Convict Conscript Combat

It should be no surprise that the future is a corporate future despite our aspirations. So, governments and agencies might do all the scouting and exploration, but the corporations have the money to invest and they expect a return on that investment. In the Corealis System, the conglomerate known as the Corporate Echelon is attempting to squeeze as much profit from the system and that includes protecting their facilities, let alone the colonies. There are reports of bug infestations and scab pirates attacking ships and outposts. In response the Corporate Echelon has instructed its Military Foundation to find a cheap solution to the problem. The result is the Rehabilitation Incentive Program (R.I.P.), a programme of enforced conscription from the Corporate Echelon’s private prisons. Convicts are given basic training and sent off on relentless tours of duty. They will eradicate bug infestations, assault pirate bases and spaceships, conduct salvage missions, run supply missions, and more, but no matter the type and nature of the mission, the Convicts, known as ‘Dirtbags’, are expendable. However, if a Dirtbag survives long enough, there is the promise of freedom and reintegration.

This is the set-up for Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG, published by The Dungeon’s Key following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Inspired by films such as Starship Troopers, Tank Girl, and Aliens, plus The Dirty Dozen and an unhealthy dose of the Borderlands video game franchise, it is a satire on corporate greed and capitalism and deals with a lot of mature themes. The dystopian satire starts with the look of the rulebook, which is heavily graffitied in a running commentary upon service in the Rehabilitation Incentive Program, the Convict Conscripts sticking two fingers up in punk attitude at the corporate commanders and masters.

To create a Convict Conscript, a player divides five points across three abilities—Bones, Cunning, and Nerves, rolls for his Convict Conscript’s Pardonable Offence and the Fallout, and then selects a role assignment, loadout, and trait. The Convict Conscript’s upbringing, personality trait, and appearance can all be rolled for. Each Convict Conscript also receives a fifty-credit signing bonus. The roles are Ape (Infantryman), Pill (Combat Medic), Tech (Combat Engineer), Hen (Reconnaissance), and Muscle Head (Support Gunner). Each provides three options in terms of Loadouts and Traits. Both the Pardonable Offence and the Fallout provide an extra bonus. In addition to his loadout, a Convict Conscript wears a Prisoner Identification Collar, which of course, is fitted with a small amount of explosives which can be detonated remotely, as a deterrent against escape attempts.

Name: Louise Kincy (MD)
Bones 1 Cunning 2 Nerves 2
Pardonable Offence: Medical Malpractice (75 years)
Fallout: High-Strung (No breathers in combat)
Role Assignment: Pill
Traits: Field Surgeon
Upbringing: Water Carrier in the circuit city sweatshops
Personality Trait: Petty
Appearance: Old World Prosthetic Hand
Loadout: 350-SI Service Pistol (three magazines), Surgery Kit, Juice Box Energisers (two), Tourniquet (one)

Mechanically, Dirtbags! uses a dice pool system. In fact, it uses three dice pools. These are Action, Ammunition, and Reserve. The Action pool is based on the Convict Conscript’s abilities. It is the number of dice that a player can assign to any one action. Using six-sided dice, any result of a four, five, or six is a success, although this range will increase or decrease depending upon if the Convict Conscript has Advantage, Disadvantage, or Severe Disadvantage. Any failed results go into the Convict Conscript’s Reserve where they cannot be used. Various traits will restore dice from the Reserve to the Action pool, but the primary means is to ‘Take a Breather’. Out of combat, this takes fifteen minutes, but in combat, it takes a whole turn in which the Convict Conscript can nothing else. A critical success, a roll of two sixes on an action will also restore a single die from the Reserve to the Action pool.

The number of actions that a Convict Conscript can undertake in a round is determined by his Ability values. For example, a Convict Conscript with a Bones of two has two physical actions in a round. So, his player might describe his actions in cleaning out a bug nest as first throwing a grenade at the hole out of which a bug swarm has erupted and then charging to its lip. Whilst a Convict Conscript with Cunning of two operating a drone might send it to hover over the hole and then scan for movement. In either case, the Convict Conscript’s player needs to roll a success for each action. Notably, none of the actions involve shooting or attacking. This is a free action. Nor does a player roll to hit. Instead, he rolls the Ammunition pool for his Convict Conscript’s weapon. The Convict Conscript can fire as many times as he wants. The only limits are the ammunition capacity of the weapon and its firing mode. Firing at targets beyond a weapon’s range reduces the number of Ammunition dice the player rolls. Every success is a hit, but if two ones are rolled, it means that the weapon has jammed. All dice rolled from Ammunition pool go into the Reserve pool and can only be refreshed when the Convict Conscript takes a turn to reload.

When hit, a Convict Conscript can defend using his Action pool or his Ammunition pool and every success negates a hit. Armour negates hits and can be destroyed. Damage is inflicted per location and if a hit location suffers two more points of damage, it is bleeding and will suffer more damage loss. Limbs can be ruined and amputated; if the torso is reduced to zero Hit Points, the Convict Conscript cannot ‘Take a Breather’, but can talk and still take free actions like shooting; and if a Convict Conscript’s Hit Points in his head are reduced to zero, he is dead. In addition to possible access to a Pill or Combat Medic, every Convict Conscript carries at least one ‘Muscular Intravenous Liquid Koka’ (M.I.L.K.) Energiser in his Prisoner Identification Collar. This can be automatically injected to negate hits of damage, ignore Ability limits, gain advantage on the Convict Conscript’s next roll, reroll any number of dice with disadvantage, and spend a success to gain an extra action. However, consume too many Energisers and a Convict Conscript can suffer an emotional outburst, such as hyperventilating, suffering a nervous breakdown, fleeing, and so on. Similarly, witnessing another Convict Conscript’s death, suffering an amputated limb, and other dire situation may also result in an emotional outburst. An emotional outburst is resisted with a Nerves roll.

Mechanically, Dirtbags! is simple and it does give a player plenty of freedom in terms of how and what his Convict Conscript does. Primarily this is because it removes the need to declare an attack as action and have it happen automatically if the player declares it. All the player has to do is roll for the effect. It means that the player can focus on his Convict Conscript moving and taking other actions. The limits are his Ability values and the size of his Action pool and the flow of the play is going to be from action to rest and back again from running and gunning and hiding and ducking to needing to ‘Take a Breather’ and back again. The Action pool and the Ammunition pool are both resources that need relatively careful handling.

Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG is played out as a series of tours of duty, each of which consists of several operations, the number randomly determined reflecting the difficulty of a campaign. Effectively, length of play determines the campaign difficulty. A completed operation reduces a Convict Conscript’s sentence by five years and for every twenty years his sentence is reduced, he can improve an ability, take a Retinal Curriculum Projector course which grants a trait, or take a trait from his role. Between tours of duty, a Convict Conscript can take Shore Leave, which may be a relaxing time or it may leave the Convict Conscript without an internal organ, which reduces his torso’s Hit Points. The Convict Conscripts also have access to a wide range of military surplus that they can purchase and in return they can sell their military surplus and salvage. A sample mission, ‘Occam’s Razor’, a training mission that goes to hell with a bug invasion!

Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG does not feel quite complete. There is background to the setting, but no advice for the Game Marshal and it could have done with a random mission generator at the very least. There is content sufficient to inspire the Game Marshal, but such a table would have been useful. It also does not address what happens if a Convict Conscript manages to reduce his sentence to zero, which is possible, but difficult after ten to fifteen operations. Whomever has amended the training manual that is Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG calls it a return to slavery. The Corporate Echelon states that the Rehabilitation Incentive Program has an eighty percent success rate. One option here might be to look at Gangs of Titan City, a roleplaying game of criminal gangs and life in a spire city, as to what happens next, but otherwise, the Game Marshal is left to decide what happens next.

Physically, Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG is a scrawling mess of a book and intentionally so. It is all punk attitude verses corporate bullshit and sometimes that does get in the way of what is relatively simple, straightforward roleplaying game. The example of play is actually the easiest and quickest means of learning the roleplaying game’s rules. The artwork is decent though.

Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG has the potential to be manically chaotic fun, throwing it as it does a disparate, desperate group of poorly trained conscripts into one dangerous mission after another, whilst the Game Marshal throws every military movie cliché into the mix. It would be interesting to see what happens if the Convict Conscripts are actually rehabilitated, but that will have to wait for a supplement or another roleplaying game. In the meantime, the Dirtbags have one last chance to prove they are not scum in a light, but surprisingly detailed military Science Fiction shooter.