Threadcutters

They say nothing is truly dead until all memory of it is gone.

As the last survivors of the Fifth World, you are responsible for keeping alive the memories of the world you used to know – and also dealing out death at the command of the Arcana of Centro.

They taught you the secrets of reality, trained you to a standard so elevated it seems superhuman, and blessed you with their particular magic, all to turn you into weapons against which there is no defence.

And one of them has a job for you.

Threadcutters uses a combination of diceless, narrative mechanics (taken from the LUMEN system by Spencer Campbell) to tell the story of how the players find their target, set them up, or otherwise get into position for the hit, followed by a quick burst of turn-based tactical combat to actually do the deed. Each hit should fill one game session of 3-4 hours, and you'll do four or five over the course of a full playthrough, making for a short campaign with a definite end point.

To get through the narrative portion of each hit characters can rely on their own resources -- their weapons, gadgets, and occult mastery -- or they can pull from the Deck of Fate, a collection of Tarot cards assembled at the beginning of the hit, and see what Fate has in store for them. Their patron Arcana give them various special powers which can also be used to overcome the impossible odds.

Once the showdown starts, the game changes to a handful of tokens on a tight grid. Characters take turns moving and acting, using their innate skill at murder and any gifts their patrons have given them, and after every turn the target gets to respond. After every player character has taken a turn, the battlefield shifts; players will have to adjust their tactics on the fly to keep up with changing events.

Sixteen possible hits are detailed in the book, covering three stages of narrative progression and rules for a showdown against the target including several different battlefield shifts to make the player-characters' lives difficult.