Reboot Hill
A downloadable game
Originally created for the Space Western Summer Jam 2021
**FINAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE**
REBOOT HILL is a sci-fi Western TTRPG set in the "Future West" of the far flung Hill-Ceballos System. When a war back on Earth results in a cyber-attack that frees all of the bots in the Hill-Ceballos, things go bad for the humans right quick. In the aftermath, bots have got to rely on their shooting irons and their processors to make their way in this new, post-human frontier.
REBOOT HILL is a card-driven tabletop role-playing game in which players portray "Aces"--bots with advanced AI that find themselves on the right or wrong side of the law.
This core rulebook includes everything needed to play:
- Rules for character creation, including information on the numerous software and hardware upgrades a PC can acquire
- Core mechanics using playing cards to create the players' Grit Decks and the Head Honcho's (i.e., GM) Story Deck that power the game
- Profiles for weapons, gear, and vehicles
- An overview of the Hill-Ceballos System, including planet profiles and a map of the star system
- Profiles of the various villains, critters, varmints, and townsfolk that the Aces might encounter
- An introductory adventure: THE MAGNIFICENT 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Community Copies
Community copies are available for gamers who are experiencing financial hardship or who just want to sample the game before committing to a purchase.
Development log
- Final Edition of Reboot Hill Now AvailableMar 23, 2022
Comments
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Hey, this has been a fun read and I love to see more card-based RPGs out there. I'm confused about something though. If the PCs are up against a villain NPC, is the only way to defeat them to keep sending them into the negatives until the Story Deck draws double aces for the System Critical draws? Unless they have the weapons/ability to reduce all their stats down to 0? I know it explicitly says that villains use the same damage mechanics as Aces, but this seems to make them incredibly durable.
Hi there! Glad to hear you enjoyed reading through it. Great question about villains. I’m under a deadline for my day job, and will give you an answer as soon as I can. Just didn’t want you to think I was ignoring this.
Hi, Alexander. I finally had time to go back and remind myself what the exact rules were regarding the villains. So, rules as written, if the NPC has a villain tag, then yes, they follow the same damage/condition rules as PCs. I agree, this can make them pretty tough. However, the most commonly applied damage from weapons is Chassis damage, so it should be possible (not easy, but possible) for the PCs to send a villain into negative Chassis repeatedly until they hit system failure.
Thankfully (for the PCs), only two stock foes have the villain tag (Apostles and Boilermakers), and then the 3 main baddies in the included adventure. I wanted the main big bads to be tough to take down. That's the DM in me who gets frustrated when a party takes out the main villain too easily.
That being said, I agree it's probably too hard as written. If I do an update (and this is a game I've been meaning to get back to at some point), I would probably come up with some other solution for making the villains challenging without using the PC rules. In the interim, you could certainly house-rule this if you play and say villains must be knocked to zero on a stat X number of times before they're destroyed.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for improving the game.
Best,
TS
Got it! Thanks for the reply :)