Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.
Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.
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It is also the English language quick-start for the Italian roleplaying game of the same name.
It is a seventy-one-page, 83.90 MB full colour PDF.
How long will it take to play?
Outgunned – Hero to Zero and its adventure (also known as a ‘Introductory Shot’), ‘Race Against Time’, is designed to be played through in a single session, two at most.
Outgunned – Hero to Zero and its adventure (also known as a ‘Introductory Shot’), ‘Race Against Time’, is designed to be played through in a single session, two at most.
What else do you need to play?
Outgunned – Hero to Zero can be played using a total of nine six-sided dice, ideally per player. (The full game uses its own set of Action Dice.)
Who do you play?
The four Player Characters—or Heroes—in Outgunned – Hero to Zero consist of an undercover police officer, a hotshot driver and pilot, an ever cheerful bounty hunter, and a charming martial artist.
How is a Player Character defined?
A Hero in Outgunned – Hero to Zero is defined by his Name, Role and Trope, Job, Age, Catchphrase, and Flaw. The Role and Trope determine a Hero’s starting Skills, whilst the Job grants access to information and contacts. Together with the Catchphrase, they can be combined by the player to define an action film archetype. The Catchphrase is a tag line or a creed, something guides the Hero to act when it comes time for action. The Flaw is an aspect of the Hero that will hinder him throughout his adventures.
A Hero has five Attributes and twenty Skills. The Attributes are Brawn, Nerves, Smooth, Focus, and Crime. Brawn handles action, Nerves handles reflexes and steady hands, Smooth is used for interaction and manipulation, Focus is for concentration, perception, and recall, and Crime is for awareness and secret action. Feats are granted by a Hero’s Role and Trope and typically allow a ‘Free Re-Roll’ when the Hero acts according to one of his Feats.
Experiences, of which there are four types—Achievements, Scars, Reputations, and Bonds—will affect a Hero’s dice rolls. These are not used in Outgunned – Hero to Zero.
Damage suffered is handled by Grit, ‘You Look’, and the ‘Death Roulette’. Grit is the amount damage a Hero can suffer, whilst the ‘Death Roulette’ is what the Director rolls against if there is a chance that the Hero will die. The chance—or the number of Lethal Bullets it holds—increases each time the Director rolls and the Hero survives. ‘You Look’ is actually a measure of how the Hero looks to others, as in, “How do I look?” and is actually a way of keeping track of the Conditions that a Hero might suffer.
A Hero has access to types of luck points, Adrenaline and Spotlight. A Hero has access to Adrenaline, up to maximum of six. It is earned for getting a success against all odds, making a great sacrifice, and so on. It can be spent to gain a bonus to a roll, to activate certain Feats, and to get an immediate Spotlight. The Director is encouraged to be generous with Adrenaline and every player is encouraged to spend it. A Hero can have three Spotlights and they can be expended to gain an ‘Extreme Success’ automatically, ‘Save a Friend’ who has lost at the Death Roulette, ‘Remove a Condition’, and even do something dramatic!
Weapons and gear will help under specific circumstances. There is an emphasis on guns and rides.
How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, rolls in Outgunned are either an Action Roll or a Reaction Roll. The number of dice rolled for either always consists of the combined values for an Attribute and a Skill. For example, ‘Nerves’ and ‘Shoot’ to fire a gun at someone or ‘Smooth’ and ‘Streetwise’ to persuade a crook that you are one of them. Equipment and conditions will alter the number of dice a player has to a minimum of two and a maximum of nine. To succeed at a task, a player needs to roll sets of the same symbols (or numbers if not using Outgunned dice). The size of the set indicates the level of success. Two of a kind is a Basic Success; three of a kind is a Critical Success; four of a kind is Extreme Success; five of a kind is an Impossible Success; and six or more of a kind is a Jackpot! If the roll matches the difficulty of the task set by the Director—the Difficulty being either Basic, Critical, Extreme, Impossible, or Jackpot!—the Hero succeeds. A higher success can grant a better outcome, an advantage, or even extra actions, whilst a Jackpot! means that the player becomes the Director temporarily.
If the roll is not a success and the player has one success, he can reroll any dice that do not match. If the re-roll is a success, he keeps them, but if not, he loses a rolled success. Certain Feats allow a free re-roll without any possibility of losing successes. Lastly, after a re-roll, a player can go ‘All In’, push his luck and re-roll all dice that do not match any successes. However, if he fails, he loses everything, including all of successes rolled.
Even after a Re-roll and an ‘All In’, a roll that does not succeed is not a failure. Instead, a hero succeeds, but with consequences. Essentially the equivalent of a ‘Yes, but’.
How does combat work?
Combat in the Outgunned – Hero to Zero as per the rules above, but actions become ‘Dangerous’, which means that a Hero can lose Grit if a roll is not a success. If he loses too much Grit, he will suffer from one or more conditions, and even force rolls of the Death Roulette on the Hero. In comparison, the enemies—Goons, Bad Guys, and Bosses—have only Grit, not the Death Roulette, and when this is reduced to zero, they are knocked out. Bosses have Hot Boxes on their Grit track, indicating that they receive Adrenaline to spend on special actions of their own. The rules for combat cover range, cover, counting magazines (rather than bullets), and so on. There are also rules for car chases as well
What do you play?
‘Race Against Time’ is the ‘Introductory Shot’ in Outgunned – Hero to Zero, a classic movie action plot involving a hunt for a MacGuffin. Naturally, it involves lots of a fights, a chase, and an exploding aeroplane! It is, of course, an entertaining affair and is made all the better by the staging advice given alongside the length of the scenario. The advice is excellent, suggesting possible maneouvres that the Heroes might take in the various situations they find themselves in throughout the scenario.
The scenario is open-ended, so the Director could run a sequel by adapting some of the content in Outgunned – Hero to Zero.
Is there anything missing?No. Outgunned – Hero to Zero includes everything that the Director and four players need to play through it.
Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in Outgunned – Hero to Zero are not easy to prepare. They are not difficult to prepare, but rather they take a slight adjustment as they are not as straightforward or as obviously intuitive as most rules are. So they require careful attention upon the part of Director.
Is it worth it?
Yes. Outgunned – Hero to Zero presents the basics of an exciting action-orientated game that plays fast and encourages the players to both indulge in all of the clichés of the action movie genre and be inventive in when it comes to their Heroes being cool and cinematic. The rules are just different enough to make them initially a little challenging, but after that, the session is full of bullets flying, fists lashing, and wheels screeching action.
Outgunned – Hero to Zero is published by Two Little Mice and is available to download here.
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