Outgunned: Corebook

by Riccardo "Rico" Sirignano, Simone Formicola

Genres: Role Playing Games, Reference, Nonfiction, Gaming

213 pages, Hardcover

Published January 3, 2024

Reviews

[Jefferson]

Most role playing game rulebooks are hopelessly overwritten, but this one is light and breezy, getting to the point without bogging down the rules with unnecessary detail. The game system looks well suited to the action genre, with enough rules to make it a game but not overwhelming players with too much to remember.

[Dom Mooney]

Detailed review here: https://delta-pavonis.blogspot.com/20...

TL;DR: Beautifully illustrated, cleanly laid out and typo free, Outgunned looks and feels like a fresh and fun game with simple and effective mechanics. It's giving me the GM-tingles, and that's always a good sign.

[GreyIC]

Rating is based on a read-through. The true value of a set of RPG rules is in the play, of course.

The book oozes appeal and leans into the tropes it's trying to emulate. That is, every action movie ever made!

The rules are light with alliterative names applied to many mechanics (e.g., grit, spotlight, etc.). The system is an attribute + skill, dice-pool system using d6's in a way I haven't seen before with matches driving success level (for example, a pool of six dice rolled with 3 4's and no other duplicates is worth more than a pool with only a double 6).

The system is a little too narrative for my tastes. Enemies, for example are essentially a pool of hit points (a.k.a., grit) with potential rider effects. But that grit could be one big bouncer or a bunch of goons. An enemy with ten grit could conceivably be a mob of 50 katana-wielding yakuza. How do you narrate the loss of one grit? The dispatch of 10 or so enemies? Some folks are good at this sort of gaming. I'm not.

Still, looks like a ton of fun.

['Nathan Burgoine]

Overall, I liked this game, but I have a few caveats, which you can read about on my blog for Tabletop Tuesday, but the quick version is: if you’re a fan of high-adrenaline, “it’s an all or nothing” dice system where you will fail—and sometimes fail more often than not—and need to stretch your improv skills to keep things moving forward? Outgunned might be right up your alley.

[Steve Lucido]

An exciting an innovative set of rules. The system is highly narrative and these rules really seem to capture the feel of the movies it is trying to recreate. Now this is all on Paper and I can't comment on how it actually plays until I've put it into practice, but I'm impressed. The layout of the book is very friendly and easy to read. It could have been laid out a bit better but overall I'm excited to try this out at some point.

[Michael Perez]

Easy to read, great examples, small page count but chock full of useful and straight to the point rules. The flavor pictures and text are amazing without interfering with the main ideas. Ran my first one-shot with it and it ran like a dream. This will stay in my rotation for a very long time I think.

[Francisco Becerra]

Even though this is a light rules RPG, it has too many sitiational quirks and perks rules. Otherwise, this was a much needed addendum to RPGs: one based solely on action movies, without resorting to magic, tech or even doom and gloom. A very refreshing take!

[Peter]

I love the subject matter, but this is definitely not my type of system.

It requires a lot of on-the-fly creativity from the GM and is, at the same time, very railroady. I know the whole rollercoaster saying, but I tend to disagree.
Feels a bit half finished in ways, at times.

[Tom Peterson]

One of the best RPGs I've read / played / run. They capture perfectly the cinematic action genre. The system is easy, forgiving and makes you feel like you are in a block buster action movie. The books themselves are high quality and art is top notch.

[vonblubba]

Haven't played this yet, but I've read It cover to cover. Rules are light and fast, book layout and artwork Is great, It was a light and fun read. It made me want to play the game, and I suppose you can't ask for more to a ttrpg manual.