"The Hot Seat"

	This is a game about corporate culture, with a supernatural premise to exaggerate the satire. Players take on the role of new hires at Tapewood, Scrimshaw, and Scry-Wyrm Inc. As the most profitable and prestigious corporation in the world, competition for jobs at TS&S is rabid. 

	What new hires quickly discover, however, is that TS&S owes its soaring success to shareholders who are not of this Earth. Survival at TS&S demands appeasing Those Below. That in turn demands sacrificing something of one's humanity in the process. 

	The competition only heats up once you become an employee. Sales drudges through the worst corporate daily grind imaginable but enjoys a brotherhood in their suffering that the overlords in Management and Legal can only envy. Management flaunts their incredible wealth and prestige without shame, and yet depend on the inhuman machinations of Marketing and the cold robotic calculus of Accounting for that wealth. Human Resources has eyes and ears everywhere, and only the inhumanly strong survive in the bowels of Distrbution's warehouses. Every facet of "the Company" schemes against every other unless an outside force threatens to impinge on the bottom line. Then it's all hands to battle stations as TS&S unleashes the full fury of its power in white collar warfare. 

	Fortunately, one cannot actually die in a Hot Seat game. Unfortunately, there are many things in the corporate world far worse than death. Unsatisfactory performance can lead to termination, resulting in any number of terrible consequences for the hapless former employee. Left to drool in a mental hospital with a lobotomized memory, stranded in Mexican gang territory with only a severance package and no clothes, or "picked up" by a rival corporation and….forcibly volunteered to elicit TS&S's company secrets are all possible, and much more. 

Sources of Inspiration
>Chasing the Moon (novel) by A. Lee Martinez 
>Cubicles and Careers (web series) created by Murray Triplett and Greg Johnson
>The Devil's Advocate (film) starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves
>Dogma (film) directed by Kevin Smith
>The Firm (novel) by John Grisham
>Good Omens (novel) by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel) by Douglas Adams 
>Portal and Portal 2 (games) published by Valve Corporation
>The Stanley Parable (game) designed by Davey Wreden
>Ugly Americans (television series) created by Devin Clark
>Van Helsing Ultimate Abridged (web series) produced by Team Four Star
>Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell (television series) created by Casper Kelly and Dave Willis 

Occupational Lingo
Accounting and Finance: Department responsible for track all the Company's money. Enhanced with robotics and artificial intelligence. 
application: The first stage of character creation. 
approach: A quick-fire dodge or excuse to escape the attention of a superior.
assignment: A mission or set of orders handed up from Those Below.  
associate: The base rank for a player character who has chosen a Department. 
attempt: Actions by players that involve risk with their success or failure. 
The Company: What employees call Tapewood, Scrimshaw & Scry-Wyrm Inc
*consultant: A type of player-controlled asset. An ally outside of the Company who can be called on for favours and advice. May be supernatural or mundane. 
Department: The Department of the Company to which a player belongs. 
Director: The player who controls the actions and reactions of NPCs and the Company in general. 
Distribution and Production: Department responsible for the manufacturing and shipping of everything the Company produces to sell. Enhanced with steroids and bio-chemical supplements. 
dividend: A reward given from the Company as a result of a player's actions. Loot. 
fired: When a character is lost due to a catastrophic failure. 
Hidden Agenda: The current scheme being plotted by a player's Department. A player is expected to try to work to further this goal during the game. 
hired: When a new player joins the game. 
Human Resources: Department responsible for hiring and firing as well as payroll, benefits, morale, and personal performance. Enhanced with hidden surveillance capabilities and spy networks. 
interview: Stage of character creation where the players are assigned a Department and help the Director flesh out back stories and create plot hooks. 
investment: The method by which player characters can try to increase their personal power within the Company. Built over time, with a chance for success or failure. 
Job Requirement: A set of skills and talents necessary to complete an assignment. May also be used by a player to help his chances of success when performing actions. 
leverage: A player's powers as determined by their Department. 
Management and Legal: Department responsible for overseeing all Company operations, defending the Company from outside threats, and reporting directly to Those Below. Enhanced with demonic contracts and black magic. 
Marketing and Research: Department responsible for the Company's public image, advertising, product designs, and innovations. Enhanced with forbidden science and eldritch visions. 
orientation: Stage of character creation where players learn some of their Department’s schemes and secrets. 
overhead: A type of player-controlled asset. An alley within the Company but not one of the major Departments. Maintenance, for example. May be supernatural or mundane.
partner: An avatar of one of Those Below. They walk among the supervisors as if they were one of them, but hold vastly more power. 
promotion: When a player character increases in rank within the Company as the result of an exceptional success.
restructure: When the Director of the game changes hands from one person to another. 
resume: The character sheet. 
returns: Benefits granted as the result of a successful investment.  
Sales and Support: Department responsible for generating revenue, gathering clients, and dealing with the public. Enhanced with zombification and telepathic gossip.
shareholder: One who holds stock with the Company, gaining a portion of the Company’s profits each year. Another name for Those Below.     
supervisor: A boss within a Department. Players promoted up from senior associates become supervisors. 
Tapewood, Scrimshaw & Scry-Wyrm Inc (TS&S): The most profitable corporation in the world. Beholden to dread supernatural shareholders beyond the borders of Earth. 
Those Below: The true shareholders and investors responsible for TS&S’s success. Supernatural entities who’s demands must be satisfied at the Company’s peril. 
Unpleasant Truth: A dirty secret of a Department or the Company at large. Uncovering these opens up new plot lines and areas of the corporate structure for exploration. 
Verdict: The bag or container used to hold all lots cast to fulfill an attempt. 

Basic Game Play
	Hot Seat doesn't use dice. Instead, players draw lots from a bag called the Verdict to determine the outcomes of their actions - called attempts. 
	Basic, ordinary actions are mindless and do not usually require any effort to succeed. For example, a member of Sales doesn’t need to make an attempt in order to do their basic job functions - answering phones, making sales, obtaining clients, or entering data into a computer. This is the truth of an ordinary work day. They all but finish themselves. 
	Attempts represent a character’s efforts to affect the larger corporate structure in some way. Examples include schemes to achieve a promotion, trying to become more popular, or creating a marketing presentation that will (literally) enthrall potential clients.
	A basic attempt involves four steps:
	1. The player describes his or her action, then puts one or more tokens into the Verdict.
	2. The Director responds with how someone or something attempts to thwart the player, then places one or more tokens into the Verdict.
	3. Any other players present may describe how they are attempting to assist or hinder the player making the attempt, and may then add one or more tokens to the Verdict.
	4. The player making the attempt may then choose to draw one lot or all lots from the Verdict, and the results are interpreted depending on what is drawn. 

	Game play in The Hot Seat has the potential to sum up days, weeks, or even months of activity because of this basic play structure. The plot of a Hot Seat game can follow a traditional pace, and then suddenly leap ahead or twist wildly off in a new direction. Such is life in the corporate jungle. 

Making Characters

	Making a character happens in three stages: the application, the interview, and the orientation stage. 

Application Stage: To make a Hot Seat character, a player first writes down the character's name and three Job Requirements that they feel their character is good at fulfilling. Job Requirements are talents that a character possesses which become vital to completing assignments and can also be used to grant players extra tokens during an attempt. 
	Job Requirements are fairly generic and positive descriptions like those found on any stereotypical job description: Attentive to Detail, Familiarity with the Industry, Focused, Positive Attitude, Self-Motivated, Shares Corporate Values, Strong Communication Skills, Team Player, Understands the Big Picture, Willing to Travel, Willing To Work Long Hours, and so on. 

Interview Stage: Once this is complete, the player sits down with the Director for a private interview. The purpose of the interview is to assign a player their department, flesh out the character some more, and provide the Director with some interesting information they can use against the players in the game. 
	The interview involves the Director in the role of a corporate recruiter asking the character ten questions, which the player then answers as in-character as possible. These questions can be anything the Director likes, anything at all. "What would you do if I turned you into a pink killer teddy bear?" is a perfectly legitimate question.  
	Whatever the player responds with will become official canon to this particular Hot Seat location, and part of their backstory. Responses can be as realistic or as outlandish as the player wants. A character who claims "I am the immortal son of the god-king CEO of the entire Corporation, you worthless snivelling worm!" now has that as part of his backstory, and there is nothing the Director can do about it - except use that information to wreak havoc upon the players.  
	When the interview is over, the Director shakes the player's hand and offers them a position within one of the Departments, with the rank of associate. The player marks their Department on their sheet.

Orientation Stage: Once all players have been hired and assigned to their respective Departments, it is time for the Director to reveal Hidden Agendas and Unpleasant Truths. For each Department, the Director meets with every player allied to that Department in private to divulge this information. The Director should not give away every secret, and if there is more than one player in the same Department, the Director is encouraged to give each slightly different information. 

When all orientations are complete, the game is ready to begin.     

The Departments of TS&S

	Tapewood, Scrimshaw & Scry-Wyrm is sub-divided into six Departments, each with its own area of authority and expertise. When a player is hired by a Department, they become an associate level member. This means they are expected to comply with the Departments Hidden Agenda

Accounting and Finance
“According to my calculations, your bribe will be insufficient to merit a promotion.” 
	Accounting and Finance (AF) is all about two things - numbers and profit. Since computers work so much better with numbers, why not get an edge on the competition by replacing that inefficient, inaccurate grey matter with a glittering positronic brain? That way, you can interface much faster with the various robotic minions programmed to do all that raw number crunching. 

Associates of AF have the following leverages:
>Computer Control: An extra token when trying to influence devices with computers.
>Perfect Calculations: An extra token when an attempt involves numbers. 
>Robotic Interference (Unique): If someone’s attempt is a direct threat to AF’s Hidden Agenda, or would reveal an unpleasant truth about them, you may mark a token and put it into the Verdict. If your token is drawn, you have sent a very simple robot to interfere in their attempt somehow, as described by you. 
	Likewise, if your attempt directly furthers the Hidden Agenda of your department, you may use this leverage. If you draw the marked token, you summon a simple robot to assist you in a way described by the Director. 
Approaches: My Circuits are Malfunctioning, PEBCAK Error, Exaggerated Estimation 

Distribution and Production
“Health and safety regulations be damned! It’s the holiday rush! Now move it, grunt!”
	Distribution and Production (DP) cares about speed and efficiency. And things are never moving fast enough for the DP supervisors. Human frailties like fatigue and hunger get in the way. So you just have to compensate for them by getting jacked, buzzed, swole, and slamming into beast mode. Take all the steroids you need. Pound energy drinks like water. Blend up meals of shredded protein and mass building supplements if you have to but never stop moving. 

Associates of DP have the following leverages:
>Enhanced Physique: An extra token when an attempt requires physical effort. 
>Operating Under Pressure: An extra token when an attempt has a ridiculously close deadline.  
>Logistics Mastering (Unique): If someone’s attempt is a direct threat to DP’s Hidden Agenda, or would reveal an unpleasant truth about them, you may mark a token and put it into the Verdict. If your token is drawn, you have thrown a wrench into the Company’s logistical infrastructure to stop them in some way, as described by you. 
	Likewise, if your attempt directly furthers the Hidden Agenda of your Department, you may use this leverage. If you draw the marked token, you use your understanding the the Company’s logistics to aid you in a manner described by the Director.    
Approaches: Sudden Shipment, Too Eager to Work, Look Busy

Human Resources
“We watch you because we care.”
	Human Resources (HR) is obsessed with employee satisfaction, performance, and retention. They're notorious perfectionists and keep running metrics on everything every employee does while at work through their massive network of hidden security cameras. Open door policy? Transparency? They don't need either. If you've done something wrong or even just interesting, HR will find you. 

Associates of HR have the following leverages:
>Eyes Everywhere: An extra token when an attempt involves investigative work.
>Infiltrate and Observe: An extra token when an attempt involves bluffing. 
>We Know (Unique): If someone's attempt is a direct threat to HR's Hidden Agenda, or would reveal an unpleasant truth about them, you may mark a token and put it into the Verdict. If your token is drawn, nice men in plain suits and sunglasses will do as you direct to dissuade the target from pursuing their actions. 
	Likewise, if your attempt directly furthers the Hidden Agenda of your Department, you may use this leverage. If you draw the marked token, you make use of cryptic hidden signals and messages left by fellow HR agents to aid you in some manner described by the Director. 
Approaches: Insinuation and Innuendo, They're Watching You, I'm On To Something Big

Management and Legal
“Just get them to sign here, and their fate is sealed.” 
	Management and Legal (M&L) care about riches and power. And more power. And more wealth with which to get more power. They'll do anything - anything - to get one up on not only the other Departments but each other. Even if that means selling their souls in the process. No one else has the most direct relationship with Those Below. Of course the demonic forces who aid the Company are only too happy to make side deals for individual members…for a price. 

Associates of M&L have the following leverages:
>Let's Make a Deal: Whenever an attempt involves dangerous negotiations, add a token.
>Massive Salaries and Sexy Suits: Whenever an attempt involves impressing others, add a token.
>The Fine Print(Unique): If someone's attempt is a direct threat to M&L's Hidden Agenda, or would reveal an unpleasant truth about them, you may mark a token and put it into the Verdict. If the token is drawn, your imp minions have found a tiny clause in the legalize of the Company's policies that will hinder them in a manner that you describe. 
	Likewise, if your attempt directly furthers the Hidden Agenda of your Department, you may use this leverage. If you draw the marked token, you get some useful if harrowing aid directly from Those Below as described by the Director. 
Approaches: All Part of the Plan, Toadying Up to the Man, Objection!

Marketing and Research
“Mad? Mad? Have you seen what it does to focus groups? Mwhahahaha!”
	Marketing and Research (M&R) have to know everything they can about their customers, and it's not a science, but an art. A terrible, forbidden art. For to look into the true mind of the seething, grasping, contradictory, and fickle thing that is the public is to look upon the face of madness. It takes a….special…kind of person to conduct the sort of research the Company needs to succeed. Not everyone has the strength of will to survive it. 

Associates of M&R have the following leverages:
>Forbidden Research: Add a token whenever an attempt involves determining someone's deepest desires. 
>Insane Insight: Add a token when an attempt involves the supernatural. 
>Invoke the Weirdness (Unique): If someone's attempt is a direct threat to M&R's Hidden Agenda, or would reveal an unpleasant truth about them, you may mark a token and put it into the Verdict. If the token is drawn, something strange and truly disturbing occurs to the person in a manner that you describe. 
	Likewise, if your attempt directly furthers the Hidden Agenda of your Department, you may use this leverage. If you draw the marked token, you are guided by eldtrich forces beyond your understanding or control, as described by the Director.  
Approaches: According to the Prophecy, You Cannot Fathom My Methods, Maniacal Breakdown

Sales and Support
“Must...get...more...customers....” 
	Sales and Support (S&S) is all about customer service. Of all the soul-crushing, willpower-destroying cubicle jobs in the world, this is the worst. Because that is, in fact, what it does. There's only one way to survive the endless, shambling grind of desk to watercooler to desk to car, over and over - shuck off your emotions and your independent thoughts and sell…sell…sell…

Associates of S&S have the following leverages:
>Dead Inside: Add a token whenever an attempt involves resisting discomfort of any kind.
>He Said She Said: Add a token whenever an attempt involves acting on rumours. 
>Power of the Horde (Special): If someone's attempt is a direct threat to S&S's Hidden Agenda, or would reveal an Unpleasant Truth about them, you may mark a token and put it into the Verdict. If the token is drawn, swarms and swarms of underlings get in the way of the attempt in a manner you describe.
	Likewise, if your attempt directly furthers the Hidden Agenda of your Department, you may use this leverage. If you draw the marked token, you tap into the telepathic network of your fellow shamblers to aid yourself in a manner described by the Director.  
Approaches: ASAP, Saved By the Lunch Hour, Wanted By Another Slavedriver

Game Play In-Depth

	Game play revolves around the interaction between characters of different Departments as they try to navigate the corporate world of their particular TS&R corporate world. The Director mostly serves to provide the reactions of NPCs to the players' attempts once an initial situation is set up. As play progresses, the consequences of attempts compound on one another to provide most of the game's plot.

Making Attempts
Step One: When a player describes their attempt, they are summarizing a series of events that can be accomplished in anywhere between a work day and a whole month. The Director will have to declare how much time a specific attempt will take. 
	Once the player is satisfied with the description of their attempt, they put their token or tokens into the Verdict. The number of tokens a player may select depends on a number of factors. Generally speaking, a player's attempt is made up of a single token, plus any additional tokens granted by using Job Requirements or leverage. 
	There are three types of token to chose from: Positive (+) , Negative (-) , and Strange (@). When a token is used for the first time from any area (general, leverage, or Job Requirements), the player may choose what token they want to have. 
	Afterward, however, the type of token allowed cycles between the three. Positive becomes Negative. Negative becomes Strange. Strange becomes Positive. The purpose of this is to introduce an element of strategy and resource management to the game. A player's luck will cycle between various degrees of good and bad, and he can use up his Negative tokens by hindering the actions of his rivals. 

Step Two: The Director then responds with tokens of their own. The Director's tokens are limited by the importance of the attempt. 
	>The attempt doesn't really matter to the larger plot: One token.
	>The attempt is actually important to the larger plot: Two tokens.
	>The attempt risks revealing the Hidden Agenda or an Unpleasant Truth from another 		Department, or the Company as a whole: Three tokens, one of which is marked with a 		special effect to thwart the player.

Step Three: If other players' characters are present for the attempt or wish to get involved, they summarize how they are helping or hindering the first player. They then put their tokens into the Verdict.

Step Four: The player making the attempt now has a choice. They can choose to draw all the tokens and accept the result, or they can take a greater risk and just draw one. The advantages and disadvantages are explained in the next section.

The Verdict
	The combination of all tokens taken together determines the outcome of an attempt.
>Mostly Positive: "Success!" The player who made the attempt then describes the result. 
>Mostly Negative: "Failure!" The attempt fails. The Director describes the nature of this failure. 
>Mostly Strange "Success With a Twist": The attempt still succeeds, but with a twist. The player starts to describe the result, but the Director get to add in a twist or a complication. 

>Tie: Positive/Negative: "Good News, Bad News" The Director describes the positive side of the result by answering the player's question - 'What's the good news?' Then Director then asks the player what the bad news is and the player must respond. 
>Tie: Positive/Strange: "What Will You Risk?" The Director asks the player what they're willing to risk to see their attempt succeed. Whatever the player responds with first is what is lost in some unusual or disturbing fashion. 
>Tie: Negative/Strange: "Fate's Plaything" The player's character has one of THOSE days - where stuff you wouldn't believe happens. The kind of stories you hear about on Youtube and social media. The Director takes great delight in ending the player's attempt in a highly improbable and none-too-good situation. 

	There are three other possibilities with more dramatic results. These are all described by the Director:
>All Positive "On Fire": This is as good as it gets. Pull out all the stops. Make the result truly exceptional. No result is too ridiculous. In addition, the player's character is promoted. 
>All Negative: "Crash and Burn": The player fails in spectacular fashion. They won't actually die (unless the situation is life-threatening before the attempt), but they might wish that they had. On top of it all, the player's character is fired. 
>All Strange: "The World Gets Weirder": When you deal in the supernatural, sometimes things just warp and snap. The player doesn't necessarily fail, but some law of the universe has permanently changed or flat-out broken.   

	As you can see, a player always has the option to risk it all for the chance to get a wild success. By choosing to draw just one token, the result is technically all one type. 

Promotions: When a character is promoted, their position within their Department increases from associate to senior associate. As the game progresses, the players may become junior or senior supervisors, or may even advance to Department head. Each time they gain a promotion, their base number of tokens on an attempt increases by one. So at senior associate level, the player is always adding at least two tokens. 

Getting Fired: When a character is fired, they leave the game. This should be done in spectacular fashion, as is befitting breaking bonds with the supernatural. A former HR associate might find his memory wiped and himself set up in a 1950’s style household with a new wife and children. A former M&R associate has his soul ripped from him and devolves into a serial killer who becomes an urban legend. A former DP associate takes so many chemicals that he transforms into some sort of crocodile man and is kept locked up in the Company’s basement. This is the closest thing to being killed in Hot Seat. 

Assignments: During the game, the Director will hand down assignments from supervisors complete with deadlines for their completion. If the players can work together to complete enough assignments, they may earn a promotion. 
	To complete a given assignment, the players will need to meet a certain combination of Job Requirements. If they cannot fulfill these among themselves, they may have to recruit NPCs to fill in the gaps. 
	Assignments act as plot hooks which draw the players together across Department boundaries, allowing them to learn to work together as a team in between times of rampant scheming against each other. Completed successfully, assignments will earn the players dividends - small perks given to them from the Director as a reward, such as paid sick days or preferred parking spots. These perks act as one-time-use leverages.  

Approaches: If a player’s character is confronted by a superior, such as when they fail an attempt or draw a specially marked token that thwarts them from uncovering a Hidden Agenda, they can try using one of these to escape. These can be used only once, and then they are lost until one of the following events happens: A change in management, a corporate restructuring, or a promotion. 

Investments and Returns: If a player wishes to improve a specific aspect of their character, they can do so by a process called ‘investing.’ They must describe what form this improvement takes. The Director then sets a cost, and the player can begin to invest towards the cost. To do so, the player must save up Positive tokens. Instead of reaping the benefits of drawing a Positive token, the player instead ‘stores’ the token on their resume. Once they have the necessary number, they gain the return on their investment - they can add the improvement they originally described. Note that only one Positive token can be invested per attempt. 
For example, a character might want a private office. The Director rules that this will cost 5 investment. Once the character has achieved the 5 investment, she marks ‘Private Office’ on her resume as a return. Returns function like dividends, but are not lost after one use. 

Consultants: A special form of investment. Consultants represent allies outside of the normal corporate structure that a character might call upon for aid and advice. Acquiring a consultant works the same as gaining any other investment, but with one difference - a player may opt to have one of his consultants take one of the tokens out of his Verdict instead of himself. Essentially, he can sacrifice his consultant to avoid suffering his own terrible fate. If he does so, the consultant suffers the consequences instead.