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? :)

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

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

Jake

Jake Norwood wrote: It's the game for me! Woo-hoo...

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

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.

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

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.

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!

Paganini wrote: 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).

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?

Bailywolf wrote: 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?

What would you actualy DO in such a game?

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]
Name (Optional):
Armor:
Health:

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

Guns:
Damage Accuracy Ammo








[/code]

Whatcha think?

Mis Hajesty, Ring Kichard wrote: Er, Jake, your reputation precedes you,

but what do you mean?

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. ;)

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.

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]
.
.
.
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.]

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. :)

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.

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

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]
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
[/code]
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]
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



[/code]

Paganini wrote: damion:

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

All the good guys go before all the bad guys.

:)

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

After reading it I only notice one design problem: medics are awful. You'd be better off shooting your own medic than letting him touch you. Why? The otherwise best rule in the game makes it so.

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.

Ring Kichard wrote: After reading it I only notice one design problem: medics are awful. You'd be better off shooting your own medic than letting him touch you. Why? The otherwise best rule in the game makes it so.

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.

A diligent medic shrinks the life expectancy of a character by half. Every time they patch someone up their patient loses another box, in addition to the box they used when they got injured.

One work around could be to allow medics to use an eraser. Another might be to let the medic draw in another box at the end of the row when they fix someone. A third might just be to eliminate medics altogether.

Thoughts?

Moderators: Delete this post please. Got posted twice by accident, and the delete button is not showing up in my browser.

Ring Kichard wrote: After reading it I only notice one design problem: medics are awful. You'd be better off shooting your own medic than letting him touch you. Why? The otherwise best rule in the game makes it so.

A diligent medic shrinks the life expectancy of a character by half. Every time they patch someone up their patient loses another box, in addition to the box they used when they got injured.

One work around could be to allow medics to use an eraser. Another might be to let the medic draw in another box at the end of the row when they fix someone. A third might just be to eliminate medics altogether.

Damion:

I don't want to lose healing and Medics, because those are a big part of any FPS game. Even in the action movies you often see a scene where the hero's getting patched up or bandaged or shot full of strange green serum.

With Medics and healing, though, characters could potentially last forever if they were played with niggling care. This is not what I want. One of the main points of this game is that every character is going to die... it's just a matter of when and how. It's like when you log onto a UT server... you know that you're going to die eventualy... but you also know that you'll spawn right in as a new player. I'm hoping that that kind of security will keep players from viewing the characters as vital resources to be preserved. So, that's where the box rule comes from.

I really the like 're-roll but it adds complications' idea. Its great. It also makes it possible to hit things at X-Long Range. (Since you can't get more than 4 successes, you need this. Again, it's great)

I'll assume you mean the number of succeses on the damage dice is the damage.

With 5 health, people won't last long. Just have to scatter alot of healing/ect around. Personally, I'd up this to 10-20. People in these situations can absorb insane amounts of damage.

BTW, I forgot to mention that I really like the "new character tele-frags old" idea. I'm adding that as an option. :)

Damion, can you PM me with your real name so I can add you to the credits list I'm keeping?

I've got this picture of deranged Medics scurrying around as fast as possible trying to fix everything they see, with all the injurred characters holding them off at gun point.