A downloadable game

Buy Now$4.99 USD or more

"We all live in our own Prisons, Brendon." 
- Coach John McGuirk

"By Hook or by Crook, or The Gilded Cage" is a smallish tabletop role-playing  game designed to simulate stories based specifically around the "gilded cage" trope. This trope is probably best exemplified by both the 1967 and 2009 versions of The Prisoner, albeit the two variants have very different takes on the concept. Basically, your protagonists are trapped in a strange but superficially pleasant and accommodating place (which can be physical, metaphysical, or something in between) by a sinister entity or organization with unclear motivations. Their goal, usually, is to escape and/or find out what the heck is going on.

This game requires two or more people to play, plus some tokens (any small thing of which there is a multitude will do, or you can just use tick-marks on paper), plus at least one ( preferably more) six sided die. Obviously, digital die rollers are totally fine too.


Buy Now$4.99 USD or more


By Hook Or by Crook, or The Gilded Cage 4 MB

Community Copies and Ally Points


Get Some Ally Points

If you're a cishet white person with an annual income of 40k or higher, you're morally obligated to purchase this game at its true cost, 50 American buckaroos, especially if you are willing to uncritically support mid level companies charging similar amounts for PDFs without providing community copies or otherwise making their games accessible to people who can't afford them. 

Your contribution will net you 100 Ally Points, applicable towards eventually getting into The Good Place or whatever the heck, and, more importantly, will add 10 community copies to the community copy pool in one fell swoop, so that this game can be accessible to as many humans as possible and I can still eat, drink, and survive. 

Claim A Community Copy

If you're a member of a marginalized community and can't currently afford or justify purchasing a copy of this game (but would still like one), please feel free to grab a community copy from here. That's what they're for, no questions asked, no strings attached, pure honor system. 

Every time someone buys the game at full price a new community copy gets added to the pool. Every time someone buys a game and leaves a tip, 2 community copies get added to the pool.

Download demo

PC / Subject Character Sheet 23 kB
GM / System Character Sheet 27 kB