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Minutes to Midnight • 2018 rpg

Marcus Lehner • nerdchomp.com/marcusphoenixgames

You awake to the sound of a scream. Was it your own? It's dark, but slowly your eyes adjust. You and your friends are in a dark basement. A thick wooden door lies before you. You find a rusty key. You'll need their help. Work together to escape before the clock strikes midnight. 

One person is the DM. Get a deck of playing cards and take out one joker. Shuffle it into the top X cards where X is the number of players. Deal each player 3 cards. Players holding jokers are corrupted.

DM picks a player to face each obstacle.
 
At each obstacle:
-	Everyone draws one card (Time ticks on)
-	Player announces method to tackle obstacle
- 	DM announces difficulty
-	Player selected asks for help (But who can you trust?)
-	Player and helpers discard any number of cards (Jokers can't be discarded)
-	Add the value of all cards discarded vs difficulty (Face cards = 10)
     o	     Success: Player and Helpers draw a card
     o	     Failure: Discard cards from deck by amount of loss
-	Helpers exchange one random card with player (Corruption spreads)

If the deck runs out, the clock strikes midnight and all players lose. Only non-corrupted players who escape win. 

Author Comments

Special Thanks to Tony Tran for proofreading, brainstorming, and letting me know this contest existed in the first place!


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