The Score

Last year I wrote a post about a fast-play RPG called The Score, which enables 1-6 players to run a collaborative heist story in 15-20 minutes. It's tremendous fun, but at the time we were playing the beta-test version.

Since then the game has gone on Kickstarter, and I liked it enough to back it. The other day my copy arrived. Here it is.

I loved the box-file packaging; nicer than a box of cards that open with a flap for sure. And what's packed inside it?

You get 40 cards, a pad of character sheets and two A4 rules sheets. One is the main rules, with a full example of play. The second is an expansion containing hints of how best to play the game, as well as a number of variant setups to simulate different styles of heist story. There's a surprising amount covered on that second sheet.

The cards are gorgeous quality, and consist of 28 skill/location/object cards, five Act cards, six quick reference cards and one blank/spare skill card (for if you want to add your own). If you look closely at the back they're also, in the grand tradition of a good heist, marked. Doesn't make a lot of difference to the game, but it's a nice touch.

So how do you play?

Each of the main game cards shows a particular skill, as well as an object of interest and a location. You start by taking 18 of these cards to form the game deck, then pick three at random and decide which one object and one location will be the subject of the heist. You then assemble your crew. Twelve cards are dealt as evenly as possible between the players, and these are each character's skills. You write down you skills and between you come up with names, backgrounds and the core story for why you are after the particular object.

The skill cards are then shuffled back into the deck, and four cards at random are removed, leaving a deck of fourteen cards, some of which will be skills possessed  by the players and others that aren't. Without looking at them the cards are split up into five piles of varying sizes to make up five Acts.

The game then starts with Act 1. A card is drawn and the owner of the skill narrates (briefly) how they are using that skill to further the heist. If the skill drawn is not one possessed by the team then a player narrates how that skill would be of no use in this heist anyway.

When Act 2 starts the narrative shifts as (with all good heist stories) the plan goes off the rails. In this act if you draw a card possessed by the team, the owner narrates how the opponents are preventing them using it, whereas if it's a skill the team don't have someone narrates how it's actively being used against them.

In Act 3 the plan gets back on track, and that runs like Act 1, and Act 4 covers more setbacks and runs like Act 2. 

Act 5 is where it all happens; the team's skills work for them, but skills they don't have work for the opposition. Act 5 is where the heist succeeds or fails, depending on whether the last card drawn is one the team has or not. But even a failure makes a good story, and there's an option for a player to sacrifice themselves to allowed a failed heist to succeed.

Whilst you can't change things that have been narrated, you can put twists on them; for example in Act 2 you could determine that the security around the object is too tight for the team to get past before a skill drawn in Act 3 reveals that one of the security guards is in fact a member of the team in deep cover. It's a story-telling game; anything is possible.

Our family loves a good heist story, and this game really captures the feel of them. It's fast. It's silly. It's fun.

The Score is available from Tin Star Games here in Australia, as hard-copy (as above) or a simple download.