Seeking feedback on the 'Cell' sheet for my first game!
Hi everyone,
I’ve been developing my first tabletop game, Hell in the Cell, on and off for quite a while, and I’ve finally reached the point where the first complete playable prototype is finished and ready to go to print for further playtesting.
It's a 2-10 player, ~90-minute, mid-complexity prison survival strategy game where players play as themselves, falsely imprisoned together in an overcrowded American megajail.
The central idea is that you have to become increasingly criminal to survive - developing Prison Skills, managing Contraband, navigating Drug Addictions and psychotic Meltdowns, and screwing with your cellmates along the way. The catch is that everything helping you survive can later become another reason to keep you locked up - as every criminal element against your Record carries specific +/- score values that make up your total score.
On Parole Day, everything against your Inmate Record contributes to your Final Score. The lowest-scoring Inmate gets released as the apparent ‘least threat to society’, regardless of how they may have actually conducted themselves throughout the course of the game, whether by choice, force or serendipity.
It’s deliberately dark, adult satire where the humour comes from watching whoever's playing become increasingly ridiculous hardened criminals under the pressures of a broken system, before that same system harshly judges them for it. The comedy element and laughs are compatible to Cards Against Humanity.
I've put together the attached ‘Cell' sheet (sell sheet) as a one-page overview of the game. I'd really value some fresh eyes on it. Can you understand the premise, what players actually do (based on the level of detail provided), and how you win? Is there anything important that's unclear or missing? Keen to get feedback!