Name: The Director’s Cut
Game Type: Role-playing Game
Publisher: Broken Ruler Games
Author: The Warden
System: Optional System
Setting: Killshot
Series:
Theme: Modern Action
Type: Core Rulebook
Release Date: July 2012, September 2012
Edition: Revised 1st Edition
Description:
Rule #1: Never take the job lightly.
Rule #2: There’s always another way.
Rule #3: Don’t get caught.
Some of us just don’t fit in with the rest of the world. Sure, we can hold down a steady job, collect a paycheck, raise a family, and blend in, but not without stirring up the shit. Trying to be something you’re not comes out eventually. Aggression, anger, drug abuse, whatever your poison is. Some of us have demons. Some of us have issues. But some of us – a select few – have a gift we can’t deny.
Someone has to do what needs doing. Someone’s gotta pull the trigger and someone’s gotta die. That’s the job.
It’s the gritty world of professional hitmen, contract killers, and assassins; the world of Killshot. The short and sweet of it? You’re assassins hired to kill for money. Bombers, enforcers, snipers, burglars, techs, and hunters are just the top of the pile for co-workers. You’ll work together as a Team to get it done right the first time because you don’t get a second chance in this business. Either the client will kill you, your broker will deny she knows you, or the cops will pound on your door at 6AM.
Killshot‘s designed to provide players with an intense, immersive experience using the flexibility and rapid pace of the Optional System combined with the strategy and co-operation of a tactical war game. Players must devise a plan of action to get the job done right or find themselves staring at the rest of their lives behind bars. Every phase of the job bears equal importance and is not complete until the players have successfully made off without leaving any clues.
The Director’s Cut is your ultimate guide to being an assassin or a Director, the one calling all the shots. Every rule, every focus, every weapon, every modifier, and every Evidence Point can be found here in full color and layers to turn off background, sidebars, images, and more. With this book, you’ll have everything you need to pull off a couple of jobs or start and entire career.
Publishers Website: http://www.brokenrulergames.com/
Purchase:
PDF Download DriveThruRPG: Killshot: The Director’s Cut
Released Products/Expansions:
CORE
Killshot: The Director’s Cut
Killshot: An Assassin’s Journal
Killshot: Direction
SOURCEBOOKS
Killshot Files #1: Blaze of Glory
ADVENTURES
Killshot Files #0: Retribution
CAMPAIGNS
Killshot: The Director's Cut,
The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=25199.
Killshot is somewhat of a reverse investigative game where instead of following the clues that lead back to the assassin, the player characters are the assassins trying to avoid leaving the clues. But don’t think of this is a simple run around and shoot people game, there is a lot of strategy involved in completing your job without gaining any suspicion from the authorities or letting your mark get away. While it may seem so simple to just sneak up on someone and shoot, there’s so much more to consider and Killshot really gets you involved with every aspect. The Director’s Cut is the complete core rulebook containing the player’s guide (An Assassin’s Journal) and the director’s guide (Direction)
Killshot utilizes a dice pool determined by the different Options used during each action (leading to the game mechanic’s name Optional System). The more skills, abilities, and knowledge you can attach to your action, the more dice you add to your pool. In addition, all dice rolls are resolved by opposing rolls instead of static (or even dynamic) target numbers. Thus the more dice you add, the better your luck. However, a bad dice roll, regardless of the number of dice, can still see you failing miserably. This only adds to the strategy of your actions by forcing the player to make better decisions to improve their odds of rolling higher than the director. The end result is a completely interactive game with decisions and trade-offs leading to more success in the actions the characters take.
But, and this is a good but, the game system favors the player characters by giving them the advantage in pretty much every situation. Killshot is truly a game designed for excellent gaming experiences where the characters are in control of the setting instead of trying to simply overcome the difficulties the setting provides them. It’s like writing a movie script or playing a video game where your protagonists are the main focus and everyone around them is simply there to make the protagonists’ stories that much cooler.
OVERALL
Killshot is a very interesting take on action in a modern setting. When you think of the big box office action flicks, this is the style of storytelling involved. The characters don’t stop what they’re doing so the enemy can take a turn, they keep on going until the enemy is taken out or something external interferes. In Killshot, you get the chance to recreate that cinematic appeal in action movies and video games. Just make sure you don’t leave the wrong clues for the authorities to find.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 9 out of 10
The Director’s Cut (using the review copy) is designed for PDF use and I dare say even handheld device use. The utilized one-column content layout with a side column for tips and tactics means the bulk of the material is extremely easy to read electronically. The page layout is not ideal for print, but then the book is not designed around print, it’s designed for maximum PDF use (with layers to make it more printer-friendly). The illustrations look great, the layout and formatting are excellent, but more importantly, important game mechanics, when first mentioned, are picked out in red instead of the standard black font. This helps to grab the eye while reading, bringing attention to the more important things. Overall the book is very well-assembled.
Mechanics: 10 out of 10
The Optional System is a very unique and dare I say innovative dice pool system, provide the advantage to the players in almost every situation. Resolving combat is extremely cinematic and the abstract methods of determining movement and range are superb for a modern setting. While reading through this book, you almost get a sense of being in a movie or video game as the mechanics really provide that high-action feel where the player characters are really the only important thing in the entire story, everyone else is just support.
Desire to Play: 9 out of 10
The concept of being an assassin may not appeal to all and the thought of killing important figures for pay can play on people’s morals. With that being said, the game has a definite appeal for those who like to involve strategy in their games alongside how they design their characters – every characteristic of your character has potential to providing a bonus (or maybe a penalty) to whatever action you take. Being a very interactive resolution system, the players will most likely spend little time waiting for their turn to occur. It’s a constant back and forth between what actions to take now and what actions to take next, judging on the director’s response. This is much more than “what power should I use this time” and more like “should I climb this ladder and hunker down or do I dive behind this dumpster and wait for the mark to pass by?” Using modern weapons truly enhances these concepts as your “battlefield” is so much larger due to the range capabilities of your weapons.
Overall: 9 out of 10
Killshot is a very unique take on role-playing games backed by a truly cinematic game system. The Optional System truly attempts to recreate scenes you may see in your favorite movie whereas the main characters are truly the main characters and not just another person trying to be a hero in a setting filled with heroes. Why not reward your players’ strategic maneuvers by allowing them to keep going? In Killshot, you can, and the reward is a game that makes you think about how you do your job as much as it does actually performing that job. In other words, how can I complete this job without making a mess or how do I make it look like someone else did it?