[1:14 PM]Simone: Hi everyone, I’m Simone Formicola, I’m from Italy and I am one of the founder of the independent studio Two Little Mice. Among the game we designed we have Household, Adventures in the Household, the cinematic action rpg Outgunned and Broken Compass. Right now we are in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit for Outgunned Adventure, the first genre book for Outgunned, inspired by the pulp adventure classics.
[1:14 PM]Simone: (done)
[1:15 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Thanks, @Simone! The floor is open to questions!
[1:15 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): First, can you tell us a bit about Outgunned?
[1:20 PM]Simone: Of course, Outgunned is our cinematic action roleplaying game, designed to bring at te table the scenes and the feelings of the classic action movies
[1:21 PM]Simone: The Director’s Cut, our signature system, uses a small pool of d6s to determine the outcume of all tasks that involve a risk or a danger. When rolling dice in Outgunned the goal is to combine as many equal symbols as possible, looking for 2, 3, 4 and 5 of a kind
[1:23 PM]Simone: The game itself is inspired by classic movies like Die Hard, True Lies, Kingsman or Hot Fuzz
[1:24 PM]Simone: And we already released 2 expansion for it: World of Killers, inspired by the John Wick saga, and Action Flick, a collection of mini supplements that greatly expands the possibilities of the game introducing wuxia style action, killing aliens, magic and a lot more things!
[1:25 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Very nice!
[1:26 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Does Outgunned Adventure have its own setting?
[1:28 PM]Simone: Outgunned Adventure doesn’t have a unique setting, but we designed it with the period between the two World War in mind, so somewhere between the Mummy of 1999 and Indiana Jones
[1:28 PM]Simone: It will also address how to play adventure in more modern times
[1:29 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Lacking a specific setting, what common elements or tropes would all Outgunned Adventure campaigns feature?
[1:32 PM]Simone: Campaigns in Outgunned and Outgunned adventure are designed to progress like a movie would, so there are several element that would be in common to every adventure. For example the Adventurers will search for a specific Treasure and the will have to eventually face a rival who is searching for the same Treasure.
[1:35 PM]Simone: But the group has lots of freedom on what type of adventure to play. For example there is an entire chapter about using supernatural elements inside a campaign, giving player the choice on whether face supernatural dangers or not
[1:36 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): When you say “Treasure”, are you specifically talking about historical treasures as seen in the Indiana Jones movies, or do you literally mean any kind of treasure, like the contents of a bank vault that can be stolen in a heist?
[1:40 PM]Simone: With Treasure we intend anything that is crucially important for both the Adventurer and their rival to retrive and it’s tied somehow to history. So in this case, being Outguned Adventure specifically designed with pulp adventure in mind, we are talkning about historical treasures. If a group plans to play some different mission, like a heist, the Outgunned Corebook is more on point
[1:40 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Understood.
[1:41 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): To what degree does the game support the supernatural elements you mentioned as an option?(edited)
[1:44 PM]Simone: The focus of course is on Supernatural creature one can expect to meet hunting fro trasures, like an extremely powerful mummy for example. But we will address also supernatural condition that adventurer may get and other supernatural dangers they may face
[1:45 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Are there any rules for magic?
[1:45 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): (brb)
[1:46 PM]Simone: If you mean magic that adventurer may use, no there will be not, but we have a pretty spot on Action Flick for that (called A Kind of Magic)
[1:48 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Well, I’m speaking more in terms of magic used by antagonists, as in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
[1:49 PM]Simone: Ah ok, in this case yes, the supernatural enemies will have magic-like powers to use against the adventurer, that’s for sure. So among the supernatural creatures we will find also magic-users
[1:50 PM]Simone: With probably the ability to hypnotize the adventurers
[1:51 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Although this is pulp adventure, I’m guessing that it isn’t the sort of pulp to feature “weird science”. Is that correct?
[1:52 PM]Simone: No, the focus will be on treasure hunting and supernatural so we will not focus on weird science in the Outgunned Adventure book
[1:53 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Understood.
[1:53 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Do you have a character sheet that we can see?
[1:54 PM]Simone: give me a moment1
[1:57 PM]Simone: Here you are
[1:57 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): First of all, that’s a very attractive character sheet!
[1:58 PM]Simone: Thank you ^^
[1:58 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): You touched on this earlier, but can you go into a bit more detail regarding how the system works?
[1:59 PM]Simone: So, let’s start by the Characters Adventurers are created by choosing a Role and a Trope
[2:00 PM]Simone: Each Role and Trope give the Adventurer an Attribute point, some Skill points and one or two Feats(edited)
[2:01 PM]Ren (they/them): Hi Simone! What has been the most challenging decision you’ve had to make when designing OGA and its campaign so far?
[2:02 PM]Simone: When the player needs to roll dice because something can go wrong in what they are doing the choose an Attribute and a Skill to determine the pool they will roll
[2:04 PM]Simone: Each Action or Reaction has a difficulty that can be Basic, Critical, Extreme or impossible
[2:05 PM]Simone: To succeed in a roll the player needs to score a 2 of a kind for a Basic difficulty, a 3 of a kind for a Critical, 4 of a kind for Extreme and so on
[2:07 PM]Simone: After each roll, if the player scored at least a 2 of a kind, they can reroll all the dice that did not score any success in order to score a bigger success
[2:07 PM]Simone: If the actually score more that the first attempt they keep it, if they fail they lose one of their successes
[2:07 PM]3skullsmatt: Hi Simone, in a game about finding treasure and inspired by films like Indiana Jones, how are you addressing colonialism?
[2:09 PM]Simone: The very cool thing about the Director’s Cut system is how we deal with failures. Basically there is no way for an Adventurer to completely fail a something, but every time the did not meet the required level of success something will happen. Maybe the will get a success at a cost, or they will have to face an unexpected danger1
[2:11 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): I have some follow-up questions, but I’ll let you address the questions from @Ren (they/them) and @3skullsmatt first. (edited)
[2:11 PM]Simone: Ok!
[2:13 PM]Simone: @Ren (they/them) First of all we still are finishing the development of Outgunned Adventure, so who knows what will happen! Apart from that for sure the hardest thing we are facing is where to put the focus in the game, what are the essential element that make a great pulp adventure story and what are just nice addition but not vital to it1
[2:14 PM]Ren (they/them): Excited to see what comes of it!1
[2:14 PM]Simone: A lot of the work we put into our books is more or less waht to include and what not, and also how much space to give to each element1
[2:15 PM]Ren (they/them): Sounds like it’s mainly editing the flow of ideas rather than working to make the ideas happen!
[2:17 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Regarding re-rolling for more successes: If I roll 4 dice and get 2 of a kind, I roll the 2 dice that failed, and if neither of those 2 re-rolled dice match the first 2, I lose the 1 success that I have, correct?
[2:17 PM]Simone: @3skullsmatt In dealing with themes like colonialism we need to talk about the rivals and what the rivals are for the adventurers and for the game
[2:18 PM]Simone: Adventurer search treasures to preserve history and defend it from people, like the rival, that want to rob or to use that for their advantage
[2:19 PM]Simone: So it’s not at all a game where you go round stealing ancient stuff, but it’s a story where you search for a treasure because you can protect it1
[2:20 PM]Simone: To be cleare one of the additional Role we unlocked during the campaing is the Guardian, someone who has devoted theri life to guarding a treasure1
1
[2:20 PM]Simone: @Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe) Yes, that’s correct
[2:21 PM]Simone: Of corse there are ways to change that, for examples some Feats gives you a Free Reroll thank to that sometimes you don’t lose successes when you roll
[2:21 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): If it’s impossible to fail, how do you maintain the proper level of tension? For example, if your PC is attempting to leap over a chasm, and you know that the PC will succeed and definitely not die, where’s the drama?
[2:22 PM]Simone: To allow that an Adventure has 12 Grit points
[2:24 PM]Simone: Each time you fail a dangerous roll (you where trying something really dangerous) you manage to save your life, but you lose some Grit. When you are out of Grit and you fail a dangerous roll you risk to be left for dead(edited)
[2:25 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Ah, I see. I like that.
[2:26 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): I see that every attribute starts with a rating of 2 and that ever skill starts with a rating of 1, so does that mean that the least number of dice you can roll is 3?
[2:27 PM]Simone: You can roll 2 dice if you have suffer from a condition or there are other circumstances that lower your dice pool
[2:27 PM]Simone: You can also roll up to 9 dice if you have some bonuses
[2:29 PM]Simone: But most of the times you will roll 3 to 6 dice
[2:32 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is there a universal maximum number of dice that can be rolled by anyone, PC or NPC? I’m thinking in terms of creatures that should have superhuman Brawn levels, for example.
[2:34 PM]Simone: In the game only the players roll dice, the Director (game master) almost never roll dice, anyway the maximum number is 9 In the Outgunned Corebook there are some feats and special actions for the enemies that allow them to give malus to the heroes to represent great strenght or special weapons
[2:39 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): What is malus?
[2:40 PM]Simone: Usually -1 dice to the adventurer pool
[2:41 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How does combat work?
[2:46 PM]Simone: In a fight there is an Action and a Reaction turn, during the Action turn all the heroes can try to harm the enemies or do whatever they want. If they want to harm an enemy they need to pass an Action Roll in order to do some damage. During the Reaction Turn the enemies try to harm the heroes and they need to pass a Reaction Roll in order to avoid it. While players are free to chose the approach and so the Skill and Attribute they want for an Action Roll, usually during a Reaction Roll the Director forced them to roll certain Attribute and Skills
[2:48 PM]Simone: In the Outgunned corebook, enemies are more tactical than in Outgunned Adventure
[2:50 PM]Simone: Meaning they have Attack, Defense and Grit, but also a number of Feats that can change a fight and also special ction that a Director can activate to have the enemy perform some unusual attack or some other tactic
[2:51 PM]Simone: In Outgunned Adventure we will try to keep things a little bit easier because we think that usualy in the adventure genres fight are important but should not the main focus
[2:55 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How is damage determined?
[2:57 PM]Simone: The damage you suffer is determined by the difficulty of the dangerous rolls Basic you lose 1 Grit Critical you lose 3 Grit Extreme you lose 9 Grit Impossible you lose all your Grit
[2:58 PM]Simone: You can use smaller success to avoid part of the damage, for example a basic success (2 of a kind) allows you to avoid 1 point of damage
[2:59 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How do weapons and armor work? (I realize that armor is unlikely in this setting.)
[3:00 PM]Simone: Melee weapons allows some heroes to use certain Feat, while some firearms can grant bonus dice at a Shoot roll
[3:01 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Does the game include a bestiary?
[3:01 PM]Simone: The game gives you the tools to create your own enemies and give also some examples of premade enemies1
[3:02 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
[3:04 PM]Simone: Yes very briefly There is a free QuickStart of Outgunned Adventure on Drivethru with a shot ready to play inside
[3:04 PM]Simone: If someone wants to actually try the game
[3:05 PM]Simone: Then if you like the shot we will produce Fall of Atlantis a short campaign that will start from that shot as continue the story with 2 more shots
[3:06 PM]Simone: That’s it, I’m done ^^
[3:06 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Would you like to link to that QuickStart?
[3:07 PM]Simone: Of course https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/479497/Outgunned-Adventure–QuickstartDriveThruRPG
[3:07 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Great! Thanks very much for joining us, @Simone!
[3:08 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Thanks as well to all of you who joined from @Simone’s Discord server! You are all always welcome to hang out with us here!2
[3:08 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! Ko-fiBuy Dan Davenport a Coffee. ko-fi.com/gmshoeBecome a supporter of Dan Davenport today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.
[3:08 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!
[3:08 PM]Simone: Thank you!