SCHEMES
Schemes & Teams: The Squid Games
TEAMS
YOUR ONLY WAY OUT IS TO PLAY. You’ll need all your wits and luck to survive
hellish parodies of childhood pastimes in THE CONTEST. Here, everyone knows you
by your number (which is also your one game stat). You’ll need to forge alliances to
survive, or just to have someone to betray...
PLAYER: CREATE CONTESTANTS
Each player should create ~5 contestants.
Some will die each round. For each,
roll 3d6 to make the 3-digit number
that will be their contestant ID.
The hundreds digit is their stat.
A low number means you’re better at
SCHEMES (rationality, advance planning,
deception, calculated action). A high
number means you’re better at TEAMS
(intuition; diplomacy; empathy; impulsive
actions).
The tens digit is their vibe:
1- Cocky, 2- Snivelling, 3- Loner,
4- Affable, 5- Wild-eyed, 6- Principled.
The ones digit is their background:
1- Mooch, 2- Caregiver, 3- Service Sector,
4- Crime, 5- Blue Collar, 6-White Collar.
Also, start with one secret(d4):
1.  Share a bond with another contestant.
2.  You’re smuggling a contraband tool.
3.  A guard owes you one minor favor.
4.  You have a hint about the next round.
GM: BUILDING THE CONTEST
Tribute RPG v0.8 by Jules Goldthwait The contest alternates between game
rounds and downtime. For a one-shot,
JulesGoldthwait.itch.io
3-4 rounds should be plenty to prep.
The game format is open for hacking Each round twists a childhood pastime:
and remixing under a CC BY 4.0 license.
CHOOSE A CHILDRENS’...
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
1. Team sport 2. Solitary pursuit
Thanks to: Chrysteena Barton, Daniela 3. Board game 4. Playground game
Relaford, Sarah Allsmiller.
5. Leisure activity 6. Food activity
THEN TAKE THE...
1. Arena 2. Artifacts of play
ROLLING DICE
3. Rules 4. Objective
When you do something risky, roll 1d6 to find out how it goes. Roll +1d if you’re
prepared and +1d if you have a relevant background. (The GM tells you how many dice 5. Win Condition 6. Team size
to roll, based on the contestant and situation.) AND MAKE IT TOTALLY ..
1. Hazardous 2. Enlarged
If you’re using SCHEMES (planning, rationale, ruse), you want to roll over your stat.
3. Obscured 4. Reversed
If you’re using TEAMS, (emotion, empathy, impulse) you want to roll under your stat. 5. Unfairly Shared 6. Fatal
Each passing die counts as a success this round. If all dice fail, that counts as one failure
Remember, force contestants to form
in this round. For each round, the GM will decide how many successes are needed to
groups and make other choices before
survive and how many failures trigger a fatal result.
revealing the rules for the round. At this
Creative players can roll for actions that don’t make direct progress in a round, such as point, any hints should be useful.
protecting against future failures or securing other advantages for later.
The GM should decide how many
PLAYING WITH BONDS successes it takes to survive a round and
You may also use one of your contestant’s bonds to help survive the round. how many failures prove fatal. Consider
matching survival criteria to the round
If your goal is to work together, you succeed or fail together for this contest.
idea (versus contests, first-past-the-post,
Make an additional TEAMS roll to add to your total. Describe how you work together.
most successes without failing, etc).
If your goal is to betray them, roll SCHEMES. If it succeeds, add one success to your
Half the contestants dying each round
contestant and one failure to the other. Describe your betrayal and dissolve the bond.
is about right. If a player’s contestants
DURING DOWNTIME all die, they may become a VIP who bets
Between rounds, the GM should describe the resting conditions and give players time which contestant(s) will win.
to describe their contestants’ downtime activities.
THE END
Each player can pick one reward from the initial secret list for one/each of their After the last round, the GM describes
surviving contestants, then narrate what happens to give them that edge. If they bond survivors’ return to regular life and
with another contestant, they should share their real names with each other. players say how they spend their winnings.