A downloadable game

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Your (sort of) acquaintance, Karen, contacts you out of the blue with a life-changing opportunity. The chance to make piles of cash - from your home! All you have to do is empty your bank account, acquire and store a hefty inventory of The Product, raid your contacts to create Downlines, relinquish a large percentage of your profits to Karen, and always. be. selling.

Hey Hun! is a satirical one-page TTRPG wherein players take on the roles of new Recruits for The Company, a massive conglomeration and producer of cheap products hell-bent on one thing: complete late-stage capitalism domination at all cost. Fight the system, join them, or usurp power - the choice is yours!

Gameplay Overview

The narrative and tone are fairly open-ended as Recruits sacrifice Downlines to progress the 3 act structure of a one-shot story. Actions are propelled by each player's hand of playing cards (skills). Improving a Recruit's hand of cards (among other things) pushes the plot toward a final showdown.

The only pre-planning required is for the GM to acquaint themself with the plot beat prompts. The rest organically spills out as all players create a story as harrowing, serious, zany, or downright absurd as they like. (If you're familiar with Grant Howitt's one-page work, you're good to go; if not, check him out here on Itch.io or his Patreon!)

Requirements
  • (At least) one game sheet
  • One Game Master to take on the role of The Company
  • 1-4 players to become Recruits
  • One standard deck of playing cards per player (including the GM)
  • One d20 per player (or a generous pile of any tokens)
  • Writing utensil
Optional
  • d8 for character creation

Thank you for playing!

Notes

Hey Hun! is intended to lampoon the predatory practices of extra-legal multi-level marketing schemes that prey on vulnerable people for the sake of massive profits (and maybe a bit of human suffering). If you are unfamiliar with MLMs and are curious to learn more, engage with the following:

  • The Dream - A podcast series by Jane Marie and Dan Gallucci
  • LulaRich - Amazon Prime's documentary series about LulaRoe
  • Kate Shellnut's piece in Vox
  • Rachel Monroe's piece in The New Yorker

And that's just a jumping off point.

StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(2 total ratings)
AuthorChris Hallenbeck
TagsComedy, mlm, One-page, One-shot, satire, Tabletop role-playing game

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Hey Hun! An RPG by Chris Hallenbeck.pdf 4 MB

Comments

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What an excellent one-pager! Beyond a humorous/critical conceit, it also offers very cool mechanics that blend with the theme very well and manage to mix mechanical and narrative progression at the same time, all the while being extremely original.
I can't wait to see more from you!