The Hangover

or, James Bond Takes a Holiday

What did you do to deserve the Hangover?

This is a roleplaying game; it was developed as a submission for the Little Game Chef 2010 game design event. The theme of this year's game design is comedy; with the chosen ingredients of Bond, Holiday, and Recall.

This game is also inspired by the hit 2009 comedy movie The Hangover.

This game is designed as a one-shot game, for those times when you need a break from your regular gaming fare.

For the first time in quite a long time, James Bond, yes 007 himself, decided to take a break from his spy work and take a holiday.

Bond was packed and just heading out the door for his holiday when M called with an urgent last minute task, which M assured Bond would not interfere with his holiday. Ever the loyal agent, Bond accepted the task, reassuring M that it would be performed with greatest efficiency and that he would indeed rest and relax while on holiday.

Twenty four hours later, Bond just woke up . . .

in a strange place . . .

in strange company . . .

wearing strange accessories . . .

to the sound of his ringing cellphone.

It was M on the line; and M was not pleased.

It seems that Bond did not complete his assigned task. What's worse is that Bond cannot recall how he got in his current predicament; but he does know that it involved many martinis.

Now Bond must reconstruct the events of the past night's bender that caused his blackout, salvage and complete the task M set him on, and get on with what's left of his holiday as best he can.

You don't need much to play the game; here's what you need:

• A Deck of Poker Cards. If you've got a large group, you might want two decks.
  
  
• A set of poker chips. This game uses poker as a mechanic; so you need a good sizeable set of chips. Although poker chips are recommended, if you don't have poker chips, other kinds of tokens will work - coins, beads, jube jubes, or whatever.
  
  
• A patent pending Dealer Button/Martini Meter.
  
  
• Pencils or pens, and paper.
  
  

Although the game does not have a GM per se, one player must stand apart from the rest to play the role of James Bond.

Choose one player among you to play the role of James Bond; how you make that choice is at your discretion.

Only the player that is playing James Bond may narrate James Bond performing or taking a direct action. All other players must narrate externally from James Bond; that means that their narration can act upon bond via objects, characters, or environmental factors.

If you're playing the role of James Bond, I'll be referring to you as 007 from here on out.

There are no constant player characters in this game, except for James Bond. However, you can, and likely will narrate characters into the story; and if desired you can maintain those characters throughout the story.

When you introduce a new character, you may declare it a personal character. If you do so, then only you may narrate that character performing or taking a direct action. All other players must narrate externally from that character, acting upon the character via objects, characters, or environmental factors.

The duration of the game is counted in phases and rounds. There are three phases, each containing multiple rounds. The first phase is the Turn of 007's Holiday; this is when his Holiday plans go sideways and he starts his bender. The second phase is 007's blackout; this is where you reconstruct the events of 007's night of adventure. The third and final set is the aftermath; when 007 gets to clean up the mess.

As 007, draw a card at random from the deck. The card's suit will tell you how many rounds it takes to reach the start of 007's blackout.

Card Suit
Rounds	5	4	3	2

Now, as a group, decide how many rounds will make up 007's blackout. If desired, you can draw a card at random, or use some other method to determine the length of the blackout.

Finally, divide the number chosen or generated for 007's blackout by the number generated by the first set's number; Round fractions up. This is the number of rounds it takes 007 to clean up his mess.

Give each player a stack of chips. The total chip value should be around 100.

Now set the Deck of Cards and the Dealer Button/Martini Meter in front of 007.

Hand paper and writing tools to anyone who wants them.

Now set out three stacks of chips, ideally of three different colors, equal to the value of the three sets of rounds minus one respectively. Place these next to the Dealer Button/Martini Meter.

One round consists of a hand of poker, and then narration of one or more scenes of events.

The hand of poker determine the order in which the players will take turns narrating events, and also the relative power to affect things already narrated or to add to the narrative.

Resolution is done by Limit Hold'em style poker; for the purposes of this first draft, I'm not writing out the full Hold'em poker rules. Go find them at Wikipedia.

However, the following additions/changes to typical hold'em rules apply.

You may buy additional hole cards; these extra hole cards are called Floods. You may purchase Floods at the beginning of your betting turn.

During the pre-Flop and Flop betting rounds, the cost of each Flood is equal to the small blind; the chips are paid into the pot. The cost of a Flood doubles during the Turn, and doubles again during the River.

You may buy as many Floods as there are chips on your side of the Martini Meter, whether you're 007 or part of Everyone Else.

After buying Floods, you must discard Hole Cards until you are left with two Hole Cards; you may choose which Hole Cards to discard.

As 007, you are the dealer for the first hand of each phase; then the button progresses to the next player per usual Hold'em rules for subsequent hands.

Once the Hand is over, the ranks of all the hands are compared. If you folded, you are ranked in the order of the betting round in which you folded. If other players folded in addition to yourself during any given betting round, your hands are compared to determine your ranks.

Once everyone is ranked, the pot is split among all of you. If you are the winning player, you get half of the pot. The next highest ranked player gets half of the remaining pot, and so on down the line. After the second last player takes his half of the remaining pot, the losing player takes the remaining pot, splits it, then gives one half to the winning player and retains one half for himself.

Now that the pot has been split among all the players, you may begin narrating scenes.

Narration bears a price, in chips, depending on the scope of narration and whether or not the narration being claimed is modifying previously narrated story elements. Refer to the story costs table.

If you're the losing player, you begin narrating by introducing a short sequence of events, paying the appropriate narration costs. Once you've finished narrating, your share of the winnings go into your stack of chips.

You may end your turn narrating at any time before spending all of your winnings if you are content with what you've narrated; but there is no mechanical advantage to doing so.

Once you've finished narrating, narration moves to the next higher ranked player. That player then narrates, paying all appropriate narration costs.

* When you use the “No, but” modifier, you may cancel a story element introduced by any previous player. However, if canceling a story element invalidates any story elements that were narrated subsequent to the cancelled element, the player must pay the “No, But” cost for all canceled/invalidated story elements. You may narrate story elements that replace the canceled element, yet still reasonably tie into some or all of the invalidated elements. Group consensus dictates whether or not your new narration is valid as proposed. If you successfully tie the new story elements to existing elements; the invalidated elements that are tied to the new elements become valid once again.

Once everyone has finished narrating, play proceeds to the next round.

As 007, you get to determine the Holiday plans. You may choose, or draw a card at random for each element of the Holiday.

Type of Holiday,

Destination,

and Transportation.

Briefly narrate the preparation 007 makes prior to leaving for his Holiday.

Just as 007 is about to leave for his Holiday, his cellphone rings; it's M. M's got a small task for 007 before he goes on vacation; it's just small enough that it shouldn't pose a problem for the veteran operative.

Determine who will get the privilege of playing M for this scene, and introduce the task that 007 must perform. You can do this any way you want; but a BlackJack hand is a good way to do it. The player with the best hand without busting wins. 007 does not get to play M; so 007 must sit this out.

Now, as M, draw a card at random or choose a task from the tasks table to determine the task 007 is being given.

You must now narrate the conversation between M and 007. This is best done as a dialogue with 007, as though it were a real phone call.

After you've narrated the call from M, as 007, you may now conintue to narrate heading off towards your Holiday. However, you must stop somewhere short of completing M's task, or actually departing on the actual commencement of the Holiday.

As you can guess, 007 doesn't quite get to start his holiday. Something in his plans goes sideways, and 007 is plunged into a most unexpected advanture.

Set the Martini Meter with the first stack of chips; all the chips start in 007's side of the Martini Meter.

Play each round as decribed in the section titled Mechanics of Play. When narrating, the timeline moves chronologically forward to the point that 007's blackout begins.

After each round, if you've got the Dealer Button/Martini Meter, take one chip from 007's side and move it to Everyone Else's side then slide the Dealer Button/Martini Meter to the player on your left. That player becomes the dealer for the next round.

When all the chips have been moved to the other side of the Martini Meter, 007's blackout begins; you now know how 007's adventure begins.

It's almost 24 hours later, and 007 is now just waking up to the sound of his ringing cellphone. It's a very upset M on the line; 007 didn't complete the task as promised. What's worse, he can't recall any of the events during his blackout.

There are a few clues that will help 007 figure out what happened.

Play a BlackJack hand to determine the clues. Once again, 007 sits this out.

After the BlackJack hand, you'll have a ranking of the players' hands. The player with the best hand may choose a location where 007 wakes up. The player may opt out of choosing a location, and instead choose a person or thing that is around or on 007 when he wakes up. The next highest ranked player would then get the option to choose a location, or if declined, choose to introduce a person or object.

If the location remains to be chosen when it's the last player's turn to add something to the wake up scene, then that player must choose a location. Otherwise, the player may introduce a person or object.

Now it's time to reconstruct the events of 007's blackout.

Reset the Martini Meter by removing the first set of chips and placing the second set of chips; this time, all the chips start in Everyone Else's side of the Martini Meter.

Play each round as decribed in the section titled Mechanics of Play. During this set of rounds, narration of events occurs in reverse chronological order as 007 recalls and reconstructs the events that transpired during his blackout. Keep the events of the first phase in mind while narrating events of this second phase.

After each round, if you've got the Dealer Button/Martini Meter, take one chip from Everyone Else' side and move it to 007's side then slide the Dealer Button/Martini Meter to the player on your left. That player becomes the dealer for the next round.

When all the chips have been moved to the other side of the Martini Meter, you've reconstructed the events of 007's blackout. You should know how things went sideways and how to correct the situation. You should also have a logical brigde between the events of the first phase and this second phase.

While narration of this phase happens in reverse chronological order, there is an implied forward progression of time while 007 is actively working to figure out what happened to him, the details of which aren't important.

Reset the Martini Meter by removing the second set of chips and placing the third set of chips; once again, all the chips start in Everyone Else's side of the Martini Meter.

Play each round as decribed in the section titled Mechanics of Play. When narrating, the timeline moves forward from the implied moment that 007 has reconstructed his adventure and knows how to fix it.

After each round, if you've got the Dealer Button/Martini Meter, take one chip from 007's side and move it to Everyone Else's side then slide the Dealer Button/Martini Meter to the player on your left. That player becomes the dealer for the next round.

By the time all the chips have been moved to the other side of the Martini Meter, 007's hangover should be finished, as should be his adventure. The task he promised M should be complete; and new plans for what's left of his Holiday should be in motion. . .

Even if those new plans are to go to the nearest bar and get drunk. Who knows, that could be the start of a whole new Hangover. . .