InSpectres, by Memento Mori Theatricks, is an 80-page paperback RPG that is fun and easy to play. It revolves around the employees of a startup franchise of the nationwide business called "InSpectres". Essentially it's like a cross between "Ghostbusters" and a reality-TV show, taking place in a world where the supernatural exists, but is usually more annoying or embarrassing than really scary.
Characters are simple. They have four skills (Academics, Athletics, Technology and Contacts) and a Talent (Computers, Football Player, Ninja Training, whatever). The skills are rated in dice (d6s) and if your Talent applies (or you can make it apply) then you get an extra die. That's it, except for Cool, whichs is a sort of pool that helps you avoid Stress.
Then, when the characters are made, a couple of minutes are put into the "exrta" character, the franchise itself. This is a chance to discuss what your offices are like, uniforms, transporation, etc. Is your business a sleek, efficient place, cobbled together like in "Ghostbusters" or are you working out of your garage?
Next, the GM comes up with (or randomly rolls) a client and has them contact the PCs with a problem (Example roll: An "angry" "city worker" comes to you about "strange weather" over a "residential area". Throw in a few details and go!) What about the backstory? What's actually going on? Well, in an attempt to avoid the thing where the PCs follow the GM around uselessly while he doles out "clues", this game lets the PCs determine what's really going on. Here's how.
The GM assigns a "franchise dice" goal to the mission, say 10 for a franchise that's just starting out. Now, in order to "solve" the case, the players need to accumulate 10 franchise dice. How do they get those? Well, when the PCs try to accomplish something (researching the problem or trying to trap the goblin in a box or what have you) they roll their skill dice and check the highest number. If it's a 4, 5 or 6 it's a success, and the player gets to make up something about his success. He decides what he finds in his research, he determines how the goblin reacts to being captured. If the roll is a 5 or 6, he also gains franchise dice. Once they've got enough franchise dice, then they know that they the case is ready to be closed and they can tie things up. Rolling a 1, 2 or 3 is bad, of course. You fail, and the GM tells you what happens, though he may accept some suggestions for you.
The franchise dice are the "money" of the game. Your franchise has dice assigned to the bank, gym member ship, library card and corporate credit card. These tend to get used up during the game, and need to be replenished with the dice you earn from a mission. Extra dice can be used to increase those cards. They can also be used to pay for "vacation" time, which undoes all of the stress from the job.
Being hurt, frightened, irritated or inconvenienced forces you to roll a few stress dice. Depending on how you roll, you'll take penalties to your skills that last until you take vacation time. However, if you roll reallly well on a stress test, it shows just how cool you are under pressure, and you get Cool dice. Cool dice not only make it less likely for you to get stressed further, they can also be used to remove stress or to augment any skill roll.
While the game stresses that you should endeavor to play "normal", relatively well adjusted people, there is the option for one player (and only one per game/session) to play a "weird" character, like a mage or a vampire or maybe "Slimer" or something. They don't get a Talent, but they can have lots of Cool dice because, let's face it, playing a vampire slayer or werewolf is very cool.
Ok, that's "Ghostbusters" but what about "reality-TV"? Well, it's assumed that all of these interactions are being recorded, and at any time (well, only one per scene) a player can cut to a secluded room with a comfortable chair where his character talks to the players about the other characters, about past events, or about "past" events that haven't actually happened yet. These are called "Confessionals". Kind of like those little scene in "The Office" or "Big Brother" where the person talks directly to the viewing audience. If you talk about something that hasn't happened yet, then the players will have to try to see to it that what you're refering to happens later on. If you talk about a character, you can assign them a personality trait, like "flirtatious" or "clumsy" or "smart". The other player doesn't have to adhere to that, but if he roleplays that trait, he gets a bonus franchise die after the mission is over. After a while, your character will grow in an organic fashion and be a very interesting character to play.
While characters don't really get any more "powerful", their franchise can grow (giving them more dice in the bank, etc) which makes them more successful, though the missions get tougher as well, so it evens out.
This is a quick, fun and often funny game that takes advantage of creative players. It's a great "pick-up" game that's easy to set up and run on short notice. It's also a pretty nice "gateway" game. You could play this with some of your non-gaming friends or even your mom. It's also pretty easy to tweak the feel of the game, since how things feel is really just controlled by how the players describe them. Go less funny and lower-tech and you've got an easy "Chthulhu" type game, for instance.
Hmm. I should try to get my wife to play this. If I can, it will be $20 US well spent. :)