[7:33 PM]Dammi: Hey there! I’m Carsten, writing this from Germany. It’s 01:30h in the middle of the night here — my children and the wife are asleep, so I can sit here and rave about my new game, Heist. My enthusiasm for Pen & Paper roleplaying games has surpassed gamemastering and playing a long time ago, and I have contributed to numerous publications in the past. I’ve been lead developer on Earthdawn for a few years back in the early 2000’s, among other things.
[7:35 PM]Dammi: Today, I direct and run Pro Indie and Vagrant Workshop publishing labels. I see myself primarily as an editor and project manager, although I’m also a writer, developer, editor, translator, and layouter. Heist is a game I’ve been working on for the past two years. Its about a crew of criminals in a city filled with illegal opportunities.
[7:35 PM]Dammi: (done)
[7:36 PM]Dammi: Oh wait, Heist is also being crowdfunded at the moment. Here is the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dammi/heist-roleplaying-gameKickstarterCarsten DammHeist – Roleplaying GameA roleplaying game about a crew of criminals trying to pull off the big score that will set them up for life.
[7:36 PM]Dammi: (done)
[7:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks, @Dammi! The floor is open to questions!
[7:37 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Is this game set in the real world?
[7:39 PM]Dammi: The rules were designed to portray any modern-day setting. The game itself comes without a distinct setting, but designing the city you play in is part of the game’s collaborative setup.
[7:40 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I take it that there are no “weird” elements involved, like magic or high tech?
[7:41 PM]Dammi: Thats right, there are none of these things.
[7:42 PM]Dammi: Its been designed to handle straight-up robberies and other heists.
[7:43 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How cinematic is the game on a scale of 1-10, 1 being totally gritty and 10 being totally over-the-top action?
[7:45 PM]Dammi: I would set it at about 6 or 7. Gameplay was inspired by modern-day TV-Series, movies and (as you might have guessed by the cover art), the Grand Theft Auto games. Action is part of it, but combat can be quite deadly.
[7:46 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Are there any assumptions about who the PCs are? (Aside, presumably, that they’re criminals?)
[7:48 PM]Dammi: Yeah, they are all criminals. There are six basic character types to chose from, which define the basic selection of abilities they start out with (and a few specific abilities they can learn with XP), but the lines can blur as you progress.
[7:49 PM]Dammi: Crime comes with a few limits, btw, as you might stray into sensitive content there.
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[7:49 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Understandable.
[7:50 PM]Dammi: As a player, you get a couple of prompts to work with during character creation, to set up your background and make sure you end up as a “proper” career criminal.
[7:52 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Can you give an example of one of thse prompts?
[8:00 PM]Dammi: Of course – there are three main ones. The first one goes along other questions about your background, asking how you turned to become a criminal in the first place. There is a table you can use to generate a prompt to answer this (like “You grew up in an orphanage and had to make do” or “you never considered yourself a criminal”) – and then you go on to elaborate. The second is an obligation you have to take care of. This one is not so much about being a criminal, but one thing that has to be tended to that might play a big part of you doing what you’re doing (like supporting the family of a dead friend, for example). Its both an angle for the bad guys to get you in trouble, and also a motivation to earn big bucks. Third, there is a general personal motivation your character had to weave into their background (like “Clear your name”, “Get justice”, or even “Inspire fear”).
[8:01 PM]Dammi: Mix these together with the aim of creating a criminal background withing the context of a stage you have been building along with the group, its pretty easy to come up with a working concept pretty fast.
[8:04 PM]Dammi: There is also a bit of a lifepath in it if you opt to play characters with experience. If you use that, you have to describe a heist you have been part of (preferably with another character of the crew) and roll to see what happened. The result might have ended you up in jail, among other things, but does build up relationships and a rep. (edited)
[8:08 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Do you have a character sheet that we can see?
[8:09 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks!
[8:09 PM]Dan the GMshoe: (Need to step away for just a sec.)
[8:10 PM]Dammi: Its the condensed version from the rules booklet, which always have limited space for everything. I’ll provide a Letter/A4 version as separate download after release.
[8:11 PM]Dan the GMshoe: (back)
[8:12 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Let me have a look here…
[8:13 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What is the relationship between attributes and skills?
[8:15 PM]Dammi: The Attributes are the main thing you play with, skills (and perks) are optional. So you have your oldschool “Attribute+Skill” combo in a way to make tests, but the skill part isn’t a hard requirement.
[8:16 PM]Dammi: In other words: there are nine Attributes in total, which can be boosted by various abilities for specific situations.
[8:17 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What is the task resolution mechanic?
[8:18 PM]Dammi: Heist is played using two ten-sided dice. When facing a task with uncertain outcome, a Target Number is defined – usually by selecting the most fitting Attribute. There are modifiers (such as skills and perks) which add and subtract from the Target Number depending on the situation at hand, and different types of tests to handle different situations, but way to find the outcome is always the same: you roll both dice and compare each to the Target Number. If at least one of the dice shows a result equal to or lower than the Target Number, the test succeeds (for better or for worse). Here is a breakdown of all possible results:
[8:19 PM]Dammi: There are three results: success, failure , and success at a cost. The other two (critical and fumble) are extreme versions of success and failure. These only occur on a double.
[8:20 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Seems like a pretty slick little system.
[8:20 PM]Dammi: What also happens is that the outcome also provides narration rights to the player (if successful) or the gamemaster (if things go bad). Edges and Complications can be scored to provide helpful or hindering side-effects.
[8:21 PM]Dammi: I have a secret crush on d10s.
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[8:21 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How are opposed tasks handled?
[8:24 PM]Dammi: When you roll the dice, you can read your Success rating right of the die – so, if your target Number is 5 and you roll a 3, your Success Rating is 3. Your opponent does the same, rolling against their own Target Number. Their Success Rating is subtracted from yours, their Failure Rating is added.
[8:25 PM]Dammi: The final rating informs how well you did things (the higher, the better, naturally). (edited)
[8:28 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How does combat work?
[8:31 PM]Dammi: Combat (or Conflicts, as I like to call them in general) breaks the game down in rounds and turns, for use whenever the action goes so thick it matters. In terms of crunch, this system walks a fine line – its not too simple and abstract, but its not too highly detailed either. It remains intuitive enough to allow for a good range of tactics. You have a couple of combat and movement options to use, and a couple of abilities to help you. However, conflicts are deadly and fast given the theme of the game.
[8:34 PM]Dammi: So you have a turn order to act in, movement if you like to play on battlemaps, the ability to reserve actions and interrupt someone elses turn, as well a a range of special effects where you reach for an effect rather than doing damage (for example, taking someone down in silence, turning them unconscious rather than killing them).
[8:37 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How is damage rated?
[8:42 PM]Dammi: A core part of the game are tags, short-hand descriptors you can use for a various things, such as narrative prompts, modifiers or conditions. Damage does the latter – if you end up on the wrong end of a weapon and get hit, you either get a hindering tag (such as #Prone or #Stunned), or you get wounded (#Bruised, #Slashed, #Punctured, etc). If you get hit severely, the condition type increases (#Broken Limb, #Bleeding, etc).
[8:43 PM]Dammi: So you don’t count hit points or health sloths, you accumulate condition tags, which impact your character’s behavior and also serve as modifiers to any tests they make. (edited)
[8:44 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How can a character die?
[8:44 PM]Dammi: So, a #Bleeding wound condition will make a mess (which is narrative), and hinder you to do certain tasks (lowering your Target Number by 1).
[8:46 PM]Dammi: There is a Resilience trait, which is tested when you gain a severe wound condition. If you fail the test, your character falls #Unconscious. If you gain any further injury, you must also pass a Resilience test. Failing one kills you.
[8:48 PM]Dammi: (There is a small window to administer first aid and stabilize a character though, based on the Endurance Attribute – so if you dice rolls kill you, another character in the vicinity can still attempt to save you.)
[8:49 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What do weapon stats look like?
[8:51 PM]Dammi: Weapons come with a Threat Rating (which is a added to your Success Rating in order to determine a damage score). Ranged weapon also feature a Range stat and a fire mode (single/burst/full auto).
[8:52 PM]Dammi: There is also an Area of Effect indicator for Range, if you need to use explosives.
[8:53 PM]Dammi: Along with that, tags. A weapon might be #Concealable, #Loud, #Messy, #Igniting, and so on. Some are #Illegal (of course), some #Improvised, and some have special effects they do instead of damage (#Stunning, #Knockdown, etc). (edited)
[8:55 PM]Dan the GMshoe: By default, how easy are firearms to obtain?
[8:58 PM]Dammi: I would say that depends on the city you want to play in and the laws you want to have in your game. The general mechanic lists most weapons as #Restricted, which means you need a permit to use it. #Illegal weapons are outlawed. Obtaining them requires a contact (you’ll have a bunch of relationships into the criminal world, no worries), and some money.
[9:00 PM]Dammi: So overall, probably not too hard. But acquiring them puts you in contact with other criminals, which is always good material to work with for the GM.
[9:03 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Is this the start of a game line? What are your future plans for the game?
[9:06 PM]Dammi: There are three authors writing new heists at the moment, which we’ll release in the coming months (probably in early 2023, the game will debut by the end of November/early December. Heist also comes with a separate intro adventure (A Job for Kings).
[9:07 PM]Dammi: There will likely be more support material coming as well, for building new heists, more character types, gear, and tables to whip up stuff randomly.
[9:10 PM]Dammi: We’ll use the system for other settings, however, with a different focus on the rules. Nightrising is a fantasy setting we’ve been working on, and the system is likely to be used there as well (which will provide you with the weird stuff and magic you asked for earlier).
[9:11 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Nice!
[9:12 PM]Dammi: Personally, I have adapted the system to play Alien: Heart of Darkness after the holidays.
[9:15 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I’ll bet that works well.
[9:15 PM]Dammi: A general note: the printrun for this game will be very limited. The best chance to grab it is the Kickstarter. I will release the PDF on DrivethruRPG, but the format was designed for staple-bound prints to lay flat on the table (which DTRPG does not offer anymore).1
[9:17 PM]Dan the GMshoe: In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
[9:20 PM]Dammi: I’ve been running a series of articles covering the contents of the booklet (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dammi/heist-roleplaying-game/posts), which people might want to check out. Other than that, I’ll lurk on this server for any questions. Feel free to ping me directly as well, I’m always happy to talk about this.
[9:21 PM]Dammi: There is probably a lot we haven’t talked about in detail.^^
[9:21 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks very much for joining us, @Dammi!
[9:21 PM]Dammi: My pleasure!
[9:21 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! 
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[9:22 PM]Dan the GMshoe: If you can stick around for another minute or so, I’ll get the log posted and link you!
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