I ran this game for stream and had such a blast! The playbooks (or Roles) are delightfully trope-y, the gameplay is simple, and the inclusion of the Plot Twist mechanic (where certain plot points are introduced if players roll the same number on 2d6) is unique and fun! As the Director, I had a hard time picking out which plot prompt I wanted to use because all of them were so creative and narratively interesting!

I hope that others will pick up this game, as it's too good to ignore!

I unironically watch and appreciate Hallmark Channel movies (especially once Fall rolls around - it's nothing but leaves and sweaters and cocoa and snow from then on. Seriously, my TV has a HC movie on literally as I write this), but I've been increasingly disappointed in them for telling very siloed stories - they make MAYBE one or two movies in any given year that tell a story about BIPOC, I still don't think I've seen one with a disabled protagonist or love interest, and the proverbial Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name is absolutely silent.

Hometown Holidays fixes that. You want to tell a story about Queer protagonists? Awesome. Do it. You want to tell a story from the perspective of BIPOC? Rock on. You want to tell a story about disabled people deserving and finding love? Full steam ahead.

I'm not imagining this or reading this into the subtext of the game either - it says, straight up, that this game is inclusive of all races, faiths, disabilities, and sexual identities and orientations. This game goes out of its way to make people who are absolutely invisible in HC movies feel seen.

So how does it play?

1. This game is INCREDIBLY charming.

2. If you run PbtA games, everything in this game should feel like putting on a well-worn, comfortable hoodie, particularly if you've ever run or played Pasion de las Pasiones (The Friend in Hometown Holidays feels like a simpler version of La Empleada/The Employee).

3. The Director (GM) has to keep score (which feels a little odd for a TTRPG), but it does provide for introducing multiple love interests, so you could, in theory, finish your session with a very happy ending in which everyone gets a kiss from their sweetheart.

4. This is a TTRPG that you can VERY easily teach as you go, and play with the entire family. If things start going sideways at a holiday event, download this to your phone, pull up an online dice room like rollwithme.xyz, and you're off to the races and possibly stopping family drama and replacing it with fictional relationship drama.

There are a few things I'd like to see added to this game - I'd love rules for spring and summer movies (those movies usually have very different tones that the holiday movies do), and the same is true for fall movies. I'd like to see an online character keeper in Google Sheets or a comparable online spreadsheet that can be shared (players can keep their Secret Objectives off the sheet and write it down) for remote play over the Internet.

But think about that - the only issue I have with this game is that I would have liked more rules covering more movie types to tell more stores. What's here is so perfect that I just want more explicit guidance so I can tell other seasonal stories using this framework without actually having to do any of that adaptive work myself ;)

At any rate, this game is an absolute delight and a bargain at $6. You should probably check to see if any physical copies are left, because you know you need a hard copy of this as well as a digital one.

Good luck with your inn that you inherited from your aunt that's steadily losing business because it's a place where only old people go/Christmas tree lot that your dad wants you to take over next winter because he wants to retire/Winter festival that your mom, the Mayor, wants you to handle now that you're back from the nearest city of any size with a marginally relevant degree that makes it seem like you're an expert/etc.