The Great Soul Train Robbery—two-page edition
A downloadable game
Find the full, 50-page version of the game here!
Great Soul Train Robbery was nominated for a 2020 Indie Groundbreaker Award for Best Rules!
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On the road to hell there was a railway line. An express train to the infernal city of Dis, crewed by furies and carrying treasure and souls to damnation. You’re going to rob it.
You’re a motley crew with mixed motives. Gunslingers, snake-handlers, homesteader widows... Desperados all.
You all have two stats, Lover and Sinner.
Use Lover to make human connections, to act with honor, to hold onto hope, to resist opportunities for vice, and for selfless acts.
Use Sinner to do dirty deeds, to act with brutality, to lie through your teeth, to resist pleas for mercy, and for selfish acts.
Will you claim your prize from the train, or be overcome, damned, or broken by the heist?
The Great Soul Train Robbery is a tabletop roleplaying game designed for one-shot gameplay with 2–6 players and 1 GM.
It's short and sweet, like the game it's most inspired by, Rowan, Rook, & Decard's Honey Heist. Everything you need to tell a Weird Western allegory about Desperados stealing from the Devil is contained in a two-page PDF, chock full of random tables to ensure that every car (and every play-through) is different and exciting.
When that lonesome whistle sounds, will you have the grit and the gristle to knock over the hell-bound train? Will you lose your own soul in the process?
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For ZineQuest in February 2020, we crowdfunded an expansion of this game into a 50-page zine. This version offers more GM and player support, plus many inspiration tables to fill out your game with Weird Western allegorical scoundrels, monsters, and train cars. Find that version of the game here.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Zine Edition on Kickstarter!Feb 04, 2020
Comments
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I'm new to TTRBGs, a sales clerk from a games store recommended GSTR for a beginner. I have the zine and the character sheet downloads but is there a storyline I follow or do I make one up?
Welcome to the hobby!
If you have the zine edition of the game, turn to the section called "GM materials," starting on page 24. That should give you a pretty good overview of how running the game works. In brief, as the GM you'll be creating a story at the table, using the framework and inspiration provided by GSTR—and, of course, drawing on your fellow players contributions too!
If you want to see some examples, I recommend checking out this Youtube playlist of recorded sessions of the game: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp2rr7I2jFTlcOHYF9PNj55wQ7owv4rJL
That helps a lot. Thank you so much!
Reading through it looks like an incredibly fun game! I've had issues with players moving stats too easily before, and I think this version addresses it, in a really fun environment
Excellent! Thanks for reading, and send us any thoughts you have if you get it to the table!
Congrats on the award nomination!