FUGITIVE
A downloadable game
You made something special.
The Authorities want it. You can never let them have it.
This isn’t what you thought your life would be. You’ve always been an artisan, a technician. You love to make things. You love your work; it’s always been your world. But now your work is in terrible danger.
So you’re on the run with your Creation. You must keep it safe from the Authorities. They’ll say you stole it, of course, even as you wonder: how can you steal something you made with your own hands?
Fugitive is a solo journaling game made with the Wretched & Alone system, in which you pull cards and roll dice to evade the Authorities and keep your work safe. You're unlikely to succeed; try anyway.
Included with purchase is an 8.5x11 PDF, a double-page spread PDF suitable for printing into a booklet, and a plain text version.
The Wretched, by Chris Bissette can be found here:
https://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched
The Wretched & Alone SRD can be found here:
Purchase
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Community Copy
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Comments
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The TL;DR version of my review
Fun. Creates tension well. Surprisingly adaptable to other settings or genres. Don't expect to win-win.
Fugitive is based off of Wretched and Alone by Chris Bisette and draws inspiration from John Harper's Blades in the Dark. You play a "creator" on the run from oppressive authority figures with the "device" you've created. Gameplay involves you trying to elude your pursuers or else they will separate you from your creation and then either jailing you or even worse. I participated in a playtest of an earlier version and it was exactly what I was looking for at the time; a means to dislodge me from my doldrums and spark my creativity.
In Fugitive you are tasked with coming up with a setting concept for your playthrough. The creator offers guidance on factors one should include in the setting. I did three playthroughs where I sketched out a basic setting concept for two and used the Blades in the Dark setting to resolve the story arc of a character I played in a previous campaign. What I enjoyed is that for the most part, any of the events that come up can work for your setting. Sometimes you just have to squint a little bit to make them work. For my third playthrough, I tried to break the game by playing a famous pop star on the run from their manager, record label, and handlers. It was possibly my favorite playthrough as the prompts really seemed to mesh with the feelings and struggles that I imagined the artist feeling being separated from the environment they'd once thrived within.
Now it is possible to "win" this game. In fact I'm told that I'm the only player that was able to successfully complete the game with their character escaping with the "device." But the game’s author is quite clear that this is a game about navigating the experience of a fugitive on the run. Hope is a luxury. Fear and anxiety are commodities in all too great supply.
Best of luck on your playthrough of Fugitive.