Fish and Guns
Yesterday I was reading a submission for the Gone Fishing Game Jam by Forlorn Skulk, simply called “The OSR Fishing Minigame” and its core mechanic was like an earworm that I couldn’t stop thinking about all day today
It uses a blind auction initiative order. Players secretly wager the lowest number of dice they need to meet a target number, and whoever bet the lowest number of dice attempts to catch the fish first. This means playing it safe with betting more dice could result in someone catching the fish before it’s even your turn!
It’s very clean push your luck system
The first thing my brain latched onto was how to make it solo friendly considering the core mechanism required competition. This resulted in the “fish wager die” where you roll 1d6 to determine how many dice the fish is wagering, and if it wagers less dice than you it has the opportunity to try to roll its own target number before the solo player
Anywho. I couldn’t stop thinking about this mechanic and it wasn’t until this evening where it all clicked together. This mechanic reaches the same goal I had with Liar’s Duel in a much much cleaner way… so I decided to make a quick hack to see if I could turn this fishing minigame into a gunslinger standoff!
“6 Seconds Past Noon”
a PVP gunslinger standoff minigame
SETUP
Each player begins with six d6
GAMEPLAY
The target number is always 6. In secret, all players will wager the fewest number of their dice that can confidently roll a total 6 or greater . Players will make this wager by placing a single d6 under their cupped-hand, orientating the top face to their wager
Your wagered dice are henceforth referred to as “attack dice” and your remaining dice are referred to as “defense dice”
When everyone is ready, everyone lifts their cupped-hand to reveal the number of attack dice they chose
Initiative order is in ascending order beginning with the player(s) with the least amount of attack dice, and ending with the player(s) with the most amount of attack dice
On a player’s turn, they will announce who their target is, and then roll their attack dice. If the collective total of all dice rolled is 1-5, the attack misses. If the total is 6 or greater, the attack hits!
If you hit your target, trash one of their defense dice. If your target has no defense dice to trash, they are eliminated from play. A player may be eliminated before they take their turn!
If more than one player has the same initiative order, their attacks resolve simultaneously
A “round” completes once all eligible players have resolved their attacks. “Trashed dice” do not return in subsequent rounds
solo rules
After the solo player locks in their selection of attack dice, each NPC involved in combat will roll 1d6 to determine their attack dice. Initiative is assigned as normal. When an NPC hits a player, resolve the attack like normal with defense dice. NPCs do not have defense dice! One successful hit is enough to eliminate them
Narrative and Theme
Imagine each attack die represents one second of time. Taking more time to aim will increase accuracy, but the intense focus will leave less time for defensive actions
A single bullet wound is enough to kill a person. Think of trashing defense dice as burning someone’s limited luck
Licensing
6 SECONDS PAST NOON is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 by Sam Long
Credits
General mechanical concepts were lifted from The OSR Fishing Minigame, by Forlorn Skulk