2023 Day 29: The Furgatives
I published The Furgatives last year, and it's a cross between Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Fugitive. If you want to play a 'toon, this is definitely a game for you.
Cover of The Furgatives
Story
I really wish I'd named this game The Furgitives. What an annoying typo. Am I cheating to use one of my own games? Well, I want to because it's a really fun game and I would definitely be making a character if it wasn't my game.
It all came about because Fari Games was enthusing people to create games for their Dash SRD. Dash is a cut down version of Charge which is based on Blades in the Dark. But most importantly, I couldn't resist a pun - I wanted to make a Dash game about running; once I realised that wouldn't work I spun into "On the run" and then the game almost wrote itself.
One of the best things about Dash was that I really didn't need to do much design work myself. The SRD comes with a template for Affinity Publisher, which saved me so much layout time. It also meant I didn't need to use my own words: a lot of the writing was changing or taking out things that didn't work for this game, which is a lot easier than writing from scratch. Thanks René-Pierre!
The game
You can choose four points of skills to start with, and you roll your Skill number of dice when you face a challenge. Take the highest result. If you only have one die, it gets random fast. You can get more dice from momentum, which you earn by successful rolls, and other straightforward special rules.
It also uses the clocks, from Blades. And in The Furgatives, the biggest clock is the pursuit clock. Everytime you make progress or suffer hindrance to your escape, the clock changes. If it empties, you get respite and can improve your toons. If it fills, you have to face your pursuers. For extra fun, the only way to heal is to dilly dally doing something fun. Note that one deliberate change I made is that taking too much stress doesn't take you out of the scene; you just become delirious. I love how this both makes the game more fun and plays into the source material.
Oscar
- Concept: Oscar was the master of hops at Fluffle, an innovative toon beer company, and part time serious actor.
- Appearance: A two dimensional rabbit-like cartoon rabbit, but with forepaws that can express themselves and manipulate objects normally.
Before I create Oscar's ties and skills, I should go back and create the story background. Oscar's group are accused of Arson by the FBI. So I reckon that a rival beer company went up in smoke, although that might change based on the other characters.
- Ties:
Sniffles, the owner of Fluffle, and someone Oscar has become very close with as they developed the company. - Bunotis
A deaf rabbit and rival actor. - Grant
Oscar's agent. Except he's not, but Oscar keeps leaning on him to get him work.
Skills:
- Human Lore 1
- Prop deliveries 2 (this is your typical ACME parcels)
- Talk 1
I can't fill in the character sheet because of computer problems, but here's the blank one:
Blank Furgatives character sheet
https://picks-at-flies.itch.io/the_furgatives