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(1 edit) (+1)

Hardship River is a one-page trpg (or two pages, including the cover) about sailing with uncertain companions into a potentially dangerous unknown.

It's card-based, using the cards for blind-bids that help position the characters in the story. I did have a little trouble understanding the flow of the rules, however, and I wish there was a small overview section showing how play works.

Hardship River does cramp its text a little bit to fit the one-page format, and I think it would be a little more readable if it was allowed to decompress, but this is easy to get around by fiddling with the pdf magnification.

Overall, the game has a strong feeling and an interesting structure that can make for some tense (or alternately mellow and philosophical) conversations. It works as a setup to a campaign or one-shot as well, especially if you're playing something with kind of a wild west feel, and I strongly recommend it if you don't mind rereading a few sections to get a full grasp of how the game works.

Minor Issues:

-Page 2, last para, the spades suite is referred to as swords. This is completely true, but might confuse people. Maybe a holdover from conversion from tarot?

(+2)

Thank you very much for your review. I've already updated the file to make the change from swords to spades and I will keep your suggestions in mind when working on a newer version. The challenge is of course reducing the amount of text while making it clearer. I do want to keep it at one-page for portability, every player has the entire game on his or her "character sheet". But maybe some of the introduction can go to the other side of the page, for example? I'll think about this. Thanks again 👍