Troubleseekers: Taking Back Luck from the Elites

What will you do to get your luck back? This is the moral quandary presented by Troubleseekers, a new campaign on Backerkit from the Pocketopia campaign offering a different experience.

Troubleseekers, published by the Canadian company Fool’s Moon Entertainment, is a game about fighting the man, albeit in a more fantastical approach. Players are recruited by the enigmatic Dame Fortuna, an entity of pure luck who wishes to work with them to steal their luck back from an oligarch or executive who may or may not have stolen theirs to benefit themselves and give them all the advantage of the world. While the game deals in vaguerries, its themes resonate with those who find themselves downtrodden in today’s economy, particularly those who might find a figure like Luigi Mangione enticing.

This game is unique because players do not roll dice but play blackjack, a game in which you have to beat the dealer or face the consequences. It’s a different approach to luck, but perhaps one that a skilled player can learn to manipulate, just as the “troubleseekers” do in-game.

TTRPG Insider sat down with Fool’s Moon owner Christopher "Kit" LaHaise and musical artist Bill Brouden aka Downupright to discuss Troubleseekers, its music, and the general ambience it presents.  

The interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

What is Fool’s Moon Entertainment?

LaHaise: Fool’s Moon was started in 2001 by a friend helping me publish a game I was working on (a game I never actually published). I took over the company about three years ago. And instead of the company just being for me to make my games, I thought I’d open it up to minorities and the marginalized to give them a voice.  I wanted to feature the voices of those who aren't typically heard in the role-playing community, actually get out there and get their stuff published and get their view of life and campaigns and stuff like that out there. It's one of the reasons that most of the games I'm working on deal with the underdog, the disenfranchised. That particularly inspired Troubleseekers.

When did Troubleseekers come into development?

Lahaise: I ended up in a game jam where I was challenged to make an RPG but card game themed. I thought that blackjack would be good. It’s really fast, it’s great for conflict resolution. Unfortunately, the jam demanded that the rules fit on one page and I wanted to do something more. So I went “screw it” and just went going. I liked the idea of the heist, and the idea that you’re going to try and stick it to the people who’ve been downtrodden while exploring the disparity of power between the haves and the have nots. 

I decided to represent that through luck, since these people have all the breaks. They have all the influence. Things just go their way. And because they have power, it's easy for them to get more and pull it off the rest of society. So the rest of society is going down while they're going up. And then I've always had a fascination for Dame Fortuna, so I was like, she'll be the one to recruit the people. The people go and try to stop these oligarchs.

What does stolen luck imply in this circumstance? 

LaHaise: There’s a sample character in one of the Backerkit updates we posted where we featured a promising high school football star who was injured and paralyzed, which is why he’s down on his luck. He’s been given the mission to go steal his luck back. He had everything in his pocket, and then an oligarch basically took it all away from him. So Dame Fortuna went and said “Do you want a chance for revenge? Here you go.” The game makes him as functional as others despite being wheelchair-bound, since I designed the game where players don’t have flaws, but rather “complications”, which I see as something to struggle with but that you can still live your life with.

How does Blackjack play into the game’s mechanics? 

LaHaise: So, Dame Fortuna gives every Troubleseeker a deck of cards. That deck is always with you. That deck contains a number of moves that players can use throughout a game. They’re each based off blackjack moves. For example, shuffle allows a player to blend into a crowd while “pass” lets you pick up a card and turn into an idea of whatever the player needs.

The blackjack comes in when the game master decides if you want to perform a skill challenge and challenges you to a game. Your attribute is how many cards you’re allowed to have maximum. The GM sets difficulty, which detracts from the maximum number of cards you play. Then you play your hand and the storyteller plays theirs. High hand wins. That’s it.

The use of blackjack mixes both randomness and strategy into play, as you, the player, still have to choose which abilities affect the blackjack game. For example, a power allows the player to succeed in certain circumstances if the dealer wins instead, allowing them to control circumstances as they wish.

Troubleseekers’ soundtrack is a central selling point. What got Downupright involved?

Brouden: I'm a producer of over 25 years I just released music like, like, absolute crazy. One of the people who helps coordinate Fool's Moon projects is a big fan of my work and has reached out with an offer to work on the RPG. They wanted to give Troubleseekers a very particular soundtrack. Everyone’s heard of video games having a soundtrack, but not a lot of RPGs. I read through the manuscript, and I immediately felt how those stories could be represented as an imagined movie soundtrack. All these little stories that break up rule segments bring a lot of flavor to the game. So I mixed it up with beats, chill hop, and cinematic music in the Phillip Glass style.

Thanks to LaHaise and Boulden for the interviews. You can learn more about Fool’s Moon at their website. Boulden can be found across the internet as Downupright.

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