Mclain is a name your own price one-page RPG from AP Shanka intended to emulate movies like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Alex P, the designer, also adds Beverly Hills Cop to that list, but I don’t see much of a connection between those movies!
In truth, Mclain is a bare-bones system with one stat. That stat is Cop.
I would tip the author but not pay for this page of content. Itch.io, like all other retailers, asks you to pay upfront and then get you a download. In a Name Your Own Price situation, then you might well wonder whether the cart is before the horse. Of course, if you do decide to pay nothing, download Mclain and then choose to pay, you can go back to the product page, repeat the process and add some money this time.
Mclain’s mechanics
You start with a Cop rating of 2. In any test, you roll d6 equal to your Cop rating, and every result lower than your Cop rating is a success.
There is a twist if any dice is higher than your Cop rating, you take damage, and your Cop rating goes up by one. Therefore, you might not always want to roll lots of dice.
However, there’s no consequence for taking damage. There’s no point to it. If your Cop rating hits 6, you succeed on that last task heroically and then die.
Mclain’s setting
There’s no setting. It’s all on you; the system (successfully, I think) nudges your mind towards the Die Hard concept.
In the rest of the one-page Word Doc-turned-PDF, you have one d6 table to roll up a character (personality + job + weapon), and the GM has a simple goal generator.
Goals are also created with a d6 roll across three columns. There’s a “You have too…” (eg, Escape from…), a “… the… ” (eg, Theme Park) and a final “And the main villain is…” (eg, A frail genius). Not helpful for me, but it could be quick and dirty for someone else.
Overall
It’s okay, but I think super lite RPGs such as Mclain should be clearly labelled as such by Itch creators. Mclain, at the very best, is an ashcan version. There’s no art; there’s no layout or formatting.
I think if I had paid $5 or even $2 for this, I’d feel cheated. I’d much rather know what I’m getting and then make a donation or a retrospective payment should I use the Cop mechanic.
Quick Links
- Download Mclain.
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Wow I just realised I got reviewed here! Thanks for the review, it really is just a barebones fun project but a few people seem to like it and that’s great.
Just to clarify with damage, the point IS that it increases your Cop rating and so you progress closer to death, it just doesn’t stop you machine-gunning bad guys.
Now that I’ve actually seen Die hard I might give it a once over and flesh it out a bit.
Anyway thanks for the mention!
Thanks for the damage clarity! Helpful!
P.S. Would you call this a Christmas RPG? :)