Players renovate a condemned apartment/mansion for profit.
Rule system is Gumshoe.
Character generation
Players choose character gender/appearance/background freely. Each player gets 16 skill points to allocate.
Skills:
Steam engineering
Carpentry
Plumbing
Painting
Improvised weapon
Scuffling
Throw
Health
Characters start in a room with Exit and 1 door.
When a character enters a door, GM rolls d6.
0 - 1: No new doors.
2 - 5: 1 new door
6 + : 2 new doors
First 5 rooms +1 modifier.
6th - 10th room: no modifier.
10th +: -1 modifier.
Characters assess room automatically. GM rolls d6 for room damage.
1: none automatic
2: panelling (carpentry)
3: water pipes (plumbing)
4: wallpaper (painting)
5: steam pipes (steam engineering)
6: multiple (reroll twice)
Repairing: Contested roll, duration 1d6 hours if successful.
Encounters: When character(s) enter a new room, GM rolls d6.
=/>1: Encounter.
Modifiers: +1 per character in room. -1 per 5 rooms already entered. -2 if single character.
Monsters:
GM rolls d6.
1-2: rats: 1HP, -2 attack
3-4: Rabid cat: 2HP, -1 attack
5: Monstrous silverfish swarm: 10HP, attack +1.
6: Undead crazy cat lady: 15HP, attack: throw -1 (1 rabid cat per turn).
All rooms/encounters cleared within 48 hours: victory.
I was inspired by renovating my apartment when participating in this contest. The idea was to have players renovating rambling, Gothic, Mordheim-ish mansions for resale value rather than just exploring a dungeon crawl. The balancing is horrible, but I feel that realistically simulates the stress of fixing up an old house with limited manpower and on a deadline.