Going For Broke is a fast-paced sitcom roleplaying game about a collective house scrambling to get enough money together. Choose your roommate, get sucked into an ill-conceived plot, and try to get that coin. 4-8 players, 45-75 minutes.
Going For Broke - a sitcom game about making rent.
Going For Broke is a fast-paced sitcom roleplaying game about a collective house scrambling to get enough money together. Choose your roommate, jump into an ill-conceived plot, and try to get that coin. 4-8 players, 45-75 minutes.
Going For Broke is a sitcom roleplaying game about a collective house scrambling to get enough money together. It's designed for easy learning and fast-paced play. 4-8 players, 45-75 minutes per episode.
The game uses a set of 12 character cards, each representing a potential roommate in the house. Choose your roommate, choose an episode premise, and dive in. Each episode opens with an argument about how to deal with a huge expense, which spirals into two ill-conceived plots. Ultimately, one succeeds, the other fails, and we're right back where we started: with the house barely scraping by.
I'm releasing the game as a pack of 17 cards (12 roommate cards, 5 reference cards) in a lightweight sleeve box, with rules available for free online. For those who would prefer to play virtually or print their own cards, there's also a Digital + DIY Kit on offer.
The game is done, and I'm excited to share it with you! This crowdfunding campaign is going to allow me to finance the first print run.
There are a few stretch goals to unlock as the campaign unfolds! You can find the current one pinned to the top of the Community tab.
Want to know how the game works? The rules are available for free on the Going For Broke page, starting here.
You'll see that it's a structured freeform game that splits the roommates into an A Plot and a B Plot, which eventually cancel one another out. The gameplay is driven by a simple coin-based mechanic: answer your character's Classic Question to unlock their coin, and then use the coin in a later scene to attempt to resolve your plot. Every game is resolved in just 1-3 coin flips, meaning this thing plays quick and lean.
I'm excited about this strategy of offering the rules for free, because it means being able to experiment with new delivery models (like a youtube tutorial, shareable post, etc) rather than trying to paywall the rules in a PDF.
Guidelines for Play
Episode Structure
The Coin Mechanics
Going For Broke is approachable, quick, light-hearted, and easy to toss into a backpack just in case. It's a perfect game for welcoming first-time players into the hobby, and for squeezing in with friends when other games would take too long.
The easiest points of comparison are probably Fiasco, Star Crossed, or Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast. All fantastic games that I seriously can't recommend enough. So what's the pitch for Going For Broke when those other games already exist? Well, it fits in your back pocket, plays in under an hour, uses premade characters, and is targeted at your millennial friends who are clinging desperately to the notion that they're still young and cool.
I've been designing tabletop roleplaying games for eighteen years, including titles like The Quiet Year, Monsterhearts, Dream Askew, and Ribbon Drive. Most of my games are about some combination of queer identity, relationships, community, scarcity, and the end of the world. Going For Broke is a quirky and light-hearted addition to my catalogue!
“Going for Broke combines easy-to-follow mechanics with memorably hilarious characters to make a batshit sitcom that still leaves space for poignant moments. If hollywood won’t make the messy disastrous sitcom about an anarchist co-op/polycule of our dreams then I guess we gotta sit down, flip some coins, and make our own.”
–Jay Dragon, author of Wanderhome and Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast
"Going for Broke is full of insufferably adorable roommates just trying to get by. If you ever wanted to play out the moodiness of Rent and the hijinks of Community, Going for Broke is your game. It is such a delight!"
-Sean Nittner, host of Narrative Control, Director of Projects at Evil Hat, coordinator of Big Bad Con
Recent Awards
"Avery Alder is a role-playing game designer whose creations and talks are renowned for their exploration of profound social themes, including queer identities, community, marginalization, and interpersonal relationships. [...] The jury awards the prize to Avery Alder for her body of work, coinciding with the 2024 release of the second edition of Monsterhearts in French. Her creativity, which pushes boundaries and redefines conventions, is also evident in The Quiet Year, Dream Askew, and Variations On Your Body. Her influence on the independent role-playing game scene is significant, inspiring numerous games that draw from her innovative ideas."
–2025 Prix Lizzie Magie, awarded by a jury at the Rennes en Jeux Festival
The game is complete and I already have a proof copy in hand! Here, check it out:
The project timeline now comes down to the time it takes for production and shipping. Allowing room for delays and unexpected hiccups, you should anticipate receiving the game 2-4 months after the conclusion of the campaign.
I have decades of experience with game design, publishing, crowdfunding, international shipping, and project management - which means that as a backer, you can be confident about my ability to deliver.
Shipping fees are added after the campaign is over, through the Backerkit Pledge Manager. I'm going to give you an estimate of what you will likely be charged. The final number may be different; this is my current expectation. Please think about all of this when you make your pledge!
In Canada, a booster pack of cards can ship out as oversized lettermail, which means it's not tracked but it is cheap! Elsewhere, it needs to be shipped out as a package.
Canadian orders will be shipped from my home in Amiskwaciy-wâskahikan.
Just a pack of Going for Broke: sent as untracked oversized lettermail ($4 CAD including packaging).
Going for Broke + 1-2 additional games: sent as light package ($18 CAD including packaging).
American orders will be shipped from a fulfilment partner in Nevada.
Just a pack of Going for Broke: expect shipping + handling + packaging to come to around $9 CAD / $6.30 USD.
Going for Broke + 1-2 additional games: expect shipping + handling + packaging to come to around $15.74 CAD / $11 USD.
International orders of just a pack of Going for Broke will ship out via Canada Post as a Small Packet - International Air ($16 CAD including packaging). You will likely be charged duty on the package as it clears customs.
International orders of Going for Broke + 1-2 additional games may ship from either Canada or the United States, with details still to be determined. You can anticipate costs at approximately $30-33 CAD. You will likely be charged duty on the package as it clears customs.
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A DISCLAIMER - this is a mess of a time to be planning the release of a game that will be printed in China, sold from Canada, and shipped to lots of addresses in the United States. The rise of fascism in America (in addition to being despicable) threatens unpredictable tariffs, trade route closures, and wildly-fluctuating shipping costs. I'm going to do my best to navigate these risks strategically and carefully. This is not my first publishing project or crowdfunding campaign, and I am very confident about my ability to deliver on my promises under normal conditions. But please bear with me if conditions veer dramatically and rapidly away from normal.
