New Gear Feats for Outgunned RPG
Outgunned's off to a good start, but you can do so much more with Feats...
Outgunned is an excellent rules-lite system that seeks to emulate the feel of the action movies of old. As such it’s a very rules light system that doesn’t have much “crunch”. However, one of ways Outgunned on its predecessor, Broken Compass, was the addition of “feats” to weapons (well, guns…) These feats give the weapons certain abilities in addition to just being an extra die when used.
However, this is something that can (and should) be expanded to other types of gear. Yes, it bites into the rules-lite goal of the game, but it can give that product placement quality that a lot of the action movies — and especially James Bond movies — had.
For instance, Bond doesn’t just carry a gun; he carries a Walther PPK (save for the Brosnan and part of the Craig run, where he’s got the more capable Walther P99), easily one of the most beautiful pistols made. Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice series first carries a Bren Ten — at the time, considered a major deal in firepower. Hans Gruber isn’t just classy, but obviously professional, judging from his H&K P7M13. John Wick? He’s a connoisseur of guns; hell, they had a gun “sommelier” in the second movie! and he’s single-handedly made Taran Tactical a household name for gun bunnies.
But the same goes for cars. The Ferrari 308GTS of Magnum P.I. was an instant classic, as was the fastback Mustang in Bullitt or the Boss 429 of John Wick. The Aston Martin DB5 is a car so classy they keep bringing it back in the Bond movies. These are signature items and should have their own cool feats. This was one of the things that the old James Bond: 007 RPG from the ‘80s got so well.
Gun Feats
There are already a few good ones in the core Outgunned book (p. 101), but here’s a few more for good measure:
Armor-Piercing: The ammunition in this particular gun is either very fast, has a steel-core, or some other aspect to it that allows it to ignore the bonus for a character wearing armor. For a heavier weapon — a machinegun, anti-materiel rifle, or the like, it will ignore the first armor block from a vehicle, and will cancel a normal armor block from a vehicle. In this way, armor-piercing rounds would disable, but not destroy a vehicle.
Big & Heavy: The weapon is large and heavy, and slow to get into action. Gives a disadvantage to the first use after drawing it.
Cheap: Costs -1 cash. Usually paired with Poorly-Made
Classy: The weapon is just gorgeous. Either the design, engraving, or other modifications have turned it into a masterpiece. In a Style test involving the weapon, gain an advantage.
Concealable: The weapon is very small and provides an advantage vs. awareness or detect reaction tests.
Fast Reload: The magazine well is beveled to allow a faster reload than usual and can be done as a quick action. Flip a coin: if heads, the character still has a quick action to use. You usually don’t see this outside of custom stuff.
Intimidating: The weapon is big, ugly, of obviously superior quality, or otherwise impressive. Gain advantage to a Cool test while using the weapon.
Poorly-Made: Some blades are badly forged. Some guns will almost fall apart if you shoot them. If encountering a failure in combat, the weapon breaks in a way that cannot be fixed until the next scene.
Reliable / Well-Made: The blade is so well crafted if will not break as a consequence of a failed roll. The gun so reliable that you ignore the loss of a mag when failing a roll; you just missed.
Slow Reload: Reloading takes a full action.
Examples of Weapons & their traits for Outgunned:
Some “out of the box” feats that some weapons should have.
Claymore Sword: Big & Heavy, Intimidating
CZ-75: Accurate, Reliable
Desert Eagle: Big & Heavy, Intimidating
FN FiveSeven: Armor-Piercing (personnel only), Precision Shot
Glock (any): Reliable
Hattori Hanzo blade: Intimidating, Well-Made
Llama 1911A1: Poorly-Made
Most old single action revolvers: Slow Reload
Most shotguns: Slow reload
Ruger LCP/Kel-Tec P32: Concealable
Switchblade: Concealable
Walther PPK: Traits: Accurate, Classy, Jam
Vehicle Feats
Vehicles in Outgunned simply have a Speed and an Armor rating (usually 3), as well as a vehicle type (aerial, water, car, armored, etc.) But not all cars are the same. A Yugo is not a Fiat is not a Toyota is not a Ferrari. So, here’s a few feats for the vehicles:
Armored: You can simply follow the rules on page 106 of the Outgunned core book. I would suggest that instead of always receiving 3 armor blocks when “armored”, there are levels. Most cars that are up-armored in the real world would give between 1 and 3 blocks, depending on the size and the modifications to the engine. Armor of 3 should reduce the speed of the vehicle by 1 to a minimum of 1. But lighter reinforcement or a light kevlar lining is fairly light. Some vehicles — say the BMW Z3 in Goldeneye isn’t going to have the room or engine power for VIP level armor; it’s a small car and would have a single extra armor. It would not affect speed, but an armor of 2 might also lower the speed by one. YMMV, so to speak
Beautiful / Classic / High-End: The vehicle is either some rare hand-made vehicle like a Koenigsegg, a real beauty like the Jaguar XKE or Ferrari Daytona, or it’s an older, sexy machine like a ’65 Mustang, a ’78 Trans-Am, or a ’34 Ford. This adds an advantage to Smooth tests.
Cow Catcher: The vehicle has some form of ram or guard welded to the frame and gains an advantage in Nerves+Cool or Drive tests to ram or plow through an obstacle.
Cramped: The car is small — a two seater or with little room in the back. Passengers gain a disadvantage in chase sequences.
Crash Cage: Build more for racing, the car has been modified to protect the occupants in a crash. Any failure that would put the car out of commission, the occupants receive half the loss of grit they would normally.
Lemon: The car is truly awful. It’s poorly made or maintained, and anytime they would lose a Speed in a chase sequence, they lose two. On any loss of armor, flip a coin and the car stops working (but is not destroyed; it can be fixed in a later scene.)
Maneuverable: The balance, steering, and stability of the vehicle is superlative. Gain an advantage to Nerves+Dexterity or Nerves+Cool to make maneuvers or hit the brakes.
Off-Road: The vehicle is made for off-road or bad weather conditions and ignores one disadvantage related to terrain or weather.
Poor Handling: Gain a disadvantage to an maneuver of braking actions in a chase.
Reliable: It’s probably a Toyota or Honda, but whatever it is, it’s well-maintained or built and when the vehicle might otherwise be disabled, flip a coin. On heads, remove one armor hit. A vehicle with an initial speed of 3 cannot have Reliable as a trait.
Roomy: You can fit a lot of people in this thing without a disadvantage to the passengers during chase sequences. Usually preserved for large cars and SUVs.
Winch/Hitch: Any test to tow another vehicle gains an advantage.
Examples of Traits for Vehicles in Outgunned
Just to pull a few movie examples and one or two real world comparisons:
1964 Aston-Martin DB5: Beautiful (or Classic after 1980), Cramped; Speed 1
2008 Aston-Martin DBS: Beautiful, Maneuverable; Speed 2
2021 Bugatti Chiron: High-End, Cramped, Maneuverable; Speed 3
1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 LS: Classic; Speed 2
1980 Ferrari 308GTS: Beautiful, Cramped, Maneuverable; Speed 2
1970 Ferrari (absolutely not a kit car on a Corvette) 365GTS Daytona: Beautiful, Cramped; Speed 2
1985 Ferrari Testarossa: Classic, Cramped, Poor Handling; Speed 3
2014 Fiat 500: Cramped, Maneuverable; Speed 1 (Speed 2 for Abarth)
1965 Ford Mustang: Classic (pretty much immediately); Speed 1
1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429: Classic (pretty much instantly); Speed 2
1994 Ford Aspire: Cramped, Poor Handling; Speed 1
1980 Lotus Esprit V8: Cramped, Maneuverable; Speed 2
1994 Porshce 911 Turbo: Classic, Cramped; Speed 3
2017 Tesla S P100D: Beautiful, Roomy; Speed 3
Toyota Camry: Reliable, Roomy; Speed 1
1993 Toyta Supra Turbo: Reliable; Speed 2
You could extend this to other gear, as well.