Playing the game: Hard Time

A game that knows exactly what it is and lets its players find out pretty quick.

I like reading games almost as much as I love playing them, especially new games. Having played RPGs for more than 30 years now I’ve seen a lot of them but I still get a buzz from sitting down with a new system for the first time. And I get an even bigger buzz when it’s a system that’s still in development.

Your own RPG is the feature film for all players

In exactly the same way that every film buff has an idea for a film they’re working on most long-term RPG traffics have an idea for a new RPG they’d love to write. I’m no exception. I’ve got a game “in the works” (more about that in a later post) but I’ve got a million excuses why it’s got no further than a sparsely filled Trello board. So I have mad respect for people who actually go through with something and develop their own game. Which is why I already have great respect for Colin Phillips, the designer of Hard Time. Colin is actually doing the mahi and his game is coming out later this year. And I’ve got to go along for a little bit of a ride.

Last year Colin was looking for some feedback on a draft of Hard Time. And I love me some feedback! As someone who gets plenty doing my day job, I love the opportunity to dish some out and give feedback on a new game….hold me back! So I took a look at a draft of Hard Time, it must have been about draft 13 because Colin is really working hard to make this perfect. And I loved what I saw.

Not only is Colin a local designer (from my own town of Porirua, New Zealand) but he is creating a really tightly focused game that is all about one of my favourite movie genres - the neo-noir crime drama. Think Heat or Training Day.

A game that lets you play both sides of the law

I gave examples of movies that focus on both cops and criminals for a reason - because Hard Time lets you play cops or crime, good or bad. But that’s it. It’s a modern game but the whole gamut of modern roleplaying isn’t open to you - you can’t play superheroes or archaeologists or occult investigators. Nope, cops and robbers.

But I really like that. Because the focus is so tight on the genre Hard Time really knows what it is. All the abilities and skills are there to facilitate players creating their own neo-noir movie. There are even tropes, which are specific tropes from this style of movie that give you abilities within the game and flashbacks which allow you to go back and retcon a moment. Sounds a bit like “Blades in the Dark”? Yes and no.

A tighter, grittier, easier heist game

True both use flashbacks, both are heist-based. But Hard Time is more grounded and tighter in focus. This also makes it easy to play. And this brings up one of the things that I think is a true piece of genius with the game - all the rolls your character needs to make in the game are on your character sheet and are baked into your character.

Hard Time uses a pool of 3d10. But your skills and abilities influence the rolls. Your character sheet shows you exactly how this happens - so there’s no guessing the target for a roll. Everyone can see it.

I’d go into more detail but this game’s still a WIP and the system has changed a little over the 6 or 7 iterations I’ve seen so I don’t want to get bogged down on mechanics. Especially since that’s not really for me to reveal yet.

But you know what your chances are before you take an action - and you know the consequences. That makes things pretty gritty. It’s hard for the GM (called a Director here) to nerf rolls and protect players - you make a dumb choice or take a big risk and you pay the price. But that’s just like in the sorts of movies it emulates. This creates real tension. Adding to that is the squishiness of your character. It doesn’t take much to kill someone. So planning is everything.

I got to play and plan

After reading and giving the odd bit of feedback (more just supportive “yeah- that’s the shits”) I finally got an unexpected chance to play Hard Time, with Colin as Director, and I had a ball. We were both GMing at a con and my game got cancelled (something I’d secretly hoped for TBH) and Colin needed some more play-testers - YES PLEASE!

It played as tight and tense and focused as I expected. We were a gang of criminals trying to steal from a jewellery store during Chinese New Year festivities. My crew was somewhat chaotic and, as often happens in these movies, moderately well-laid plans disintegrated in the white-hot pressure of the moment and once guns were drawn things got real bad, real fast!

I was playing with some absolute first-timers to the game and everyone was on the same page pretty quickly. There aren’t too many rules to learn and everything you need is on your sheet. Because Colin has been super-focussed with game design we got exactly what was promised - a starring role in our own neo-noir action movie!

If you’ve had Pacino delusions this game is for you

If you’ve ever had dreams of staging your own heist then Hard Time is for you, even if you are new to TTRPGs (maybe especially if you are new - because of its super tight focus). Even more, if you’ve ever dreamed of being a corrupt cop or a hard-bitten detective. I haven’t spoken much about this side of Hard Time because I haven’t played it yet but I’m really looking forward to trying out life behind the thin blue line.

When you can get your hands on Hard Time

Hard Time is due out towards the end of the year. Keep up to date with the progress on its Facebook page. If you live in Wellington you’ve got an opportunity to playtest the game (for a good cause too) at the Roll for Hope charity event in early September.

This is a great game from a really nice dude and I can’t wait to get my hands on it in its final form, play it and write about it some more.