It's game night. You and your best buds are sitting down to play some goofy sword-and-sorcery game, have some pizza and a few beers, and enjoy yourselves. And this time, it's finally your night.
You're bringing out the hookah.
In Bringing a Hookah to Game Night, you roleplay as someone who's had this ingenious plan. The object of the game is to set up your hookah during game night so you can have a kickass time with your friends and smoke a hookah at the same time. Awesome. You'll need one or more friends willing to take on the roles of the other players at this game night and up to three six-sided dice.
Choose a number from 2 to 5. This is your only stat in the game, and represents how attentive you are to the game versus your hookah. A low number means you're more invested in the game, and a high number means you're more focused on getting this hookah set up.
Your friends will take turns narrating the events of the game night, including what their fictional players are doing and talking about and the adventure that those player's characters are engaged in. They will then look to you for a response. You'll roll either Hookah or Game Time.
When you roll, you start with one die. You can add an extra die if one of your friends wants to bail you out - they say how they give you some help. Each friend can only help once per game. Also once per game, you can invoke your hookah's positive trait to add an additional die to your roll. Say how you use it to appease your friends.
- When you roll Hookah, you're just really focused on putting this hookah together right now. Pass the buck or give a noncommittal answer and roll. You succeed if any of your dice roll under your number. Add a tick to the Hookah clock. If the clock is filled, you did it! The hookah is all set and you're ready for a night to remember.
- When you roll Game Time, you actually do want to focus on the game right now. Say what your character (or their character in game) does and roll. You succeed if any of your dice roll over your number. Reduce your number by 1.
- Regardless of your choice, if you fail your roll it's obvious you're too preoccupied right now to care about the game. Increase your number by 1.
- If you roll your number exactly on any of your dice, you stall for time. Ask a question to clarify the situation, then roll again. You may change your choice of roll. If you roll your number again, it's clear you weren't really paying attention. Increase your number by 1.
- Once per game, one of your friends can invoke the negative trait of your hookah to force you to roll again with the same number of dice as before. You must keep the new result.
If your number ever goes to 1 or 6, the game immediately ends.
- If your number reaches 1, you give up on the hookah and just have a regular fun night with your friends (but no hookah). Bummer.
- If your number reaches 6, your friends get fed up with you and your damn hookah. They choose whether to kick you out immediately or stew for the rest of the game night and simply not invite you next time.
Your Hookah
Choose a trait in each of the following categories. You must choose exactly one positive trait and one negative trait.
Complexity
- It's actually really easy to set up you guys. You only need four Hookah successes to get this bad boy rolling.
- It's not too complicated, I promise. You'll need six Hookah successes to finish setting up.
- Ok, listen, it's a little bit more involved than maybe we would like. You'll need eight Hookah successes before you can start smoking.
Design
- It's, like, really cool. Like intricate designs and colors and whatnot.
- It's your regular average hookah, nothing too fancy but it gets the job done.
- I'm not gonna lie, this thing's kinda ugly and worn down. It's, like, all old and dirty. It hasn't been cleaned in a little while, ok?
Hoses
- There's enough hoses for everybody! Once it's ready everyone can pull if they want.
- There's, like, two or three hoses. We can share it, at least.
- Ok so there's only one working hose, and unfortunately I don't really want to share it - it's like a germ thing, you get it.
Your Game
You pretty much remember what's going on in the game, you think. For each category, roll a d6 or choose one.
You're playing a(n)…
- Elf… wizard?
- Dwarf… fiiighter?
- Hobbi- er, Halfling… thief?
- Definitely a Human, um… healer?
- An orc, no, half-orc? Barbarian?
- A cool half-dragon… something. You can definitely breathe fire though, it's really sick.
You're on a quest to…
- Find a cool magic sword
- Kill some asshole wizard.
- Save some shitty kid.
- Assassinate a Bad King.
- Save the last… unicorn? Definitely a magic horse of some kind.
- Slay a Mother Fucking Dragon.
But right now…
- You're all, like, shopping in town for some reason.
- You have to answer some jackoff's Riddles Three.
- You have to sneak into a castle or something.
- You're wandering aimlessly in a cave or the woods, apparently.
- You're stuck on a ridiculous water weight puzzle.
- You're fighting a miniboss with, like, a million HP.
Your Friends
The cool people you're trying to have a fun game night with. Each of your friends chooses one of the following traits. Choose freely or roll a d6.
As a friend, you're responsible for working with the other players to improvise the fictional RPG session your characters are playing. Describe the actions of the fictional players as well as their characters in the game. End each of your turns by asking the hookah player for a response of some kind. You cannot take another turn until all other friends have gone at least once.
If you fail to honor your trait, another friend may call you out and give you a Penalty. If you accrue three Penalties, you lose your next turn. Then, discard all Penalties.
- Master of Ceremony. During every other player's turn, you must add a sentence to their description - ask a question, add a detail, make a joke, etc.
- Soft-Spoken. You must only speak at most every other word out loud.
- Foul-Mouthed. You must cuss excessively. At least every third word you say has to be a swear word.
- Poetic. You must speak in florid, purple prose, exuberantly expositing the various escapades of the game.
- Uncertain. At least once per sentence, you must hedge (insert something like, "um," "er," "like," etc. into your phrasing), take a long pause (a second or more), or stop what you were saying and start over.
- Rules Lawyer. Once during each other player's turn, you must interrupt them to correct what they were saying. On at least one of your turns, you must narrate a rules dispute, complete with flipping through source books and/or searching online to find an answer.
