and Jacket Armor.

 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 (Atomic 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. Well, except that you still need equipment. You get two weapons and some Jacket Armor (unless the GM says you can have more guns or better armor). It's probably a good idea if the weapons you pick match your skills.


Staying Alive (And Not)

You wear Armor to protect your Health. When you get hurt Armor comes off before Health. When you run out of Health you die and become the new GM. All characters start with 5 health. If you have the Fix Hurt People skill you can try to help out other wounded characters (but not yourself). Roll your Fix Hurt People skill. Each success restores one Health point to the damaged character.

The character sheet has a row of boxes for Armor and another row of boxes for Health. Write your starting Armor in the first box of the Armor row. Do the same for Health in the first box of the Health Row. Whenever your Armor or Health changes (you get shot, you find new armor, a Medic fixes you) cross out the old number and write the new number in the next box. If you run out of boxes you've survived *way* too long and die instantly.

If you fall off of something you take one point of Health damage for every 10 feet you fall - Armor can't help you. Of course, if you fall into lava or onto spikes or something you die instantly and don't need to roll. Things that don't kill you immediately (fire, electricity, acid) do one point of damage every time you touch them.


Doing Things - Shooting, Mostly

Any time you want to do something important (like shoot a bad guy) you roll dice. Dice that roll odd numbers count as successes. When you're not shooting at anything you roll a number of dice equal to the skill you're using. If you can figure out some way to work your Flavor Skill in, use it too. The GM will tell you how many successes you need. If you don't make it on your first try you can keep trying, adding new rolls to previous ones. However, each extra roll is an opportunity for the GM to do something nasty - the reactor goes nuclear, more monsters show up, the boss escapes, the ceiling caves in, and so on.

When you shoot you make three different rolls: The Damage roll, the Accuracy roll and the Ammo roll. The number of dice you use for each is determined by the gun you're using. For example, if you're using an Assault Rifle, you get to roll 3 damage dice. You get to roll skill dice when you're shooting too. Use the skill that matches the weapon you're shooting. If you can figure out some way to work your Flavor Skill in, use it too. If you like some of your skill dice better than your weapon dice (after rolling everything) you can exchange them. Otherwise, ignore your skill dice. You will probably want to use different colored dice for each roll so that you can make all the rolls at once.

The Damage roll is the number of points of damage that you do to whatever you hit. If you hit something that's part of the environment you may blow it up, depending on how much Health it has:

      Glass 1
       Wood 3
 Thin Metal 5
Thick Metal 7

The Accuracy roll determines whether or not you hit what you were aiming at. The GM will tell you how far away the bad guys are. In order to hit them you have to roll more successes than the range. If you miss, the GM narrates what happens - your BFG blows the wall out, your grenade bounces back and lands at your feet, and so on.

 Close 1
 Short 2
Medium 3
  Long 4
X. Long 5

The Ammo roll determines whether or not you run out of bullets, or grenades, or uranium slugs, or whatever. If the Ammo roll gets no successes, the gun you're using runs out of ammo. Write "Out of Ammo" next to the gun. You can't use that gun any more until you find some ammo for it. Once you do, you can use it until your Ammo roll fails again.


Special Gun Things

Area - Area Fire weapons can hit more than a single target at a time. The player can split the damage up between multiple enemies. (The enemies have to all be inside the range indicated by the Accuracy roll.)

Auto - Autofire weapons shoot really fast. In addition to being able to hit multiple targets (just like area fire weapons) a player with an autofire weapon can shoot it *twice* every time he goes.

Akimbo - Characters with Shoot Little Guns as their Main Skill can use a pistol or an SMG in each hand. These characters can use both guns every time they go. Yes, this means that a Gun Bunny with dual SMGs can shoot four times and hit everything she sees. Fear her.


Equipment

Code Select Expand


           Guns    Skill        Damage    Accuracy    Ammo

         Pistol    Little       2         3           5
            SMG    Little       3 (auto)  4           3
  Assault Rifle    Medium       3 (auto)  3           4
        Shotgun    Medium       3         2           5
   Sniper Rifle    Medium       4         4           2
       Chaingun    Big          4 (auto)  3           3
   Flamethrower    Big          4         2           4
Rocket Launcher    Big          5 (area)  2           3
        Railgun    Big          5         4           1
            BFG    Big          6 (area)  1           3

     Explosives

  Frag Grenades    Explosive    5 (area)  1           4
Grenade Launcher    Explosive    5 (area)  3           2
      Pipe Bomb    Explosive    6 (area)  N/A         4
 Satchel Charge    Explosive    7 (area)  N/A         3

          Armor    Protection

    Kevlar Vest    3
   Jacket Armor    5
Full Body Armor    7

Okay, so there's lots missing from this list. If you want dynamite, Molotov cocktails, fancy rayguns, and so on, you'll have to make them yourself. The rule is that damage, accuracy, and ammo all have to add up to 10, with at least 1 in each.


Character Sheet

Code Select Expand


Character Type: __________
Name (Optional): __________

         Armor: [_][_][_][_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
        Health: [5][_][_][_][_][_][_][_][_][_]

    Main Skill: __________ (4)
   Other Skill: __________ (3)
  Useful Skill: __________ (3)
  Flavor Skill: __________ (2)
Everything Else:            (1)

          Guns:
                   Damage    Accuracy    Ammo





[damion]

damion:

Hey! Stop making it complicated! I gave very clear rules for combat pacing:

All the good guys go before all the bad guys.

:)

Sorry. Maybe the items or action ideas might be usefull though. :) Looks cool

[Lance D. Allen]

Looks good so far. Just want to reply to a few of Jakes comments..

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.

Incorrect, sir. My examples for both of those templates were taken from modern military. Gunbunny, as I described it, is a nickname for artillerymen. I expanded it to allow for mortars and other indirect-fire weaponry to make the character-type a bit more versatile. Demolitions Experts are also a military MOS, though they are primarily relegated to disarming/defusing explosives in most real-world applications. Engineers are the ones who generally apply explosive know-how toward the destruction of property, but Demo Experts do exist, and are highly capable of such... they just don't get a chance to do much of it.

As for Nathan's idea of Gun Bunny, I've only got one thing that comes to mind... Lara Croft.

[Paganini]

As for Nathan's idea of Gun Bunny, I've only got one thing that comes to mind... Lara Croft.

You said it. And also that babe from Don't Look Back.

I didn't realize Gunbunny was used as a real military term. Never heard it that way before. I've always heard it used to refer to "capable" chicks from action movies.

[Jake Norwood]

Okay, I see better where you all are coming from now. I think about halfway through I started heading into John-Woo territory and you guys were working on an FPS (which is what you originally declared, so my bad!).

Anyway, for what you're doing, I dig. I'll just have to write the John Woo game elsewhere!

A note on mechanics--my personal preference is more dice, fewer rolls. You roll dice and every even die is a success? Cool. Perhaps the value of each odd die determines damage or some other effect, cutting the number of die rolls down by one or more.

I'll have to scrap this up and play around with Pag's previously posted rules. They look like fun. Ah, the joys of indie rpgs. It's like GURPS...you see a movie, you say "lets make a game for this," but instead of trying ot bend GURPS around it, you just start from the ground up. The funny thing is that I think the indie way works better. Go figure.

Still jammin' on this idea,
Jake

[Mike Holmes]

Gunbunny, as I described it, is a nickname for artillerymen.

As a former artilleryman, I can attest that, indeed, the feeble Groundpounders of the infantry and the vibration addled Tank Jockeys did occasionally dare to refer to the members of the most important arm of the military (known more properly as the "King of Battle") as Gun Bunnies. Also, ocasionally, Cannon-cockers.

To be quite correct, we should refer to the Marine character type as a Jar-head or possibly as Expendibles. Grunts refers to both the Marines and Army Infantry.

Just in case anyone is interested:
Fixed wing air branches are refered to individually as Flyboys, and the Airforce as a whole are called in a most drogatory fashion, the Country Club. Helicopter pilots are called a lot of things, amongst them Choper-jockies, whirly-birds, and just plain crazy.

Most derogatory of all are the terms for the personell who never leave a desk. Such clerks are refered to by many names such as "Chairborne Rangers" and REMFs (which is not to be explained in polite company).

Nobody makes fun of Rangers, Recon, or Seals. Army Special Forces are referred to rarely as Spooks, but then only as a sign of respect.

Delta Force personel are not refered to at all as they do not exist.

Mike

[Kenway]

Some other BFG suggestions:
   -"Kit-bashing" skill/roll that you use to temporarily adjust the numbers of your weapon, eg. using a screwdriver to make your semi-automatic into a fully automatic weapon, taping 2 rifles together (more dmg, less accuracy), taping a flashlight onto your rifle (more accurate in dark).
   -A "Coolness under pressure" stat or roll you can declare.  You can use it to do stuff like making a stone pillar collapse on your enemy, or otherwise improvise a way to defeat a very tough opponent temporarily.
   -"Badassness"- this might be the same as "Coolness".  Anybody can toss a grenade, but if you're being a badass, like popping a grenade into the mouth of a zombie (Resident Evil), you get a nifty 1-time bonus.

[Ring Kichard]

Gee, I go to work, come home, and the system's growing legs. Don't you any of you guys have day jobs? ;- )

I guess this is just an 'attaboy post. 'Attaboy.

[Jake Norwood]

Gee, I go to work, come home, and the system's growing legs. Don't you any of you guys have day jobs? ;- )

This is my day job...but now I have to go to my night job...joy!

Jake

[Lance D. Allen]

Hi Mike,

Specifically, we (Tankers) were referred to as DATs (Dumb Ass Tankers) or CDATs (Computerized Dumb Ass Tankers), and occasionally (very occasionally, due to the varied bad jokes which come so easily from the moniker) Queen of Battle, due to effectiveness via power and mobility, which, like your "King of Battle" is a reference to Chess.

But that's rather off-topic, now isn't it? So to bring it back on, I'll toss a few suggestions for skills/abilities out there.

Military Driver's License - Whether or not it has anything to do with what you were trained for, most soldiers are capable of driving nearly any ground vehicle, from the ubiquitous Humvee to tanks and APCs, and oddly enough, are actually licensed on many of them, despite never having a day's training. (Wanna know how I got my civilian driver's license? It's a story to frighten...) For character templates with a military background, this one would be perfect.

[Paganini]

Gee, I go to work, come home, and the system's growing legs. Don't you any of you guys have day jobs? ;- )

I don't. I'm a musician... duh! :)

[Paganini]

I'll have to scrap this up and play around with Pag's previously posted rules. They look like fun.

Woah, Jake! Are you saying you're actually going to *play* *two* of my games? WOOHOO! Actual play posts! Actual play posts! :)

If you do, let me know how the damage / accuracy / ammo stuff works. I like the function, but I agree with you about the number of rolls. Even while I was writing it I was thinking "man, that's a lot of dice to keep track of."