I wrote this PbtA game called HARDCASES. I don’t intend to publish it- it’s just for my personal use- but I’d appreciate any feedback you guys have. I’d like to hammer out most of the bugs before I try to run a game with it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9clj3sjaob96d8u/HARDCASES.pdf?dl=0
I adore this whole “living on borrowed time” aspect.
I also love this: Your protagonist gets one experience point (referred to hereafter, as XP) for each game session he or she participates inand comes out alive at the end.
That’s pretty fantastic.
At a glance, looking cool.
Thanks, guys. I love Vincents game. It introduced so many innovate approaches to RPG’s that I’d never considered before (and I’ve been gaming since 1981), that I’ve been obsessed with creating a customized version for my own table, ever since.
The Core Move Mechanic (2d6+modifiers/miss/partial success/full success, coupled with Hard/Soft GM moves) is (IMO) a work of sublime genius and is the main thing I was interested in leveraging for my own game.
I am a rules-light guy, at heart, and wanted to use this without the attendant list of different moves, with their individualized mini-rules, that you find in most PbtA games. But that requires a GM that is capable of fairly and creatively applying the mechanic to drive the fiction in a fun and interesting way, and deliver a satisfying game for the players (and, perhaps, more importantly, a group of players that trust their GM enough to let him use the freedom the mechanic provides to do this).
I guess I am a bit concerned that experienced PbtA players might be put off by the lack of individualized moves, abstracted wealth, equipment, and power rules, etc.
I’m going to read this over and give you my opinion tomorrow. If I don’t, tag me in this because I was unable to find it.
Gregory Daily Thanks. I appreciate you taking the time. It helps to get a fresh set of eyes on the thing and I always have trouble seeing the flaws in my own work. 🙂
I read through it properly last night. Your own fictional positioning is essential to differentiate the characters as from the start, there’s only three sets of stats you can have (balanced, strong/weak, weak/strong). I see Apocalypse World distilled through Lasers and Feelings, with a dash of D&D5’s advantage mechanic. I like it and would like to use it. Thanks, Jason Wickham!
Thanks, Toby. I struggled a bit with deciding on the level of granularity for character building mechanics, but I’m hoping the streamlined statistics will help the players and GM think more about the fiction and less about the dice.