What is Outgunned: Adventure trying to do?
I spoke with one of the founders of Two Little Mice about their latest Kickstarter, a game that has raised some big money and some big questions about its similarity to their own Broken Compass RPG.
NOTE: Outgunned Adventure is live on Backerkit at the time of publication.
Hi, Simone, can you introduce yourself and tell us your connection to RPGs?
Hi, my name is Simone Formicola and I’m one of the founder of Two Little Mice. Two Little Mice is an Italian independent TTRPG studio, among our games there are Household, Adventure in the Household, Outgunned and Broken Compass. We also are the creative team behind Inferno - Dante’s Guide to Hell and Apocalisse - John’s Guide to the Armageddon, published by Acheron.
Okay, so your latest crowdfund campaign, Outgunned: Adventure, is both an expansion to Outgunned but also comes with enough rules to be played as its own game. What inspired the shift to this standalone format for Outgunned expansions?
We wanted to try something different from your standard expansion and grow the Outgunned line in different directions. We want to give people the chance to approach the game without having to buy every single book, just cut to the ones they are interested in.
Outgunned: Adventure actually brings some new game mechanics to the table. Can you describe a few of them?
With Adventure we want to keep the same basic system of Outgunned but with a different focus. For example enemies and combat scenes will be more narrative and less tactical than the action oriented Outgunned Corebook. Another example, if in Outgunned we have a Chase mechanic (the Need for Speed), in Outgunned Adventure we have the Run! Mechanic, useful when running away from a collapsing temple.
How do you foresee customers using the Outgunned: Adventure standalone rules and then wanting to buy the core rulebook? Will they?
I think the cool thing about the standalone genre book is that it gives you everything you need to play a specific genre (pulp adventure in this case) but it tease you the endless possibilities you can have adding the Outgunned Corebook and even the Action Flicks and Action Flicks Vol. 2 book. If you like the system I think you will want to expand the tools at your disposal to craft the perfect adventure for you and your group.
What are some of the key differences between running a game in Outgunned: Adventure versus the core Outgunned rulebook?
As I said, there are different focuses, meaning different scenes that are treated as important in the two books. Fighting enemies is more important in the Outgunned Corebook, but facing traps is more important for Adventure.
And of course there is the structure of a Cinematic Campaign, if you have a mission against a villain in Outgunned, in Outgunned Adventure you try to reach the treasure before your rival does.
Okay, I have to ask the big question that so many people in the comments of my Outgunned Adventure video have been asking: why is Two Little Mice creating a game/expansion that is so similar to their previous game Broken Compass?
Mainly because we love the pulp adventure genre so much, like we always say the 1999 Mummy movie is the main inspiration of our game design. We also love our new Director’s Cut system and we think that it has everything you need to bring the great cinematic adventure at your table. And being able to combine this with the other Outgunned books open up a world of fun.
Did player feedback from the original Outgunned influence the development of this new supplement?
It sure did! When you release a game you can see what works and how the players use what you have written, so you became a little bit better at communicating with them. Having a clear and enjoyable communications with or players has always been one of our main goal.
Outgunned: Adventure will include a whole chapter on supernatural elements. Can you expand on what exactly those elements will include?
We will talk about using different supernatural element to enrich a campaign, and of course the chapter will feature supernatural creatures, and how to face them if a group wants that kind of experience. After all fighting mummies and performing ancient ritual is very important in The Mummy!
What challenges did you face when designing the supernatural mechanics for Outgunned: Adventure?
We don’t want to transform Outgunned Adventure in a full fantasy game, so we need to be very careful and always looking at the movies that inspired us. We want to be sure that players have everything they need to live those adventures.
This Outgunned supplement/game is very much inspired by the Indiana Jones, The Mummy and Tomb Raider films, but can you list other media that GMs and players might use as touchstones?
Of course there is the Uncharted videogame series, but also other important adventure movies like National Treasure. Clive Cussler books are also a useful reference for Outgunned Adventure.
How do you ensure accessibility and ease of play for new players while still providing depth for experienced ones?
By making sure that almost everything in the game is extremely modular. In this way you have a simple base mechanic that you can always rely on and, if you are more experienced and want to add depth, you have several tools to use in you sessions.
What narrative techniques do you recommend for GMs to keep the pace and excitement high in an Outgunned: Adventure session?
You can always use failures to raise the stakes and leave the player breathless. Also be ready to improvise, it’s not a mystery that things never go as planned, so don’t try to hide it and simply go with the flow and if you don’t know the answer to a player’s question, just turn that question back to the other players. You are having fun together after all.
Are there any plans to introduce more genre books after Outgunned: Adventure?
It’s still soon to say, but it’s no secret that the campaign is doing very well. If the player will love this genre book we will gladly make another in the future.
One of my favorite aspects of Two Little Mice’s dice system is how there is such a strong gambling element: rerolling and then rerolling again but betting all your successes on each reroll. Where did this casino approach to roleplaying originally come from?
It all begins randomly rolling dice back when me and Rico still lived in the same house. We were trying to find a fun ways to roll dice for the first edition of Household and it struck us the simple fun of rolling a bunch of d6s, looking for combinations and deciding to reroll or not.
Action Flicks is an expansion of the Outgunned RPG that gives GMs new mechanics and concepts for almost a dozen different movie genres. It really seems like it has covered a huge variety of action subgenres. What can you tell us about Action Flicks volume 2?
We are unlocking new Flicks as we speak but it will bring a lot of new possibilities for Outgunned and Outgunned Adventure players. We already have dinosaurs, post apocalyptic wastelands, cosmic entities and zombies!
Star Knights: Learn how to wield the Power, and resist the temptations of Darkness
Wild West: Grab your gun and get ready to face the dangers of the wild West.
Dark Light: Choose a side and make your stand in the eternal war between Angels and Demons.
Old Ones: Put a stop to the ritual before it’s too late, or get ready to face the return of the Old Ones.
District 77: Grab a coffee, get in your shop, and prepare for another day on patrol.
Dino Storm: Prove your courage by squaring off against the biggest predators of all time.
Army of Evil: The dead just won’t stay dead, so it’s up to you to drag them back to their grave.
Quack Tales: Set off on great adventures as a Duck, a Mouse, or another cartoon animal.
Furious Wasteland: Fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with street warriors.
♦ And more to come…
Can you share any behind-the-scenes stories from the development of this latest Kickstarter?
Hard to say, since we usually are very open about our work either our community there aren’t may “behind the scenes” stories. I can tell you that we are working endlessly even during the campaign to came up with stretch goals and produce everything we need to present them. For example we came up with the action flicks Furious Wasteland after so many backers asked for it during the campaign.
How do you keep the visual and layout design consistent and appealing across your RPG products?
By working a lot!
We are a small team, there’s me, Rico and Daniela and we do everything, so it’s easier to be consistent. But it’s very hard to do the incredible amount of things we do on a daily basis!
Do you ever envision the community contributing to or expanding upon the content of Outgunned: Adventure via a third party license?
We are working on something like this, but it’s still early to talk about a third party license.
How are Two Little Mice games received in Italy and Europe generally? What does your player base look like there compared to the one in the U.S.?
We started in Italy with first edition of Household, so our fans there have a more direct contact with us, since they have known us since 2019. I must say we have a wonderful relationship with our international community in Europe, the U.S. and in the rest of the world (lots of fans from Canada, Australia and New Zealand!). We’re trying to build a unique international community that embraces players equally from all around the world.
I’m a big fan of 2LM, as well as Acheron (Brancalonia, Apocalisse, Inferno, Lex Arcana) and Horrible Guild (Wilderfeast), both of which also hail from Italy. Do you guys all know each other?
We know Acheron pretty well and we worked with them a lot in the past, we are the creative team behind Inferno and Apocalisse. We know also the Horrible Guild team, because after all especially during international conventions we Italians tend to stick together!