You stand under the burning heat of the sun, staring twenty yards down at your opponent. Your fingers curl and uncurl as your hand hovers mere inches from your weapon.
You hold the book in one hand, the pack of cards in the other. You feel the texture of the paper against your skin, like the butt of your gun in your palm.
You open the book and turn to the first page. The scene begins to reveal itself in stark black and white.
Soon, you and your foe will draw your guns, and one of you will no longer be alive. As you stare through the heat ripples of the air between the two of you, and you realize...
One Foot In is a two-player narrative TTRPG about someone who's chosen violence facing the memories of their past, and grappling with the path they've been walking.
It is designed to be played over the course of about an hour (plus setup and prep), and uses a simple set of materials:
One standard pack of playing cards
A single 12-sided die (optional)
Some method of keeping time
Something to write notes with (optional, if your memory is good!)
One player takes the role of the GUNSLINGER, someone who has chosen to walk down a path that has led them to confront an opponent in a duel that only one of them will walk away from.
The other player takes on the PHANTOMS of the Gunslinger's past—the embodiment of all of the decisions that have led them to this place.
One Foot In is designed to be able to bring characters in from all different genres, and provides a set of D12 dice tables to help players create their own characters, with 12 different ideas for Gunslingers and a total of 144 different Phantoms (12 for each of the 12 Phantom archetypes).
Or you can bring in characters from anywhere—another TTRPG you play, a video game, a movie or TV show, or a work of literature you enjoy! The structure of the game encourages you to explore and build out your character iteratively over the course of play, revealing new pieces of information and folding them back into your scenes as you go.
The game is setting-neutral—the only requirements are the tension of the impending deadly confrontation and a character who has chosen a violent path for some reason.
"It flings you head first into a BIG complex personal struggle that you’re making the elements for as you go and it still manages to make it cohesive and impactful. It’s my fav stuff about playing ttrpgs concentrated to an hour of purely that." -Sara Marrero, playtester
"I'm tempted to give you something mean that you can cut around in a funny way but I'm stunted by my inability to actually say much bad about this game" -Domi Carmia, editor and playtester
"I just played the other day but brain has been swirling with new gunslinger ideas." -Amy
