Today we’re talking a look at Trenchcoat Raccoons, a brand new TTRPG from OneShotTPK which just released a Quickstart rules guide on DriveThruRPG.

Described by designer Dean Gkane as “a chaotic heist game where you and your friends cram several easily distracted raccoons into one oversized trenchcoat and bluff your way through a world of glam horror, glittering galas, mad science, and cryptid conspiracies”, this seems, on paper, like an absolute blast. Plus, with a full campaign planned for Gamefound’s RPG Party Showcase, this is a perfect time to pick up the basic rules – which contain the “Recipe for Disaster” heist to get you started – and play your first game.

Imagine a game of D&D where you have three players each controlling the same character, making shared rolls for everything they try to do and having to combat their own individual chaotic impulses along the way. That’s kinda how this game works, with each of the three players taking the role of a criminally-minded raccoon, each with their own unique Criminal Calling (“The Sneak”, “The Brain” or “The Muscle”), and hopping into a trenchcoat (or Stack) to carry out a colourful heist.

At the beginning of each scene, one player starts on Top of the Stack and decides what the stack as a whole does. Then, when they try to complete that action, everyone in the stack rolls, resulting in a variety of combined results, from Full Success to Catastrophic Failure. Each Criminal Calling has bonuses for different types of actions, which helps them play to their strengths when they’re on top. However, should anyone in the stack roll a 1, they immediately shift to the top of the stack and have to carry out one of their Raccoon Impulses. And this is where it gets fun.

These impulses can range from getting the munchies (“sniff out a snack and take a detour mid-mission to grab a bite”), to a burst of the zoomies (“a sudden burst of energy leads to you darting through the scene in a blur”), and lead to another roll, which can result in either obtaining a Shiny or raising the Tension of the scene (or both!) Shinies can be basically anything that fits the scene, and can be used to boost rolls or, if too many are collected and held, distract the Raccoon holding them even further. Tension serves as is a ticking timer before the jig is well and truly up, and when it hits level 10 all hell breaks loose. It’s not entirely clear what that entails, but the full rulebook being released as part of the Gamefound campaign promises to flesh that side of the heist out more – although it seems fairly easy to wing it for the time being.

Honestly, it’s a fantastic idea, and the Quickstart rules provide a solid framework to build the story upon. I also love the way Dean sets up the rules of the world the game takes place in, skirting over the obvious (“when the raccoons are inside the coat, everyone sees “a person”, no matter how many tails pop out”), and ensuring that fun and humour is very much the order of the day, toning down any sort of miscue into something light and amusing rather than dangerous and damaging. Think more “scattered pastries” than “death saving throws”.

As a fledgeling D&D Dungeon Master myself, this game does seem to hinge quite significantly on the creativity, humour and improvisational abilities of the GM, so it will likely be an easier prospect for people who are wired that way (i.e. “funny people.”) That said, as long as you get four people around the table who are all invested in having a good time (rather than carrying out some brutally efficient, Hitman 47-esque mission), I feel like you’ll be alright.

You can download the Quickstart Guide HERE, and make sure you’re following the Gamefound Campaign page to get all the news as the team approach their official release.

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The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson-Adams (aka Ceej)
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