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Author Topic: All Outta Bubblegum  (Read 37410 times)

Klear

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All Outta Bubblegum
« on: December 16, 2012, 09:33 »

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 Bubblegum

I thought about it a bit and decided to run a game here, if there's interest.

Basic rules

If 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."

Setting

The 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.

Characters

You 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 details

I'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.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2012, 09:47 by Klear »
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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2012, 10:17 »

I'm in.  And I don't even chew gum [in real life] -- so I'm always outta gum.

Does this mean I'm a badass by definition [in real life]?  =P
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Uitë

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2012, 10:22 »

I'm definitely interested!
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ParaSait

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2012, 10:33 »

Lol this sounds fun. Count me in.
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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2012, 10:09 »

Welp, you know me well. I'm in.
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ZicherCZ

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2012, 12:59 »

Does this mean I'm a badass by definition [in real life]?  =P
Find and consume a health globe while you're at full health. If you are still overpowered after a few minutes, you are a badass by definition ;).
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HexaDoken

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2012, 04:37 »

If I am out of bubblegum and suddenly a CLOSED DOOR blocks my path, can I atleast cheat out and shout "GUYS HELP IGOR DOOR CONFUSES IGOR" and hope for a less crazy teammate come and open the door?

That makes me think of a strategy where one of the players purposely wastes bubblegum left and right and transform into a machine of fury, while all the other players run behind and help him with the "strange gizmos of the world".
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Klear

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2012, 05:39 »

When you get All Outta Bubblegum, I'd advise you to solve ALL your problems with violence. I'm gonna allow kicking the door down to be considered asskicking. Yelling for others to help you is fine, I think, but don't forget - being all outta bubblegum doesn't make you stupid. It makes you so filled with rage that you can physically incapable of anything that is not asskicking, so something more along the lines of:

A *bangs on a massive door, nearly dislocating his shoulder and breaking his arm* "OPEN YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!"
B *comes to the door, presses the handle gently and opens it*
A *watches in disbelief, loses a bit of ego. Optionally, proceeds to kick B's ass*

In any case, upon careful reading of the rules, I won't force you to roll for opening doors, picking stuff up etc. With an initial 1/5th chance of losing bubblegum after doing anything, things would probably deteriorate too fast. These actions will be forbidden once All Outta Bubblegum, though, with some really basic exceptions, like walking and talking. When talking AOB, you should roleplay somebody who just lost their last bubblegum and is pissed... No diplomacy for you in this state, except, you know, the oldest kind of diplomacy.

Oh, and you'll probably be allowed to share bubblegum in extreme circumstances, or maybe I'll allow you to find a pack of gum from time to time if you spend too much time AOB.

So we've got thelaptop, Uitë, ParaSait, HexaDoken... what about you, ZicherCZ?

We should be ready to start. Post the names of your characters and some small background - a couple of sentences is enough to get started, the rest can be filled by roleplaying during the game.

Edit: One more things - unless anyone objects, I'd prefer to handle all the rolling (I'll be fair - honestly!), but if you want to roll yourself, it's OK. In any case, let me handle the outcomes.
« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 07:59 by Klear »
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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2012, 08:15 »

Care to post an example of roleplaying format? A short act when somebody, say, blasts in the room, does some actions that require rolling, fail there, succeed here, and get out. And this is considering that players can't read GM's mind and do not explicitly know what is considered asskicking, what is not, and what is a free action. This is so I don't act ubersilly.

Final one. Is the "bubblegum" stat virtual or not? As in, do we actually carry actual sticks of actual bubblegum in our actual pockets, or this is just a "creatively named" meter of how pissed off we are?
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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2012, 09:20 »

Final one. Is the "bubblegum" stat virtual or not? As in, do we actually carry actual sticks of actual bubblegum in our actual pockets, or this is just a "creatively named" meter of how pissed off we are?
This is a PBF, does it matter? :P
Welp, anyways...


Name: Johnny Balls
Background:
A friend of Duke. He wears a leather jacket, a worn jeans, sunglasses, and he has black hair with a ridiculous amount of grease in it. He's not quite as badass as Duke, but at least he likes to pretend he is.
Hobbies: Smoking, drinking beer, hanging out at stripclubs, kicking male ass, and doing... other stuff... to female ass.
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Klear

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2012, 09:28 »

OK, I'll post some mock gameplay later. In any case - and maybe I should have put this in a big disclaimer in the OP - this will be a highly experimental game. I'll probably have to update the rules a bit on the go if it turns out unplayable. It doesn't help that this is the first time I'm GMing ;)

On the other hand, ubersilly is the correct word for what I expect to happen, though it will depend on how you decide to play the game. I'll try to stay as neutral as possible, but feel free to embrace the silliness or cheesiness of the setting.

Hopefully, there won't be too many actions that are bornerline asskicking and normal. As for free actions, I'll have you roll on stuff which would require a skill check in most other RPG systems, so anything requiring specific skill, concentration or luck.

As for the bubblegum - I'm leaning towards literal bubblegum, though you will probably be able to understand what I write metaphorically as well as literally.

Edit:

OK, here's how I figure the game could look like - though in this fake game I didn't give the fake players too much room to roleplay, writing their imputs as commands in a text adventure game - that's because I was lazy writing it =P

There are 3 players:

Abber - gum: 6
Badburn - gum: 7
Cigg - gum: 7


Quote from: Klear
You are in a hallway. There are three nondescript white doors along the left wall. You can hear grunting from somewhere behind the corner on the other side of the hallway.

Quote from: Abber
I try to quietly open the closest door.

Quote from: Badburn
I sneak to the end of the hallway and try to determine how far is the grunting

Quote from: Klear:
Abber tries to open the closest door, but it seems to be locked. Meanwhile, Badburn sneaks to the end of the hallway, listening intently. It sounds like a pig cop standing a couple metres to the left of the corner.

Quote from: Cigg
I use my knife to try and pick the lock of the closest door.

Quote from: Badburn
I peek carefully around the corner.

Quote from: Klear
@Cigg - You roll 9 on a standard action - fail!
@Badburn - You'll have to roll standard action, or the pig cop might see you.

Cigg pushes Abber aside and jams his knife into the lock, but he doesn't manage to achieve anything. Annoyed, he reaches into his pocket and eats one of his remaining bublegums.

Quote from: Badburn
OK. Crap. I rolled a 9 as well =(

Quote from: Abber
I push Cigg away as well and try to kick the door open. Rolling for asskicking - 2. Ouch.

Quote from: Klear
...when he's done with the lockpicking, Cigg gets pushed away as well, as Abber readies to kick the door open. His mighty boot impacts on the weak wooden door, but it refuses to budge. Unfortunately, the thunderous crash comes just as Badburn peeks around the corner. He finds himself staring in the eyes of an enormous porkalized LAPD officer brandishing a shotgun. The pig cop is startled but for a second, and then he aims his weapon straight at Badburn.

Quote from: Badburn
Crap. I hide back behind the corner, fists ready.

Quote from: Abber
I run towards the end of the hallway, to help Badburn

Quote from: Cigg
I try to to open the other two doors.

Quote from: Klear
@Badburn: I rolled a standard action for you to see if you can duck in time. 1 - you're lucky.

Badburn quickly ducks behind the corner. A shotgun blast roars a split second later, biting a crater in the plaster wall. He realizes the pig cop will have to reload next, creating a small window of opportunity.

Meanwhile, cigg ignores the engagement and checks the other doors. The second one is locked as well, but he manages to open the third one. It leads into a small office.

Quote from: Abber
I run around the corner and jump-kick the pig cop before he can reload!

Quote from: Badburn
Damn, I wanted to do that. And that standard action for ducking sucks. It should have been a free action =(
I go after Abber, ready to kick the pig cop's ass.

Quote from: Cigg
I examine the office.

Quote from: Klear
Abber runs around the corner fraction of a second after the shotgun blast and jumps at the pig cop. Unfortunately, he miscalculates his own speed and completely misses his target, landing on the floor a metre behind him. (you rolled 5 for asskicking) Badburn follows his example, becoming a wihrlwind of fists that falls on the pig cop, who's trying in vain to reload his shotgun. Badburn manages to rip it away from his arms and land a few punches, before the beast pushes him back and assumes defensive stance. (8, you barely made it)
Meanwhile, Cigg finds himself in a small office. There is a desk with a computer on it and filing cabinet that seems to be locked. There is a playboy calendar on the wall and throughout the window you can see a squad of aliens marching somewhere south.

Quote from: Abber
Is the shotgun close enough for me to reach? If so, I grab it, reload it and blast the pig cop away shouting "Makin' bacon."

Quote from: Badburn
I. Kick. Ass.

Quote from: Klear
Badburn quickly regains composure and immediately jumps back into the fight with the mutant. Though his opponent much bigger than him, he keeps pummeling him and dodging his attacks, until finally the beast seems to have had enough. (rolled 9) Suddenly it seems like it's caught a second breath and is ready for more, towering over Badburn, who stands ready to defend himself. Just then the pig cop's head explodes in a bloody spray of bone shards and grey matter. As the mutant topples over, Abber is revealed behind, smoking shotgun in his hands. "Makin' bacon," he says. (you rolled a 10 - lucky bastard =) You now have a shotgun and 12 rounds.

« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 10:28 by Klear »
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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2012, 10:27 »

Name: Ruhig Joe
Background: Just a regular Joe working as a developer in some unknown small-time start-up.  He's anything but kick-ass.
Hobbies: Reading, writing, knitting.
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HexaDoken

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2012, 11:26 »

I don't like physical gum :U I'm not even chewing gum.

Name: Kharana Zephronic, AKA Khran, AKA 'Mercer'
Disclaimer: The name is stolen as feck, and even without any permission whatsoever. But it's so badass I can't resist. Name belongs to Khran.

Bio:
« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 11:28 by HexaDoken »
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Uitë

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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2012, 16:21 »

Name: Lucas Graves

Background: Lucas was a criminal investigator with the LAPD. When the invasion started, he was on a camping trip in the mountains, and on his return he found many of his friends mutated into hideous beasts. Now it's time to dust off his weapons training and avenge his fallen comrades. No relation to a certain general.

EDIT: I'm imagining him as mid to late thirties, single, and married to his relatively quiet desk job for years now. And that's just the way he likes it. He's somewhat out of shape, but not horribly so. Mostly he's a serious guy, but he does appreciate the occasional joke. He's the kind of person who introduces himself as Lucas, but doesn't mind when others shorten it to Luke. He knows how to kick ass if he needs to, but it's not easy, and it doesn't come naturally to him.
« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 16:41 by Uitë »
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Re: All Outta Bubblegum
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2012, 21:20 »

I haven't played a Duke Nukem game since I was a little kid.  But man this sounds awesome.  I'd like to join as well.

Name: Richard Johnson

Background: Richard, or "Richy" as his mommy calls him, is a 21 year old college student majoring in chemistry.  He is a nerd, a dweeb, a geek, and of course a wuss.  Or people call him a wuss at least.  And Richard is tired of it.  He wants to show everyone that they were wrong about Richard Johnson.  So he decides that he's going to prove he's a man.  Richard polishes his glasses, wears his cleanest cargo pants and short-sleeve dress shirt (with pocket protector of course), and heads off to a nightclub one night.  And the test of his manhood approaches...
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