HEAT was developed by David Colby in cooperation with the Cybernetic Coven. It is currently appealing for the benefit of a crowdfunding campaign.
1. Every Individual Component Is The Best
I didn’t have anything to do with High Excitement Action Tabletop! (henceforth, just HEAT!).1 Therefore I lack the moral issues of my brilliant co-writer and have decided it’s time for me to break down this game.
My critique is based on the alpha, which already has a clean and precise layout and organization, prioritizing legibility and ease of access. The alpha is plain and precise which is exactly what you want from this sort of thing, it is still without art but not without the clever artifice that makes these documents important for the ever eager. My only complaint is the lack of index, but an excellent table of contents more than makes up for it.
2. Meet The Game At The Level It Is At
HEAT! is diceless, and as far as I am concerned this is a double-edged sword. The lack of dice does actually make the game more accessible in some key ways, not needing as much table space and being friendly to online spaces is a huge benefit in the current world. However, I think that diceless games sometimes have to swim upriver against what people accept, and I will happily reveal my bias as someone who is not a fan of Diceless systems traditionally.
HEAT is currently in Kickstarter, but backing gives you access to the alpha rules and will deliver to your digital doorstep within a reasonable timeframe.
3. Identify What The Game Says It Is About
HEAT! claims to be about action-centric gaming, focused on delivering a tight and empowering experience, and even clearly states things that it would be bad at (horror, slice of life).
4. Uncover What The Game Is REALLY About
HEAT! is about managing a resource, but that resource is being cool as hell.
There is a thorny problem here, in that I can’t talk too much about this resource because HEAT!’s engine is defined by its resources, so if you are a little confused just soldier on till next week when I’ll talk more about it.
You might be reading that and saying “Wow, Brad so you agree with the above point, that never happens” and you are both right and wrong.
HEAT! is about managing your resources, yes, and theoretically, that resource is being an action movie hero. The thing is, the easiest way for you to regain resources is to fail. You take a big loss, and then you regain the ability to be an unspeakably cool badass again, and then repeat.
This means that HEAT! characters are defined by their losses as much as their wins, you have to decide when to take that big loss and suffer consequences because otherwise, you risk taking damage and suffering consequences you cannot control. You need to decide when its important, when to get hit, when to fail to save the girl, because otherwise, someone else will and that makes you as a player able to really use those moments to define yourself.