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So, yes, T-Minus. Liked it a lot. Eric, I don't know if you're still checking this forum but, if you are, here's some rules questions and general comments.

1. Out of interest, why is it the GM who decides everything about the setting?
2. That first example is a little dull. Firstly, I'd like to know how he finds out he's only got 8 hours to live. Some more detail might help, too. It's much less exciting than, say, the opening sections of 1984 or Brave New World.
3. Could you put in some practical details about how to use the stopwatches and account for minutes being spent? It looks as though what you have to do is start the stopwatch running, note the time at which it ends (30 minutes), and then take one minute away from that time whenever a minute is spent. Is that right?
4. Just to check, when the player fails the roll and rolls again, does he do any more narration? Or just roll as fast as he can again?
5. To clarify: when you spend a minute on a die roll, so that you succeed on a 9 or 10, and then you fail; then on the reroll, you also succeed on a 9 or 10, without having to spend an extra minute (apart from the 2 minutes you spend to reroll). Is that right?
6. Can I spend minutes on the reroll if I didn't on the original roll?
7. That example about the secretary. Wow. She reveals the names and numbers of the other three callers? Bloody hell. She's not much of a secretary.
8. What happens if a character leaves a moment early? Can he reenter?
9. I'm generally confused about how you keep tallies of minutes for everyone and what happens when someone enters a scene. When a character enters a scene, he spends five minutes. That doesn't come out of his next moment, does it? Just out of the time for the present moment. Is that right?
10. What happens if he enters after 15 minutes? Does he only get ten minutes to act - I think this is right, but could you explain exactly how this works?
11. The character who plays, say, "Who is against us?". Does he actually play a character who is against the other players?
12. Likewise, does the "Who will help us" player play a character who helps the "Why me?" character?
13. In the second part of the game, does each player continue playing the same character?
14. In Breaking The Glass, you say each subsequent use of a Stake costs 1 minute. Just to check, that's not cumulative, is it - so that the first use costs nothing, the second costs 1, the third costs 2 and so on?
15. When you say each subsequent use of a Stake costs 1 minute, from where is that minute taken? From his time in the next moment?
16. Isn't it quite likely that the How Did This Happen character won't really care about being out of the next Moment for a few minutes, so will always Break The Glass?
17. To clarify, the stakes are used in two ways: to establish facts at the end of the Moment and for Breaking The Glass. Is that right?
18. In Emotion Against Reason, does he declare the roll to be invalid after the roll or before it? What if it's been rerolled ten times?
19. In Spare Time: when you say "The amount of minutes the GM used in opposition to your rolls", is that the amount used only in the first part of the game?
20. And again, when a player can purchase Spare Time up to two times "The amount of minutes the GM used in opposition to your rolls". Is that the rolls made by that player or made by everybody?
21. When the GM opposes rolls, how should he do it? Should he always attempt to beat the players? Should he just try to provide an adequate level of challenge?
22. Do the characters always die or can they save themselves?

There you go. I hope they help. I've got some more mathematical thoughts about that dice-rolling mechanic later.

Graham

Creative and Effective Incorporation of Rules: 7

The use of time was spot on - keying the total time limit of play to the limited time of the characters - and also was ingenious, using the time as an expendable and precious resource. The use of the components is a little bit more average; solid, but I didn't find the power names (Break the Glass, Emotion Against Reason) particularly evocative in context. I'm sure, with some later work, better names for these important special abilities could be found. I did think this was a more original use of these components.

Clarity: 5

The text was largely clear given some of the tricky nature of the elements (time as both real-table-time and an expendable resource), but breaking down some of the rules into section/subsections could have helped. (It was confusing to see the conflict mechanics under the rules for the first six hours of the game.) The two different powers (Glass/Emotion) in the game should have been defined when they were first mentioned in the context of their own day, rather than separately at the end of the game; this could have given a better feel for their importance to the game as whole.

Completeness: 7

This game seems mostly complete: all the different parts of the game are largely defined, and there are some good examples given in the text. Some more examples and more guidance could help with the very open-ended natures of the game's eight questions.

Estimated Effectiveness in Play: 6

I'm not totally sold on the pacing of the game, and whether as a GM I'd properly introduce the conflicts at the right rate to match up with the 8 questions. I also am curious if the players and I would have enough to work with, riffing off the eight questions.

Also, are there any special considerations for which players take up the mantle of the two special powers? They seem to imply different responsibilties, and particularly the player with the "Emotion of Reason" ability is committed to using her power to basically keep the players thinking about the larger issues relating to their own crises. I feel unclear on what that responsibility will entail for the players, and the best way to use that in play. Perhaps examples would help, but I also am not sure if neutralizing conflicts alone is the best way to go about this.

(My judgements aside, I think your actual play probably weighs more heavily than my estimations, in regards to whether this is actually working in play!)

Swing Vote: 5

I like the very focused niche of this game, and it doesn't waste its time trying to be something else. The setting suggestions and the direction of a questions implies a sort of paranoid mysterious thriller. It didn't quite jazz *me* in particular, but it's a solid entry.

Final Score: 30/50

1) CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INCORPORATION OF RULES (1-10): 6
Feedback: I was very taken by the usage of time-as-currency in this game; the use of Glass and Emotion was not as good as it could have been. I feel unconfortable about them for a variety of reasons; Glass seems to be using the word without meaning (Emotion is much more successful in this respect, kudos), and I'm uncomfortable about giving one player a special resource-manipulation power while the others do not have their own special abilities.

2) CLARITY (1-10): 5
Feedback: Despite my fondness for the time-currency mechanic, I am still very confused by it. It seems like there are several independent currencies (real-time, minutes of life, time remaining in a moment) that are all measured in minutes and it's not always clear when which is being spent.

3) COMPLETENESS (1-10): 7
Feedback: Clarifying the currency jumble (and, in my opinion, providing each question with its own special ability) would set this game up for play nicely; for a 10, some strong scene-framing guidelines for how a Moment addresses a question and stakes appropriate for that question would be welcome. The integral rules for smaller play groups are a fine touch; it'd be a nice (but unnecesary) symmetry to include guidelines for expanding to slightly larger groups.

4) ESTIMATED EFFECTIVENESS IN PLAY (1-10): 5
Feedback: At this writing, I need some rules clarifications to make the game work, but under that I don't see any problematic currency interactions or conflicts-of-interest.

5) SWING VOTE (1-10) 7
Final Feedback: The questions in this game are a real highlight; nice work. There's one thing that would make me like this game better, and that's to change the "you die in 8 hours" situation; it grates on me! "Some event cataclysmic and life-changing for the characters happens in 8 hours" could work.

TOTAL SCORE (add items 1 through 5, above): 30