Hey Man, well this is Babylon

Last weekend I spent some quality time revisiting all my notes for my new design project, Billions and Billions of Bullets. I decided to set them all aside, and use pieces of them to assemble a fresh start on the concept, bringing the ideas back clean and improved in my head before jumping back onto this project. Here are the results of my little brainstorming session:

The Basic Premise: The players are all killers of some kind who must work together to resolve some predetermined mutual goal. Some may be hardened assassins, convicted criminals, wizened warriors, trained crime-fighters, or even just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever their pasts, Fate has thrown them together, and before the end of the night, they must achieve their goals, or all is lost.

The Complication: Each character has a personal purpose in the game that will very likely conflict with that of the group goal. Additionally, in true bullet drama style, each second that passes brings the characters one step closer to death. Each action in the game has consequences, too, bringing them either closer to death, closer to their goals, or both.

Winning: While this game has scenario goals and various timers involved, there is no way to “win” a session, as far as the rules are concerned. Convention play and demos aside, the only way to “win” is to use the characters, timers, and narration to tell the most awesome bullet-drama story possible. Frequently, this involves the deaths of some or all of the characters, with unfinished goals and morally-shadowed outcomes.

The Basic Play Template: The basic game is played with a single player called the Director running the show. The Director sets up the game’s scenario, decides the connection between the characters, determines the main scenario goal they must work together to achieve, and provides the conflicts that drive the story forward. The other players take on the role of individual characters, who must overcome conflicts and try to accomplish their individual and scene goals while holding off their inevitable fates as much as possible. In this default game mode, the Director plays the cards of all conflict opposition for the characters, except in cases of character vs character conflicts.

Director’s Cut Mode: In this optional game mode, there is no singular Director running the show. Instead, the players all contribute equally to the establishment of the game’s setting. Each character’s Hand of Fate (see below) is responsible for creating special conflicts for that character, but they all work together to bring them more colorfully into play.

The Characters: Each Character consists of four major components: Sign, Gun, Purpose, and Fate.

The Sign: Your Sign represents the classic Bullet Drama archetype that your character embodies. The Sign is not so much a “template” for your character, but rather a “spiritual totem” that places that character within the narrative. Examples include The Loyal Soldier, The Lady in Red, The Stranger, The Black Widow, The Savant, and so on. In the core book there are 16 different Signs, one for each “royal” card of the four suits. Each Sign gives a small handful of corresponding mechanical empowerments (most of which require Bullet Tokens), and also sets the framework for how the character should primarily approach the resolution of their conflicts.

The Gun: Central to every mechanic in the game, your chosen Gun is perhaps the most important of the four character components. Your Gun sets the initial ranks of the four core character attributes, and is a part of every conflict your character is involved in. Thematically, the Gun and its numbers define not just the actuality of the piece of chrome your character uses, but also the nature of the character who would wield such a weapon as the tool for carving her own destiny out of this world. There are thirteen core Guns, which can be randomly drawn.

The Purpose: The Purpose is your will to live, the goal that keeps you in the game, the drive that pulls your trigger. Besides being a definite roleplaying focus, it also serves as your character’s “lifeline” in the game. Your Purpose is manifested as a statement (which can be randomly drawn) and a Lifetimer. As the game is played, your twelve-point Lifetimer slowly counts down to your own personal Doomsday, and it is your responsibility to fulfill your Purpose before this death-clock finishes its cycle.

The Hand of Fate: The Hand of Fate is another player at the table, chosen by the character’s player to play that character’s destiny. The Hand is responsible for initially drawing the Hidden Fate that represents that character’s ultimate demise. The Hand is responsible for bringing about this hidden fate in the game. She can use a fluctuating pool of bullet tokens to accomplish this. Additionally, as a character’s Lifetimer enters into different quadrants, the Hand of Fate will have increasing levels of dramatic power over your character.

Conflicts: When your character gets into a situation in which the outcome is unsure, but it could directly affect their goals, a conflict enters into play, and is resolved by a card-play Showdown. First and foremost, every conflict must involve a gun! Regardless of how it is used, a gun is required. Also, the conflict must be of definite importance to the character’s personal or scenario goals. If it doesn’t involve a gun and it isn’t important to the goals, it isn’t important and shouldn’t be played.

Conflict Failure: While “failure” exists as a mechanical concept, it is not considered a failure as far as the game goes. The primary point of this game is to create a damn cool bullet-drama story. Failure in a bullet drama only increases the story, sometimes more so than success. Good narration of outcomes can transform one character’s failure into an epic piece of dramatic storytelling, and create more conflicts and more fun for all.

Bullets: This game uses Bullet Tokens as a tangible currency of Fate. Every time a character uses a gun (meaning: every conflict), kills someone, uses certain powers, or does anything else on a short list of conditions, their Hand of Fate gains a bullet token. Actual bullet casings work very well for this. Bullet tokens can be used by the Hand to take over narration of your conflicts, spending a little for your failures or more for your successes. As the Hand is responsible for bringing about your character’s inevitable demise, their uses of bullet tokens will allow them to narrate you into situations in which this demise grows ever the more likely.