Introducing The be67 Bubblegum Barometer & talking state of the blog

Hey folks, it's been a while ... Mainly due to us moving to greener pastures (will miss Leipzig somewhat, still, we had to get going), but also because our internet moved waaaaaay slower than we did and that resulted in me not being able to do any proper blogging last month. Also other things I had to put some work in. It had been a tough couple of weeks, all things considered. I'm mostly pretty plastered (moving out with renovation, moving in with lots of new furniture and some renovation, some bureaurocratic shenanigans, taxes and so on and so forth). Hence the update here on the blog only today, with some extra content from the upcoming Retroclone Mutant be67 ...

Most days, these days ... [source]

So, where's be67 at?

It's coming along nicely, I'd say. 75 pages so far, I hope to get this finished enough to allow for some editing in two weeks or so. Then layouting and getting the pdf live. After that test printing and getting the PoD version out there as well.

Since I'll be doing nothing else but this from now on, I'm somewhat confident to have both available early April, the pdf maybe even a bit earlier. I'll offer and coordinate some one shots via MeWe, I think. Any interested parties here on the blog and without MeWe account should drop me a comment here (moderation is on, so if you want to share contact information, just add that it's not for publication and I'll delete the comment instead).

Other than that, writing the game forced me to take a closer look at some of the aspect I more or less handwaved in our house campaign. This game will be a RETROCLONE in as much as it's very closely related to the D&D RC:

• Race as Class, but with a tool to build your own Classes
  
• Descending AC, but made flexible to accommodate gun fights
• Differing xp goals for Classes, but offering an explanation why it needs to be so
• Differend combat matrices according to Base Classes

It's all there and very much following how I understand the game. It will be a MUTANT in as much as I heavily houseruled aspects from other D&D variants (Ardui, HackMaster 4e) into the game and made it my own by:

• Keeping basic combat, but adding A LOT to make this the bloodiest D&D clone out there
• Taking the principles of earning xp, but made something else entirely out of it (combat will, for instance, result in grindhouse effects that'll earn a character or even the group extra xp).
• I'll offer rules to simplify bookkeeping and shortcut aspects of the original game I'm not that fond of (in the best tradition of OSR game designing)

... and so on. I hope it'll not only end up being the book I use to play the game I love, but that it'll also be a treasure trove of ideas for you guys to enjoy and use! 

Introducing: The Bubblegum Barometer (example from the book)

This game needs proper rules for gun fights, naturally. D&D doesn't lend itself to it easily, I found. The rules are a bit too static for it, especially if you aim for something more ... cinematic.

Like this infamous firefight ... [source]

It needs more movement and flexible AC ... and keeping track of ammunition will definitely slow down the game as soon as lots of shooting with lots of shooters is involved. We found solutions for all of that, one of them being the so-called Bubblegum Barometer (mainy because I like how that sounds), which allows to bridge lax bookkeeping of ammunition with some movie drama.

Note: the text I'm about to share will reference Damage Dice and it means that in be67 characters don't do damage as per individual weapon, but have differing Damage Dice according to Weapon Category. For instance could a character have a d6 for heavy weaponry and then deal at least d6 damage with said weaponry. There is more to it (could be more d6 due to a good roll or even a higher die due to getting some help), but that's the basic idea ...

So here's the excerpt from the book:

AMMUNITION (optional rule)

We are willing to offer some concessions regarding the strict documentation of ammunition. For one, this is about playing the equivalent of ‘bad’ (but ‘good’!) movies, so events like reloading or situations where characters are ‘out of ammo’ should follow narrative purposes more than those of a quasi-simulation of combat.

Thinking of this as an extended exchange of blows should help getting the idea, but having a character punch a hole into a zombie with their bare fists will do that too. be67 isn’t about the weapons one uses but more about the damage they do with what they got. Different set of implications altogether, as should be obvious at this point in the book.

That said, there is nothing hindering you from making the bookkeeping mandatory for ammunition, we’d just recommend being lax about it, if for no other reason than combat being complex enough in other areas and adding ammunition to that would slow things down considerably (while taking away some of the fun, in our opinion).

Here is another aspect to this that’s worth considering: combat rounds are exchanges of bullets, but decidedly not just one shot per Combat Unit per round. Bullets are flying around, like, all the time, sometimes just to Counter someone’s Combat Action, sometimes just to open a door. There’s no good way we could come up with that would manage to take all of that into account … so we discarded the notion.

We will, however, offer a compromise of sorts. Add some drama, if you will. We call it

The Bubblegum Barometer (The BB)

(and hope you all get the reference). For that, the GM needs to take into account if the characters had an opportunity to load up on ammunition (or made a habit out of mentioning doing so). If the situation is unclear (that old argument ‘But my character would have …!’), a Funk Test should be allowed to establish the grade of preparedness a character brings to a gunfight instead (Funk+d20 vs. Difficulty). Decided through dice or judged by GM call, the BB should be the guideline:

• >20 (unprepared) – immediate use of the BB (+4) & every round after that (adding +1each round)

• 20 to 24 (somewhat loaded) - immediate use of the BB & every round after that (adding +1 each round)

• 25 to 29 (properly prepared) – use the BB every time ammunition-heavy Mode is used & add +1 to each time after the first

• 29< (loaded, they brought spares & extras) – no immediate problems, they are loaded (no rolls necessary in this fight unless Character shares ammunition with someone else)

To test the BB now, the GM takes the Damage Die (DD) of the weapon a character used that round and rolls it after all Actions are resolved to find out if the next round is the last round the character has ammunition (roll 1DD vs. Difficulty). If the result matches or is lower than the BB Difficulty (which is at least 1, otherwise modified as indicated above), the character is running low and will be out of ammo end of next round unless they do something about it.

Changing weapons will start the BB at 1 again, for instance, but other characters might supply as well. If ‘loaded’ characters share their ammunition, they start to count as ‘properly prepared’ from then on. If those ‘properly prepared’ share ammunition, they are reduced to being ‘somewhat loaded’ from then on. Sharing ammunition while being ‘somewhat loaded’ or lower, will raise the BB +1 immediately (and additionally to the +1 per round). Characters will run dry fast like that.

Beyond that, enemy interaction (through disarming and whatnot) and Critical Failures will have weapons destroyed or lost, regardless of the ammunition carried.

And that's it: if it isn' established, a roll decides if you are running out and how fast (close to what you might know from games like Macchiatto Monsters, if I remember correctly). Characters will have a round to react (or are at least able to shoot one more round) and ammunition is properly limited in a meaningful way, as far as combat tactics are concerned.

And if you read this carefully, you might have gotten a glimpse of what else is in store, like weapon modes. It's a wild little system and, if our play-tests are any indication, a blast to play ... You'll see :)

I hope this whetted your interest a bit.

So much for posting at least 3 times a month ...

Yeah, that didn't work so well last month. But I'll make up for it. I might have to, as I finally took a chance and made this little enterprise a project of self-employment. The opportunity arose and I took it. Now I'm publishing full time, we'll see how it goes. For one, I have no excuses to slack here on the blog.

But I'll not just talk about the products I aim to publish this year or in the future* (although I hope there's interest for that as well). It'll still be about game design (I'm still building on lots of games, you know) and maybe I should experiment a little with additional content. Maybe establishing some sort of Campaign setting?

Not sure.

For now I wanted to let you know that things will be happening here on the blog and with Disoriented Ranger Publishing in general.

 

[source]

 

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While we are at it, that module I wrote and published 5 years ago (MONKEY BUSINESS) isn't PWYW anymore. I thought long and hard about that, and to be totally honest, I came to the conclusion that the PWYW selling modell, for all it's benefits, isn't really supported at drivethru. PDFs need to cost to have any worth as far as the marketing tools available there are concerned (no 'medals' unless pdf units sold, for instance). So it's 2 USD now, which still is a steal, considering all the material you get for that. The good reviews justify that as well ... People I don't know liked it, it seems. Good enough.

As it happens, drivethruRPG has a sale right now and Monkey Business is among that. 30% off. It's an even better deal :)

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* As you might be aware, it's Reflected Digressions (collected essays), be67 (Retroclone Mutant) and The Rise of Robo-Hitler (adventure module for be67/LL/MF) for this year.