Background:
It's come down to this. A battle between you, your closet comrades, and your greatest foes. Deep in your conscious, you are sure of one thing in this battle; none of you will make it out alive. You may be some of the greatest fighters the world has seen, but at this point it doesn't matter. Your reinforcements and contingency plans are gone. You're surrounded and outnumbered; no matter how many of them you take down, they'll launch wave after wave until you're extinguished. You all have decided to stand your ground for various reasons. For some it is a matter of honor, others would rather die free than be captured, some decide that they're going down and will take as many "Son's O' Bitches down wit' me" as possible, and a few decide this is the peak of their lives and going down fighting would be the most spectacular reason. Whatever the case, you face the oncoming horde with confident resolve.
Prepare to die as mortals, to be born as legends.
Gameplay:
-The Last Stand- centers around a warrior that you control, fighting a battle against an endless supply of enemies until you inevitably die. Your goal is not to survive the longest, but to inflict as much damage upon these enemies before your demise. The amount of damage you bring about is tallied up by a Point system. The Goal of this game is to accumulate as many points as possible before you run out of lives.
Each game will start out with poll vote to decide a certain Scenario. A Scenario is the setting for each individual game, and they vary from ancient times, to the medieval era, to modern day and even beyond. Each Scenario results in a different set of Classes for the players to choose from, as well as different enemy types.
Classes are the different types of warriors that the player can choose from. They all have different strengths, weaknesses, and inventories. Available Class types are also dependent on the Scenario. All Classes have either one Strength, which can be Passive or Active, or two Strengths along with one Weakness. Here is a sample class from a WWII-Era Scenario:
Machinegunner - A soldier that handles a ferocious machine gun designed to wipe out whole swaths of attackers.
Suppressing Fire (Active) - A relentless stream of bullets that pins down a specific enemy unit. This does no damage, but is automatically successful and puts a -2 penalty on the targeted unit's attack during the following turn. 2-Turn Cooldown.
Shredding Bullets (Passive) - The flurry of bullets produced by the light machine gun also carry penetrative qualities, meaning that the gun not only tears apart normal infantry, but can do sustainable damage to armored soldiers and vehicles as well.
Sedentary Shooter - The power and weight behind the machine gun mean that you won't be moving fast when you fire it, thus making you an easier target. Any turn you fire the light machine gun, you receive a -2 defensive penalty against explosive weapons and sniper fire.
Inventory:
Light Machine Gun - Despite the word 'Light' in this gun's name, it is only really light compared to the most powerful machine guns. The light machine gun holds an extremely fast fire rate, damage output, and magazine size. It is even portable, unlike the heavier guns in its family. It's main draw-back is its bulkiness, limiting the agility of its shooter.
Semi-automatic Pistol - A reliable side-arm that balances fire rate, power, and reliability. The Machinegunner keeps one of these on hands as a back-up in case his LMG jams or otherwise rendered unusable.
Life:
After choosing a starting class, each player spawns in a group alongside a group of enemy Units in reasonably similar numbers. Enemies are grouped together as Units, since while there are individually enemies, some of them come in groups. An single enemy unit can be composed of 1, 3, 10, or any number of individuals.
As you fight and slay the enemies, more and more will continually spawn, and this is what makes true victory impossible.
The game is split up into a series of Turns, which are called 'Phases' in this game. A Phase consists of all of the players performing their actions, followed by the actions of all enemy units. An Action is any move that takes up a Player's Phase. All actions in this game are based around a 10-sided Die.
Primarily, the main actions of the game will be Attacking and Defending. Any player can Attack any single enemy unit at any time, and the same is true for enemies attacking players. "A" represents the dice roll for the attacker, and "D" is the defender's dice roll. In an attack, if A>D, then the attack succeeds, and the attacker wounds, injures, or kills their target. The severity of the attack is dependent on the difference of A to D, (For example; 4 vs. 2 is not nearly as severe as 9 vs. 2), the weapon utilized by the attacker (the same roll would produce different results between an attacker performing a normal punch and an attacker using a Sword) , and any shielding or armor worn by the defender. Also, higher numbers always produce more drastic results than lower numbers, so while (4 vs. 1) and (10 vs. 7) have the same difference, the latter will result in a more substantial wound. There are all the ailments that result from fighting that you can imagine; Bleeding, Pain, Burns, Limb Loss, Paralysis, Shock, Poisoning, Choking, and so forth. Each of these ailments has a different effect that you'll encounter or see during your Last Stand.
If A=D, then nothing happens. If A<D, not only does the attack miss, but the defender counter-attacks instantly, and performs an attack like above. Regardless if the counterattack lands or misses, the particular exchange ends at this point.
This game does not feature an HP System, instead it operates on the 'Subjective Damage' Rule, where the GM determines what exactly a battle roll means. This is used to simplify everything, instead of having to give every weapon and protective item its own value and dice mechanism. In this game, (8 vs. 5) does not mean -3 HP, it means your target got kicked in the jaw or shot in the ankle all dependent on the variables present for any roll. A roll that results in a heavy wound to a unit composed of an individual would also kill a majority of a unit of consisting of several enemies.
Because of how subjective this system is, deep roleplaying is not necessary, but details help out. If instead of "Attack Barbarian" you describe your action as "Charge at Barbarian, smashing my shield into his face to knock him over, followed by a sword thrust into his chest," it'll help everyone out and result in your action being more specific to however you wanted it.
Each Enemy Unit is represented by a point value. This point value represents how 'Powerful' the unit is altogether. A unit composed of 10 recruits, 3 professional soldiers, and 1 master fighter would probably all have similar point values. Upon destroying an enemy unit, you receive their total point value. If multiple players coordinate an attack on a single unit and manage to kill it, the points are divided among them according to how much of a role they played in the attack. For example, say there was a 5-Point Knight unit, and Player X distracted the Knight by poking him in the back, allowing you to kill him from afar with a crossbow shot; you would receive 4 points, and your Player X would receive 1. As long as you participated at some point in the slaying of an enemy unit, you will get a certain amount of points upon their death, even if you happen to die before them.
Points can be gained in other ways than straight up killing. Helping out your allies in times of need also results in points, which are based upon how much you ended up helping them. This is crucial to any classes that play a Medic role.
There are other actions to perform each turn than just, "Attack enemy so-and-so,":
Heal - This action is for treating wounds and injuries. Higher dice rolls result in more successful procedures, while low rolls are ineffective or even detrimental. (If you do not wish for someone to Heal you, put something like "Also, stop Player X from trying to Heal me," at the end of your action.) The more serious a wound or injury, the higher a Healing roll will need to be to fix it. Self-surgery is also possible, but comes with an automatic -2 Penalty.
Guard - This actions makes you the bodyguard of any other player for a turn. This means that any enemies targeting the player will target you instead. (Similarly to Heal, you can decline someone's offer to Guard you.)
Take Cover - This is a defensive action, where for one turn, you sacrifice your ability to attack and counter-attack for a +1 to all defensive rolls.
Reload - For the sake of simplicity and speed, ammunition is unlimited in this game (because really, how much ammo will you use up when you get killed in the matter of minutes?) and reloading of any conventional and simple weapons is implied to be done automatically each turn. However, certain weapons, like Cannons and Rocket Launchers, take a turn to Reload after being fired, due to their ammunition taking an especially long time to properly place. This action only applies to any weapons explicitly requiring a full-turn Reload.
Retrieve Item(s) - You can choose to spend your turn recovering the items of a fallen ally or enemy. You can only Retrieve the items of one ally or unit, but you can take all the items you wish. Of course, there's a practical limit to your capacity. If a defeated 5-man unit had a sword for each man, you can pick up a sword or two, but if you take all five, you'll start to incur penalties. Also, you have enough combat prowess that you can wield common weapons, like a sword or pistol depending on your Scenario, no problem. Any weapons with special class-based properties, like the Light Machine Gun in the example before, are more complex. If you are a different Class and decide to use any specialized class-based weaponry, you will get none of the special benefits of the weapon, but you will still have to endure its weaknesses.
Death, Lives, and Rebirth:
100% of the time, you die at some point. Well, the thing is, your very Willpower/Soul isn't just taking one lives to go down, or even two for that matter. It's going for three. That's right, when you die, you still have two shots left in any Scenario. You Respawn in someone else's body, but they are of the same Soul. That is, until you die three times in a Scenario. Then your soul has had enough and floats off to the Great Beyond, thus ending your involvement for the remainder of the Scenario.
Respawning is instant, and you can even perform an action in the same turn you spawn. Your other option is to Switch Classes, which you can do upon your first or second death. However, if you choose to Switch, you'll have to wait a 1-Turn Delay in your Respawn time.
The Scenario ends when either of the conditions are met:
1. All players have used up their 3 total lives.
2. At any point, if all players are dead, the Scenario ends instantly, even for the people who could Respawn.
Legends:
What is the reward for all of this? First off, in the 'History of Last Stand' section, which contains information on each Scenario played, the players in the Top 3 score are all listed as 'Legends', and their participation in the Last Stand is described in detail.
1st Place gets a Title of their own choosing. The Title must be one word long, and can include 'The' for free. Every time a Player gets 1st Place, they can add another word to their Title. They also get the prizes for 2nd and 3rd Place.
2nd Place gets to bring along one item of their Inventory with them from the Scenario to any future Scenarios they participate in. The item can only be used in Scenarios where it would be current or obsolete technology. That means no bringing Shotguns back to fight Sun Tzu, but you can bring your Broadsword with you to the Battle of Gallipoli. This winner also gets the 3rd place prize.
3rd Place gets a Hat or equivalent piece of non-defensive headgear from the Scenario to wear with them wherever they want, regardless of the Era. It's similar to the 2nd Place prize, but instead of being inefficient, it has no use whatsoever. But hey, Cowboy Hats in Ancient Egypt.
Scenarios:
These are all the scenarios to choose from for the first Scenario. From earliest setting to latest:
-Necdum Spiritum Romanus-
Setting: Mid-4th Century A.D., Roman Empire
Internal strife and harassment from foreign parties is leading to the end of what was, at one point, the grandest empire of Europe. Barbarians are now ransacking your home city, so you have formed a small army to fend them off for as long as you can. Aeternae Gloriae!
-Revenge Quest-
Setting: Mid-4th Century A.D., Germanic Lands
After draining some Roman cities of their wealth, your tribe heads back home to celebrate your victory. The party is cut short when suddenly a Legion launches a counter-attack into your territory, killing off most of your force. Gather up with your people to halt the Legion's advances. Make the Roman scum pay in blood!
-The Golden Horde-
Setting: 1258 A.D., Baghdad
Being the soldier of such an advanced and cultured civilization, you never imagined seeing a scourge so terrifyingly massive. The Mongols have laid siege to the city, and already have broken through the preliminary defenses. Your group have taken up to defend a large estate in the center of town against the thousands of invaders. Cleanse the land of the Horde!
-Une Petite Escarmouche-
Setting: Early 1400's A.D., Northern France
During the time of the 100 Years War, your war party was simply patrolling a quiet village, when an English force appeared from the nearby forest. It was a slaughter no doubt, and were lost in the pages of history, but you put up a damn good resistance. Viva la France!
-Remember Poltava-
Setting: July 1709, Russia
The real battle is already over, your Swedish army has been crushed by the raw power of Peter the Great's Russian military. The whole army has been shattered into chaos, and you find yourself with a small party running for your lives, as cavalry cuts down your comrades. Finally, the lot of you are surrounded in a grassy field. You won't get out, but you can make your defeat as costly as possible. Äkta mod!
-Homeland Security-
Setting: Mid-1800's, Mid-Western USA
The Americans said that your whole tribe didn't have to budge an inch, but now you're getting word of the forced removals and killings. You know they're coming, but it doesn't matter. They're invaders, and this is where your tribe has lived for centuries, and if you are to die, it's going to be where you were born. With the Eternal Spirits, I am a true Warrior!
-W.A.S.P. Bite-
Setting: Late 1800's, Zulu Nation
The other tribes capitulated to their new English overlords. You will do no such thing, the Zulu's have carried themselves since the beginnings of time, and a few Brits in uniform aren't going to change that! Your party has found a spot on the outskirts of the village to fortify, and prepare for the English to show up. They may shoot you down, but you'll die a free man. The Zulus prevail over all enemies!
-Blut und Eisen-
Setting: 1945, Eastern Germany
Your nation took over Europe so fast, and the collapse was just as quick. This isn't what destiny had laid out for you, but now you stand in a small town in Eastern Germany, fortifications ready for the Russians. There will be too many of them for you to stop, but you will teach those dogs what it means to be a soldier of German blood! Für das Vaterland!
-Final Blossoming-
Setting: 1945, Pacific Islands
The Germans and Italians have already lost, but the war has not ended yet. They may have resources and atomic weaponry, but they lack the most important factor; intrinsic pride and willpower. Your unit is on one of the Pacific Islands of Japan, where you stay as last line of defense, but General MacArthur brings the Americans and Australians closer each day, island by island. Soon it will be your turn, and you will ascend from your physical body to a remembered hero. Nihon no eien no eikō!
-Blood on the Sand-
Setting: Early 2003, Iraq
Government overthrow. Chaos. And now you've been declared to step down or be branded as a rebel. You're no rebel, you're a soldier, and you'll stay a soldier no matter what the Americans and their friends say. You've had to flee your base, but an apartment building has provided your band with shelter. Now the Americans have found you, and are coming. You're not running any more, you're eager for them to come and see what happens when they try and disband your military. We are legitimate, and we will be independent forevermore!
-Failure to Withdraw-
Setting: 2014, Chicago
Two trucks. One bank. Five stores. 42 Men. 70 Million Dollars. Everything was going fine, even with the cops on your tail. But then the drivers had to collide, and everything went to shit. All of you were running through the streets as you were shot at by every punk-ass Fed in Illinois. Some of you went down, the rest managed to fend them off temporarily, and now you're all stacked up inside a multi-story department store. Hey, it was the best cover you could get, but it seems like everyone's already gone. There goes the hostage plan. Well, you ain't going back to jail. Lock and load, it's time to ride and die motherfucka'!
Do you have a Scenario that you want to suggest? Please do! I love seeing new and creative ideas. There are just two stipulations:
1. It has to be a Scenario where I would be able to know enough to set up a multitude of Player Classes, Enemy Unit Types, and proper Setting.
2. Please do something that hasn't been done so many times that if I try to implement it I might gorge my eyes out. You might notice that the U.S. Military is the main enemy in several of these Scenarios, but the Players never get to be American soldiers. No, I don't hate American and think their military is super evil, it's just that I've seen RPG's based around American soldiers many, many times. If I had a quarter for every RPG about American Soldiers fighting in some big war, I'd have enough money to get a decent dinner for two at Red Lobster or something. Nothing about the Spartans either, those guys got worn out of interest five years ago. No zombies either, I'm already running a full-time zombie game myself.
Basically, just try and be creative.
Character Sheet:
Once we've decided on a Scenario, this is the template for you to sign-up. I'll be taking 9-12 players in a Scenario to start with:
Name: Either come up with a name, or just use your username.
Class: When a scenario is chosen, the choice of Classes will become available.
Inventory: Leave this blank.
Apperance: Optional, you can enter something here if you want your character to have some distinguishable features.
(Don't change anything below, it's simply there for convenience and organization at the start of the game.)
Health: Fine
Lives: 3
Points: 0
Player List:
1. aattss (Dalen)
2. kj1225 (Bigus of the Glorious House of Dickus)
3. ansontan2000 (Anders Andersson von Anderland)
4. Yourmaster (Alex Raman)
5. Remurtha (Aurus Magnus Optimus Gratus Incensus Romuli)
6. USEC_OFFICER (Thorston Bohn)
7. zacen299 (Zachariah Sinistra)
8. Playergamer (John Doe)
9. Rolepgeek (Derres Patrione)
10. anailater (Asinus Ultricies)
11. Octobomb (Clyde, princeps ardentem rapa iustitiae)
Waitlist:
1. WhitiusOpius
2. 4maskwolf
3. darkpaladin109
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Poll
7 (53.8%)
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Topic: -The Last Stand- Final Pre-Round 2 Poll: Combat (Read 39830 times)