About The Game:

A Heist Game is an OSR styled TTRPG (Tabletop 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. Created by Nick Spence (Doomspiral, Hunter’s Guide to Monsters, Gangs of Titan City) with cover illustrations by Chris Bissette (The Wretched, Tunnels & Trolls, Treasures of the Troll King).

A Heist Game is split into two books for ease of use at your table, The Book of Thieves, detailing rules, character creation and GM tools and The Book of Cities, a setting and GM guide providing tables, tools and information on the City of Gran Metropole. Physical copies of both come as staple-bound A5 zines and include digital copies.

Features:

• 66 Unique 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. As long as you weren’t a Nightsoil Gardener, it can’t have been all that bad. Packed with flavour, any of them will make a unique start for your characters.
• 70 Foes to encounter, battle and flee. It’s not just the Sergeants of the City Watch, the criminal Enforcers, and the machinist’s Automotons you’ll have to be wary of of course! Tussle with Lobster-men, ‘ware the Toxicist’s arts, and dare to hunt the legendary Vulpertine. Embodied in evocative and punchy mechanics to leave a lasting impression on your players – and likely their Thieves too.
• A vibrant, living city to explore. The city of Gran Metropole features 6 distinct districts to explore, from the obscene weath of the Geldings to the industrial obscenities of the Collegiates to the bucolic menace of the Meadows.
• Various vicious factions to entangle with. From the secret-seeking and back-stabbing Occult Circles, to the invisibles empires of the Criminal Games, to the star-driven schemes of the Forest Cults.
• An abundance of GM tools, tables and procedures. Simplify the many moving parts of a Heist with rules for Altertness and Patrols, amaze your players with a swathe of inspiration and rules for creating new Contacts for them to meet, create a living world with elegant procedures for managing internal and external Faction Politics. Plus, over 30 tables to help create the people, places, things, factions and culture of the City.

The Rules:

A Heist Game uses a twist on the rules from Chris Bissette’s ‘a dungeon game’. Combining the slow and calculating heist genre with OSR sensibilities – where decisions are deliberate, having the right tool for the job is key, and consequences are weighty.

• Towering Health totals are not a luxury Thieves get to enjoy. Instead 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…

This Game Is For You If…

• You want to play a cunning thief in a cruel city, setting your ambition against their paranoia
• You want a more deliberate crime TTRPG, testing your foreplanning against a growing spiral of chaos
• You want to explore a living city full of interlinked factions, whose culture and politics are yours to shape
• You enjoy a twist of occult magic, strange cults and bizarre creatures
• You like the vibes of media like; Fallen London, Dishonoured, Thief, Peaky Blinders, Blades in the Dark