First thing first, the rules: my weapon of choice is going to be Somersby cider, but if I continue this after I go shopping, it will be Bundaberg Mutiny. I will drink every time something is so stupid it hurts, and speaking of which, I mentioned the title of this, so TIME TO DRINK!
Also, with 3:16 there, let's just get this out of the way:
If you think I should stomp a mudhole in this game's ass, gimme a Hell Yeah!
There will be more Stone Cold as we keep going. Now, let's start with the cover and the credits. This is published by Box Ninja, and designed+written by Gregor Hutton. He also did the art, with cover art (or covert art apparently) by Paul Bourne. The game has won an award, and nobody gives a damn because seriously, awards in the gaming industry. Of note, it has three people listed for "Game System Advice", including...
Ron Edwards. Oh look at that, time to drink!
Also, there are 13 playtesters, which is a decent number for a game of this size and scope. I should mention that it does feel playtested, but I'll get to the mechanics later. Just think "Eurogame", where there is a sound little system, also there is a theme, AND THE TWO NEED NOT MIX.
With additional thanks to a whole bunch of people including the Forge. Look what time it is: drink time!
Other than that, it's dedicated to his father, and in memory of his grandfathers.
Anyway, the front cover shows small spacecraft or drop pods or space torpedoes heading towards a planet. So it's probably a space thing. "Carnage Amongst The Stars" suggests that anyway. Spoiler: it's a space thing. One thing I'll say, it's not bad art. It isn't action-heavy, going for a more menacing "it's coming" sort of feel, which doesn't quite match the game, but nonetheless, I've seen a lot worse by companies with big budgets.
So after the contents page, we get to the intro. There is a one-page fiction piece, but I need to point out, I have the pdf and these pages aren't big. Actually, it looks like in print it'd be on an annoying square page thing. Anyway, it's not in italics, and you can read it easily. It gives you an idea of what this game is actually about, and actually clues you in on one of the key mechanics/themes: the character in the story is shooting a bunch of aliens, starts to panic as more keep coming, then has a flashback to her childhood, where the moral of the story is "don't panic", so she calms down, then kills the aliens.
Because that's what this game is about: going to new places and killing the aliens. You need to enter, open up a can of whup-ass, raise hell and leave, and that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so. And sometimes you get to activate memories where you tell a little story and get to either automatically win the encounter or lose on your terms.
After that we get a one-page comic of the above, with no dialogue, and honestly it's hard to figure out what it's telling you.
Next there's one column on what RPGs are (and it acknowledges that you probably already know, because he knows your first RPG is going to be Shadowrun, D&D or World of Darkness). The next one explains what THIS RPG is. You're part of the elite 3:16th Expeditionary Force, a military team that left Terra (see: Earth. I'm going to drink at this point) with over 10,000 doods, many years ago. The mission? KILL EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE.
I'm sold.
Essentially, it's because they decided omnicide of everything that isn't of Earth-origins is the safest way to protect humans from the alien monsters out there. Terra became so wonderfully magical that nobody works and there's no hate, crime, disease or trouble. Drink time! People are sterile and have to seek permission to have children (with temporary modifications made to unsterilise them). So life is all perfect and happy and in no way creepy. It's also boring.
Seriously, everyone in the military has joined because they're bored, and with life expectancy being "what you want it to be", when you decide "Yeah I figure I've spent long enough being alive, may as well clear space up so someone else can be born", you could just drop into a suicide booth, or you could join the Force. You're never going to see Terra again, but why would you want to? Your boredom is cured, you get to KILL SHIT until you die! So you're in the 16th Brigade of the 3rd Army.
It only takes until page eight, the start of chapter 2 (Getting Started), to say what dice you need (6 and 10, incidentally). This is certainly reasonable. It then tells you the importance of playing to the Theme. That it's about making choices, and what happens as a result of those choices.
The glossary is all of one small page, and it covers all the generic game terms without getting caught up in spelling out specific rules and abilities yet. This is exactly what it needs to be: no drinking here.
Right, at page 10, it's Chapter 3: Character Creation. I said it's an indie game, that means this is quick.
First you need a name, even a nickname. Apparently there is a list on page 90. We'll get to that.
Then you need a reputation - a short phrase or word that describes you. Basically, something people could use to describe you real quick.
Then you have your two stats. Yes, all of them. Both of them. You have Fighting Ability, which covers fighting (any action where the intended result is to kill shit), and Non-Fighting Ability, which covers everything else (including things that impact on fighting, such as disengaging, trying to set up an ambush and so on). You get to split 10 points between them, with each having a minimum of 1 point.
Next, you determine how much crap you've already killed, by rolling (Fighting Ability)d10 and adding it up. Your kills is important, because this is a score-tracking game.
CAN YOU FEEL THE INDIE YET?
I'm a little teapot, short and stout...
So at the start, you have access to Strengths and Weaknesses, called "Flashbacks", but you don't write them down. You generate these when you use them. Your character is actually supposed to be fairly generic and bland to start with, fleshed out as you go along.
Now, the player with the highest Non-Fighting Ability gets to be Sergeant (if there's a tie, they each roll a die, with highest being Sergeant and next being Corporal). If there is no Corporal yet, then that's the one with the highest Fighting Ability (roll off for ties). Everyone else is a Trooper (HAHAHA SUCK SHIT FOR TAKING 5-5).
You then note your gear down, and you're ready to play.
Now, the book goes straight into the ranks, and the stuff they get, including some rules info for them even though you don't know what the ratings mean. On the other hand, it's kind of relevant to note down at character creation.
A Trooper is the lowest rank, and they can use Force Weakness, which is 77 pages away. They only have one responsibility: kill as many lifeforms as you can. These guys enjoy being the dumb grunts who get to wander up and kill shit without thinking. They get MandelBrite Armour, a knife, hydration tablets, TRMs, a medipack, a backpack, combat drugs, flares, and an unread field manual. Just so you know the attitude everyone has here. That's kind of funny.
Also, they get grenades and either a slug rifle or energy rifle. Protip: discuss amongst the team which range you're going for, then everyone take the same choice.
The Corporal has the added responsibility of "Maximise the kill ratio (bugs killed per Trooper)". They get to have bigger guns, and they love that. So should you. They get a tatty field manual, a mitt/ball, and instead of the rifle, a heavy machinegun or energy cannon.
Sergeant has added responsibilities: follow directives issued by Officers, and protect the squad of Troopers. They get to use E-Vac (page 89). The Sergeant is automatically a drill-sergeant who uses fuck about as often as we do. He has a well-used field manual, and a radio. Also, for weaponry, he has a slug rifle or heavy machine gun, and sidearm.
Then it stops telling us about ranks, because those are the three starting ones, and moves on to 4: How to Play.
So, each game session covers a mission or two on a planet, with maybe 20 or so sessions in a campaign. Each time you go to a new world, the GM generates a new planet in advance of the session. Each session starts with a Mission Briefing, telling everyone the name of the world, the details of the surface features, and maybe some info about the bugs.
Here is the roleplaying advice:
-Play, don't work. Embrace the kill-happy machismo. Don't stress.
-Live the Moment. Don't plan ahead, your character might die.
-Be a Team Player. Listen to others as much as you speak. Share ideas but enjoy the ideas of others too.
-Don't Try to Be Too Clever. Don't bring in too many twists and turns, go with the intuitive and obvious answers. Simple is best.
-Be Direct. Subtlety can be confusing, so just be direct.
-Be Open. Be open-minded, and honest about how you feel.
Some of these apply more to players or to the GM, but overall they're for everyone. It really wants a relaxed situation where nobody gives too much of a fuck about anything. Presumably, the ideal scenario is where nobody really gives a shit about the game and they just don't bother showing up so it folds.
And yes, you should already be picturing a twin-stick shooter like Shadowgrounds at this point.
So once you land on the planet, the GM "frames" the scene, describing what is there and all that. You know, like normal. They insist on calling this the platform for the scene, and that the GM then introduces a tilt, and goddamnit my drink is empty.
Then the monsters appear and the GM commits some Threat Tokens to it, and things start to turn into a German Board Game. Also, it then says it's perfectly acceptable for players to start taking turns framing the scenes for encounters, letting the GM just throw the aliens into it because whatever. I kind of like the "throw a ball to the PCs, let them make the world a bit" approach, but on the other hand it highlights how little it all matters to the game.
So now they explain how rolling a test works: it's 1d10, roll under to succeed at all, with highest successful roll being the best. DRINK.
So when the aliens appear, players all roll NFA, and the aliens roll a single "Alien Ability" (they have just Alien Ability instead of two separate things). If the PCs all succeed and the aliens fail, the PCs ambush set the initial range (Close, Near, Far, Wherever You Are) and ambush the enemy. If the PCs all fail and the Aliens succeed, the GM sets the range and the aliens Ambush the PCs.
Otherwise, no Ambush, but: highest success is a PC? They set the initial range. Highest success is alien? GM sets the range. Everyone fails? the range is Far.
Roll-off between ties of course. And when the initial range is set, that's the range of ALL PCs from "the group of aliens". The aliens are all in one group always.
It actually has a cool little chart thing you can use, looking like a blip-blip radar thing. So you put the Threat Tokens (use those glass counters that you get in the Pokemon card game) at the centre dot, and the players have their tokens placed in the C/N/F parts. Here's the basic summary:
Close is for hand to hand combat, and often the most dangerous.
Near is "optimum for most kinds of ranged weapon"
Far is generally a spot that's safer for players but where weapons cause fewer kills
If you go beyond Far, you left the encounter: either you deliberately ran away like a little girl, or the GM had the enemies try to run (where everyone moves one step away) and you couldn't keep up. Weapons do different numbers of "kills" at different ranges, and you want the most kills possible, so you should figure out your favourite range.
In an Alien Ambush, every PC gets hit once. You have 3 HP: one hit makes you a Mess, the next Cripples you, and then you're Dead.
If the PCs Ambush, the PCs roll a d10 each to determine their "surprise round initiative" and each removes a Threat Token and deals kills as necessary. If the Threat Tokens reach zero, the enemies are wiped out, anyone yet to act can suck a dick.
Right, so let me explain the Eurogame thing:
Every group of enemies has a number of Threat Tokens assigned. However, when the enemies act, the number of Threat Tokens has no effect on this. Furthermore, when a PC succeeds on a Fighting Ability action, they remove one Threat Token, but they deal a number of "kills" based on the weapon. So there is "a bunch" of enemies, you know, some number, and you just kill some of them every now and then. DRINK
Right, every round, everyone decides what they're doing, and then everyone rolls a test (FA, NFA or AA). Or a "Flashback" can be declared, in which case that happens. Ruling out a Flashback, you work down from the highest success to the lowest - with failures just not having a turn. If you succeed with FA, remove one Threat Token and cause kills. If you succeed with NFA, you do the thing you wanted to do (like changing range by 1 step). If the baddies succeed with AA (remember there's only one AA roll, not one per token, not one per actual critter because that's a quantum number), you cause a hit to every PC who failed, or succeeded with equal to or less than you. Alternatively, any success can be used to cancel out with everyone yet to act - basically, you go "I fail, but so does everyone else with a turn coming up".
Ties can't cancel each other, and damage/hits are simultaneous when tied. Roll off for ties if that is necessary (like 2 "attack enemy" tied successes with only one Threat Token left).
How fucking often has "just roll off" come up now?
Also if you succeed on FA/AA before your opponent (so for a PC, "before the baddies", for the baddies, "before everyone else"), you can additionally change range by 1 step at the end of the turn.
NFA is used generally for changing range on your turn, or changing weapons.
Also, "having a turn explaining shit" is a big thing in this. So any time an action succeeds, that person gets to describe the ensuing carnage. After all successes, failures take turns from highest to lowest, where they get to describe their failure or the scene or something. Um, okay.
Combat keeps going until either the PCs are all dead, the enemies are all dead (zero Threat Tokens), all survivors are beyond Far Range, a PC uses a Strength, or no hits/kills are caused for 3 complete rounds. Any remaining Threat Tokens are put back in the general pool for the planet generally (although using a Strength removes all of them, for instance). But that does mean killing 2 out of 5 then retreating... does indeed mean you've at least taken 2 out, but the remaining 3 might be a separate encounter, or it might just be added to a future encounter.
And only now does it mention what I said above. The bit where kills and threat tokens and such are vague and not linked and you shouldn't define the number of enemies ahead of time - it's determined after the fact. I think this is stupid. I also think this is a lot later than necessary to mention this.
I'm taking a break after this chapter, but I'll finish it. It next talks about Armour. It can insulate against the heat of a volcano, and protect you from space. Anyway, once per planet, you can negate one hit against you, by damaging your Armour. It absorbed the hit. No, this isn't always the first hit, you get to decide. Also, once per planet, you can use your Combat Drugs for a FA re-roll. However, it's worth remembering that not all drugs are good.
If your re-roll is a 10, it fucks you up and you take a hit. It doesn't say whether your armour can block it.
Next, the Threat Tokens: each planet has a number of these equal to (players x 5). So in combat, they are placed at the start. Using an alien Special Ability spends a token, and when PCs kill them, it removes one. Using a Strength removes all (and you roll for kills using your best weapon*range combo). Using a Weakness removes 1 Token (but also removes that PC from the encounter).
The game has no wound penalties. If you're a Mess or Crippled, that just changes how close you are to death, and helps describe your appearance. At Dead, you are Dead.
So from encounter to encounter, the number of Tokens spent to it will vary. Between any two encounters, everyone restores one hit against their health (from Crippled to a Mess, or a Mess to Healthy). The Final Encounter on the world uses all remaining Threat Tokens, and it's to the death, no retreats. After that, every survivor goes back to the ship, medals are awarded to people, and whoever killed the most things on that world gains a Level. Everyone else then rolls 1d10, with the best roll also gaining a Level (if the best is a tie, all who rolled that gain a Level).
When you gain a Level, you add +1 to either FA or NFA (max 10). You also gain a Flashback Slot, whichever has the most "Not Yet Available" (so you're generally going Strength, Weakness, Strength, Weakness).
Everyone heals fully when they return to base.
It then tells us that between missions (which is a couple per world, with a few encounters per mission), you develop your PC: automatically increase one weapon at one range category by one step (such as 1 to 1d6 or 1d6 to 1d10). Then you can try to roll NFA to upgrade a different weapon, or gain a new piece of wargear. More detail at a later page.
AND THAT'S IT FOR THIS CHAPTER AND THIS POST.
