A Heist Game: an RPG of Criminal Acquisition

A Heist Game is an OSR styled Role Playing Game of breaking, entering, and unadulterated crime in a pseudo-medieval setting of strangeness and base human selfishness. Steal everything that isn't nailed down, Trust as little as you can afford, and only ever kick 'em while they're down.

The System

A Heist Game is a rules-light game, OSR styled, but filtered and refined through the lenses of tense stealth-action. It might look similar to your classic "1 GM and 3-5 Players" dungeon-crawler, but under the hood we have some key tweaks, changes and special features, such as:

• Towering Health totals are not a luxury Thieves get to enjoy - instead they gain Luck, which can be spent avoiding damage - or unwanted attention. Why suffer wounds when you can simply enjoy Serendipity’s bounty instead?
• Levels have been dragged down a back alley in favour of Exhaustion - spend your stats to tip a slight miss in your favour, or go all in on a desperate plan, then regain the loss in Recovery after the job - and maybe a little more besides.
• Enjoy the services of your many Contacts - who will help you sell your incredible loot, get you access to secret markets, or slip you tasty gossip when you need it. Just be careful of your Patron - you owe them a lot of money, and they aren’t always understanding about missed payments… 
• Scrape some scant resources from 66 Character Backgrounds - perhaps you were once a Butcher, a Baker, a Candlestick Maker, or maybe you’re a Retired Flagellant, a Disgraced Watchm’n or a Disbarred Witch’unter.
• 70 Foes to encounter, battle, and flee from - and not just the Sergeants of the City Watch, the criminal Enforcers, or the machinist’s Automotons; tussle with Lobster-men, Toxicists, and the legendary Vulpertine.

The Setting

The setting of A Heist Game is pseudo-medieval city drenched in sprawling grandeur, occult depths and a burgeoning industrial renaissance, all wrapped in an anticanon haze - perfect for you and your table to twist, redefine and recentre for your table.
The city consists of six key districts, each with their own vibes, factions, and tones:

• The obscene wealth of the Geldings, and the political and financial vastness of it's Noble Houses. Heists here are classic fare; high-stakes, high rewards.
• The labyrinthine conspiracies of the Nocturnes and it's secret-seeking and back-stabbing Occult Circles. Heists here are classic fare; high-stakes, high rewards.
• The industrial obscenities and unsought future-making of the Collegiates and their Machinist Colleges. Heists here are classic fare; high-stakes, high rewards.
• The endless roiling mess of the Shambles and the invisible empires of it's Criminal Gangs. Heists here are caught up in factional intrigues and criminal politics.
• The bucolic menace of the Meadows and the star-driven schemes of it's Forest Cults. Heists here quickly become folk-horror infiltrations, where you hope to avoid the things that dwell in the dark of the woods...
• And the quiet, echoing dread of the Haunted Quarter, abandoned by the living to the dead. Heists here are more similar to classic adventures, loot-seeking in a place where the living are not welcome.

The Project

This project aims to fund productions of A Heist Game, currently in two parts:

• The Book of Thieves details the rules of the game, flavourful backgrounds, and helpful procedures
• The Book of Cities is a Setting book for the Game, packed with tables, tools and miscellany

The two books of A Heist Game will be staple bound A5 zines, printed in colour, and coming in at around 50 pages for The Book of Thieves and about 70 pages for The Book of Cities.

Any Way To Get A Sneak Peak?

Well, I’m glad you asked because you’re in luck! The Tooth-skin Edition of the rules are available for free! It comprises much of the content of The Book of Thieves - but there is more juice to be squeezed for the full release!

Additionally the full rules of Chris Bissette’s ‘a dungeon game’ from which this was derived are always available for free here at LOOTTHEROOM.

And How Are Things Going Now?

Well, we're 140% funded now, and live for the next two weeks until February 26th! Your backs are safe and sound investments - rare things for knaves and scoundrels like you.

I've also unveiled a pair of stretch goals to fuel us forward through the next couple of weeks - the Table of Strangeness on the Streets and the Heist Lady Darlington's First and Last Séance!

The Table of Strangeness on the Streets will be an eclectic collection of the curious, menacing and bizarre occurrences out and about in the City of A Heist Game - all arranged into a dice table for your convenience. And, well - the plan was going to be that for every £100 pounds above the goal of £600 we got, I'd add 20 results until we reached 120... but given we're (at time of writing) sat at £880 odd, I guess we're already at 40 results and pushing 60!

Lady Darlington's First and Last Séance will be a heist during a party that goes unexpectedly right and then apocalyptically wrong; featuring rich guests, terrified servants, and the hateful dead they inadvertently invited... This will be unlocked at £2,000, and both rewards will be free digital releases for all backers.