Tommy Guns Blazing is a set of skirmish rules with which small unit actions of the early part of the century can be played. They can be used to run military games, or (as the author intends) for cops and gangster shot outs. Each player takes control of up to three individuals represented by a 25mm figure. GOALS This game is intended to create simple quick games that are easy for new players to learn. A game should be able to accommodate as many as ten players and reach a solid conclusion in about two hours. The game is intended to be played on a two table area with appropriate miniature terrain to improve the visual effect. The secondary goal of the game is to spot light the calculated risk idea. It is used here as the major mechanism of the game. The rules are on the whole very conventional in format. Allowing players to control movement, shooting, melee and first aid are standard to skirmish games. The change is that the players must decide how many dice they want to roll to accomplish these rather normal tasks. The players must "calculate their risk", something very abnormal to games. The calculations are really guesses, based on how desperate (or reckless) a person is. I suspect players will start to enjoy this part of the game very soon. WHAT IS A CALCULATED RISK? Most games provide players with specific characteristics for their troops. Theses characteristics tell the player exactly how good their men are. Though there are always tactical modifiers, the players themselves can never try to get more out of their men than the numbers already say. It occurs to me that this misses one of the great elements of command, risk taking. Commanders are forced to assess their men and decide what they are capable of doing. At times tired men have won battles, while well rested men under lack luster leadership have often lost. Calculated risk then, is a way in which players get to take chances with their men. They can push them as far as they would like. The only draw back is that men, pushed too far, break. So the leader must ask himself "How far is too far?" The player's decision is in how many six sided dice he wishes to roll to make his men move, shoot, melee, or recover. The more dice rolled, the greater the chance of success. At the same time the chance of problems also increases. For every six rolled, a good result happens. For every one rolled, a bad result has a chance of happening. By looking at the game tables the player will be able to decide if he thinks he can get a better result without also triggering a bad one. FIGURES, TERRAIN AND SCALE The game uses 25mm figures. One inch equals roughly two yards. The figures fight their actions out on a terrain field laid out by a referee. Each turn is between 10 to 60 seconds. Once the players have played two turns, a turn should last about five to ten minutes (ie between 10 to 20 turns in a two hour game). Certain actions in the game such as reloading guns only occurs as a problem caused by shooting too much. It is assumed that players are reloading their weapons regularly unless the problem is activated. If the problem occurs, imagine that the character is out of ammo and is desperately trying to reload before he is overrun. It is possible that players will have figures that fail to move every turn. They may be put out by this. If so granting players a free one inch move might be in order. Though, immobility is the norm for some men in combat. PLAYER CHARACTERS: CHARACTER CARDS Each player controls one to three figures. Each figure represents one man. Each man has his name written on a three by five index card, which is used to determine who goes first. Also on each card are a few victory conditions which tell something about why each person is in the battle. If the character accomplishes all his victory conditions he wins a personal victory. The winner of the game is the player one the side that wins the battle proper, who accomplished his personal victory conditions the best. The person who comes in second is the players from the losing side who accomplishes his victory conditions the best. Character cards are used by the referee to determine the order each character moves, shoots, etc. (See Determining Order of Play). The other task of the character card is to record the wounds a character has received. The type of wound and the negative DM it gives is written down on the card so that the referee can apply the DMs when the time comes. DETERMINING ORDER OF PLAY Each turn each character may attempt to move, shoot, melee, and recover. Each action is done separately. So at the start of each turn, characters do all of their movement. Next all shooting is done, then melee of figures standing next to one another) and finally recovery. Exactly which figure moves first is determined by the character cards. The referee collects the cards from the players and shuffles them into a deck. He pulls a card. The character named may then act. If the players wishes he may "hold" his action. If he acts he does so immediately. If he "holds" then the referee gives him his card to hold by hand. He then flips the next card. At anytime a "holding" player may interrupt a newly drawn player and take his move. Once all the cards have been flipped, the referee calls for the remaining holding players to act. The referee starts counting. At the count of three, players who have not started to act are assumed to have hesitated and thus lose their turn! The referee is to flip the cards over quickly and steadily. The players can not have minutes to decide what to do next if the gaol of a five minute turn is to be reached. Players will likely not like this. But since the only mechanism of the game is deciding how many dice to roll, their decisions should not take long to make. In fact the fast pace will tend to make people take risk much like gamblers are prone to. They may also begin to have adrenaline rushes. Many players will try holding their action in order to gain an advantage by going last. This is okay to try but the referee keeps the game honest by giving them only to the count of three before they lose their turn. It is likely that honest straight forward action is a better strategy than being sneaky. ROLLING DICE The game requires the presence of a large amount of six sided dice. Players chose how many dice to roll for any given roil before rolling. Once rolled, they may not add more dice to the roll. Sixes and ones are quickly counted up and the appropriate table is consulted. Each player will require access to as many dice as he wishes and the appropriate tables to keep the game moving smoothly. Alternate sets of dice might help speed rolling up. Special made dice with one white side, one black side, and four gray sides could be used. The white side represents sixes, a good result. The black side represents ones, a bad result. Grays represent ambiguous results, shades of gray. Gray can be ignored, while whites and blacks are quickly counted. ORDER OF PLAY The turn consists of: 1. Movement phase, 2. Shooting phase, 3. Melee phase, and 4. Recovery phase. The referee flips cards to determine which characters acts first in each phase. MOVEMENT PHASE Players roll as many dice as they wish to make their men move. The movement table is set up so that each six represents one inch moved. Characters can be moved in any direction up to the distance rolled. The character does not have to move the whole amount if the player does not want him to. It is possible to roll up to four ones without suffering any negative effects. In other words, it is fairly safe to roll lots of dice on movement. If a player rolls five ones, then the character stumbles. Six or seven ones make him fall down. While eight or nine ones make him fall and become stunned. Stumbling costs a character half of his move that turn. Falling costs him all his move and puts him down on the ground. He may try to stand up in the recovery phase. Stunning will be explained in the Wound section. If a character is trying to climb, the player rolls as normal. But the character only gets one inch moved regardless of the roll. If the player scores no sixes then the character loses his grip and falls. Some climbs may be harder than others. In such cases the referee may make up negative DMs appropriate to the challenge. GUN FIRE PHASE Tommy Guns Blazing is naturally a lot about shooting fire arms. Each character who is in line of sight of an enemy (or a friend) may shoot him. The player rolls as many dice as he wishes. The total number of sixes is modified by several tactical factors (range, aiming, cover, etc). The result when compared to the fire table tells the effect scored. Some weapons are good close in but terrible at long range. Pistols, shot guns, and tommy guns are poor long range shooters. Consequently they have negative modifiers over short range. Rifles on the other hand are good at longer ranges. Cover naturally makes it harder to hit, as does the dark. Characters fire is also altered by the type of shot they fired. If a character spends a turn aiming at a certain location, he gets a plus to hitting. If he is covering an area, waiting for some one to appear then the shot is not modified. The person gets shot as he emerges into the open. All other shots are snap shots. Some players may object to this, since "I was looking straight forward!" In such cases the character's shot is probably a covering shot. A true snap shot is at someone coming up from the rear, or who truly surprises the character. Good shots can make the targets, duck, become stunned, or receive a flesh wound or wound. Characters that duck, may not move that turn. Stunned may not act until unstunned. Wounded players receive negative DMs to rolls. If a player rolls more than two ones, then his character will have problems firing. If the guns misses or misfires, then all the sixes scored that turn are lost. Gun jams force the character to spent a turn clearing the weapon out, before resuming fire. Reload, causes the player to spend a turn actively reloading a weapon. Reloading is normally considered inherent in the sequence of the game. Problem reloading is then when the character is having trouble doing the job, either due to fear or a stick mechanism. Broken guns mean just that. The gun is broken for the rest of the game. Broken/Stun means the gun blew up. The gun is gone and the character is dazed. Players may note that a tommy gunner rolling 20 dice may score as many wounds as a pistol man rolling the same number of dice. "This isn't fair!" This is a valid point. A tommy gunner receives a plus two at close range while a pistoleer receives a minus one, but if he out rolls the machine gunner then he will win. This result may be best explained by pointing out that only bullets that hit can hurt someone. It is not "fair" to blame the rules for one's own bad luck. MELEE PHASE When characters are next to one another (ie within one inch) they can roll dice to melee one another. It is likely than most close in actions will be settled by gun fire, but fists may fly as well. As always, players choose how many dice they wish to roll. Melee rolls are modified by the type of weapon a character is using and possibly by some special modifiers the referee chooses to put into the game. Naturally the bigger the weapon the better the modifier. Good rolls can case an enemy to dodge, be stunned, or become wounded. Characters that dodge may not fire or melee next turn, but they may move. Stunning and wounds are as described before. Bad results can cause characters to miss, fall, or fall and become stunned. Missing is as described before - all sixes are lost. Falling and fall/stunned are also as described before. The only difference is that falling in the middle of a melee is not a good thing to do. Players that are on the ground may not melee. They must get up before they are able to move or hit. They may fire from the ground though, so watch out for prone men! STUNS, FLESH WOUNDS AND WOUNDS In the course of the game, characters will become stunned and wounded. When they do their ability to fight will be decreased. Stunned characters are in a dazed, incoherent state. They may not move, shoot or melee. They may only roll to recover from the state. Obviously characters in this state are in a hard way. They are likely to be taken prisoner or left for dead by their own side. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to recover from being stunned. Wounds on the other hand are harder to recover from. Characters who receive a Flesh Wound get a minus one modifier to all sixes they roll for the rest of the game. Further flesh wounds add more negative modifiers to the total. Wounds give a minus two modifier to all future rolls of sixes. Flesh wounds can be bound to remove the negative modifiers. Wounds on the other hand can not be bound and remain the whole game. Players are not killed by their wounds. Though, they can be made ineffective by more than a few holes in them. Characters die as a result of trying to recover from their wounds! RECOVERY PHASE Characters that have fallen down, been stunned, gone unconscious, or been wounded will want to try to recover their faculties. They do so by making a recovery roll. As always they chose how many dice they wish to roll. Recovery can be viewed as a combination of first aid and mental resolution. If a person stands up, becomes unstunned, binds his wounds, wakes up, becomes berserk or passes out, there is a physical and a mental component to it. The person has to concentrate to do any of the actions. The most common recovery is for a player to stand up. Maybe he fell down while running, or maybe he chose to lie down in cover, either way he must roll to stand up again. Players may not like this, but floundering around in the mud is easy, stand up isn't. It requires concentration. Becoming unstunned allows a stunned character to shake off the effects of being dazed. He can now fight again. Flesh wounds can be bound. One negative modifier is removed per successful bind wound. Wounds may not be bound. Naturally basic first aid is done, but the negative effects to the combat may not be taken away. Unconscious characters wake up on a wake up. Mind you players only go unconscious due to recovery rolls! Characters sometimes go berserk when they try to recover. This effect can be both good and bad. Berserk people are not effected by flesh wound negative modifiers. This makes them very tough. On the other hand, they are effected by wounds. A berserk who is shot up is likely to be just as ineffective as a non berserk who is shot up. The character remains berserk until they go unconscious. Characters can go unconscious due to either a good recovery roll of six sixes or more or a roll of four ones. Unconscious people may not act save to recover. If a player rolls poorly he can cause another wound to be inflicted on his character. He can also cause his character to die. It is a dangerous thing to roll recovery rolls. But sometimes it is imperative. WRAP AROUND Players who roll more than six sixes on movement, gun fire and melee do not lose the extra sixes scored. They wrap around the table and start at the other end. For example. If one rolled eight sixes on a move this would work out to a six sixes score (6" movement) and a two sixes score (2" movement) for a total of eight inches movement. For gun fire eight sixes would wound the target (the six sixes score) and stun him (the two sixes score). Recovery rolls do not wrap around. Once unconsciousness comes up, the player is unconscious, even if aided by a doctor into unconsciousness! (Get a lawyer, you have a malpractice suit!) Death works the same way. Negative results also wrap around. Though it is likely that nothing will come of a minor wrap around. DICE MODIFIERS As with all wargames, the basic dice rolls are modified by certain tactical factors. Typically, wargames modify the number rolled on the dice. In Tommy Guns Blazing, DMs modify the number of sixes or ones rolled. Thus a machinegun gets a plus three sixes when fired at close range. So if the player rolled one six then he would actually score four sixes! (1 * 6 plus 3 * 6's equals 4 * 6's). Modifiers are kept to a minimum, and in a pinch can be ignored by the referee to speed up play. The referee can also assign modifiers as he wishes to reflect extraordinary situations. Modifiers to the number of ones scored are always applied. So a player need not roll any ones to have a one. (So if moving over difficult terrain a player rolling no ones would have 1 * 1 due to the plus 1 * 1 for walking through difficult terrain.) Pluses to sixes on the other hand only apply if the player first rolls at least one six. In this way there are no automatic hits. When moving a character's roll receives a plus one, one modifier for moving at night or moving through difficult terrain. The referee determines which terrain is difficult in any given game. Gun fire is modified by the type of weapon used and the range it is fired at. For instance pistols fired at a range of zero to ten inches have a minus one six. Between ten and thirty inches range they have a minus two sixes modifier. Fire is further modified if the target is in cover (soft cover -1 * 6, hard cover -2 * 6's). If the shot happens at night (-2 * 6's). And if the shot is aimed (+ 1 * 6), covering (+ 0 * 6's) or a snap shot (-1 * 6). To have a shot be aimed, the player must state his character is aiming at a target that remains in his sight throughout the turn. If the player stated that he is covering an area waiting for targets to appear then the shot is covering fire. All other shots are considered snap shots. Though it is possible for a character to move forward and cover the area in front of him. True snap shots are when a character is surprised or swings around to shot someone behind him. Melees are modified by weapon type as well. Those unarmed have a (-2 * 6's). Those armed with improvised weapons like gun butts, chairs, pitch forks, etc have a (-1 * 6). Those armed with small weapons like knives, clubs, brass knuckles, etc have a (+0 * 6's) modifier. And finally those armed with large weapons like mounted bayonets, swords, and spears have a (+ 1 * 6). The referee may opt to give special melee modifiers to certain characters who are very strong (or weak). Such modifiers though, should be kept to a minimum, since they tend to slow up play. Wounds, as noted above modify all a character's actions by a (-1 * 6, or -2 * 6's). This means they make it harder for a character to move. Make it harder to shot or melee. But they do not modify a characters recovery rolls (if they did they would be too deadly for the game to be fun). Wound modifiers are cumulative so that after only a few shots a character is very ineffective (if not dead). Recovery is aided by the presence of another person doing first aid (+ 1 * 6) or the help of a doctor (+2 * 6's). It is possible that the help of a person can modify a roll causing a person to pass out. When this happens it is assumed that the "helper" screwed up and did more harm than good. AFTERWARD Tommy Guns Blazing is a conventional set of rules that uses an unconventional dice rolling system. My hope is that the game will work well at conventions. Calculated risk rules allow players a lot of lee way in deciding their players fate. It remains to be seen if this is something that players actually want. DEFINITIONS: Berserk: The player ignores Flesh Wound DMs until K/O'ed or dead. Bind Wound: The player removes one Flesh Wound DM from his card. Broke/Brke: The gun is broken beyond repair. Die: The player immediately dies of his wounds. He loses! Dodge: The player may not fire or melee next turn. Duck: They player may not move next turn. Flesh Wound: The player receives a minus DM in all actions. Jam: The gun is jammed. It takes one turn of no action to clear. K/O'ed: The player is knocked unconscious until he Wakes Up. Misfire: The gun fails to fire. No hits are scored this turn. Miss: The player fails to hit. No hits are scored this turn. Reload: The gun is out of ammunition. It takes one turn of no action to reload. Stand Up: The player stands up from the ground. Stumble: The player trips. He loses half his move this turn. Stun: The player is knocked senseless until his is unstunned. Unstunned: The player recovers from being stunned. Wake: An unconscious player wakes up. Wound: The player receives a minus DM in all actions. Back to Experimental Games Group # 28 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com