THE YEAR IS AC 20406.
THE DAYS OF A PEACEFUL GALAXY ARE OVER.
AND IN EVERY CORNER OF KNOWN SPACE,
INTERSTELLAR CRIME RUNS RAMPANT.
AND THAT'S WHERE YOU COME IN.
YOU ARE A LAWMAN - A NO-NONSENSE, CORPORATE SIDE-HUSTLIN', BOUNTY-RUSTLIN', ARMED-TO-THE-TEETH SON OF A BITCH WHO CALLS NO MAN MISTER.
YOU SET YOUR OWN HOURS, CRACK SKULLS, AND CASH IN ON THE HIDES OF THE MOST MALEVOLENT KIND OF SCUM IN THE GALACTIC CORE - AND YOU WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY.
FROM ZOMBIFIED CYBERNETIC MAFIOSOS, FORMER CORPORATE COLONISTS-TURNED-CANNIBALISTIC MURDERGANGS, BLEEDING-TECH SYNDICATES, NINJAS, REDNECKS PUMPED TO THE EYEBALLS WITH COMBAT DRUGS, OR YOUR RUN-OF-THE-MILL PAROLE-DODGING DICKWEEDS - AND LOTS, LOTS MORE - YOU'VE GOT NO SHORTAGE OF TARGETS AND HIGH STAKES PAYDAYS THROUGHOUT THE STARS.
LAWMAN IS A SCI-FI WESTERN, POP-CULTURE, HODGEPODGE ROLEPLAYING NIGHTMARE. IT IS MEANT TO BE PLAYED SILLY AND STUPID AND IS FOR ANYBODY MATURE ENOUGH TO HEAR ANYTHING PEOPLE SAY TO EACH OTHER ON THE INTERNET, OR IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL.
LAWMAN IS MEANT TO BE PLAYED FOR TABLETOP RPG GAMERS OF ALL LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE, AND CAN BE FUN FOR A NIGHT OF DUMB ENTERTAINMENT, OR BE PLAYED UNTIL YOU GET SICK OF IT.
SO GEAR UP. LOAD OUT.
AND SHOOT THEM BEFORE THEY SHOOT YOU.
LAWMAN is a zany science-fiction/pseudo western tabletop RPG that's intended to be tongue-in-cheek and designed for quick, throw-away space adventures or a steady, dedicated campaign.
You drop in the space boots of a barely trained new hire of your own design, with a head full of loosely correct guidelines and operation procedures, in a universe full of other bizarre, unbalanced people who happened to be just as misinformed and potentially dangerous as yourself.
Except that at the end of the day, you are playing "the good guys."
The good guys, in this instance, go after the multitude of bad guys that exist in the known Galactic Core. (Former Lawmen who become recently unemployed, even those amongst their crew, also run the risk of being apprehended.) You use whatever means necessary (and within reason, otherwise risking termination) to accomplish your goal of hunting down space trash, get paid on their heads, dead or alive, and repeat.
“This game is like if Firefly, Borderlands and Robocop got fucked up and made an illegitimate tabletop child. If you want to play space cowboy and do a lot of stupid shit, you’ll love Lawman!”
— Dani Barta, Lawman Playtester
It can be played with 2 to 5 other people with an entry-level understanding of what a tabletop RPG is. (Big bonuses if they like Sci-Fi and/or pop culture garbage.)
All of these people (save for one) are a crew of Lawmen, out with a similar goal, but easily self-motivated enough to backstab, betray and otherwise ruin each other if it means additional power or prestige from the company at the end of the day.
The one player who is not part of the crew runs the story, organizes the random menagerie of events and bad people and things that encounter the crew - in a role called the Direct Manager (or DM).
The DM creates stories and events based on the responses of the crew's reactions in the form of storytelling. They give the crew challenges, sudden plot twists, interesting story points, craft interesting adversaries, and also reasons to laugh, relax, or adversely be nervous for the safety of their characters and belongings, and - the kind of fun that your semi-regular Friday night tabletop RPG deserves to be.
All the players and DM need are a single twenty-sided dice, a sheet of paper (or have some of the included character sheets printed off, but even index cards will work.) and that's really it. It's designed to be incredibly pick-up-and-go friendly for even the most novice of players once you understand the core rules.
“Yeah, I’d play your stupid game [LAWMAN] again.”
— Jim D’Alessio, Lawman Playtester
Interested in learning checking it out for yourself?
You can snag a copy of LAWMAN for yourself here.