Hi everybody, Duffy here.

I had the opportunity to run a Gigargun game at DC Gameday, a small RPG gaming convention in Washington, DC., and was lucky enough to be able to record the session.

This is a playtest of a one-shot adventure called Isula Crura, or The Island of Legs, set on an island off the coast of Italy where a nuclear event has caused the island’s insect and arachnid population to grow to massive size. Players play as Monster Jockeys, Mech Pilots, Aesirs, and Slayers who have been sent to try to rescue people who have gone missing on the island.

I apologize for the sound quality, this recording was taken with my mini-recorder while a game of Dust Devils was being played on another table within the same room. I tried to edit out the cursing to the best of my ability, but be warned this adventure is rated at least PG due to the presence of monsters and lots of fighting.

Below we have a gallery of the character’s that were played during this session. I have included the sheet of Apex, the Slayer that was used for this session to show how he was played.

I have included an alternate version of Apex in order to show how I plan to alter this pre-gen for future playtests to see how it works.

I also fixed some typos on other sheets like the d10 instead of a d20 on JetMax. I left Catevari’s Quirks the same because I want to see if someone will use Bookworm to supplement poor Judgement, but that’s definitely subject to change if more people don’t have fun with it. I really want to get more game’s going with people making their own characters.

Here’s also a cheat sheet that we give to players so that you can make more sense of what is going on.

CHEATSHEET

ALL ROLLS INVOLVING HUMAN-SIZED CHARACTERS USE A d10.

ALL ROLLS INVOLVING GIANT-SIZED CHARACTERS USE A d20.

BODY:

Agility: Your ability to move around quickly and precisely. This factors into ATK, EVASION, and GRAPPLING

Strength: Your physical fortitude. Factors into ATK, METTLE, and GRAPPLING

MIND:

CUNNING: Your ability to think quickly and creatively. Factors into Stealth, and RUSES

JUDGEMENT: Your ability to recall facts and decipher complex problems. Factors into hacking, lockpicking, and lore checks.

SPIRIT:

Heart: The intensity of your character, factors into interaction and TAUNTS

Valor: Your ability to push yourself beyond your limits. Factors into REVOVERY and HEALING

DARING: You earn Daring one of two ways

You use a minor or major action to take an action that enacts a Quirk’s quality, like acting overly Aggressive, or being Deceitful to others. Rolling a Critical Fail on any roll. When this happens, you and the Game Master both receive a point of Daring.

DARING are points that you can spend on three things:

Re-rolling failed rolls. This can give you another chance at success. Can be used to make a RUSE or a TAUNT. You can activate the benefits that your QUIRKS grant you.

ATTACKING (ATK):

To attack an enemy, declare how you are doing so, either unarmed, with a weapon, or with a power. Roll the appropriate die type (d10 for human, d20 for giant) and add that attack’s modifier for the total. Every time the attack’s value goes over the target’s defense, the target takes a Strike.

CRITICAL (CRIT): If an attack goes over a target’s defense multiple times (ex: target’s defense is 12 and they receive an attack of 25, they take two Strikes) this is counted as a CRIT. This means the target is knocked down and must roll their recovery on their turn to get back up or stay incapacitated until their following turn.

RECOVERY: When you must recover from a status ailment or being knocked down, roll the appropriate die (d10 for human/ d20 for giants) and add your Valor. If this value surpasses your METTLE, than you recover on this turn. If you go over your METTLE multiple times, you can take an action this turn.

HEALING: Once per encounter, declare that you are healing. You automatically lose one Strike. Roll and add your Valor, every time you surpass your METTLE, lose one more Strike. You cannot lose more than 3 strikes.

RUSES: In combat, on your turn, you have the option of performing a RUSE, a maneuver where you trick your enemy into opening themselves up for a more catastrophic ATK. To do this, sacrifice a point of DARING to roll the appropriate die type and add your CUNNING modifier in order to surpass the target’s RUSE Defense. On a success, any follow-up ATK this turn surpasses the target EVASTION, meaning just their METTLE factors into their Defense. Can be turned into an opposed CUNNING roll by the Defender by spending DARING. Even on a failure, the player can still make a follow-up ATK

TAUNTS: In combat, on your turn, you have the option of performing a TAUNT, intimidating or surprising your opponent to perform a more devastating ATK. To do this, sacrifice a point of DARING to roll the appropriate die type and add your HEART modifier in order to surpass the target’s TAUNT Defense. On a success, any follow-up ATK this turn surpasses the target METTLE, meaning only their EVASION factors into Defense. Can be turned into an opposed HEART roll by the Defender by spending DARING. Even on a failure, the player can still make a follow-up ATK.

GRAPPLING: Unarmed ATK vs 1/2 enemy Def. On hit the target it Grappled but no other actions taken this turn unless Quirks applied. All ATK against this enemy are against ½ Def until they break out.

Grappling character can ATK Grappled enemy vs ½ Def. Against all other enemies the ATK is 1/2. All ATK by Grappled are ½. Successful ATK against Grappler cancels Grapple. On Grappled Player’s turn, they can make an opposed AG or ST test to break out. No other actions may be taken after breaking out of a grapple unless a Quirk is used.

DOUBLE DOWN: On your turn, you can declare that you are DOUBLING DOWN. Choose either your EVASTION or METTLE. This value is doubled until your next turn. This counts as your action for this turn. You cannot have the double’d down defense value surpassed by a TAUNT or a RUSE. (So you can’t perform a TAUNT against an opponent who has doubled down on their METTLE.)

SOME THOUGHTS:

I think the players are right in saying overcharging health might be too much for combat. There wasn’t as much a sense of dread during this playthrough with characters easily able to keep their characters alive. Also, I want to see how monsters going into a rage works out.

I want to check out the Ubiquity system. Players said they found similarities between Gigargun and that system, particularly in the Quirks, and I want to find out more. On that note, I feel one of the biggest influences on Gigargun is the Savage World’s system.

What do you guys think of the playtest? Let us know, we want your feedback!