Going For Broke

Rent is due, the fridge just died, and somebody's cousin needs bailing out. Again. The house has a week to find the money, and everyone has a plan. None of the plans are good.

Going For Broke is a fast-paced sitcom roleplaying game by Avery Alder, the designer of The Quiet Year and Monsterhearts. With four to eight players you play the roommates of a collective house that is always one bill away from disaster. Each episode opens with a huge expense and an argument about how to cover it, which splits into two ill-conceived plots. You cut between quick scenes, let the chaos build, and flip coins to find out which scheme pays off and which one collapses. One plot succeeds, one fails, and the house scrapes by for another month.

There is no game master and there are no dice. Every roommate comes with quirks, a secret and a Classic Question, the tension that makes them tick. Answering that question on screen is how you earn your coins. The game does not ask you to be funny; it asks you to play your character with conviction and let the contrast do the work. Episodes run 40 to 70 minutes, so it suits an evening with friends who have never touched a roleplaying game just as well as a warm-up at your regular table.

The small box holds 12 roommate cards and 5 reference cards. The rules are free to read online, so all you bring to the table is a coin and a few people who like to argue about money.

Ready for your table.