The Big Store

The Big Store is a tabletop roleplaying games where you play confidence tricksters running a game on a greedy mark. Each of you has a job to do, building a story around the mark that entices them into deeper and deeper commitment. Finally, you bring them into the big store, make the sting and take off with your score!

About The Game

This game is for 2-5 players, and each session tells the tale of one game run on a greedy, credulous mark to separate them from their money. One player is the Manager (the GM role), who makes and plays the mark, as well as the gritty, sometimes dangerous, world around the cons. The rest play individual con artists, come together to run a game on the mark and ultimately secure their score.

The Cons & The Plan

Once you create and introduce your Cons, you come up with a general plan to get the Score from the Mark. Then each Con takes on a specific job to make the plan work:

• The Roper ropes the Mark into the con in the first stage of the game.
• The Operator tells the tale, creating the false reality around the Mark in the second stage of the game.
• The Insider takes the touch, supervising the sting to secure the Score in the third stage of the game.
• The Fixer blows 'em off, sending the Mark off without interference or blowback, in the fourth and final stage of the game.

Each game goes through the four stages of roping the Mark, telling them the tale, taking the touch and then blowing 'em off. One Con steers each stage, making the big-picture decisions about how to implement (or change) the plan. Sometimes, Cons will have multiple jobs to do, and sometimes everyone will specialize. 

Scene-to-scene play is under the broad guidance of whoever is steering that stage, but all the Cons propose and join scene, making Moves as they do so in order to gain Trust and build up the Score. The bigger the Score, the more there is to split once you take the touch; but you need to watch out how much you spend on overhead! It costs money to make money, after all.

In addition to their job, each Con also has a role to assume for the benefit of the Mark. Play into your role and you can gain the Mark's trust, but if one approach doesn't hit right, you can take it off like a costume and change into another one.

The Mark & The Manager

Without a Mark, there is no con. The Manager comes up with and plays the role of the credulous, but skeptical Mark.

• The Mark has money (or some other valuable property that can be taken away, from original Shakespeare folios to secret government documents). This is represented by a single Score number in play, which builds as the Cons convince the Mark to put up more of their valuables for the sake of the game. 
• The Mark is greedy. Never content with what they have, they are always seeking more. While it's not true that the honest can't be conned, a greedy Mark is by far the easier target. And, after all, you may be doing the world a service! 
• The Mark has a villainous flaw. How often does a virtuous person have a big pile of cash sitting around? Sure, con artists aren't necessarily great people, but part of the joy of the con is that we all know the Mark deserves it!

In addition to playing the Mark as the subject of and foil to the Cons, the Manager also:

• Introduces additional challenges and happy coincidences to hinder or help the plan.
• Fills in a seedy, dangerous world around the Cons.
• Keeps time for the imaginary viewing audience, making sure that everyone "watching" (and at the table) is in sync with the Cons as they run their game.
• Uses their Manager Moves to keep focus on the Cons and their plan, while ensuring it never goes perfectly smoothly.

In your story, the Mark and the Cons are facing off, but to keep the imaginary viewing audience invested you build on the Con’s actions, creating productive tension as their plan unfolds.

The Score

As each game of the The Big Store tells one con game story from beginning to end, it’s very suitable for one-shots. However, you can also link games together by playing the same Con, exploring their career over time. The Take you come away with at the end of each game goes into rebuilding your resources, finding new ones, gaining new stats and experience, locking in your favorite role… and, ultimately, retiring.

It’s all about the game… and how you play it!

The Download

Digital Bundle Includes:

• 60-page display-ready rulebook PDF

• Home printer-ready Con Artist playsheets and reference sheets.

The Big Store Hails from World Wide Wrestling.