Need advice on one shot i started working on

inspiration

#1

Hi everyone! i have started working on oneshot with ICRPG system and will gladly accept help/advice.

It will be a western in a style of old action movies, where two players take roles of young bounty hunter and old veteran that became priest.

System should encourage players to fight together. There should be sense of synergy between their abilities. Maybe some elements of gambling? Where if they role well, they will dominate their enemies.
Right now, my idea is to add new currency that they can spend on abilities. If one player couldnt finish enemy in his turn, his teammate can spend this currency and finish them off, something like instant action from other games.
For example, there is an ambush and priest is attacked from behind with an axe. Bounty hunter can spend his currency to make action out of turn and try to shot guy with an axe.

I want players feel like heros of action movies, where they go through mobs of enemies in cool style.

Is there already system similar to that, or some other sources of inspiration? I looked into ghost mountain from ICRPG rulebook, but it doesnt look right to me. I want players feel like action heros and this setting/rules doesnt help with that. But i havent tried it, so i might be wrong.

Will be gratefull to get your advice/examples of existing systems.


#2

Maybe try Savage Worlds or GURPS both have Western plugins. Otherwise, a Modified Heroes Unlimited, for the hero aspects, or Kids on Bikes but modded/reskinned to be Cowboys on Horsebacks.

I have not read it but I know of Aces & Eights for its gunslinging mechanics.

I think there was a Red Dead RPG coming at some point.

https://www.goblincrafted.com/recommendations/genre/Western/


#3

I love cooking up with rules for this kind of stuff, but for a One-shot it should focus more on the feeling and story than the actual rules. Westerns are about the law against the chaos and lawlessness of the world. No one is there to save the heroes if they fail. Clashing views and revenge plots aplenty. The Bad Guys can be simply selfish and evil, but it’s more interesting if they are sympathetic as well (The mayor hurt them so now they want revenge). It doesn’t need to be balanced, and if the question of balance comes up, just be sure to err on the side of the players.

This can be done in ICRPG, but @Jaide did well to recommend other systems.

If you wanted to run it in ICRPG, keep it loose on distances and ranges (Close, Medium, Far, REALLY Far)

Normal mobs can be run in big singular monster entities:

1 :heart:
+5 to rolls (reduced to +2 when mob is first hit)
1d8 gun damage (goes down to d6 when first hit)
Mobs can affect multiple targets in a zone
Mobs can only take 2 actions a turn
Mobs cannot benefit from COVER

Or you can run individually as 1HP enemies that go down after a successful hit (No damage roll needed). You can mix and match these versions as needed for GM versatility OR pick one to reduce cognitive load.

For players, instead of normal ACTION/MOVE, you could do a 3-Bullet turn (very much like Pathfinder’s 3 Action Points Turn) where the players can do an Action, Attack, Move, etc., using one of their Bullets per round. This method allows the user to just go all out and do 3 attacks in one turn, or move move shoot, or move DON’T DIE ON ME, MAN and shoot.

A Meta-Currency you can use instead of the Hero Die can be GRIT (3 maximum). These can be used OUTSIDE of their normal turn order to assist each other (Give ADVANTAGE to attempt roll) and help protect (Reduce the damage of your ally by 1d8; and explain how your quick thinkin’ saved their hide!) or finish off as needed (Max Damage on the assisted attack; If enemy is not down’d, they must SAVE or fall down dying).

Now we introduce The Devil’s Gamble mechanic. Get a deck of playing cards and then play a simple game of HIGH OR LOW with the player. This activates when players use GRIT. If the player wins, the action only requires the one GRIT. If the player loses, then the action requires TWO GRIT!!! Pay the Devil up in either Scenario. If you can’t pay the GRIT, the player character can either choose to have their action fail OR succeed with a cost!

Another Classic and very traditional Western Shoot Out trope is COVER! Keep it simple by just having 3 tiers of cover and they just give Temp HP. The tiers can be as simple as 5, 10, 15 HP. If they move away from the cover, then they lose that Temp HP. Cover does not add defense or AC.


#4

I think the advice you’ve gotten thus far is quite good. That said, I think with minor modification, Ghost Mountain as a bas would serve well your purposes. I’ve developed some resources you might find inspiring/helpful:

Good luck!


#5

@The_Merlitron @SpicyVikingTofu @Jaide Thank you guys for your feedback!
I need some time to read through your suggestions but il do it.
I also watched video about action oriented monsters, so im inspired to try making npc with this in mind.
Should i post new rules/additions here in future? Or people dont re-read threads? im new to this forum, so i dont know.


#6

Sure post what you make, I’m sure some one will find it and use it again and maybe expand on it. As inspiration strikes me for my own games I always skim through the posts here to see if some one else had the idea before me to see how they approached game design.


#7

Check out the superhero world in the Master volume. It introduces a resource called STUN which may help with what you want.

I am running a Swords & Sorcery game that uses a variation on the STUN rules to allow for characters in chainmail bikinis to still feel like heroes. For instance, you can spend one Vitality to ignore 1D4 points of damage from an attack, or to make a non-natural 20 into a crit, etc.

Also, I have found that liberal use of “your weapon does something cool on 15+” rules can add heaps of spice. Things like “fast” that grant you an extra attack on 15+, or “stuns” that makes the NPC lose its next action, etc, give players a sense of power when rolling well.


#8

I should use the 15+ thing more.