A downloadable game

Buy Now$2.00 USD or more

Text logo for The Botch. It features grungy block text in high-contrast black, white and yellow, evoking crime scene tape and high-vis safety equipment.

“In the criminal underworld, there are good days and there are bad days. Today, everyone is having a bad day.”

In The Botch, a motley collection of criminals are picking through the wreckage of a massive heist gone massively cock-eyed. There’s a fortune’s worth of diamonds flying around between the hands of even the small-timer crooks scudding around the Boss’ empire, and she’s not happy.

Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a glamourous-looking woman wearing expensive jewellery, poorly framed to the top half of her face is out of shot. 'The boss's girlfriend?' is written on the polaroid in thick marker text, as well as a note pointing to her earring with the text 'bugged?'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a young man in a suit with a neat beard, a police badge half-visible under his jacket. Scribbled on in thick marker text are the words 'record WAY too clean'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a young shirtless guy with a messenger bag strap across his body, smiling and winking at the viewer. The label 'beautiful girl hair' is scribbled on in thick marker, as well as a note pointing to his teeth reading 'caps?'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. The poorly-framed shot shows a confident-looking woman flexing her bicep at the viewer, labelled in thick marker text with 'illegal gun show'.

Meant to evoke those chaotic crime movies where everything’s going wrong, The Botch is a party game of hidden information and ridiculous messes. It’s a game about bluffing and nerve, about pulling off a con, and about grabbing the jewels and running. In The Botch, you’re going to lie, cheat and steal, and if you’re really lucky you’ll get out of this with your skin intact.

Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a smirking woman in body armour and a bulletproof vest, poorly framed so the top of her face is out of the shot. Scribbled on the polaroid are the words 'MI:8?', and a scar across the woman's nose is circled and labelled 'code?'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. The poorly-framed shot shows a bespectacled androgynous person of ambiguous ethnicity. 'Who ARE you' is written on in thick marker text, along with the scribbled notes 'wig?', 'contacts' and 'makeup' pointing to various parts of the photo.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a man looking back at something out of shot, tapping his forefingers together as if in thought. A scribbled on label reads 'the boss', and a note on the photo circles his hands and suggests 'gang sign?'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a close-up of somebody's tattooed arm and shirt, which has the word 'cryme' printed in big letters. The word is circled in marker and the polaroid is simply labelled 'deliberate?'.

The Botch is a hidden-information bluffing game designed to keep things reasonably chaotic and make it hard for players to get an overwhelming edge through experience and memorisation. It’s a game to get people intogaming, where things going embarrassingly wrong is part of the design.

The Botch contains 5 Basic roles and 5 Basic items, which are designed to be played as an entry-level stable game. As you become more comfortable with the game you can add more roles and more items, choosing from an additional 7 Advanced roles and 7 Advanced items.

Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. The very blurry shot poorly frames a fresh-faced young woman. A scribbled marker label reads 'MASTER MIND!'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a grizzled-looking woman in a beat-up hat and trenchcoat, with an bitter expression on her face. The hand-written label 'loose cannon!' is scribbled out and replaced with 'great cop'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows a woman cracking her knuckles, and probably looking menacingly at the viewer but for the top of her face being cut off by poor framing. A hand-written label reads 'bar fight' and 'cassowary'.Illustration in the style of a Polaroid photo pinned to a wall. It shows somebody revealing their poker hand to the viewer, from behind many stacks of chips, with the handwritten label 'something not right'. Upon close inspection, one can just barely see that all five cards in the hand are aces.

Rulebook

You can always find the latest version of the The Botch rulebook at our website.

Game Details

Original release date: 2015-12-23
Scope: Standalone game
Size: 26 cards (optional extras for tokens) plus quick reference sheets
Mechanics: Hidden info, bluffing
Players: 5-12 players (free for all)
Ages: Teens and older

This purchase contains only Print & Play game files—that is, the kind you print, cut and trim yourself! No physical copy is included. If you'd like to buy a hard copy instead, you can purchase a print-on-demand copy from our website (probably better if you're in Oceania) or direct from our printer, DriveThru Cards (probably better if you're in the Northern Hemisphere).

Credits

Rules, Design & Development: Talen Lee
Illustration & Character Design: Cassandra “Requine” Marshall
Editing & Docs Design: Fox Lee

Talen Thanks: Æryn, Georgia, Kes, Ross, Fox
Cass Thanks: Aaron and Talen
They both thank: Eu, Ty, Casey, Leastwise, Purr, and Hit-Parade
With extra special fictional thanks to: Havelock, Ryan, Jericho, Val, Grace, Elise, Sarah, Anna, Hannibal

More information

Purchase

Buy Now$2.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Print & Play card PDF (A4 size) 9 MB
Print & Play card PDF (US Letter size) 9 MB

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.