April 29, 2012

Conventions of Genre (Points)

Genre Points are a social mechanic. Even though their benefits clearly involve the rules of the game, their origin lies in things that are not easy to define in a rules sense. Things such as good roleplaying, contributing to the game beyond the interests of their own character, and even paying up for the pizza that night. Because roleplaying is fundamentally a social activity, the default method of awarding Genre Points serves as a roleplaying aid and encourages people to play together nicely - as opposed to everyone trying to derail the game in a different direction.

From a GM's perspective, they also let you keep the field even between the entire group of PCs. You can be more generous with people who are not as naturally good at hogging the spotlight making cool scenes, and you can easily counter a party that is too powerful by getting more strict with the Genre granted to them. At the same time, Themes make it easier for you as GM to railroad get the PCs involved with the plot and each other, with the Arc structure guidelines helping you break down your master plans into manageable chunks.

That said, as a GM sometimes you have a group of experienced players who don't need or want the nudging, or you prefer to reward people according to their effort and skill, or maybe you'd rather not risk Defenses and Initiative going up much higher from normal, or perhaps do not want to actually bother with all this Arc structure crap that makes you think way too much in advance.

Those reasons, as well as many others, are good enough to consider houseruling the way that Genre works. There's as many ways to do this as there's problems that you personally have with the current model. The three houserules below are made with different kinds of games in mind, and would be a good starting point for further modifications.

Fair and Balanced
Award Genre after each Operation depending on how difficult it was, as if it were XP. Points never reset, but no longer give a bonus to Defenses or Initiative. After around 15 XP everyone gains a new Power plus a static +1 to Defenses and Initiative. This method basically erases the need to hand off and track Genre individually and to plan out Arcs in advance, otherwise it does not change much about how both work in rules terms.

Gods of War
Award Genre as normal. Points never reset, but there is a hard cap of 10 non-Temporary Genre and Points earned beyond that limit are temporary and will vanish after the end of the next Operation. For every 10 (non-Temporary) Points spent a PC gains a new Power plus a static +1 to Defenses and Initiative. This method trades the usual benefits of Arc Progression for placing them in the hands of the Players. In addition, the easy stacking of Genre will let PCs regularly resist and overpower most threats on the ground, and making short work of anything they deem threatening while out in their giant robots.

Against all Odds
Award 1 Genre per Operation, and another for remarkable roleplaying - preferably of the variety that sets a considerable setback on the PC. Meant for the harder games out there, since Genre Points only come after a victory or when PCs complicate things for themselves, and only in low amounts, it is recommended these games don't focus too much on combat and have an Operation every few Episodes instead.

Again, those are only the three I had in mind as I made this post, there's other ways that help other kinds of groups and games more out there. Genre is one of the (if not the) softest rules in the game, and you can bend it around without breaking down the game into a terrible mess, so don't be afraid to play around with it if it does not satisfy you.

April 22, 2012

Live, Monster. You belong to this World.

Since the release of first version of GGG there has been a constant amount of new content for both pilots and mecha in each update, but the majority of it is not even meant for everyday PC use, in fact the grand majority of the time only antagonists will be making use of said new content; I am obviously referring to Aberrant options.

This might not seem like such a great idea at first. I mean, the GM already has lots more toys to play with and free reign to make up more of their own if the need arises, why are you giving them more than they need while I still get to keep the same boring old guns, GGG Guy? There's several good reasons for this, but the one that most concerns Players is that of Complexity Creep.

Let me explain: Everyone likes having options, being able to choose which brand of forcefield or missile launcher you will be using makes your own robot more unique and lets you tailor it to be good at the things you care about. If your robot has a dragon head for a chest weapon then you want to use an Incinerator instead of Scattering Beam because you want more than a reserve weapon to handle crowds - you want one that roasts them all to cinders because dragon breath is too badass for a lousy +0 penetration bonus. A multitude of options lets you represent a multitude of concepts better, so the more options the better, right?

Not exactly.

The more options you have, the more time you are going to spend fidgeting over which one works best. Right now there are 14 Melee Weapons for PCs, and they all amount to more or less the same idea: Punching, stabbing, or kicking another robot. If you only have enough points left for one backup weapon in case an enemy gets too close, it can be a problem to decide which one it is that you really want. Do you go for the one that does not use energy so you can save up for your long range beams? Do you take the general use one that will eat up the space you had remaining on your arms? Do you take a big flashy finisher and change your strategy to be more of a midrange combatant?

Sure, it is easy enough when there's only three or four real options that sound reasonable for your character, but imagine that every new update adds one new Melee option. In a few months you will be staring at half a dozen separate flavors of rocket punches that all do the same thing but with only minuscule differences you have to carefully balance against each other. If you are familiar with big line tabletop Roleplaying Games (the kind that have books numbering in the tens) you should have an idea of what I am talking about.

But there is another problem with having tons of options. Every time a new option gives you an idea for how to better represent something, it is also implicitly telling you that any other way of representing it is wrong, or at least not the optimal one.

Let's say that your character concept is that of a duelist, after a talk with the GM he informs you that this is a Clarke game and it will not feature many chances for duels because throwing half a dozen Cryptids against the group would be grounds for a trial against violations to human rights. You think that is fine, you can still make use of that bit of flavor text out of the battlefield so you keep your concept. But when it comes to weapon selection for your Gear you encounter a problem: One going by the name of Dueling Blade. You originally were going to take a Beam Saber for a melee weapon, but Dueling Blade just fits the flavor of your character so much better that you grit your teeth a little and take the option that makes sense over the option you really want.

While this is not an everyday scenario, it is not at all uncommon. Because GGG is primarily an effects-based game there is already an in-built way to circumvent problems like this, but they still happen. Many will shrug and take the 'good' option anyway, or ask the GM to rebuild later - but for every person for whom this is not an issue, there is another who has no idea which option works best, or one who wasn't savvy enough to ask the GM if their choice will work out in the game, or who completely missed that sidebar about getting mid-season upgrades. These people will screw themselves through no real fault of their own.

A wealth of options is a double edged sword, one that many games written by people with far more experience than yours truly have cut themselves with, and I would rather not take my chances if I can help it. This brings me to Aberrant options once again. Why does the GM get new toys, then? Because they need them.

The GM does not just need to make one character, they need to make dozens, and many of those are entirely different from PCs conceptually to the point they need uniquely tailored mechanics. Sure, the GM could make them up, but how do they know if they got them right? It is a designer's job to make the GM's life easier, not harder - they already have it hard enough running a game for the group, after all.

Incidentally, and as an aside, the more options you provide for the PCs the higher the chances that one of them will stumble into an unbeatable combination of abilities that forces the GM's hand to ban said combo. Usually this is only noticed after it has come into play and made an impact by breaking the game in half, its damage to the fun of the overall group already done. The more options the PCs have, the harder it is for the GM to keep them all in check with fair and balanced methods, as such I do not want to enable powergamers too much.

But wait, GGG Guy, were you not saying a moment ago that more options complicates things for people and that the GM does not need to have a harder time preparing their sessions? Yes, hypothetical critical reader of mine, you would be correct that this argument appears very contradictory. If not for your observant questioning I would not be able to proceed with my already overly-long-aside and would have to resort to a silly display of talking to myself just so I can continue to elaborate. Thank you for your earnest participation.

Obligatory Ahem.

You see, options for antagonists can come in pretty much any shape or form, this gives them a lot more variety than the kind of options that PCs would be allowed to have. By providing a number of abilities that are each very distinct from the other, choosing one of them is not made harder but easier, because they don't have to distinguish between three very similar upgrades but just go for the one that does what they need.With this aside clear, we can move on to the third big reason Aberrant options exist.

I am sure you are familiar with houseruling. Every group has their own set of things they change to the ruleset for their own games, and if yours does not have any yet, then it is only a matter of time until it does. Inevitably you will want to explore some of the weirder kinds of games that can be run with GGG, maybe the game calls for everyone to have psychic powers, or you want one of the Players to play the role of recurring villain and they need some unique abilities to be a match for the rest of the group.

Aberrant abilities are there to give the GM a starting point in regards to that. They are a building foundation for the GM to either make more things like them on their own, or an excuse to take it easy and use what is already there without having to do any homework.

That said, I am not only looking forward to giving PCs a few more trinkets in the future (there are a few holes that need filling as far as concepts go), but I also don't think I will be adding too many more Aberrant Options from now on - just a few more until I'm reasonably sure that all the bases are covered.

April 15, 2012

Now Printing

Edit: There was a major error in the version linked in the original post and some minor ones. If you have version 1.2 please get version 1.21 from the link below.

Here is that one thing I promised months ago: a GGG you can print out and actually use. This required a lot of changes, mainly because the new page size means reformatting everything, but it also came with yet more improvements to the system in general. There is some new content, and I also took the chance to explain better a few things I felt were not too clear before, but the funniest thing is that even with that the book is only 204 pages long.

Well, I guess it would be funny if you're the kind of person who laughs at anything. Imagine a punchline about genitalia or airline food here. Point is, nothing too big has been changed, an update from 1.1 to 1.2 should not require you to rebuild your character, and only a few choice upgrades/weapons had their costs modified in the first place.

Linky


With no further ado, here is the changelog:

General Changes:
     -Multiple layout and redacting improvements throughout the entire book.
     -Actually printable and usable in the flesh.
Introduction:
    -Removed Derived Statistics as they caused more confusion rather than dispelling it. The typos did not help either.
Character Creation:
    -Disarm Buffed to last the rest of the Operation now.
    -Certain Coordinator Powers referring to Derived Mechanics reworded and rebalanced.
Mecha Construction:
    -Buffed Learning Computer, Mass Produced, Hidden Power and Internal G-Field.
    -Buffed Mental Link and updated it to the new version of Remote Weapons.
    -Nerfed Security Escort.
    -Buffed Sharpshooter and lowered the enhancement costs of all Exceptional Aptitudes.
    -Buffed Trick Dodges and updated after the removal of Derived Mechanics.
    -Buffed Gravagne Field.
    -Terrain Adaptability upgrades revamped and more or less boosted.
    -Buffed Potential Upgrades once again.
    -Rebalanced Transform, it now can only go into the Core but you may now have different Upgrades in the Torsos of your various Transformation Modes. Issues regarding the functionality of Costs and Maiming were clarified.
    -Remote Weapons modified, buffed considerably.
    -Conditions buffed by fixing a typo.
    -Gallant Kick made a Cost 6 finisher.
    -Heavy Machinegun made a Cost 6 repeatable use weapon.
    -Slight buff to Incinerator.
    -The use of Giga Blaster has been clarified.
    -Buffed Disturbance Cloud and Reaction Weapon.
Playing the Game:
    -You can now spend 1 Energy to move forward once with any non-Offensive Action, not just Boost.
     -Moved Terrain Rules to Playing the Game, Defensive Terrain buffed.
Running the Show:
    -Modified several Aberrant Options, and added a load of new ones.

Only one change important enough to be in red this time? Why yes. It wasn't that huge an update, though I think GGG is now shaping up to be a lot closer to its intended final form. Inevitably, things will need to be balanced further but we are getting there.

But who knows, maybe I'll end up revamping it and making a whole new edition in the future, instead of quick system updates.

April 12, 2012

Today is not even Sunday.

And yet here I am making a post, because I obviously have no respect whatsoever for structure, deadlines and myself. But fret not! The next GGG update is pretty much done and I'm only looking for potentially lethal mistakes in it right now.

In the meantime, I'm continuing this other side project thing. Which I more or less rewrote after it didn't work out as intended.

Brofessionals Draft v0.9

PC's are competing to get the least work done while making sure they can't be blamed for it.

Now with a helpful checklist of things it is supposed to be!

-Brofessionals is a competitive game about shirking responsibility.
-It is meant to be a beer and pretzels type of roleplaying game with minimal rules.
-Tone is casual and party friendly, hence the use of cards instead of dice.
-It encourages temporary cooperation and inevitable backstabbings.
-The use of d6 tables for flavor, because everyone loves tables right?
Theme and Mood
Some games are about valiant acts of heroism whose characters always aspire to rise towards greater heights, other games are about overcoming your worst flaws and the evil that men do, and then there's the games about incompetent jerks who can barely scrape by in spite of all common sense saying they shouldn't. Brofessionals is one of those last games, where slapstick is at the order of the day and disbelief is not suspended but retired altogether.

You're all horrible people and it is a wonder you get along as roommates at all, maybe you have remarkable teamplay when you need to stick together, maybe you actually really get along in spite of being at each other's throats so often, or maybe you're just so awful that no one else can tolerate you for long but each other.

Whichever it is, you don't have time to find out, because the Landlord wants the rent and they want it now. You must concoct filthy get rich quick schemes and somehow get around your own laziness to put them into action, but can you actually play nice with each other long enough to meet your goal while avoiding the landlord's terrible wrath?

Character Creation
Each PC has 3 Vices. These are things that are both descriptive of your particular brand of ineptitude but can also somehow help you during your quest for shinies. Examples of Vices are Really Into Videogames, Check Out My Abs, and I Only Listen to Underground Bands.

The GM is the Landlord and will be in charge of narrating the game and keeping track of things as normal, every Landlord has one Authority Power that strikes terror into your very heart and compels you to get your ass moving. An example Authority Power would be Trained Dobermanns. The Authority Power is how the Landlord's Wrath comes into play when he's had enough of your crap.

Tables of randomly generated Vices and Authority Powers are provided for maximum wacky hijinx potential. Said tables may or may not actually exist as of yet.

Setup
You need a deck of cards and poker chips, the Landlord should deal 3 cards to each other Player face down and 3 poker chips. These poker chips will be referred to as Effort Points.

Everyone also has two tracks called Drudgery and Blame, they both start at 0 and the Landlord should be the one noting down the increases to each as the game progresses, they may choose whether or not to inform other people of how much Drudgery and Blame they've got at their own vindictiveness.

Finally, every PC has a Secret Goal.

Goals
The PC's win condition is to be the one with the least Drudgery Points by the end of the game, and they gain Drudgery by pretending to be productive members of society and succeeding at it, all while trying not to pick up the Blame for the group's inevitable failure.

Roleplaying
Play begins as normal with any roleplaying game but with less adventuring in dungeons and more being useless goons in your apartment watching animal planet or being stoned, until the Landlord barges in and tells everyone that they better have their money ready soon, or else. At that point everyone must come up with one or more plans to raise money feeding off their own Vices while at it, because otherwise work would be like, work, man and that just won't do.

Things proceed as in any roleplaying game, the game may be freeformed without ever using conflict resolution rules until someone attempts to actually work. What passes for Work, however, may vary. The Landlord can decree that even going to the shopping mall is a difficult task, after all a PC could totally get lost on the way there, or be robbed on the way back, or they spend the money on a new TV instead of supplies they needed for a baking sale, or a goddamn meteor crashes down on their car changing the plan of action to getting the insurance people to give you the money you need.

Players should be outlandish and entertaining with their descriptions, because the more they make people laugh the more effort points they're given - from 1 to 3. Either way, at some point they will have to attempt something difficult. That's called Working and is where the cards come into play. Everyone MUST attempt to Work at least once.

Conflict Resolution
The Landlord sets the difficulty of Working by placing one or more face up cards from the deck on the table depending on the craziness of what the PC is trying to do, and the player(s) involved try to match the number in the face up card to succeed. You can add, subtract, multiply or even divide the cards you have in your hand to match the face up number. Face cards cannot be matched and are sent to the discard pile, necessitating another card to be flipped over to replace them. Whenever a Face card is revealed this way, a random event happens, if this card is the Joker then you will be the victim of the Landlord's Wrath in addition to that, you poor bastard.

Unfortunately whenever you succeed at Working, you gain a point of Drudgery because you'd much rather be playing videogames than doing any of this crap. On the plus side you now have gained money! Money has no use whatsoever by the rules of the game so I hope that was worth it.

Playing Face Cards
Face Cards cannot be used to Match, instead they are used for any of the following effects when you're in the middle of attempting work:

-Discard it to draw another card.
-Steal a random card from another player then have them steal a random card from you, the card you stole is eligible.
-Trade hands with another player.
-Cause a random event from the optional tables, according to the type of face card, flipping over a new card to Match as circumstances change.

A special case is the Joker card. The Joker cannot be played, and in fact you do not want to be the one holding it when the game ends, as it will double the amount of Drudgery you possess, as the whims of fate conspire to make you seem way more competent than you are.

Effort Points
You can spend your precious Effort Points to help you succeed at being competent. By spending 1 Effort point and handing the chip back to the GM before playing your cards you may:

-Draw 1 additional card.
-Add or substract 1 to the number you must Match.
-Make another PC lose 1 Effort Point, said Effort Points may not be spent in reaction to this. This costs 2 Effort Points.
-Passing the Buck. This costs 3 Effort Points.

You may spend Effort for the sake of others this way, if you so desire, and other people may also begin to spend Effort on whatever it is you are doing to further their own agendas in a very silly war of Passing the Buck around and playing with the number that must be Matched. You do not draw cards back to your starting hand size after using them, however, so keep in mind that you must work smart, not hard, lest you run out of Effort. If you use at least one of your Vices while you are doing this, then you gain 1 Point of Effort after succeeding.

Failure
If you cannot Match the face up cards, don't wish to spend Effort to do so, and cannot be arsed to beg others to help you out, you may Shirk Work altogether. Whenever you Shirk you gain a point of Blame, becoming an eligible scapegoat for the Landlord to elicit their terrible Wrath upon, but you are also now are facing a wholly different problem altogether. Maybe you got lost in the city, you may have been robbed of your precious possessions, or the Landlord now wants your TV as payment, or your car is a pile of useless scrap metal.

This new problem may require a new attempt at Work, which would also require the Landlord to flip over another card, one that hopefully is easier for you to Match. If you really don't want any Drudgery or blame at all, you may Pass the Buck to another Player by spending three Effort, this will get another PC of your choice involved in whatever shenanigans you are part of and force them to solve this problem for you - unless they choose to Shirk themselves.

The Secret Goal
The Secret Goal is a top-notch secret the PC knows about the Landlord and can exploit. Maybe they like to collect tea sets, or they've got an addiction they're trying to hide, or they really want to attend a recital but don't have anyone to go with. If you could obtain the item they need, or proof to blackmail them with, or arrange a way for them to do what they want, then you will have a lot of leverage to earn their favor when the game ends. If you have completed your Secret Goal, you halve your final Drudgery (rounding down), making it super unlikely for you to 'lose'.

The Landlord is well aware that they hold more power over you than you hold over them, so it will not be enough on its own, and if you are not discrete enough in fulfilling your Secret Goal other Players may become aware of it.

Card Tricks
Instead of Matching numbers as normal, you may play a Straight (of at least three cards) of the same Suit, or the mythical combo of three Sevens to succeed at Work without gaining any Drudgery and gaining three Effort Points for it. You may also combo enough cards to form the number 13, or play three Sixes you may Pass the Buck to another making them the target of terrible misfortune as destruction rains from the heavens, automatically summoning the Landlord's Wrath on them in addition to now having to deal with your crap.

The Landlord's Wrath
Eventually the Landlord will have had enough of your asinine tomfoolery and decree you've had enough time to get them their money. You don't have said Money. You don't even have enough Money to sate their bloodlust, in fact, chances are you don't have any money at all. And so one of the PCs must be the sacrificial lamb offered to the Landlord's Wrath.

Whomever has the most Blame will be chosen as the guilty party and will lose three Effort Points and gain that much Drudgery as they're forced to work for them by cleaning up the condos, give them the TV they bought in payment, be sent to jail, or suffer other form of suitable punishment. If multiple people are tied for most Blame, they suffer the Landlord's Wrath together like good partners in crime do.

The game may end at this point, or continue until the next Landlord's Wrath strikes, at the group's own discretion. Basically get to the climax and end with a bang when things stop being fun. When the game ends, the PC with the most Drudgery is agreed to be the one closest to competency and is forced to get a part time job, everyone else gets to narrate how much fun they're having now that they don't have to work any longer, except for the guy who must make money for the rest of them whose life is pain and suffering until they're inevitably fired before the next session.

Background/Secret Goals/Event Tables and Charts
Oh God so much to write, I will have to leave this for later. For Backgrounds and Secret goals they can probably be replaced by traditional GM assignment. As for random events, the idea is that every face card has its own table of random events to use.

April 1, 2012

A Brief Intermission.

While the densest bits of the new GGG edition get hammered out, I figured I would flex out my design muscles by doing something entirely on the opposite end of the spectrum as far as roleplaying is concerned. Rest assured I am not going to use this as an excuse to slack off on GGG (If I were to do that, it would have been Dota 2 back in February) and I am continuing to work on it as I also toy around with this thingie.

I do not expect this side project to take more than a month. 
He said, the week right after delaying the Print Version yet another time. 

Brofessionals
A game about slacking off, making money, and avoiding Responsibility. Inspired by Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Beavis and Butt-Head, Regular Show, and a number of other slacker-centric movies, shows, and stories. Original idea and barely recognizable mechanics stolen borrowed from Jason Quintanilla.

Premise
Some games are about valiant acts of heroism whose characters always aspire to rise towards greater heights, other games are about overcoming your worst flaws and the evil that men do, and then there's the games about incompetent jerks who can barely scrape by in spite of all common sense saying they shouldn't. Brofessionals is one of those last games.
You're all horrible people and it is a wonder you get along as roommates at all, maybe you have remarkable teamplay when you need to stick together, maybe you actually really get along in spite of being at each other's throats so often, or maybe you're just so awful that no one else can tolerate you for long but each other.
Whichever it is, you don't have time to find out, because the Landlord wants the rent and they want it now. You must concoct filthy get rich quick schemes and somehow get around your own laziness to put them into action, but can you actually play nice with each other long enough to meet your goal while avoiding the landlord's terrible wrath?

Character Creation
Each PC has 3 Vices. These are things that are both descriptive of your particular brand of ineptitude but can also somehow help you during your quest for shinies. Examples of Vices are Really Into Videogames, Check Out My Abs, and I Only Listen to Underground Bands. You are assumed to be comically inept at anything outside the range of these three Vices.
The GM is the Landlord and will be in charge of narrating the game and keeping track of things as normal, every Landlord has one Authority Power that strikes terror into your very heart and compels you to get your ass moving. An example Authority Power would be Trained Dobermanns. The Authority Power is how the Landlord's Wrath comes into play when he's had enough of your crap.
Tables of randomly generated Vices and Authority Powers are provided for maximum wacky hijinx potential. Said tables may or may not actually exist as of yet.

Setup
You need a deck of cards, the Landlord should deal 3 cards to each other Player face down. Then they note down a Panic Meter value that will measure how long the game will last, using the number of players and their own sadism as guidelines. 2-3 Panic for a group of 3-4 PCs will do.

Goals
The PC's win condition is to be the one with the most Satisfaction by the end of the game, and they gain Satisfaction points by fulfilling various criteria throughout the course of the game.
The GM's win condition is for the folks with the most Satisfaction to be tied so that there is no clear winner because they, too, are horrible vindictive people and are fed up with the PCs shenanigans.

Roleplaying
Play begins as normal with any roleplaying game but with less adventuring in dungeons and more being useless goons in your apartment watching animal planet or being stoned, until the Landlord barges in and tells everyone that they better have their money ready soon, or [i]else[/i]. At that point everyone must come up with one or more plans to raise money feeding off their own Vices while at it, because otherwise work would take effort and that just won't do.
PCs can work together as a group or go off on their own at their own discretion, then they must attempt to Work in clockwise order from the Landlord's seat.

Conflict Resolution
The Landlord sets the difficulty of Working by placing one or more face up cards from the deck on the table depending on the craziness of what the PC is trying to do, and the player(s) involved try to match the number in the face up card to succeed. You can add, substract, multiply or even divide the cards you have in your hand to match the face up number. If you cannot match the number you may draw a card or shirk Work altogether. Non-number cards cannot be matched and are sent to the discard pile.
When you draw a card or shirk, you gain 1 Responsibility as you become attached to your effort (or lack thereof) willingly or not. If you Match all the face up numbers successfully you gain Money equal to the number of face up cards and lose Responsibility equal to the number of cards you have left in your hand.
The standard difficulty is 1 faceup card for Work involving a single PC, 3 for Work involving 2 PCs, and up to 10 if everyone is cooperating in one of those bizarre alliance thingies that never work.

Cooperating
Players may announce that they're working together before the Landlord calls out either one of them, or may offer their help when the Landlord calls out another. Either way when playing as a team everyone takes turns to display at least one face up card, once everyone has done so they take their turns and may attempt to combo each other's cards as well as their own to match the face up ones. You may display more than one card if you're feeling cooperative at that point or can do so later if people don't have anything to combo with you. If people can't or don't want to combo, everyone gains 1 Responsibility and draws 1. Money earned from matching numbers goes to everyone, but Responsibility loss is tallied individually.
Afterwards the cards go into the discard pile, if the deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile back into the deck.

Progression
After everyone has attempted to Work once the Panic Meter increases by 1 and now comes the Landlord's Wrath, the Landlord should slam his fist on the table and announce so loudly for emphasis' sake. The Landlord will pick whoever has the most Responsibility as his target, if two or more PCs are tied with Responsibility, they may both bid a card from their hands and the one with the highest value is discarded, saving its owner from utter despair.
During the Landlord's Wrath the GM sets only one card face up but the victim loses access to their hand and must Match the number by revealing cards from the top of the deck one by one. If successful they lose Responsibility equal to the number of cards revealed. If they reveal a single non-number card (including the joker) they have failed, losing Money equal to the number of cards revealed and the Landlord's Wrath ends. They may shirk from the Landlord's Wrath after the first reveal at their own choice, gaining further Responsibility equal to the cards revealed.
After the Landlord's Wrath is over, the PCs with the most Money and the least Responsibility gain a point of Satisfaction and everyone resets both values back to 0. Ties will give all corresponding PCs Satisfaction.
After the Panic Meter tops off everyone must face the Landlord's Wrath individually in reverse clockwise order. This replaces the usual single victim Landlord's Wrath, and Satisfaction is only awarded after everyone has gone through it, with the winner of the game being who had the most fun whosoever has met their goal as stated in the rules.

Other Rules
Some cards have special rules. You can play them at any time you would play another card. Jacks let you shirk at no Responsibility cost. Queens let you give another PC two cards at no Responsibility cost. Kings let you flip over a new card on top of the target to replace it, and choose whether to keep it or not. A Joker is worth any number card of any suit. You may at any time replace any of these special cards by discarding it and drawing another at no Responsibility.
You can also do special combos with numbered cards. If you find yourself with three 7s or straights of the same suit (of at least three cards) you can declare a jackpot, this will pass attempts at Work and grant bonus Money equal to the number of cards paired.
If you get three 6s or can combo up a number 13, then you may have another PC be the target of terrible misfortune as destruction rains from the heavens, automatically summoning the Landlord's Wrath on them and increasing Panic by 1.

Things I Need To Think About
I have only the faintest idea how the math works out here, however it pans out I expect the 2-4 range of cards will be at a premium.
There's little roleplaying opportunities beyond narrating attempts at Work via the use of Vices and attempting to parley with the Landlord.
TABLES AND CHARTS, LEAVE NOTHING TO THE IMAGINATION. Would probably help with finding spots for Issue #2 above.
Face up non-numbered cards being shuffled back into the deck when the Landlord already doesn't have much to do bothers me.
Allowing division as an option with cards without forced rounding in one direction is probably a terrible idea.