by Ciarán Searle
#kiwirpg
You are brave and bold agents in an extremely dangerous situation. You have three stats:
Strength, Speed & Smarts
Assign 1d6, 1d8 and 1d10 to the three stats, so you might end up with:
Strength d8, Speed d6, Smarts d10
When you do something that is easy for a brave and bold agent, such as taking out a surprised mook, you are automatically successful. When you attempt something dangerous, decide on your approach and roll the relevant die.
Consult the table to see how successful you are.
On a 5, 6, 9 or 0, there will be a cost. You may suffer a loss of resources, position or any other cost the GM can think of. On top of this, you must modify one of your stats down a die size. d10>d8>d6>d4. As the die gets lower, you are more likely to succeed… but also more likely to die.
If you do die, take on one of the NPC members of the squad and assign dice once more.
|
0 |
Failure with a cost Change one die down |
|
9 |
Failure with a cost Change one die down |
|
8 |
Failure with an opportunity |
|
7 |
Failure with an opportunity |
|
6 |
Success with a cost Change one die down |
|
5 |
Success with a cost Change one die down |
|
4 |
Success with an opportunity |
|
3 |
Success with an opportunity |
|
2 |
Success with an opportunity |
|
1 |
BLAZE OF GLORY! You die, but achieve far and above what you were intending |
“In a Blaze of Glory” is intended to model an elite squad facing deadly circumstances, set in a sci-fi universe like that of Starship Troopers.
In addition to assigning dice values to their stats, each character should have something that makes them unique, such as “I’m the one with the huge gun.” or “My character has rocket boots.”
Mechanically, these gimmicks may allow the players to do something without rolling, or to attempt something that someone else could not.
After we know about the player characters, we should find out a bit about the rest of the squad. Get each player to tell you the name of their character’s favourite member of the squad and why they like them. Then, get them to tell you the name of their least favourite character and why they dislike them. Leave a couple of additional members of the squad unnamed. We can find out about them later.
A cost could be a new obstacle, a loss of resources, a known threat getting worse, an injury, the death of an NPC, or any number of other things. (The only way a PC will die is by rolling a 1.)
An opportunity could be a shortcut, a useful piece of equipment, a chance to strike the enemy where it hurts, a new ally, information, or any number of other things.
Tell the players the hellish mission they have been sent on. Perhaps it is to rescue the Space President from the Bug Planet. Have each player describe one of the locations they have heard the squad will have to pass through and what is dangerous about it. Assemble these as a rough map. Think about the particular threats that might be associated with that area.
Whatever your setting of choice, the key ideas are that your characters are highly competent, but still facing incredible danger and almost impossible odds.