One Last Job
One Last Job
1
ONE LAST JOB
Copyright Grant Howitt, 2014
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION – p3
SETTINGS – p 19
- PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS – p20
- CYBERPUNK – p22
- WILD WEST – p24
- FANTASY ADVENTURE – p26
- POST-APOCALYPSE – p28
- INVESTIGATORS WORKING AGAINST THE GREAT GOD CTHULHU, OR CULTISTS IN SERVICE
OF SAME – p30
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INTRODUCTION
You haven't worked in a while, and you haven't worked with each other in a long, long time. Not after
what happened. But now the the old crew is back together and you're going to have to make it work.
Reckon you've still got what it takes?
One Last Job is a tabletop roleplaying game; you and your friends can use the rules in this book to tell
stories together. However, it's not like most roleplaying games for a number of reasons. Namely:
YOU DON'T GET TO MAKE YOUR OWN CHARACTER. Every facet of your character will be
determined by another player during play as they invent a back-story for you. You'll do the same for
them.
YOU PLAY IT IN ONE GO. Rules-as-written, you should be able to play through a Job in a single
evening.
THERE'S NO SETTING. The assumed setting is a world of professional criminals, but you can use it to
tell a story about any group of people who are on a last-ditch job: WW2 commandos, ageing punk
rockers, zombie apocalypse survivors, Wild West cowboys, and so on. There are six settings at the end
of this document if you need ideas.
YOU MESS WITH YOUR DICE A LOT. Once you roll your dice, you'll often find yourself re-rolling them
or changing their results on the instruction of the other players. You'll also have the option to mess
with the GM's dice, sometimes. Leave your dice on the table until your turn is over, so everyone can
reference them.
YOU HAVE A LOT OF SAY OVER THE WORLD. It's up to you, as well as the GM, to create the world and
set up exciting action scenes.
When I say “you” I might mean “you the player” or “your character.” Hopefully it's easy to determine
which I mean.
Examples are written in italics, like this. Take a look at the settings listed in the back of the book for
more examples of specific things.
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STARTING THE GAME
Your boss has brought you all back together for one last job, despite the fact that you're long past your
best. They need people they can trust, and they trust you, and they make you an offer that you can't
refuse. So you sign up.
THE WORLD
Pick which setting you’re using (there are six at the back of this book with examples of everything
you'll have to come up) or define your own.
THE JOB
Work together, with the GM as leader, to determine what the job is. (Alternatively, GM, invent the Job
yourself before the game.) Keep it simple – we're here to [verb] this [noun] is a good guide.
We’re here to put down Red Jack, a psychotic mercenary who we used to work with.
THE CATASTROPHE
Something bad happened last time you worked together, and it’s linked to the Job. Define where the
catastrophe happened, then go around the table, taking turns to say one thing that happened during
the catastrophe
That one time in Utah, where Red Jack got his nickname after he went crazy in the bank lobby.
THE BOSS
In the following scenes, the GM plays the Boss: the person who brings all the characters together. Have
a think about who the Boss would be in the setting you're using – the boss might be a wealthy ex-thief,
a grizzled Infantry captain, a conniving dragon, or a shadowy inquisitor.
The Boss is an ex-criminal, rich and fat and out of the game, and will forever walk with a limp after what
Red Jack did to him.
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PUTTING THE CREW TOGETHER
Get in, says the Boss, and the van door slides open. Even if there wasn't some goon pointing a gun at you
sat in the back seat, the police on your tail are enough to persuade you to take any exit you can get. You
climb in and tell the guy to lower his gun before you club him unconscious with it, and light a cigarette.
Remind the players of the job, and then announce your character. All you need is a name, an implied
profession, and some sort of problem. The first character you create will define the tone of the game
and every other character, so think carefully.
“Gentlemen, we need to kill Red Jack. Of course, to do it, we'll need to hire Sally Nine, because if anyone's
willing and able to kill him it's her. She's a goddamn lunatic.”
It's then up to one of the players to step forward as the character in question. Describe what they're up
to in their day-to-day life, and discuss what sort of offer the Boss would make that could bring them
back into the job. Remember, your character is going to take part in the mission. Find a reason for them
to do so, rather than providing reasons why they can't. For example:
“I'll play Sally Nine. I'm hustling some guys in game of pool when things turn bad as they get wise; one of
them pulls a gun, I break his wrist, people start screaming, the cops show up. Your goons pull up in a van
outside the back door and give me an out; either get put away for aggravated assault or get in the van
and earn enough money to never hustle again. I'm in.”
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The rest of the crew
Once the first member of the crew is recruited, they hire the second member. First, they define an
additional layer of complication on the job – another action scene – and then they create a character
who could deal with that.
Another player steps up and takes control of the new character. The character who was hired
immediately before them is in charge of recruiting them – travelling to where they are, persuading
them to come along, and so on – and they can choose one other character, including The Boss, to join
them in the scene.
Sally Nine's player speaks up. “With the right team, killing Red Jack won't be hard. The problem is that
he's laid lethal traps all around his cabin. Luckily, I happen to know a woodsman, Jim Freeman, but... well,
ever since we divorced, we've not been on speaking terms.” The GM writes down “Navigate a trapped
area” above the “Kill Red Jack” on the last stage of the job, and another player steps up to be Jim.
This process repeats with the characters working together to recruit the rest of the group.
Sally and Jim spring Dexter, a lock-picking sneak-thief from his prison transport; Jim and Dexter team up
to rescue Freda, a fixer, from a pitched battle in a warehouse after a deal went bad.
You can define as much or as little as you like about the other characters. You can name them, give
them backstories or character traits, or just pick out a profession and leave it at that. They used to be
the best, but now they're not.
This is all prologue, so don't take too long over it. GM, if you find the scenes starting to drag, draw them
to a close and move on.
Once every player has a character and the GM has written down the action scenes in a sensible order,
the Crew is back together and the game can start.
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SCENE TYPES
Once you hit the road, it seems like your life is made up of life-threatening situations punctuated by
brief pauses where you work out how you're going to throw yourself headlong into the next life-
threatening situation.
There are two types of scene in One Last Job: action scenes, where the characters attempt to overcome
an obstacle; and planning scenes, where they take a breather and discuss what their next steps will be.
Action and planning scenes will alternate throughout the game.
PLANNING SCENES
Here's the deal, she says, and stretches a map out over the table - we sneak in, place the demo charges,
then hit the vault as hard as we can. They'll never know what hit them. So, you ask, we're going in
quiet? Yeah, she says, and we're going out loud.
Before the an action scene starts, the leader – the character brought into the team to deal the specific
problem posed during the action scene - works with the GM to decide your approach in a planning
scene. Do it in character, either as a flashback to the planning meeting or in real-time as the crew
moves from one scene to the next.
A good way to frame your approach is through the phrase “We’re gonna go in X” where X is shooting,
fighting, talking, quietly, disguised, singing, lying, through the roof with a set of breaching charges,
crawling through the ventilation ducts, etc etc.
Be wary of defining everything the rest of your crew will do; if you state all their actions before they
get a chance to do so, there’s little point in them playing. So “Okay, we’re going to go in disguise; I’m
gonna dress up as a guard, you and you steal the uniforms, and you hack the cameras so they can’t use
their facial identification software to find us out” is too much detail; “Okay, we’re going to go in
disguise; I can do the talking, but we need to get the uniforms onsite first” is much better.
With this, you’re framing the scene to your strengths so you can engage it on your own terms. It also
gives you agency to describe the sort of challenges you’ll face, although the GM will be the final
authority on this.
GM, work to involve the player characters' scars into the upcoming scene. Also, ask questions and
provide information. “What's the terrain like?” “What enemy forces are present?” “What's your
relationship with the Viscount?” “How long has it been since you played guitar professionally?” and so
on.
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ACTION SCENES
You push on, your Kevlar vest slowing you down, and you slam another magazine into your pistol and
shout to see if anyone's still alive and, over the sound of gunfire and sirens, you hear him crying out and
it's just like him to get himself shot. This feels like your honeymoon all over again.
Now you're on the crew, you'll need to solve problems – and fast. The longer you stick around in one
place, and the longer you take to sort something out, the more attention you'll draw to yourselves. Each
scene has a completion track which represents how much you'll have struggle to complete it; the
attention you're drawing is represented by the danger pool.
Proficiency bonus
You’re in your element. Add a dice to all pools you roll during your stage of the Job.
Pulling out
You decide whether or not the team pulls out of a scene that's getting too dangerous to handle, and you
deal with the extraction. (See below for more details on pulling out.)
Once every space on the completion track is marked off, the crew has completed the objective.
When you act, describe what you're attempting to do; what you do influences what traits you use when
calculating your dice pool. Your pool size is calculated by taking as many dice as your rating in the
relevant ability, adding any dice from legends or equipment and subtracting any dice from scars. (See
the Traits section later on for more details about all of these.) When you act against the scene, you're in
a conflict with the GM that you roll to resolve. Roll to see if you win or lose, if you get hurt, and if you
make the situation more dangerous than it was to begin with.
What your action is depends on the pacing of scene in question; if it's a fight, you might describe a
blow-by-blow account of the action. If it's a long journey, you might each describe a day's travel, or a
vignette focusing around your character and their abilities. Your action is when the imaginary camera
focuses on your character, and you roll dice to see how much of an impact they make.
Feel free to follow on from other character's actions – so if they fail at a task, you can attempt it, or help
them out – or carry on, trying something else entirely. Once you've rolled the dice, you can interpret
how well your action went with the GM.
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SPENDING GRIT
Every character starts with 2 grit. Grit is a measure of your resourcefulness, tenacity and your
willingness to take stupid risks. You earn grit by telling anecdotes, or accepting weak abilities and
scars. Before you roll your dice pool, you can spend grit in two ways:
TAKE A RISK: Add three dice to your pool for your next action as you attempt something effective but
probably pretty reckless. If you re-roll the dice pool for any reason, keep the extra dice in it.
IGNORE THE PAIN: Regain all lost stamina points as you grit your teeth and shrug off injuries.
TYPES OF ACTIONS
When you act, you can choose to push on or hold them off. (If you're the leader, and you reckon the
scene has grown too dangerous, you can choose to pull out.)
Push on
When you push on, you solve whatever problem the scene is presenting you. If you win the conflict,
mark one success against the scene's completion track for every dice of yours that is higher than their
highest dice. Once the completion track is complete, the crew has made it through the scene.
If you win the conflict, count every dice that you rolled that's higher than the highest danger dice –
these are your successes. (The GM never has to count successes; either they win the conflict or they
don't.)
When you roll, both you and the GM should announce your high dice (e.g. “I've got eight high!”) to
speed up resolution.
Lucifer “Cyclops” Jones, one-eyed gunfighter extraordinare, is in a shoot-out with some unsavoury types in
a bar – he's pushing on, trying to get through the bar and out the other side towards his destination. The
danger pool is currently rated at 3. Lucifer grabs his pool of dice – 3 for his Wetwork ability, 1 for his
ivory-handled 1911's, 1 for his legend “The two-gun terror of old Baghdad” for a total of 5 dice.
Lucifer rolls 10, 10, 6, 6, 5. The GM rolls 9, 8, 7, 2. Lucifer has the higher dice, so he wins the conflict. He
has two dice higher than the highest dice in the danger pool (9) so he gets two successes. The GM crosses
two spaces off the scene's completion track and together they narrate Lucifer's unique point-blank
gunfighting style as he chews through a few mooks.
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DRAWS
If you and the GM both have the same highest dice, you and your opposition are evenly matched – at
least for now. As the conflict hangs in the balance, choose one of the following. If the GM has multiple
dice that match your highest, you can repeat this process until you win the conflict.
DO SOMETHING STUPID: Set the GM's highest dice to 1 and add a dice to the danger pool.
GET YOURSELF HURT: Set the GM's highest dice to 10; you lose a point of stamina, but the dice is
removed from the roll. (See below for more about losing stamina.)
STAMINA LOSS
Overcoming problems can be exhausting, risky, and even life-threatening – but you're the best at what
you do, so it's all part of the job. When a danger dice shows 10, it's removed from the roll (but not the
pool) and you lose 1 point of stamina for each dice removed. Work out what happened narratively with
the GM – maybe you took a hit, or maybe you're just getting tired, or scared, or your hip is acting up.
At the end of the scene, your stamina is restored to its starting value as you grab a few seconds and
catch your breath.
GM, If the danger pool is ever reduced to zero dice, roll another dice; if this dice comes up as a 10,
remove another point of stamina and keep rolling additional dice until you score 9 or under.
Increase the pool by 1 for every 1 that a player rolls on their dice.
You can also try to increase the size of the pool once per scene by sounding the alarm. When you
trigger an element, you can re-roll the dice. (See the GM section for more details on both of these.)
GM, describe what happens when the danger pool increases or decreases in size.
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LOSING ALL YOUR STAMINA
If you lose all your stamina, you're out of the scene; work out why. You could be injured, or
unconscious, or you could flee the scene, or hide, or be captured, or get stuck in some inescapable
situation. Whatever the reason, you'll take no further part in this scene. Remember, your stamina
returns to its starting value at the end of every scene.
Choose one of the following options during the next planning scene. You can't choose the same option
twice.
TAKE A HIT: Reduce an ability rated 2 or higher by 1. Describe what lowers it; GM, if you feel the
choice of ability or description doesn't fit, you can ask the player to change either.
PUT SOMEONE ELSE IN DANGER: Pick another character and remove reduce of their abilities rated 2
or higher by 1.
BETRAY THE TEAM: Give a grit to every other player. Add 4 spaces to the next scene's completion
track. Work out what your evil plan all along was with the GM. The GM gets to use your character as an
element in the next action scene; you join them as an NPC, and no longer roll your own pools of dice.
HIDE THE PAIN: Take part in the next scene as normal, but at the end of the scene, your character dies.
In less combat-heavy settings, your character is permanently removed from the story in some other
way, if you wish. If you lose all your stamina during the next scene, you die immediately.
PULLING OUT
Sometimes, a scene can get too hot to handle, or a crew member can be taken out of action without
warning, and the crew decide to take a different approach. If the scene leader decides to, the group can
pull out at the end of the round before the GM increases the size of the danger pool or sounds the
alarm (if they haven't already).
The leader makes a final roll against the danger pool – if they win the conflict, they can safely extract
one character for every success they roll. The leader chooses which characters, including their own, to
extract safely.
Anyone who is not extracted safely gains a scar – it's fresh, though, so it's technically a wound – that
represents a setback or injury they suffered as they pulled out. This does not count towards their
maximum number of scars, and it does not earn them any grit. (See the next chapter for more
information on scars).
Then the leader works with the GM to establish a different scene that achieves the same ends (“Looks
like we're not getting through the front gates with a ram-raid – we'll try to evade capture and break in
through the ventilation shafts instead.”) and play begins again with them as the leader. The new scene
starts with a danger pool of 3, not 2.
GAME OVER
Should every character die, the mission is failed and the job is over. Maybe their husbands and wives go
on a revenge mission a month or two afterwards. That sounds like it could be fun.
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HOW TO MAKE A CHARACTER (BY SWEARING AT EACH OTHER)
You watch him run into the brawl and get knocked over in seconds. Get up, you say, and pull him to his
feet; you can't believe he's gotten so old so quickly, and you tell him this is no uncertain terms. One time,
back in the day, he took down four cops with nothing more than a chair leg. He shrugs you off, spits out
a mouthful of blood, and lunges forward to grab one of the guards in a choke hold.
As you play the game, you'll define each other's characters more by interacting with each other and
reminiscing or insulting each other and inventing an imaginary, improvised past history.
There are four kinds of traits you can establish – abilities, legend, equipment and scars.
ANECDOTES
All traits are established by telling anecdotes about other characters – you can't establish your own.
abilities are established before the dice are rolled, and influence the dice pool; all other kinds of traits
are established after, and allow either a re-roll or an automatic success.
An anecdote should describe an experience that happened in the past that relates to the task at hand.
Mention another character, aside from the one with the triggering roll, in the anecdote.
If more than one person gets involved in the anecdote, work out who gave the most to it, and award
them the grit. If you can't work it out, give all the participants grit and move on.
Being rude
Most anecdotes, even positive ones, are intended to be rude; you're waiting until someone messes up
and then saying how they used to be better, which spurs them on to great success. GM, if you feel an
anecdote is especially cutting, embarrassing, or entertaining, feel free to hand out an additional point
of grit to the player that's telling it.
Refuting
You can refute an anecdote that another player makes up about you; it's not true, in the game fiction,
and they've either remembered it wrong or they're lying. If you refute an anecdote, you don't get access
to any of the benefits associated with taking on a trait.
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Contradicting
If a statement contradicts something that's already been established as true, it can't be taken on as a
trait. For example, if a character takes part in a stakeout and sees something through binoculars and,
later on, it's stated that they can't see anything because they're blind, that won't wash. If they've
described themselves as tall, you can't say that they're short.
STACKING
You can only establish one trait after a player has rolled – a legend, a piece of equipment, or a scar. You
can't do more than one to the same roll.
TRAITS
ABILITIES
Abilities form the core of your character and govern the kinds of actions that they can take in the game;
all characters start with all abilities at 2, which is average.
When someone attempts an action, you can establish their relevant ability. Establish an ability
after someone declares an action but before dice are rolled.
You can't establish someone as the best at an ability until someone has been described as the
worst at that ability. Agreeing to be the worst at something gives you 2 GRIT.
Because you have to establish someone as the worst at something before someone else is the best, it
pays to take one for the team by attempting actions early in the game that you don't mind being bad at.
The character who is best at an ability rolls 3 dice when using it. The character who is worst at it rolls
1. You can only have one character who's the best, and one who's the worst.
The precise nature of abilities depends on the setting, and govern what's important and possible
during play. GM, make up abilities before the game or take them from one of the settings at the end of
this document. (There's some advice on making up your own in the GM section of this book.)
LEGEND
Legends are noteworthy things you've done in the past; things that you're famous (or infamous) for.
Describe a legend when a player fails at a task to give them an immediate reroll with an
additional dice in their pool.
Legends add an extra dice to any roll they might apply to (the GM has final judgement on this).
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EQUIPMENT
Use Equipment when a player fails at a task to give them an immediate reroll with an additional
dice in their pool. Equipment is kept loose until another player determines what you're carrying;
assume you have everything you need to do your job, but nothing remarkable, until someone mentions
it.
Like Legends, Equipment adds a single dice to any action involving the equipment.
SCARS
You've got problems. Any other player can turn a failure into a success by mentioning your scars.
If you generate a scar for another player, they lose no stamina this turn – no matter what happens. In
addition, they can take any one of the dice in their pool and change it to a 10.
When you give a character a scar, you're turning failure into statistically-unlikely success. Scars remove
a dice from a relevant pool down to a minimum of one.
You have a maximum of 2 scars. When you accept a SCAR, take 2 GRIT.
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THE GAMESMASTER
You step out from the shadows and punch the guard in the gut; he doubles over, and you bring your
knee up into his chin, and he staggers back from the blow and collapses into a heap. You're about to
congratulate yourself on a job well done, that maybe you've still got what it takes, when you notice the
blinking red light of a security camera out of the corner of your eye and remember that they have those
everywhere, now, and you curse as the alarm kicks in and you hear doors slamming open all around
you.
BUILDING SCENES
As the GM, your job is to build scenes – action scenes, mainly. The players will give you suggestions as
to the broad style of the scene (when they fill in the details of the job as they get the crew together)
and they'll give you more information during the preceding planning scene.
Your job is to describe the world around them and how it reacts to their actions, and to describe what
happens when they lose stamina or add to the danger pool.
Completion Track
You're also in charge of the completion track; every time a player wins a conflict, mark off one space on
the track for every dice they rolled that came up higher than your highest dice.
The track determines how long a scene will take to complete: a good guide for track size is the number
of players present plus the scene number times two (2 for the first action scene, 4 for the second).
In a four-player game, the success track for the first scene is six spaces long. The second is eight. The third
is ten. The fourth and final scene is twelve.
Feel free to bump the numbers up and down a little if you think it makes sense, or to call a scene to a
close if it's running on too long.
Elements
When a scene begins, write down one or two elements that are important in the scene on scraps of
paper or index cards and set them out in front of you – elements are usually important NPCs or
environmental effects, but if you can come up with something interesting, go for it.
You can trigger an element after you've rolled dice once per scene – when you do, describe how it
negatively affects the player characters, and remove it from play, then re-roll your dice pool. Any
stamina loss your previous roll may have inflicted is discarded – nothing carries over.
You can re-roll at any time during a player's turn, but you can never re-roll a re-roll.
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The Alarm
Once per action scene, you can sound the alarm to increase the size of the danger pool. This can be
represented in the fiction however you please – whether that's an actual alarm going off, or some elite
troops arriving on the scene, or the building collapsing under the PCs, or the hostess uncovering their
indiscretions – but the stakes in the scene always ramp up when they do.
You can sound the alarm at the end of the round after you increase the size of the danger pool, but not
if the leader is pulling out of the scene.
When you trigger it, roll the current danger pool. For every dice that comes up 6 or more, add an
additional dice to the danger pool.
NARRATION
You don't have a set number of antagonists to use; instead, the completion track and the danger pool
combined give you a rough idea of a) how far away the players are from success and b) how much
danger they're in. Describe the scene based on those numbers; high danger could mean lots of alert
guards, or a single powerful threat, or a rapidly-approaching time limit.
Narrate, and have the players narrate, whatever you feel appropriate within the boundaries of your
game – so in a cyberpunk setting, say, mowing down waves of corporate security with a minigun is
entirely fitting, but in a jewel-caper game you might spend several combat rounds outwitting, or
brawling with, the same tenacious guard.
Ask questions of the players, and respond to their questions with interesting answers.
Introduce threats. Every action they take is, by definition, dangerous – so bring that danger to the
forefront.
Draw things back to the catastrophe. Re-incorporate details that the players have mentioned.
Sometimes, a player might say something that doesn't fit with your idea of the world. If you think it
goes against the tone of the game, ask them to modify it, or modify it with details yourself so it's more
in line.
If you have an NPC that you want to keep alive – maybe they're your element for the scene – say up-
front that they're important and that the players can't take them out of action until they've had a
chance to do their thing.
SCARS
Try to make sure every character confronts a situation that is made more difficult thanks to their scars
at least once per game. This builds on the backstories that you've made together, and maybe lets the
character triumph despite their problems – or, at the very least, fail entertainingly.
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INVENTING ABILITIES
Abilities form the core of character abilities in the game. Here are some things to think about when you
create your own set of Abilities:
KEEP THEM BROAD: You've got four abilities to govern every single possible action in the game, so
don't make them too fine-grain.
BALANCE THEM OUT: Try to make sure that each ability will come up frequently in the game, so
characters that are bad at one kind of ability have a chance to use others.
MAKE THEM THEMATIC: Your abilities inform the actions of the players. If you want the scope of your
game to be grand, make WAR your “fight” ability. If you want it to be honourable, make it DUEL. If you
want to encourage dirty fighting, make it BRAWL. If you want players to command others, make it
TACTICS. If, in your envisioned game, you want your players to avoid combat, change it to EVADE.
THEY DON'T MATTER: Here's the secret – if you pitch it right, inventive players will be able to apply
most of their abilities in most situations, because they have the chance to frame their actions
themselves. That's absolutely fine.
During the planning stage, one player selects the mission and introduces the first character. They play
the Boss throughout the following exchanges. They must take the final character created by the group.
Each player will take a turn to GM, taking charge of the scene that they created during the planning
phase. They’ll describe the scene, roll the danger pool, and voice NPCs. They should come up with a
valid reason why their character isn’t in the scene they’re GMing – maybe they’re bringing up the rear,
scouting ahead, waiting outside in the idling armoured car ready for the escape, filling their pockets
with loot, or whatever.
You’ll get a different experience from this, as not everyone will use the same style of GMing as each
other and play might feel a little fragmented. But it’s still a lot of fun, and it means everyone gets to
play.
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ONE LAST JOB IS INSPIRED BY:
Wushu, Dan Bayn – a very rules-light game that pits player characters against scenes, not enemy
characters, that taught me a lot about how to structure a narrative-led combat scene.
Hollowpoint, B. Murray, C.W. Marshall – another game about professional criminals. Contains the
phrase “that one time in Utah,” which was the original title for this game before I stripped the setting
out.
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Cam Banks et al – the concept of the Doom Pool lead to my danger pool; a
changing, shifting set of dice that the GM throws to represent the conflict at hand.
Shock: Social Science Fiction, Joshua A. C. Newman – one of the cleverest games I've ever read, Shock
gives players the chance to invent their own character abilities that define the world and the story by
the important actions characters can take within it.
THANKS TO:
The Playtesters
THE EXILES COLLECTIVE: Leigh, Kurtis, Conan, Lisa, Symon, Benj, Xanthia, Flopsy, Owen, Billy and
Drew.
SILVERPACK: Dexx, Jonas, Felix, Joost and Marijn.
EVERYONE ELSE: Johannes Ziegler, Sarah Ziegler, Martin Eichhorn, Patrick Thomas, Peter Tracy, Niel
Fulton, Emily Jackman, Nigel Williams, Michael Evans, Nick Argall, James Goldfinch, Chris Benton, Dean
Reilly, Vincent Cao, James Cameron, Tayla Gaedicke, Kyle Hunter, Arild Johannes Petrovic, Jimmy
Lindqvist, Alexander Silvnäs, Anton Bodell, and Simon Moberg.
The Patrons
David, Adam Drew, Andrew MacLennan, Samantha Streeter, Christy Dena, Donald Wheeler, Guillaume
Carré, Rafael Rocha, Svend Andersen, Shawn McCarthy, Jessica Hammer, Nathan Black, James Stuart,
Bay, Josh Flint, Ben McKenzie, Conan French, Philip Hanley, Ben Robbins, Andy Moore, Harriet
Goldstone, Will Blackstock, Beni, Andrew Armstrong, Mary “Hamiltron” Hamilton
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SETTINGS
The world has changed, he says, and takes a sip of beer then looks at you like he's said something
incredibly wise. You narrow your eyes at him. The world hasn't changed, you say. We have. We got old.
The world ticks along the same way it always has, but these days we can't keep up with it. You take a
mouthful of his beer and wonder whether this is really such a good idea after all.
These settings give you some idea of the sort of stories that you can tell in One Last Job. They're each
divided up into seven sections:
ABILITIES give you the core abilities for each character in the setting. Sometimes, there might not be
an ability for everything you want to do. If you really can't fit the action in any of the pre-generated
abilities, roll 2 dice.
WE'RE HERE TO is a run-down of the sort of jobs your crew might be called upon to do. The GM will
choose from this list (or make up their own), but if there's something you're especially interested in, let
them know.
IT'S NOT SO SIMPLE; WE'LL HAVE TO is a list of complications that the players will bring in to
establish additional stages and introduce new characters.
OF COURSE, TO DO IT, WE'LL NEED is a list of ready-made characters for the setting, and should give
you an idea of the sort of personalities that exist in the world.
ON THE WAY, WE'LL PROBABLY RUN INTO is a list of threats and enemies for the GM to work into the
story or use as elements.
COME ON, YOU CAN DO IT, YOU is a list of sample LEGENDS that players can give to other characters.
YOU HAVEN'T BEEN THAT GOOD SINCE gives a list of suitable anecdotes to power SCARS.
There are six settings below, but here are some other ideas for groups and settings: regency ladies,
modern-day monster hunters, rag-tag WW2 commando unit, pirates, pulp adventurers, science fiction
explorers, and spies.
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PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS
Abilities:
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On the way, we'll probably run into...
… armed guards.
… bored security staff with little to do.
… guard dogs. Maybe guard geese. You can never be sure.
… hi-tech security systems.
… big locked vault doors.
… police, ranging from beat cops to SWAT teams.
… a difficult climb between rooftops in a high wind.
… a chase through winding city streets.
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CYBERPUNK
Abilities:
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On the way, we'll probably run into...
… complex laser security grids.
… rentacop corporate security guards with bullpup rifles.
… desperate gangbangers looking for a quick buck in the Yokohama shanty.
… other crews of cyberwear-laden professionals primed to dispatch if there's trouble.
… legendary assassins with razor fingers, overclocked laser rifles, and hallucinogenic gas bombs.
… isolated mainframes.
… fully-loaded military helicopters.
… mind-wiped, vat-grown killer with a malfunctioning cortex bomb.
… urban shamans plugged into the grid, controlling everyone around then.
… attack drones, surveillance bots, defensive robotic gun emplacements.
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WILD WEST
Abilities:
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On the way, we'll probably run into...
… savage Injuns, looking to get revenge for our intrusion on their land.
… hired guns, quick on the draw and mean as hell.
… Pinkerton strikebreakers.
… aggressive, desperate drunks trying to prove themselves worthy.
… bandits and outlaws in a stolen, armoured stagecoach.
… miners-turned defenders, holding out with dynamite and pickaxes.
… a deadly cliff-face, crumbling under our feet.
… the deadly heat or hash cold of the wilderness.
… confusing cave networks that run underneath the impassable mountains.
… a full army regiment, caught up in the chaos.
… hungry wildlife – coyotes, wolves, bobcats, even bears.
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FANTASY ADVENTURE
Abilities:
STRENGTH (hit things up close, lift and break objects, chase, withstand harm)
DEXTERITY (dodge, shoot, flee, pick locks, disarm traps, spot things, steal things)
INTELLIGENCE (counteract magical defences, cast spells, know ancient lore, heal others)
CHARISMA (charm, lie, persuade, intimidate, bargain with demons and gods)
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On the way, we'll probably run into...
… goblins, orcs, bugbears, hobgoblins, all your standard militaristic greenskin races.
… guardian beholders, spitting eyebeams all over the shop.
… suspicious townsfolk, often in the form of angry mobs.
… wicked traps wired by sneaky kobolds or ancient civilisations.
… honking great doors locked with magical wards.
… zombies animated by magic, either malicious or surplus.
… curmudgeonly giants, stomping across the landscape.
… trolls hanging out under bridges and demanding tolls.
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POST-APOCALYPSE
Abilities:
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On the way, we'll probably run into...
… mutants – big slavering ones, little wiry ones, psychic ones, monstrous amorphous ones.
… zombies, in hordes, or infiltrating places we thought safe.
… harsh weather: wind, rain, snow, ash storms, sleet, hail, baking heat, drought, flood.
… starvation, thirst, and exposure to the elements.
… wild animals, hungry for human flesh.
… unstable ruins that collapse under our feet.
… one or more of the Four Horsemen.
… bandits, outlaws, scoundrels and lawless scum.
… suspicious townsfolk who – quite rightly - don't trust us.
… apocalypse cults, religious crazies, nihilistic psychopaths, and other unhinged people.
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INVESTIGATORS WORKING AGAINST THE GREAT GOD CTHULHU,
OR CULTISTS IN SERVICE OF SAME
Abilities:
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On the way, we'll probably run into...
… deranged cultists.
… shady government agents.
… mystical wards.
… locked doors to unknowable realms.
… hallucinations and madness.
… lesser monsters and half-men, that we can fight.
… great beasts and deities, that we can maybe run from if we're lucky.
… brutal criminals.
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ONE LAST JOB – CHARACTER SHEET
PLAYER NAME:
CHARACTER NAME:
2 STAMINA: O O O
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PLAYER CHEAT SHEET
Push on (mark off the completion track) or Hold them off (try to lower the danger pool)
Before you roll dice, you can spend one point of Grit to either:
If your highest dice is higher than the GM's highest dice, you win. Mark off the completion
track or lower the danger pool by the number of dice you rolled with results above the GM's
highest dice value.
If you and the GM draw, you can (repeat until one side wins):
If another player fails a conflict, you can tell an anecdote to help them succeed and
give them a trait:
Legends and equipment give them a re-roll with an extra dice.
Scars let you turn any of their dice to show 10, and they lose no stamina this round.
Earn grit when you tell an anecdote that: mentions your own or another character (aside
from the character with the triggering roll), refers back to a previous anecdote, or refers back
to the Catastrophe.
When you're the leader, you: describe your approach during a planning scene, add an extra
dice to all your rolls, and can decide to pull out of a scene at the end of the round.
If you lose all your stamina, you're out of the scene. Choose one at the end of the
scene. You can't choose the same one twice:
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