Due to all the research for DukeRL, I'm pretty immersed in everything related to Duke and I came across this simple and quite possibly awesome RPG system:
All Outta BubblegumI thought about it a bit and decided to run a game here, if there's interest.
Basic rulesIf you read the rules, you'll see it's simplicity itself - the players only have a single "stat", and that is the amount of bubblegum they carry around, which starts at 8 and can go all the way down to 0. All possible actions are divided between "asskicking" and "everything else". To succeed in any normal action (opening a door, hacking a computer, persuading someone etc.), you have to roll a 1d10 and get a number less than or equal to the amount of bubblegum you possess. To succeed in an asskicking (kicking a door open, blasting an alien with a shotgun, beating someone to get him to do what you want etc.), you also roll a 1d10, but you need to score more than how many sticks of bubblegum you have.
You lose bubblegum whenever you fail at a standard action, when somebody kicks your ass or you can spend one to guarantee a success at a non-asskicking related activity.
That means that at first the players will be quite inefficient asskickers, more likely to succeed through other means, but with time and bubblegum chewing, you'll become mean badasses until, eventually, you run all outta gum. The good thing is that at that point you will automatically succeed in any asskicking you decide to unleash. The bad thing is that you won't be able to tie your shoelaces, unless you manage to turn the act into an asskicking.
I will keep track of an additional stat - ego. It will go up with every spectacular display of asskicking and serve as hippoints in the AOB stage, and get lowered by enemy attacks and by some really embarrassing failures, asskicking or not. This will be a secret stat - after all, no shame in having a gigantic ego, but you shouldn't obsess about it. I'll sometimes let you know of the changes of this by saying stuff like "You feel like a total badass right now." or "having failed to kick down the door, a wave of insecurity washes over you."
SettingThe game is initially set in LA, Red Light District, just before the events of Duke Nukem 3D (if you recall, he comes back from space only to find the alien assault is already in progress). The LAPD gets mutated into pig cops, babes are abducted all over the place and nasty aliens swarm the streets. The whole world is wondering when is Duke coming to save us, and you players form a rag-tag group trying to survive in the meantime and maybe even take the fight to the enemy, if you will be so incline. There's going to be an option to go to space and in any case you'll be able to witness some classic scenes from the game, maybe even meeting the King himself. It is Duke's task to save the world, though, so your primary concern should be survival. And who knows? Maybe one or two of you whom I don't kill off will grow to become almost Duke's equal.
CharactersYou can create any sort of character - an EDF recruit on leave, a drug dealer whose hoes got abducted by the aliens, a homeless guy who, seeing the aliens attack the City of Angels, decides that "this will not stand" or whatever else you fancy. That said, the game will begin just before the initial alien attack
edit: in a night club, to be precise, so don't put the aliens in your background wihtout consulting me, perhaps. Or you could play just a generic guy and let him evolve on his own. No need to get too elaborate here.
Additional detailsI'll be probably tinkering with the rules on the go, and in any case I'll ultimately decide things by feel, so there might be inconsistencies in my rulings. Just deal with it. What I say goes. I'll take the precise number rolled into account to see how well you succeeded, or how miserably you failed. I will also favour you based on how badass action you try to perform. If you succeed on a roll to see if you can kick a pig cop with all your might, you'll hurt the enemy. If you roll the same number to grab him by the tusks and ram his head into a toilet while saying "You need to take a bath," an instant kill is pretty much guaranteed, as well as an ego boost. Shouting a one-liner and then failing to deliver could hurt your ego though.
Also, it will ultimately be me who decides if some action is asskicking or not. You can of course ask me before trying something that falls in the grey-area. For example - jumping through a second floor window and breaking your fall on a fruit stall - you'd best hope you have a lot of bubblegum, since that is not asskicking, even though it is quite badass. Jumping through a second floor window and breaking your fall on an unsuspecting pig cop though, that is asskicking. Very simple actions like taking (except persuading, seducing etc), walking around, running outside combat or hiding in a cupboard will be free, no rolls necessary. That last one will definitely hurt your ego, of course. Some combat actions, such as avoiding an enemy's charge are still non-asskicking. Anything to do with violence, especially the unnecessary kind, will probably fall down to asskicking though. Sometimes I might decide to split a complicated action into two - if there is an enforcer in the room, turned back to you, sneaking up on him and then strangling him would be two separate actions.
Oh, and to try to avoid this game stalling and dying out, I'll simply run the actions that you write and if someone doesn't play for some time, we'll just assume that the character stayed with the group and did nothing important. I'll also be quite tempted to kill you off when I get the chance, while allowing anybody to pretty much join at any time with a new character, so if the original players lose interest, the game can continue with new ones. If you really
really don't want me to kill your character, there's an easy defense - make them memorable and interesting. A group of tough-as-nails marines, each with a mysterious past and motivated by some personal tragedy will not make it too long in this game =P
So anyway... anybody interested? Questions? Suggestions?
I'd like to get this started as soon as possible. I'll just need a couple of days to make a draft of the overall story and 2-3 willing players and we can start, I think.
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Topic: All Outta Bubblegum (Read 47054 times)