What I think about FU (Freeform Universal)

Every now and then I delve into an indie game and report back with musings about what I found. Today I look into a small generic engine for narrative roleplaying: 

FU: Freeform Universal 

Pay What You Want PDF, by Peril Planet

I enjoy my fair share of generic roleplaying games. Everything from the crunchy and simulatonist GURPS, through middle-the-road Savage Worlds, to a very narrative FATE. All of those games have their fair share of strengths and weaknesses., but if you are aware of them, you can run a very successful campaigns with those RPG engines. I know I did.

As my time becomes more and more limited, I tend to use more rules-lite systems for my games. Especially when it comes to one-shots or short campaigns. Games like Risus and The Pool (oh, I need to post my musings about those) were good for certain games, but when it comes to quick and lite games, FATE ruled supreme. Well... now I can say that FATE was dethroned, by a small and very simple game - Freeform Universal, or FU.

FU is a deceivingly simple game. You roll some D6s, choose highest (or lowest if the odds are against you) and narrate the outcome based on this value. There, I basically explained the system in one sentence. 

However, the beauty of FU lies in something else than its simplicity. It is how it merges the mechanics with the narrative. Firstly, to check how many dice you will roll, you look up what traits from your character applies to the task. You check your character's "aspects", equipment and any situational advantages to add positive dice. For each obstacle you add negative die. This very fluid and does not take you away from the narrative as there are no numbers. This wall is [-steep] and [-it's raining], but you have your [+climbing gear].  You have one positive, two negative traits. They cancel each other out, to leave you with a single negative. So you roll two dice (you always roll one as a freebie and add more from the descriptors) and choose the lowest (because the leftover descriptors were negative). That's pretty cool that you can roll without considering charts and/or numbers.

Yet, this is not the best aspect of the game! When you have your result, you follow a simple "ladder of outcomes", to answer the question: Did I managed to do it? FU does not give you a binary Yes/No like many other systems. It gives you more narrative outcomes. Stuff like Yes, but... or, No, and. I have written about this before here. This makes the game much more fun and much better suited for improv or pick-up-style game.

I think it is a brilliantly designed game, great for one shots, or even no-prep games. Sadly, while FU seems popular, there isn't much in terms of hacks and rules exploration like it is in Apocalypse World,, FATE or even Savage Worlds. It baffles me really, as the game is not only build for expansion and exploration, but is also released on the Creative Commons license. I secretly hope that more people will start experimenting with FU. I for one am designing a (little more crunchy) survival game based on FU with some Gumshoe system mixed in. I hope more games will follow... 

Survival RPG devlog 3: Characters

The third entry in this devlog took a bit longer than expected. Not only I had to test some ideas when it comes to the characters, but real life got in the way of doing so. This is still a work in progress, especially I am still looking for better words for some of the terms in game. As it stands now, Characters have few traits (+equipment), Endurance (with skills) and goals. While the first two aspects are pretty set in stone, different aspects to goals are being tested. So let's see what makes a character:

Traits:

Traits are similar to Fate's aspects or even Risus's Cliches. They are either a word of a short phrase describing some aspect of the character. The aim of the game is to make the players rely more on their equipment and their endurance than their traits, so each character will only have few of them.

Four seems to work pretty well for traits. It is low enough number for players to come up with with interesting descriptors for their characters. The most important trait connects to the character's background. It answers the prompt: "I used to be...". This roots characters in the setting. Maybe your character was a surgeon, a taxi driver or an architect. Each of those add flavor to the character but also can be used to add a die to the test.

You get two more free traits, and one fault (or drawback or hindrance). This is a similar setup to Fate and even FU, and it seems to work well. There is no need to fix what isn't broken.

I quite like the idea of creating or describing a character with a sentence, like in Numenera. It would work well with the theme of the game. Unfortunately, apart from "I used to be [blank]" I don't have anything that would enclose all traits in a single sentence. That is something that I have put on the back burner for now.

While you only get four traits permanently attached to your character, you get access to other, more temporary traits. One of them comes from wounds. Each type of physical or emotional stress  will take its toll. Wounds will only give you a negative dice. To get more positive dice, you need equipment. If you try to intimidate someone, it is much easier if you are aiming a gun at them. I will go into more depth about equipment in the next devlog, for now, just know that you can use equipment to add dice to your test, or skip the test altogether.

Endurance 

As discussed previously, Endurance is a pool of points you can spend to add to the dice result. You will need to do so, more often than not, as a medium difficulty test would be around 6 (to roll on a d6). It symbolizes your will to survive. It is your willpower, your stamina and hope combined. If your current Endurance is high, your character feels that they can take onto anything. With low Endurance, you might want to rest, so you can refresh your Endurance pool. This connection between the pool of points that let's you improve your chances of success and the system for regaining those points is a central mechanic of the game. It encourages the characters to do the "boring stuff" like eating, sleeping, talking to other survivors over some found tequila, that are important aspects of survival genre and makes the PCs more mundane, and not heroes, able to face any obstacle at any time. No Heroes, remember?

You get 40 (this is to be tested, it might be taken down to 20, I will need to play with different players to decide exactly) Endurance points during character creation. During game, you can spend them at any test. One point spent, adds one to the result from the dice. You can spend as many points as you want on a single test, but once they are spent, they are gone until next refresh (which will probably not refresh all points at once). This way the player is facing an important decision with every dice roll.

You can also exchange some of your Endurance points for "skills". They can be used just like Endurance points (1 to 1 spend on dice rolls), but only on actions that fall within the scope of the skill. The game will have lists of skills for different genres, but the lists are open ended. So, why would you opt in for getting skills, instead of the catch all Endurance? Because you get two skill points for each endurance point you spend. You will be able to exchange Endurance for skills during character creation and any time you would "level up" in other RPGs.

Goals

Goals are the third and final aspect of any character. They describe the characters personality, needs and wants. They will work in a similar way to TSOY's Keys (skip to page 12). When a character will achieve one of their goals, they regain some endurance. You can also break them, so you can regain a bunch of points (probably get all the points back). So if you are a protector (gain Endurance when you help others survive), if you kill another human being, you get a full refresh, but loose that goal and can not gain endurance from it in the future. People, and especially their views, change when they find themselves in life and death situations and struggle to survive.

GMs will get some advice on using the character goals and making temporary goals that change with the narrative. I am compiling (and stealing from TSOY) a list of goals/behaviors the characters can have. As with skills, it is not a comprehensive list, and characters can create their own goals.

Appendix: Names, words and such.

As the system is now, it uses pretty generic naming conventions. Skills, Traits and Goals to not carry the emotional weight of survival, struggle or even any of the design guidelines from Part 1. They serve they purpose for now, as many roleplayers have a clear idea of what skill, wound or goal means in a RPG. For the release I will want to change them, this is what I have now and what message I want to carry:

• Traits would probably change to Assets. It works great with using equipment, and even using your own "powers" works with it. Does not work well with wounds and stress.
• Endurance is good, it works well for what it is supposed to do system wise. 
• Skills are way to generic, I want them to be seen more as: How you cope/survive. 
• Goals are ok, I can leave them unless I find a better word encompassing wants/needs/agendas and something to be broken.

If you have any advice on making the naming conventions more thematic, send them my way (best to leave a comment here). On a bright side, I have a pretty good title for the game. How do you feel about: Endure ?

Survival RPG Devlog 2: Basic Mechanics

After the brief introduction, it's time to look into some of the mechanics of the game. Bear in mind that this is still a work in progress and is a subject to (possibly dramatic) changes. With that in mind, let's look at the basic task resolution mechanic and how it reinforces the game's theme. Before we proceed, let's look at one word that is quite important to the game:

endurance

noun

• the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.

         "she was close to the limit of her endurance"

• the capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear.

Endurance is an important aspect both game-world and system wise. It is each character's main attribute and also their will to live, their grit, willpower and stamina combined. It will deplete over the course of the session and the players will find ways to replenish it. With that in mind, this is how the task resolution mechanic works:

• Player Characters have two types of attributes: Traits and Skills. 
• Traits are your character’s descriptors, you only have few of them tied to your character, like [Slender] [Surgeon]. Traits give you dice.
• Skills (name to be changed) are a pool of points. You start with 20 points in only one skill - Endurance, but can spend them to purchase other skills on 1-to-2 ratio during character creation. So you take down your Endurance to 15 (spending 5 points) and getting 10 points in, let’s say, running away. You can spend your points to add to rolls.
• The GM narrates the story, if you disagree with the narration (for example, when the GM tells you that your character will get stabbed by this random guy you just met), you can roll for it.
• You want to roll above Target Number (TR). You roll a hand of dice and (depending on circumstances) use the highest or lowest die. 
• Before you roll, you can add any amount of points from your skills. You can always spend points from your Endurance, but you can only spend points from other skills, when they apply.
•  If you roll above the TR, you can narrate the outcome of the action, if you didn’t the GM narrates. You will probably narrate a positive outcome, and the GM will narrate a negative outcome most of the time.

I will go more into skills and traits in the next post. The basic rule is - you are starting with one six sided die, and add one die per applicable trait. Traits can add positive dice (like your character traits or equipment you are using) and negative dice (wounds, both physical and mental and obstacles - traits of NPCs, locations or objects). Positive and Negative dice cancel each other so you only roll one type of dice for each roll. You choose the highest die if you rolled any positive dice, or the lowest if you rolled negative dice. This mechanic is basically stolen from Freeform Universal, and as it under Creative Commons license I don't think that will be a problem ;).

Players can (and should) spend points from their skills to add to their roll. So if you rolled a 4 from your dice and spent 3 points, your result is 7. You are trying to beat the Target Number. The Target Number values are not set in stone. I am thinking that an easy task would be 4, medium 6, difficult around 8 or 9.  I am toying with the idea that Target Number is kept secret from the players (like in the Gumshoe systems). Maybe TR should be static, and the difficulty coming only from the Negative Dice? This is something I would like to hear from you.

I am also toying with incorporating the Yes, and/but and No, and/but as described previously here. This would depend on what you rolled on your dice. So if you rolled 1 or 2, you add a complication (BUT) to the narration, and if you rolled 5 or 6 you add something beneficial (AND) to the PC into the narration. I am torn on adding this, because I don't want to alienate non-story-gamers.

Ok, back to the points. Once you spend your points, they are gone for time being. This ways players know that their characters have limits and are only human. Those points can be refreshed by fulfilling human needs. So everytime the PCs have a meal, sleep and just have some relaxing time in-game, they can replenish some of their spent points. This way, players are encouraged for doing all those "boring" survivalistic things like eating, staying hydrated or just drinking found whiskey to forget.

To sum up the basic system: You roll a set of six sided dice, and depending if you had more positive or negative traits, you get either the highest or the lowest die rolled. You add that to the points you spent from your Endurance/skills to get your result. If the result is higher than the TN you can narrate what happens, if it is below - it is up to the GM.

So, what do you think about this system? 

Survival RPG devlog 1: Intro

...and now for something completely a bit different.

Survival games are all the rage on the video games front. From pure survival in games like Minecraft, through survival horror like Evil Within, to a personal survival stories in games like This war of Mine. There is something very appealing in being thrown into a hostile environment and surviving against all odds.

While you can run a survival scenarios in many existing RPGs, there isn't a system that focuses solely on the that situation. After playing some This War of Mine, and reading about The End of The World from Fantasy Flight Games (that concentrates on living trough different flavors of the apocalypse, but not survival per se), I have decided to write a game that focuses on the hardships of survival.

It usually takes me a bit of time to finish a game. Heck, the only one that I have finished and somehow published was Heist Aces (that is still asking for an updated version). To keep myself motivated, I am starting this devlog, where I will post my progress in writing this game and respond to comments and criticisms.

First, I am laying down the design principles for this game. Whatever additions or changes I will want to make, they will need to follow the below guidelines:

Wrong Place, Wrong Time - the game's focus will be surviving in harsh and hostile environments. The game should be able to handle variety of survival scenarios. No matter the setting or the genre, the player characters will always start in a wrong place, at a wrong time.

No Heroes - player characters are not specialists trained to deal with the threats they are about to face. There are just unlucky people who have to find a way to survive against all odds. They are not equipped for the task, nor are they prepared. They will struggle, make morally questionable choices and rely on ever depleting resources... and so will the NPCs. Other survivors can be suspicious or even hostile towards PCs, not because they are evil, but because, just like the players, want to survive.

Nothing is forever - characters get tired and depressed, resources dwindle, people die. All of this should have impact in-game and on the game mechanics. On the other hand, nothing will stay bad forever, characters will rest, find hope and overcome their obstacles, but those victories won't last forever.

Those three guidelines summarize the game pretty well. You play as people who need to endure things they are not prepared for. They will struggle, but they will have their victories. I want to create a system that will support those feelings, but without overwhelming bookkeeping, and unnecessary math. I have also decided on some system guidelines, they can be changed, but I would like to stay within the restrictions:

• Player facing mechanics - only PCs roll dice. This not only let's the GM focus on the story, but also puts the players in a more active role - if you won't do anything, this mutated dog will rip your throat out.
• No bookkeeping -  I want to keep the game as simple as possible. It is very easy to add a ton of  negative modifiers to the character for being tired, depressed, etc. A game like that can become nothing more than a spreadsheet, instead of story. I don't want that. I want to focus on the story. If possible, I want to avoid negative modifiers and keeping track of each unit of food, water, ammo, what-have-you. 
• Rewards, not requirements - Instead of telling players what their characters need, I want to reinforce that. Having a good night's rest, a hearty meal or finding loved ones should be rewarding.
• Important Equipment - In survival scenarios, having a pocket knife can be difference between life and death. I want equipment to be important, making tasks possible without rolls, or at least much easier to achieve.
• Generic - Most of all, I want the mechanics to be generic enough, to play in different settings, from desert island, through urban disaster scenarios, through sci-fi. 

I have an idea for a mechanic that would fit those requirements. I am still testing it. It uses only six sided dice and a pool of points you can spend. You try to beat an unknown target number. I will go into more detail of the mechanics in my next post, in the meantime, I am curious what do you think about a dedicated survival RPG idea? What would you like to see in a game like that?

Breaking rules is fun.

Here's an idea. Breaking the rules of a game makes for a better game experience.

Games have rules. Some have few, others have dozens. It doesn't matter if it is a rule that tells you to roll this dice at this time in RPG, or a one that tells you how to move your piece in a board game, or even a equation that limits how high can you jump in a video game. Without those rules there would be no real game to speak of. It would be more of an experience than game. On the other hand, what would it be, if you had rules that everyone has to follow, but each person is allowed to "cheat" in some way? I would call it an awesome game experience.

Let me tell you about two games that you probably never heard about: Monastyr and Neuroshima.

Both Neuroshima and Monastyr are Polish RPG games from Portal Publishing. Before Portal moved to producing board games, they were THE Polish RPG company. Now, while the games differ on many different levels (for one Neuroshima is post-apocalyptic, while Monastyr is XVII-XVIII century inspired dark fantasy), they have very similar mechanics. I won't go into too much detail into the system powering those games. The only thing you should know, that it is a somehow cumbersome mechanic, with quite a few stats and skills and by extent, quite a few rules.

The interesting thing about those systems is that during character creation you are basically choosing two ways of how to "cheat". You choose your birthplace (i.e what country/settlement you are from) and what have you been doing throughout your life (basically a professional background - a soldier or a monk). With each choice you gain a special ability that basically breaks the rules of the game in some way.

You might be allowed to re-roll a die 3 times per session, or you might always succeed in a particular test. You basically change the rules of the game in some way. Because there are so many choices (each background has at least two of those "cheats", you choose one) and you can't get more of those special abilities, it makes each player feel unique and powerful. What I have noticed with those games, that even as I hated the mechanics (I am more of a rules-lite kinda guy), I kept coming back to them because of those special abilities. This got me thinking...

Plenty of other games have special abilities that you can get. D&D has feats, Savage Worlds has Edges, heck, even fate has...what-you-call-them... stunts. But for whatever reason they do not feel the same. Edges, Feats and Stunts don't feel unique and as fun as the "cheats" from Monastyr and Neuroshima. They feel mundane, as a player you expect to have them, they are part of your character build, not something special.

To make those abilities feel special, they have to be almost game breaking and not fit into the existing mechanics. Look at games like Cosmic Encounter or Apocalypse World on the RPG side of gaming. Both those games are popular because of their game altering abilities. Each player can do something that changes the flow of the game. That's not all, both of those games reinforce exclusivity of those "cheats". If you have one alien, or playbook, no one else can have the same (not as true in AW, but it would be like that with a limited number of players). You, as a player, are the only owner of this particular game breaking cheat. You can do something unique that no one else can and that makes it cool.

When I released my 24h game HEIST_ACES one piece of feedback that I got over and over again is to include unique abilities. Now I know why and will work on implementing that in the future. Saying that, I feel that many games can benefit from "cheats" like that. Give each player a special ability or two that can break the standard set of rules in one way or the other and see how much more they will enjoy their character. It will make the games more memorable for the player when they get to use their one of a kind ability. You will vividly remember when you saved the day, because you were the only person who was immune to toxic fumes. Being able to occasional break the rules like that, changes the game into more of an experience. And it's only a good thing.

Everyone is John - microReview

Every now and then I delve into an indie game and report back with musings about what I found. Today I look into a small story game from 2002 about a person who hears voices in their head: 

Everyone is John 

Free pdf, by Michael B. Sullivan

I kept hearing about (pun, not intended) Everyone is John around the internets for quite some time, but I didn't have the chance to check it out until last weekend. In this game, both the players AND the GM are John - an insane man from Minneapolis, who hears voices in his head. Players take the role of those voices and fight among themselves for control over John. Each voice has its own secret agenda (obsessions) and will try to steer John to do its bidding. GM is responsible for the world, same as in traditional RPGs, but also plays the role of John himself.


It is a interesting experience for everyone around the table to play the same person. GM is there purely as a moderator. He gets to play John and talk to the voices in his head, but the game revolves around the players. They are the ones who create the story. Each player has their own goals and will try to fulfill them to score the most points at the end of the game (yes, this story game has winners and losers). The game ends when John dies, usually because one of the voices told him to do something that leads to death. This ads a layer of gamism to the experience - do you think you have fulfilled enough of your obsessions to guarantee victory? Then, why not kill John now? The other voices might do it any second.

The game uses a very simple 1d6 mechanic, but introduces some board game elements into the mix - scoring and blind bidding to be precise. Because of that it can be used as a RPG/Story Game gateway for your board gaming friends. To be honest, I don't think the game would benefit in any way from a more sophisticated system. The mechanic, as is, feels chaotic and out of control. Just as one would feel if they were to loose their minds. 

This is another great pick-up game. It can be played while waiting for the other players to arrive for your scheduled session. Even if you are not familiar with the game, you can grab, read it (it's under 1000 words in length) and start playing in minutes.

P.S The game's official website got shut down this winter, but the game itself can be found on the internet (so can the website, thanks to internet wizardry). I wish the author would grab his old designs and release their updated/streamlined versions as "Pay what you want" pdfs.

micro Review - Intro & InSpectres

I check out a lot of games. From RPGs, trough card and board games, down to video games. There isn't a week, that I don't discover and investigate some type of game. I am especially interested in small and indie productions. They are the ones that usually have some interesting mechanic or a gimmick, that catches my attention. Sadly, many of those games fly under the radar of most gamers. In this recurring segment I try to will give some sort of spotlight to those small games I discovered. This is not a full review, just my impressions in a few paragraphs... a micro review.

micro Review?

Yeah, I call it micro review. The plan was to call it "µView"  with the fancy micro symbol that looks a bit like "u". It was a play on words so, it will look like "U View". This was supposed to encourage you to go and check the game out yourself. The idea was scrapped, it looked silly and didn't display correctly everywhere ;) Anyway...
There is a lot of great games out there, and a lot of brilliant people who create them, that don't get enough recognition they deserve. I hope that this little section will introduce you to some games, that you would otherwise overlook.

I am planning for those reviews to happen weekly. The plan is to (re)read/try the game around weekend and write my thoughts and musings during the week. The aim is to introduce you to the game in a "elevator pitch" manner - quick and fun, with focus on highlighting its strengths. Those micro reviews will always have a link to the place where you can get the game, so you are only one click away from checking it out. While those reviews will center on RPG related content, all types of games are fair play here - RPGs, Story Games, Board games and even video games. All games are cool! So without further ado, I introduce you to this week's micro review.

InSpectres by Memento Mori Theatricks

PDF avaialable for $10 from DriveThruRPG

A true pick-up game. Your scheduled session was canceled? Some guy didn't show up? Fancy some horror-comedy in the vain of Ghostbusters? Open this book, get some D6s and start playing!

Players are InSpecter agents who, much like the ghostbusters, specialize in dealing with things that bump in the night. The game is a rules-lite, lighthearted horror, where anything can happen, as both the GM and the PCs can influence the plot. This is the main strenght of InSpectres - GM doesn't need to prepare anything! Plot hook is randomly generated and from there the dice decide what happens. You rolled well? You can decide what happened. Rolled poor? It's GM's turn to decide. Because no plot was prepared for the session, neither players, nor the GM knows what will truly happen during the adventure - they just make it up, as they go. Playing this game will teach you about story creation and improvisation. Because InSpectres is a comedy at its core even outrages ideas can be easily incorporated and it won't mess up the game. 

If it sounds like some kind of story game, you won't be far off. But, contrary to the story games of today, this game still feels like a proper RPG. Characters have attributes, gain experience (trough expanding their InSpectres franchise), there's a GM and all that jazz. It is a hybrid of story/narrative games and RPGs. If you wanted to try story games, but couldn't convince your RPG pals to give it a spin, where curious about narrative games in general, or want to test and polish your improv skills, while having a laugh - you can't go wrong with InSpectres!

P.S. If ghostbusters-like horror-comedy is not your cup of tea, try out InSpace from Lame Mage Productions - a free supplement where you play a crew of a starship investigating strange phenomena in spaaaaaaceee....

Heist Aces is now an Award Winning game!

My Happy New Year just got happier! After I properly woke up today, I found out, that my 24h story heist game was recognized as the winner of 1KM1KT Harder than Granite competition. Whoa?!
I can say how big of a motivation and ego boost it is for someone who never had the nerve to finish any of his designs in the past. I would like to thank Rob Lang and the esteemed panel of 1KM1KT judges, not only for recognizing my efforts, but also for creating a competition  that forced me out of my comfort zone, and made me motivated enough to finally finish the thing (forcing of the 24h time limit and making the final product small enough to fit in a pocketmod helped a lot). Thanks guys, I tip my hat to you!

What's the future of HEIST_ACES?
I will revise and expand the game in the near future. Now, without the clock ticking, I can spend more time on creating more evocative layout, and art and, what's most important, I will create an GM_OPERATOR's manual to go with the pocketmod. The manual will be a letter/a4 size document explaining the game in more detail and giving advice to both the players and the GM. So stay tuned, and if you have any feedback - send it my way.

HEI$T_ACES - Power 19

This is another in a series of posts about my free RPG/Story Game - HEI$T_ACES (available now on the sidebar near you). This time we will look at Power 19 for the game. Power 19 is a series of questions meant to help guide game designers. I am using it for HEI$T_ACES to give more info about the game and focus the design for the upcoming expanded rulebook.

 As always, comments and questions are more then welcome.

1.) What is your game about?
It is a narrative heist simulator set in not so distant future. Game focuses on both planning and running aspects of a heist job.

2.) What do the characters do?
Characters are members of a team of specialists working for a shadowy organization. They plan and pull off elaborate heists for the organization in exchange for money and power.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
Players first research their job by drawing from a deck of cards and narrating their "findings" - basically collaborate within the game's mechanics to create the adventure/scenario outline. After that they follow standard RPG player roles. 
GM (called GM_OPERATOR) follows standard GM role.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
The game has an implied setting of near future, but what the future holds is for each group to decide. The lack of setting was inspired by old school dungeon-crawls - near future can be as "magical" as a fantasy setting and can accommodate creative ideas (robot guards, spy drones etc.) better than a modern setting and by extent make the story more interesting

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
Players choose 5 FATE-like aspects for their characters (one for each card suit and one random). This is supposed to show that all of the characters are specialists of more or less the same skill level.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
The fact that the game uses a single deck of cards, where outcome may be predicted to some extent, encourages some gamist behaviors and attempts to "game the system" are considered fair play. But the game is mainly narrative.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
Being a team player is rewarded by lowering the amount of cards the GM can play against you, but on the other hand, being selfish will improve your character.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Players have more narration rights than in a standard RPG formula. After a task is successfully resolved, they have the right to narrate the outcome. They also create the adventure outline in-game, taking it away from the GM.
GM is there mainly to narrate and oversee the game. He can introduce new obstacles, but only by playing a card from their hand. GM retains the rights to narrate outcomes of partial success and failure, as well as interprets and narrates, the player-created, obstacles

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)
Apart from giving the players the tools to create a fun heist/caper story, players have the opportunity to improve their character after each job by adding new aspects.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Game uses a deck of cards as a resolution mechanic. Only the card suit is used in game, each suit has a narrative approach attached to it. 
Players draw amount of cards equal to the amount of aspects used in their narration and must match the suit to the obstacle's card suit. They can also use a card of the same color (red or black) for partial success. If they can't do any of the above, the task fails. 

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
The card suits have narrative approach attached to them, that limit players' way to narrate the outcomes of a task. Approaches are themed (ghost, fixer, mastermind, enforcer) which reinforces the heist atmosphere.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
While HEI$T_ACES is planned to be played as a single-session pick-up game, a simple advance system is provided for those who are interested in more campaign-style play.
During play, you can keep obstacle cards for scoring and after the heist, you can spend those cards to add new aspects to your character. You need 1 card per aspect in a suit, to create a new aspect (so if you have 2 aspects in Fixer, you need 2 Fixer cards to create a 3rd aspect).

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
The focus of the game is a thrill of pulling of a heist, so character advancement is not too important, but scoring cards can represent extra in-game income, so players can compare who got the most "money" out of this heist.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
Heist games of any kind (RPGs, board or even video games) are too few and far in between, so this game aims to fill in a niche for those who want to experience planing and running a heist.
Also, it was designed as a small pick-up game, that can be played without any preparation when you can't run your planned game.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
Because of the limited space nature of the pocketmod a lot of attention has gone into graphic-design and wording used in the game. Both of those aim to highlight the theme of the game without stating it right out.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
Forced narration based on a theme/approach. I am a firm believer that constrains spark creativity and I would like others to experience it in practice.
Also, planning and running your own heist is a lot of fun for me.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?
Heists - as mentioned before, very few game exist that focus on running heists. Anything from planned bank robbery, thru rescuing a target from a high security prison, to overthrowing distopian government can be planned and run as heist - and this is what this game can do that others can't.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
The first version of the pocketmod is already available for free on 1km1kt.net website, but I am planning on releasing free (or pay-what-you-want) bundle of updated pocketmod and expanded rulebook pdfs. I have no plans in producing a printed copy at this time, but I might self-produce some limited edition copies and donate it to some RPG themed contests in the future.

19.) Who is your target audience?
People who want to play a heist game are my target audience: fans of caper movies and people who enjoy planning missions in detail. 
So far, some prior knowledge of indie/story games terms is required, but this no longer should be true once the expanded rulebook is produced.

If anything of what you read sparked your interest in this game - check it out and tell me what you think, send me your ideas and I will try to incorporate them in the expanded rulebook.

HEI$T_ACES - a free narrative heist-crawl RPG

So... I wrote a game for the 1km1kt.net 's “Harder than Granite” 24 hour RPG competition and NaGaDeMon2013. I started it on the evening of Nov 10 and finished on the afternoon of Nov 11. 

And that's a big thing for me, because this is the first game of any kind that I actually finished (even that I started more than a dozen of games) and motivated me enough to come back to blogging. So without further ado...

HEI$T_ACES takes place in near future, where a group of skilled agents plans and executes an elaborate heist. The game borrows heavily from both story games (narrative at the center of the game) and dungeon-crawls (resolving problems "room-by-room"), and is a low/no-prep game. All you need to play it is the rules, a deck of cards, some post-its, pens and the heist's target. 

If it sounds like something you might be interested in - get the rules from 1km1kt.net and tell me what you think - I plan on working on it a bit more and giving it an expanded (no-pocketmod) rulebook soon. 

Stay tuned for more posts about HEI$T_ACES.