Have you ever dreamed of doing action-packed, adrenaline-packed adventures? Maybe being helped by a shoulder with the joke always ready? From today you can! In this preview we present Outgunned: the new project by Two Little Mice.
First of all we thank Two Little Mice for providing us with the quickstart to write this preview. We recommend you visit their Facebook page and Instagram to discover many interesting projects!
You can download the quickstart by following this link and follow the Kickstarter page to be notified when it will launch!
The Role and Trope of Heroes
In Outgunned our character will be the hero of an action movie, a concentrate of pure adrenaline!
The anatomy of our Heroes (as PGs are called) is defined by various elements; among these, we find the Role and the Trope.
Role defines the archetype of our Hero allowing us to have ideas to define the Job, the Catchphrase and the Flaw; in addition, during the creation provides us points to distribute among our Attributes and Skills, as well as providing us with a list of Feats to choose from that can help us during sessions.
In the preview of Outgunned we find as an example one of the 10 roles that will be present in the basic manual; the Agent, the Hero with a badge who works for a government agency.
I find it very interesting to provide along with the mechanical bonuses (and a description of the Role) suggestions for the Job, the Flaw, the Catchphrase; these are all thematic and help a lot even the players with little imagination. If all the Roles are so well defined and written, then you have to lick your mustache for the content!
The Trope instead is the Stereotype, inspired by the classic action films, which allows us to further characterize our Hero. Some examples can be: Good Samaritan, Jerk with a Golden Heart. From a mechanical point of view, the Troop gives us bonuses for Attributes, Skills and the ability to choose a Feat.
In the quickstart we are introduced to the Troop: “Last Boy Scout / Girl Scout”; this is Hero with strong moral principles, a good education but a little naive. This is just one of 18 Troops in the complete manual; as a presentation it’s great because it’s well-written and useful for customizing a Hero even more.
Hero’s Attributes
Our Heroes will have 5 Attributes and 20 Skills to overcome obstacles. The Attributes are: Brawn, Nerves, Smooth, Focus and Crime; this variety allows you to cover almost all situations and in combination with the Skills allows you to cover all situations.
Feats are keywords that give a mechanical advantage when our Hero acts by pulling them into play.
Another key element is Grit, which will keep our Hero alive. In fact, every time you risk getting hurt (or worse), one or more Grit boxes will be marked, depending on how dangerous the situation is; once all the boxes have been marked, the Death Roulette will be activated, that is, the player will have to roll a 6-sided die and do less than the value of the roulette, which will start from 1 up to a maximum of 6. If the roll of the die is greater than the value of the Roulette then the Hero will be saved but the value of the Roulette will increase by 1.
In short, these mechanics are well inserted and allow you to risk and always stay on the edge of the razor!
Then we also find the Adrenaline, points that are given by the Narrator when a Hero performs a heroic action, a great sacrifice or similar deed. The Adrenaline can be spent to get bonuses on shots, activate special powers or even get the Spotlight; in this case the Hero ends up in the center of the stage under the light of the spotlight and can perform incredible actions!
We can therefore be sure that the Heroes of Outgunned will be very multifaceted, interesting and full of adrenaline!
Preview of Outgunned Mechanics
The Outgunned system, called Director’s Cut, promises a simple, immediate and really fun system.
When our Hero has to make a test, dice will be used, but it will not be necessary to make calculations or exceed certain thresholds. The results will have to be combined to create pairs, triples, quatrains, fifths and sixths.
Whenever an Action Roll must be used, the Hero will choose the most suitable combination between Attribute and Skill; while in a Reaction Roll it will be the Director who chooses it. A 6-sided dice pool is then constructed, which is equivalent to the sum of the Attribute and Skill scores. If they are present, various bonuses and modifiers apply.
Once this is done, you have to pull and try to overcome Difficulty; these are Basic, Critical, Extreme and Impossible. For example, if you want to overcome a Basic Difficulty you would have to do at least one pair while for the Critical Difficulty you would have to do at least one Tris.
But if the first roll does not go as planned, then you can decide to Re-Roll and, if it is not yet enough, you can try the All In; but beware: in case of failure you will lose all successes and you will automatically fail.
A simple but very interesting system is therefore anticipated; moreover, in the complete manual there will be many examples of Rolls, plus many tips for the Director on how to manage these situations.
Enemies and Dangers
When facing dangerous situations or tough opponents, the game gets tough and the tough ones start playing!
Mechanically, each shot will have, in addition to the Difficulty, a degree of Danger that always varies from Basic to Impossible. Whenever you fail a dangerous test you will lose a certain number of Grit Points, obviously this loss can be mitigated with the successes obtained in the roll.
Instead, when confronting the Enemies, you will have to fight.
In the preview of Outgunned we only have a glimpse of what a truly intriguing combat system looks like, but simple in its foundations.
All fights will be divided into two rounds: Action, in which the Heroes act, and Reaction, in which the Enemies act. On their turn, our Heroes will be able to make a Quick Action and an Action Roll; then they finish their turn and it’s up to the Enemies.
Having limited actions forces you to think about your moves and manage the fight more tactically. The tactical aspect also emerges from elements such as the cover, the various modes of fire with weapons, bonuses and maluses and limited magazines. But you can use two akimbo weapons, for all fans of John Wick!
We are therefore faced with a tactical combat system, exciting, capable of regulating many emotions!
Preview Outgunned Chases
Another interesting aspect and related to the theme of the whole game is the management of cars and chases. In the quickstart we only have a taste, but a particularly cool and central element is foreshadowed! In fact, the cars will have their own armour and speed.
During the chases our Heroes will have a Need, that is, the objective, which like a clock has a number of boxes to fill decided by the Director. The Speed, ranging from 1 to 6, represents the number of boxes to be filled at the end of the Turn.
In the chases we have the turns, the same as those of the fights. During the Action Turn, heroes can attempt Critical Successes to increase Speed and if they fail in the Reaction Turn, this will decrease, or the car will suffer damage. At the end of each Action Round, as many squares are blackened as the value of the Speed.
The chase ends when the Heroes fill all the Need’s boxes or if the machine runs out of armor but that will be a failure.
We know that there will be many other unique rules in the complete manual besides many land, sea and air vehicles; the chases are one of the most adrenaline-filled moments Outgunned!
Race Against Time
In the quickstart of Outgunned we find a one-shot adventure, suitable to present the game and try its many potentialities.
The Plot will see our heroes confront a ruthless organization to obtain a briefcase containing the data of an experiment. There will be: explosions, car chases, breathtaking fights and the tenure of having to jump on a plane on the verge of taking off! All this inserted in a very particular context of the 90s, with explosive and memorable scenes!
Pregenerated Heroes are all perfectly suited to the plot and full of quotes that will make all action movie fans happy. You can see some sheets in this preview.
Outgunned Preview Conclusions
In conclusion, I still want to spend a few words on the aesthetic aspect of this role-playing game; the illustrations are really beautiful and evocative, as well as perfectly repeating the style of the work. As always, well done Daniela Giubellini!
Pulling the sums, the quickstart of Outgunned allows you to take a great look at a product that looks very interesting and immediate to bring to the table. We sincerely look forward to being able to deepen it and throw ourselves once again into the action!