The earth is greatly fucked up or something, so a myriad of spaceships are sent into the universe towards a new place to live. They hold a mysterious technology called "Plants", which are capable of a quite potent terraformation. Due to a sabotage, most of them are destroyed and only a few manage to land safely on a desertic planet, which they will call Gunsmoke. 130 years have passed since then, and the societies built in the new planet are reminiscent of western movies but with mutants, cyborg parts and some advanced technology.
The game practically asks for hexcrawls: There are seven major cities in the planet; all of them built around the remains of a spaceship. The plants that those spaceships carried can provide limited water, food and energy in the desertic environment. All around them, however, is an unexplored wasteland illuminated by two suns and five moons.
(Roll 2d6 to paint hexes)
2 - Major city (has got a plant)
3 - Small Town (2 in 6 chance of being abandoned)
4 - Mountain Cave
5 - Canyon
6 - Desert
7 - Mountain or canyon if there is one adjacent. Else, desert
8 - Desert
9 - Mountain or Butte
10 - Small outpost (1-water farm, 2-well 3-Shelter 4- Radio tower 5-6: roll again, but its unhabited)
11 - Scraps (fallen city or remains of spaceship)
12 - Full Crashed Spaceship (Map as dungeon)
2d6 to see what is lurking here, if there are encounters
2 - Sand worms
3 - Robot Guardians
4 - Bounty Hunters (2 in 6 chance that their pray is also on the area)
5 - Caravan (special rules to determine size and composition)
6 - Common bandits
7 - Sandstorm, 1d4 turns
8 - Merchant/Wanderers (1d6). Criminals might mask as those.
9 - Already known NPC
10 - Tough bandits (gung-ho guns or trained cultists)
11 - Telepathic Insects
12 - Alien Abomination (1-sleeping eldritch type, 2-lion ant type 3- radscorpion type 4-almost human type)
XP for gold was invented for this kind of setting: as the world is pretty much lawless beyond city sheriffs, crime is dealt with basically by bountyhunting and every known criminal has a prize in doubledollars (Gunsmoke's currency) The game is easily to focus around hunting bandits meanwhile a bigger plot appears.
The classic Trigun foes (tough bandits on above table) are a step or two above human capabilities: they have increased size and strenght, superhuman reflexes, psychic powers, implanted sensors or weapons or the like. If you haven't see the series, think that any foe from Metal Gear Solid could be swapped for one, and viceversa. Another way to create them is to pick names and skills from D&D monsters: John the Displacer always appears to be 2 meters from where he is, which is an awesome trick when you duel 1v1. Paul the Blink, however, can disappear and reappear anywhere nearby.
Though I haven't ever played Into The Odd, I think that it can fit perfectly with some changes (the free edition can be found here. I think I like it better than the follow up Electric Bastionland)
You start with 2 randomized gifts from a list (pending) of gears and weird abilities. There must be some big guns, some mutations, some psychic abilities like telekinesis and mind manipulation (will saves allowing) naturally enhanced abilities (super-hearing, tracking water, etc) and biological/mechanical implants.
You roll 1d6 for hp.
HP 1: choose 2 extra objects
HP 2: choose 1 extra psychic ability
HP 3: choose 1 extra object
HP 4: you start with a free handgun (d8 damage) or katana (d8 damage). Yeah there are samurais on it.
HP 5: you start with any cybernetic implant
HP 6: you are a plant. You can summon angel arm (d10 damage in area, blast). Make will save to avoid a mishap.
You roll 3d6 for stats (STR, DEX, WILL). One thing that I don't understand in Into the Odd is that stats don't ever grant you any active bonuses or widen your possibilities of approaching problems, they function mostly as passive saves. So I want to add this:
If STR is higher than 14, you deal +1 die size damage with melee weapons, and can attempt to break sturdy doors.
If DEX is higher than 14, you get +1 armor when you're unrestrained. Dex contests are also used to shoot first in duels!!!
If WIL is higher than 14, you can re-roll any roll once per rest
It is important to know about the mysterious nature of the Plants. They are actually sentient, womanlike beings who live inside the lightbulb-shaped things. They are providers of life, just like if they were in a sense "fertility goddesses". Vash and Knives (protagonist and antagonist) are the counterpart: male plants who can walk the earth, but have a great capacity of destruction, more in tune with Ares. Their body can mutate into angel guns able to destroy cities, even make a crater on the moon.
If there was any scientific record regarding the creation or the metabolism of plants, that information is not known today. Plants look exactly like normal humans, though they are always blonde. They are still alive and look around late 20s or 30 something even though more than a century has passed from the landing. How much time can they last is a question blowing in the wind.
Though this setting can look like Fallout or Mad max at first sight, the tones are kind of different: on them, the plots often revolve around "the world before the war", and all the cities and denizens are permeated of a certain cynicism and hopelesness. In Trigun, the world is harsh and dangerous, but it feels healed. As Vash says, "the future is a blank paper"; and the world around them reflects this view.
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