Hide and Freak

Usually, I find the genre of role-playing games boring because of the absence of a clear competitive aspect that would be fulfilled by gamist preferences. When crafting a single-page TTRPG, I wanted to make it highly competitive, fast-paced, and engaging. Drawing from my experience, competitiveness appears when the game can be lost or won and if there is an opponent (or an opponent team) that can be defeated, like in the mafia. In my game, I decided to combine the card game and its gambling nature with role-playing to make different types of people's decisions and goals during play ‘fun.’ Namely, I wanted to focus on competitiveness (gamism), exploration (simulationism), and co-authorship (narrativism) within the mechanics of the game. 

The Hide and Freak is a role-playing game that was built based on two main activities that I put in my Magpie Book as ‘fun’: playing hide-and-seek and crafting design concepts. Hide and Freak is inspired by the known to every child game hide-and-seek and has its own authentic style displayed in the rules and the deck of playing cards accompanying the game. The game’s story also stems from a page in my visual notebook exploring the idea of joy—specifically of the definition “it hurts just as much as it’s worth.” On that page, I wrote about the joy of solo traveling, inspired by my own dream of going on a solo cruise. I have always dreamed of going by myself, attracted to the idea of living on the water and being able to visit different countries. This dream became the foundation for the world-building of Hide and Freak. The cruise ship, with all its hidden corners, reflects both the thrill and isolation of solo travel—an ideal setting for a game of survival where pleasure collides with the fear of losing everything, including your own life.

Imagine. You’re on a massive cruise ship, a dream getaway with everything you could want — casinos, bars, theaters, water slides, you name it. But things take a wild turn when a gang pulls off a huge heist, stealing half the casino’s reserve. Now, some seriously dangerous people are after them.

What is the problem? There’s nowhere to go. Two teams, the hunters and the gang members, are all stuck together in the middle of the ocean. 

So, what’s your move? Are you going to hunt or hide? Either way, you’ve got to play it smart. The ship gets to the shore in one real hour, so use the ship’s endless hiding spots, outthink your enemies, and survive the madness. 

It’s a high-stakes game of survival on the high seas. What’s your plan?

The aim of Hide and Freak is to explore how much the desire to win outweighs team spirit, to find the threshold between betrayal and rescuing by putting the player in circumstances where every taken action affects the chance of survival (whether the player will stay in the game or not). 

The tone of the game can be described as high-stakes chases through a waterslide or a desperate standoff in a neon-lit karaoke bar. It is a suspenseful survival game, but the setting naturally lends itself to moments of absurdity, which creates the tone. This aspect of the game's absurdity is also influenced by its design. The pictures drawn on the cards are absurd, hand-drawn, and funny, although both the font and the black-and-white palette give the game a brutal feel. Not only the design, but the whole narrative tone of the game exists in this dialectic between tension and humor. 

One of the most important aspects of the game is the cards. They drive the narrative of Hide and Freak and also make the game functional, allowing you to act not only in the imaginary world but also in the material world. The deck's cards are divided into two types: fully narrative cards and functional cards. Narrative cards are designed to tell a story and move the plot forward, while functional cards also involve actions to be performed within the game, such as skipping a turn or getting another person to take more cards from the deck and, therefore, putting themselves at risk. 

Note.  Screenshot of the process of the game crafting.

Regarding the presentation of the game, I decided to design my SPTTRPG as a zine, so I placed the rules using the framework for the zine medium. I also designed a deck of cards that goes as an attachment to the basic rulebook. On this page, I have uploaded all the layouts I created for printing and cutting cards and the zine. 

Creating this game was both a challenging and deeply rewarding experience. It pushed me to draw on my personal history with games, dissecting their mechanics and dynamics to craft something unique and valuable both visually and narratively. From designing how players navigate space and time to building the interplay of teams, characters, and—most crucially—cards, every element required thoughtful consideration. This process not only deepened my understanding of game design but also allowed me to explore how small aspects such as setting or character building can influence the overall experience of the game. Ultimately, this project became a belief in the potential of the game as a medium for connection and expression.