The game feels very true to the spirit of creeping around an unknown base to reach an objective. I can see images of playing MGS while reading them.
I love how the challenge resolution mechanic links into the mission integrity count and can lead to a last ditch attempt to complete the objective by any means necessary.
Snakes And Wolves is a stealth action TTRPG inspired by Metal Gear.
The PDF is 12 pages, with no interior artwork but a very thematic and readable layout that matches the fonts and general presentation of the Metal Gear series.
Snakes And Wolves also has a unique mechanical structure, in that it defines as game terms Verbs and Nouns. Nouns are proper nouns, pieces of the setting. Verbs are ways players interact with the setting. Every player except for the GM has ownership of some Verbs and Nouns, and the GM fills in the gaps.
The game's dice are simple; D10 vs target number, with an extra die if you can apply one of your Verbs. The GM adjudicates success, and a lot of the way the game plays will be down to the GM's sense of pacing and scenario design.
Like a Belonging Outside Belonging title, Snakes And Wolves limits Verb use with a pool of tokens. Each player has tokens, and players can recover tokens by sitting out for a bit. Unlike Belonging Outside Belonging, though, doing this progresses the game towards its end state, lowering the players' Mission Integrity until it reaches a crisis point and they either succeed on the spot or fail catastrophically.
Overall, this is a very lightweight, flexible, mission-oriented game system that you could use to play the original Metal Gear Solid as a complete scenario. It's cool for that alone, but the Verbs and Nouns system is a very innovative way of framing the mechanics, and the layout is sleek and engaging. If you like narrative espionage rpgs, or if you're a Metal Gear fan, you should definitely check this out.
Minor Issues:
-Page 8, it seems like the intent is you succeed by rolling over the Challenge Level, but this isn't explicit. It's also not clear what happens if you tie the Challenge Level.
-Page 9, "Tokens allow you to act" suggests that you need them to do anything, Verb or not. However the consequences of running out of tokens are just that you can't leverage Verbs. I can broadly guess at the intent but some more clarity could be useful here.
-Page 10, tracking Mission Integrity but not mission progress feels like it removes a lot of the game's mechanical tension. The crisis point in a mission is very clearly mechanically defined, but the sense of how close a group is to succeeding is vague, and this might make missions that don't enter The Last Ditch Effort feel like victory was unearned, and missions that did enter The Last Ditch Effort feel like this was a requirement for finishing the mission.
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The game feels very true to the spirit of creeping around an unknown base to reach an objective. I can see images of playing MGS while reading them.
I love how the challenge resolution mechanic links into the mission integrity count and can lead to a last ditch attempt to complete the objective by any means necessary.
Epic stuff!
Snakes And Wolves is a stealth action TTRPG inspired by Metal Gear.
The PDF is 12 pages, with no interior artwork but a very thematic and readable layout that matches the fonts and general presentation of the Metal Gear series.
Snakes And Wolves also has a unique mechanical structure, in that it defines as game terms Verbs and Nouns. Nouns are proper nouns, pieces of the setting. Verbs are ways players interact with the setting. Every player except for the GM has ownership of some Verbs and Nouns, and the GM fills in the gaps.
The game's dice are simple; D10 vs target number, with an extra die if you can apply one of your Verbs. The GM adjudicates success, and a lot of the way the game plays will be down to the GM's sense of pacing and scenario design.
Like a Belonging Outside Belonging title, Snakes And Wolves limits Verb use with a pool of tokens. Each player has tokens, and players can recover tokens by sitting out for a bit. Unlike Belonging Outside Belonging, though, doing this progresses the game towards its end state, lowering the players' Mission Integrity until it reaches a crisis point and they either succeed on the spot or fail catastrophically.
Overall, this is a very lightweight, flexible, mission-oriented game system that you could use to play the original Metal Gear Solid as a complete scenario. It's cool for that alone, but the Verbs and Nouns system is a very innovative way of framing the mechanics, and the layout is sleek and engaging. If you like narrative espionage rpgs, or if you're a Metal Gear fan, you should definitely check this out.
Minor Issues:
-Page 8, it seems like the intent is you succeed by rolling over the Challenge Level, but this isn't explicit. It's also not clear what happens if you tie the Challenge Level.
-Page 9, "Tokens allow you to act" suggests that you need them to do anything, Verb or not. However the consequences of running out of tokens are just that you can't leverage Verbs. I can broadly guess at the intent but some more clarity could be useful here.
-Page 10, tracking Mission Integrity but not mission progress feels like it removes a lot of the game's mechanical tension. The crisis point in a mission is very clearly mechanically defined, but the sense of how close a group is to succeeding is vague, and this might make missions that don't enter The Last Ditch Effort feel like victory was unearned, and missions that did enter The Last Ditch Effort feel like this was a requirement for finishing the mission.
-Page 12, "it's sequels and spinoffs" its