Review: Outgunned

"The life of a Hero isn’t just made up of brawls, shootouts, and jumps off of burning buildings. There are also chases." - Outgunned

In a Nutshell: Cinematic action RPG emulating the action flicks of the 1980s and 1990s. 226 page PDF from Two Little Mice, available here for $19 at time of writing; Pay What You Want quickstart available here.

Core Mechanic

When trying to do something, you select one of 5 attributes and one of 20 skills, and add their values together; the total is how many d6 you roll. The objective is to get two, three, or four of a kind; the GM sets the difficulty, which is how many dice with the same value are needed to succeed. Failure is failing forward rather than an outright failure; you get a partial success, a consequence, a complication, etc. Whatever happens moves the story forward.

Rolls are made when there's something at stake and something can go wrong. If the player decides what the PC is doing and which attribute and skill are used, it's an action roll; if the GM decides what's happening and which attribute and skill matter, it's a reaction roll.

Adrenaline, conditions, gear, and support from colleagues can add dice to the pool or subtract them from it, but you never roll less than two or more than nine.

Feats allow free re-rolls of some skills in certain circumstances, but some require spending the Adrenaline metacurrency to activate, and some require you to "miss a turn" to use them.

That all sounds more complicated than it is.

Contents

As usual, I've shown page counts for each chapter, as this indicates where the game is focused.

Before one even gets to the introduction, one finds the statement "These are tools, not rules" on the flyleaf.

Outgunned (7 pages): The introduction. Outgunned is set in a city somewhere between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, "where everything is exactly as we remember. But way cooler". Here, we learn that the game is designed for short campaigns of 5-8 sessions and a GM plus 3-4 PCs, though there are ways to reduce or extend either aspect, and the core themes of the game; doing the right thing, being outnumbered, revenge or forgiveness, found family. There's also a page of best practices for players and GM, and what the game calls the Pillars of the action genre; the action never stops, it uses movie physics, there's always something you don't know, show don't tell.

Making of a Hero (46 pages): This opens with three things to keep in mind as a PC; nothing is more important than your mission, you live dangerously, and you are one of the good guys. There are 5 attributes, 20 skills, and 47 feats in the game; each PC begins with two points in each attribute and one point in each skill; you can't have more than three points in anything. To create a PC, you choose a role and a trope, which determine your attribute and skill points and strongly influence your feats and gear. You get two free skill points, one Adrenaline, one Spotlight, one Cash, 12 Grit, one Lethal Bullet, and two magazines for each of your guns. More of these later.

Roles are most like the character templates in the old WEG Star Wars game, giving you one attribute point, one point in each of ten skills, and two feats from a list of six. The roles are commando, fighter, ace, agent, face, nobody, brain, sleuth, criminal and spy; each has a page of details and another page with a picture and examples from genre movies. Ideally, each PC has a different role.

Tropes are archetypes, such as Lone Wolf or Neurotic Geek; your trope gives you another attribute point in either of two attributes associated with the trope, one point in each of 8 skills, and a third feat chosen from a list of four for that trope. There are 18 tropes to choose from.

There are some free decisions - "personal data"; name, job, age, catchphrase, and flaw; the catchphrase sums up the PC's character, and playing to it can gain Spotlight (more of that below); the flaw can impose -1 to relevant rolls. Age influences feats, Adrenaline, Experience, and the number of bullets in Death Roulette - more of the latter two later.

Self-improvement takes the form of more points, and Experiences, acquired during play. Think of Experiences as FATE Aspects.

Time for Action (20 pages): The basic rules. Each task has a difficulty, which is essentially how many dice from your pool need to score the same number; it doesn't matter which. If you have at least two of a kind, you can reroll the others and try to improve your score; but if you fail to do so, you lose one of the successes already scored in the roll. Notice that it's possible to get, for example, two pairs; a failed reroll would cost you one of those. Feats give you free rerolls, which are better first because you don't lose an existing success on a failed reroll, and second because you can reroll if you scored no successes on the first roll. The rules include numerous complications such as needing multiple successes in one roll, going all in which risks losing all successes, using extra successes to get more actions, and so on. There is a detailed example working through all this.

We mentioned the Adrenaline metacurrency earlier. You can use this to gain an extra die in your pool, activate certain feats, or buy a Spotlight. The GM awards more for spectacular success, good ideas, and so on.

Spotlight is another metacurrency. You can use it to gain an extreme success (four of a kind) instead of rolling dice, save a friend from death, or remove a damaging condition from yourself or your ride. You can also use it to do something you normally couldn't do, by agreement with the GM. The GM can also award Spotlight.

Impending Danger (18 pages): This speaks to 'dangerous' rolls, i.e. those where your PC's life or safety are at risk. If you fail a dangerous roll, you lose Grit depending on the target difficulty; one for two of a kind, three for three of a kind, 9 for four of a kind, all of them if you needed five of a kind. However, lesser successes (say, two of kind when you needed three) reduce the amount of Grit lost. Once you lose 8 Grit, the GM imposes a condition on you; the basic conditions each temporarily remove a die from one of your attributes. The fourth condition you suffer removes another die from all your rolls.

At 12 Grit lost, you gain two Adrenaline; but the next time you lose Grit, you must make a Death Roulette roll. As mentioned above, each PC begins with one Lethal Bullet; each time they have a narrow escape, another bullet is added to the cylinder, and they are not removed during the course of the campaign - though if you use the same PCs in another campaign ('Outgunned II') you reset to one Lethal Bullet. To make a Death Roulette roll, you roll 1d6, and if it is less than or equal to the number of bullets, the PC is Left For Dead; the other PCs are convinced you must have died, but the body is never found. This is not necessarily permanent, but does take you out of the current campaign.

There are also 'Gambles', when you take unnecessary risks. This may add a die to your pool, or not, depending on circumstances; but each 1 rolled costs you a Grit. This is mostly a tool to build tension between action scenes.

You recover all Grit by getting a good night's sleep, at the end of a session, or whenever the GM thinks it appropriate. You can remove any condition by spending a Spotlight; other conditions each require a specific activity such as medical care to remove them.

This chapter also has a list of conditions; what effects they have, how you get them, how you remove them. They all take the form "You look...", for example "You look hurt", which gives a penalty on Brawn.

Gear Up (16 pages): Gear is divided into four types. Common items cost nothing and don't offer any mechanical help. Tools of the trade cost 1-3 Cash and either let you make a specific type of roll, or add a die to your pool. Guns cost 1-3 Cash and let you attack at range, adding or subtracting pool dice depending on range and weapon type, and offer tactical advantages or disadvantages through their own built-in feats. Rides are vehicles; each has a speed (0-3), which matters in chases, armour (which is essentially Grit for vehicles). Common rides (e.g. cars) cost 3 cash, unique rides can't be bought and must be acquired by side quests, although the Ace and Nobody roles can start with a unique ride.

Your PC has some gear allocated by their role, and can get more during a mission by spending Cash, or using the Always Prepared or I'll Make a Phone Call feats. You can lose gear as a consequence of failing a roll, or sacrifice it to gain an extra die in your pool for an important roll.

You can keep gear on your person, in a bag, or in storage. Items in storage are usually safe, but take time to retrieve when needed.

Cash is a semi-abstract resource. You start with one, and can acquire more, up to a maximum of five; that's not necessarily everything you have, it's just everything you can get at during the mission. The Cash Flow feat gets you more too. The price of an item starts at one, and goes up by one for each of the following that is true; it's rare, it's custom-built, it's very dangerous or high-performing, it's illegal. If the total price goes over three, money can't buy it, you need a side quest.

There also comes a point of no return on the mission where the GM invokes the arming topos and you gear up; everthing in this scene costs one Cash, or possibly none at all.

Face the Enemy (50 pages): Here are the combat and chase rules. In a turn, first the PCs take an Action and make a roll for it, then take a free Quick Action. Then, the GM declares enemy Actions and the PCs defend themselves with a Reaction roll. If the PCs are surprised, or hesitate, they forfeit their first Action. The GM can also declare less important fights to be 'Brawls', in which only the PCs act; they can still lose Grit if they fail their rolls.

Quick Actions are the sort of thing that would be a free action in most games, such as grab something or reload. Any action directly involving an enemy, such as an attack, uses their Defence as its difficulty; the target loses one Grit for each level of success you achieve (remember you can achieve multiple successes in a roll). This is a player-facing game, so the enemy doesn't roll to hit, you make a Reaction roll against their Attack rating to evade; extra successes here can cost the enemy Grit or protect a friend.

What about range, cover and movement, you ask? Range is measured in bands, which define modifiers for ranged attacks and the number of Actions it takes you to close. Cover adds or subtracts dice for Action and Reaction rolls, but is less complex than that makes it sound. The game is intended to work in Theatre of the Mind mode, and by default you begin at Medium range, which means you are one full Action away. The Carefree Bullets option allows you to ignore range if you don't feel like it, ignoring bonuses and penalties but giving longarms an extra die on their attack rolls.

Ammunition is counted in magazines. You lose a mag by failing to hit, using covering fire, or using full auto. Shooting into melee is a Gamble. Dual-wielding guns just gives you twice as many mags.

This chapter includes the bestiary, which is short, drawn with a broad brush, and focuses on the enemy's role in the combat. There are goons (minor lackeys, perhaps a gang of thugs or a pack of guard dogs), bad guys (the villain's henchmen) or bosses (the Big Bad Evil Guy encountered at a major showdown); each has five templates of increasing power levels, and guidance on which ones are appropriate for the level of danger you want to match the PCs against; are they just a speed bump, or something more serious? To introduce some variation, the main three kinds of opponent have feat points, which can be used to buy special abilities or gear, special actions triggered when they lose enough Grit, and a weak spot - finding this is a way for less combative PCs to contribute. The GM can reskin any of them as a single dangerous enemy, a small group, a swarm of animals, a helicopter gunship... There are some fully worked out examples, but if you don't have time for all this, use the Cannon Fodder sidebar for instant opponents.

Enemies have a Grit track, an Attack difficulty for you to React against, and a Defence difficulty for you to overcome with attacks; when they lose all their Grit, they are out of the fight in whatever way seems appropriate. If the PCs lose all their Grit, they are captured, or cornered and forced to make a desperate escape.

Finally, the section addresses chases. These are something I think it's difficult for a game to get right. Chases consist of Need (how many boxes on the chase track you need to fill in, typically 8-12, possibly secret) and Speed (how fast the PCs are compared to the enemy, tracked with a d6). Your ride has a Speed, which is how many boxes you fill in per turn. PC successes on Actions during their turn can crank up the Speed (to a maximum of 6), failure on either Action or Reaction rolls reduces it. All rolls in a chase are dangerous, and so can cost Grit; at Speed 5+, they're Gambles too. Once the PCs have filled in all the boxes, the chase ends, and they either get away or catch their enemy; you can lose a chase if you lose all your Grit, your ride blows up, you run out of time, or fall below a minimum speed. There are various other options I won't go into for the sake of brevity.

All the combat and chase rules feel really fast and furious (see what I did there?).

Mission Start (36 pages): Guidance for the GM on how to create an exciting mission for the PCs. It must be high stakes, and it must be personal for each PC. It must have an intended campaign length and a suitable villain. The campaign structure has an Establishing Shot, the first session which sets up the PCs and the mission; a final Showdown, which is what it sounds like; and a Turning Point halfway between them, when there is a plot twist, the PCs improve and the bad guys get tougher. There's quite a bit of advice for the GM, including creating a cinematic universe with prequel campaigns, sequels, spinoffs and crossovers, perhaps using rotating GMs. The main advice, though, is that the GM's job is to keep the pace up.

Then we move into how to create villains, supporting characters, heat and Plan B. Villains have plot armour until the final Showdown, so there are things that simply don't work on them until then; supporting characters are low-resolution non-combatant NPCs who rarely make any dice rolls; heat rises through the game and makes the scenario increasingly dangerous as it does so; Plan B is one of three Get Out of Jail Free cards which allow the group to gain a success or unbelievable advantage; you can only use one per session, and each of the three can only be used once per campaign.

Heists get special attention as they have a different structure, with more focus on the early sessions where the PCs make their plan and gather the resources to carry it out, and flashbacks, which allow you to activate Plan B options retrospectively.

The chapter also considers Time Outs, where the PCs lie low to recover, and advancement, which is fairly limited and happens maybe twice in the typical campaign; it includes mechanical upgrades and also Experiences, which are a bit like FATE Aspects and can come into play to add or remove a die from the pool.

Race Against Time (18 pages): Four pregenerated PCs and an introductory mission for them, in which they need to retrieve a briefcase full of secrets. This is laid out as close to a film script as it can be and still work as a game scenario, with extensive sidebars of tips for the GM.

...and we close with a filmography, character sheets for the players, party and mission sheets for the GM, and an admonition that "This book will self-destruct in 5 seconds".

What I Liked

• My download had the rulebook both in English and Italian. Yay! That's probably not much use to most of you, dear readers, but I was pleased.
• The tongue-in-cheek writing style which is not too far from the dialogue of the movies the game seeks to emulate.
• The game is explicit about intended campaign length and number of players. I started off thinking 5-8 sessions isn't a very long campaign, but the idea grew on me, and you can always chain them together like a series of movies.
• Copious examples throughout the text, each focused on the topic at hand.
• The game pays attention throughout to the GM's cognitive load and minimising it.
• Clever use of adding or removing pool dice to represent all manner of circumstances.
• The character, party and mission sheets. I might knock up something similar for other games.

What I Didn't Like

• I found the wording of the rules for dice rolls and rerolls confusing, and it took me several tries before I thought I understood it.
• The sequence of explanation is sometimes a bit strange, and you have to keep reading to get some core piece of information which suddenly grants understanding of the last few pages.
• While the NPC statblocks are very, very simple, the PC ones are a bit complex, as are the various wound conditions.
• To run this properly, you'd need to be good at describing what's going on in an exciting way, and tailoring every mission so that it's a compelling, high-stakes event for every PC. I'm not sure I could do that well enough.
• The nomenclature is on point for the genre, but sometimes confusing. Sessions are Shots, for example, and what screenwriters would call A and B plots are called horizontal and vertical plots.

All of these taken together mean I think it's a game for experienced GMs rather than those new to the craft. They might be translation effects, I'll have to read the Italian version and see if it works better in the original language.

What I Think

It's always a good sign when I find myself mentally designing characters and situations as I read through the rulebook; for example, Arion has the Ace role and the Last Boy Scout trope. I'm seriously considering using Outgunned for the Arioniad, and wondering what The Dracula Dossier would look like if I use it for that.

This game resonates with me. I like it overall, and I could see myself running it; one for next year, perhaps, although I'd need to pair it with a campaign or a solo oracle of some kind.