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The holiday season is in full swing, which can only mean one thing: cheesy holiday rom-coms are back. Hallmark invented the form, Richard Curtis stole the throne with Love Actually, and Netflix is hot on their heels with cultural moments like the sexy-snowman movie Hot Frosty. But no one knows how to make a better holiday-themed romantic comedy than a couple of friends who’ve had an eggnog or two. With Nick Tourville’s tabletop role-playing game Hometown Holiday, you can make a made-for-TV movie plot any writer’s room would envy.
Just like a tabletop game, the iconic rom-com is both formulaic and campy, so even the most absurd plot points (like a magic scarf that turns a snowman into a beautiful love interest) fit into a snowy suspension of disbelief. Hometown Holiday streamlines those tropes into a rules-lite game geared toward beginners who know little about TTRPGs, but a lot about being a busy businessperson finding love and holiday cheer.
Hometown Holiday asks players to take on one of six genre archetypes, like Married To My Job, Holiday Spirit, Dating A Jerk, and Cool Single Parent. Each archetype comes with a choice of two special skills that offer narrative hooks, like owning a local business or having non-denominational holiday magic.
Each player also has three stats to modify their rolls during play. Those are, of course, Sweaters, Cocoa, and Cheer. Each archetype also comes with secret objectives, which provide characters an overarching motivation, and let the players gain points. While a win state isn’t exactly traditional in most role-playing games, Hometown Holiday has one, just like any other romantic comedy: To win the game, you have to woo your movie’s main love interest into giving you a single chaste kiss before the story ends.
