PocketQuest 2024

Special bonus mini blog post today!

Something that DriveThruRPG does every year now is to host something called PocketQuest, where short (under 25 pages) RPGs get developed, uploaded, and promoted. It's a super cool project (that I found out about too late to join this year, but definitely plan on participating next year). Each year has a central theme that all the games relate to; this year's theme was heists.

So if you're looking for cool new systems / games to run--not supplements for existing systems, but new games--check out the full listing of PocketQuest products on DriveThruRPG now and support some indie designers, many of whom are first-time game publishers. Each game centers around heists, but products vary in genre from sci-fi to fantasy to real-world-adjacent.

I'm hoping to pick up a few and do more in-depth reviews in the months to come (key word hoping; I've got a bit of a queue of games to run + some history topics that I'm really eager to talk about), but for now--check out PocketQuest!

Shouting out a few that look particularly interesting to me, with their descriptions taken directly from their product pages:

One Dollar Heist by Jason Strong. "A ridiculous game about stealing back the dollar you paid for this game from the author, Jason Strong. Grab a pile of dice and a few people who want to invent the dumbest heist imaginable for a mess of a GM-less game. Come get your dollar back from me if you dare!"

High Card Heist by LavenBolt Studios. "High Card Heist is best described as an RPG, RNG heist experience. It uses a unique card system that only needs two typical 52 playing card decks for a game session. Players not only are going up against their own luck, but they get to go up against a Vault of their own creation that they build together with the GM."

Pocket Aces: A Game of Psychic Heists by Kevin Helock. "Created as part of the PocketQuest 2024 game jam, Pocket Aces is a rules-lite TTRPG about a team of thieves stealing secrets from the inside of their targets’ minds."

Classified! A Solo Journaling RPG by Rage Kage Games. "Classified! is a solo journaling RPG about heists and hijinx. You are an agent tasked with completing capers by acquiring targets for your client. The objective of this game is for your agent to complete capers and earn promotions. To complete the caper, your agent performs actions using their stats to resolve card-drawn events that happen while on the assignment. Events might result in your gadgets malfunctioning, an additional target needing to be acquired, a miscommunication with your handler, or any number of other occurrences that could aid or impede your agent’s ability to complete the task at hand. A die roll determines whether your agent’s actions succeed or fail; multiple successes lead to a successful caper."

Congratulations to everyone who participated in PocketQuest and finished a whole original TTRPG! I'm already looking forward to participating next year. For everyone else, please check out all these cool new RPGs by indie game designers!

This post contains affiliate links (which gives me a small cut of DriveThru's share, not the game designers').