All-Out Playtest 2
This was a direct continuation of my previous playtest with some new rules adjustments.
Players
My brother, playing Fast-Hands Finn
My daughter, playing Brute Melee
Character creation
Nothing about character creation had changed significantly from when my brother last played this system (although I've removed a couple of options from the skills list), so he had no trouble rolling up a character quickly. My daughter needed help, obviously. Despite admitting she was bored a couple minutes in, she did well. I was impressed with her thoughtfulness regarding her character choices: she opted to not take the Intimidation skill because she worried how that would impact her relationship with the people of the town. She also reckoned that she ought to take a spare set of weapons and armour with her to ensure that her uncle's character was well provisioned (he tried to explain that he was providing his own weapons and armour, but she insisted on having spares handy). In the end they wound up with characters like so:
Fast-Hand Finn Senses 1, Agility 1, Educated 1 Guns, Repair Revolver, Ceramic Armour, Telescope, Damaged Map, Healing Serum
Brute Melee Toughness 1, Brawn 1, Manipulate 1 Radioactive, Hand-to-Hand Sword, Sword-Armour (made from broken swords), Shield-Armour (made from broken shields), Stone Spiked Axe, Healing Serum
I asked everyone where they came from. Finn is from T-Town, the main hub town. His real name is "Finn McCool" after the Irish folklore, but he thinks that's cringe and goes by Fast-Hand Finn instead. Everyone else finds this far more cringe. Brute Melee is from "The Land of Buff" which is apparently a major city a day's travel away in which they have no electricity, all eat tons of protein, and are all super buff. Apparently the common catchphrase is to slam one fist into the palm of the other hand and say "so crisp!" I'm in love with this, and it's now official setting lore. Apparently Mr. Brute is in T-Town to learn the ways of electricity.
The session
The map I provided for the session:
The mayor of town begs for someone to follow up on the events at the dam - find out what happened to Harry and Harriet, destroy the bandits once and for all, and restore the dam's power-generating capabilities. Brute and Finn agree to the job. They get the materials that Harry and Harriet had set aside for just this sort of occasion: Binoculars, a radio, and matches.
Brute insists on going to the town's water plant and trying to trade his sword away for food and water. The proprietors are reluctant, but after Brute points out that there are bandits near the town (and rolls well), they see the value of being armed. They trade away two bottles of water and a potato in exchange for the sword. They then decide they need a second radio and set out for The Yard in the hopes of trading for one.
I rolled for random encounters and lo: one happened! I rolled 2d6: the first one determined what kind of thing they meet (Autoglots), and the second die determined how many (3). They encounter two figures walking down the road accompanied by a flying tri-rotor drone. They try and fail to hide (Brute is too tall to fit behind a cactus and Finn makes an unconvincing rock), so they wind up approaching peacefully. One figure is dressed head-to-toe in robes obscuring its body, while the other figure is dressed in normal traveling clothes. The drone buzzes. They try to engage the traveller in conversation but quickly discover he's incapable of more than empty platitudes and small-talk. After a few questions and a successful roll, they decide that he must be a hypnotized thrall of the Autoglots, headed for T-Town! They decide to try to ignore them and move on, but as soon as they do the cloaked figure shouts a command in a robot voice: "ATTACK."
The combat is brief, but satisfying. In the revised rules both 5 and 6 are considered successes, so both sides hit twice as hard as before. I also changed the rules so that you can use as many points of armour at once as you like, which burns through armour a lot faster but keeps the lethal blows at bay. The cloaked figure (a chrome-hulled Autoglot Hypnologist) gets chopped in half by an enormous axe swing by Brute, and drops its silver Scrambler pistol. The drone manages to chop through Brute's armour with its sharp rotors, but Finn smashes it out of the air. The hypnotized thrall lands a few weak blows on Finn but Brute and Finn gang up and choke the poor fellow out, leaving him alive but unconscious.
I've adjusted the way tests work in general, and adjusted some combat rules. Now any die showing a 5 or 6 is a success, so the odds of success are twice as high. In order to avoid too many one-hit-KOs I've also decided to remove the encumbrance rules entirely, allowing players to carry as much armour as they please. They can also use as many usage points as the like in response to incoming damage, as opposed to only being able to use one at a time. This means that armour is often smashed in a single hit, but it feels dramatic and keeps the characters alive for longer.
They pick up the Scrambler and shoot it at the enthralled guy as he starts to wake up, putting him under Brute's control. They find him too scrambled to be useful, so they leave him leaning against a cactus and hope that the effect will wear off on its own.
As they continue along the road to the Yard they spot something out across the desert - there's a gang of flying robots making a beeline from the Yard to the location of the recent scuffle! This confirms two suspicions for the group: The Autoglots are able to communicate over long distances somehow (they clearly know the location of the scuffle), and the Yard is has been taken over by Autoglots!
They abandon their original plan to head for the Yard and instead turn due west towards the Junkhole to try their luck. But at this point it's already after 9pm in real life, so it's time for bed for kiddo!
This playtest felt much better than the last one. Successes were more common, keeping things moving forward, but they weren't so omnipresent that every challenge was trivialized. We only had one combat but it did not drag at the end, and the hits felt more exciting. I'll have to revisit my ideas about character progression though, as each die added to the pool offers comparatively enormous benefits. I think each level provides new stat points, with new skills every other level, maybe?
Looting remains an unanswered question.