The premise is great: anthropomorphic animals try to navigate a wacky world to get to a local joint that's offering free food. The art style is very fun. The writing is clever and cute. I really appreciate everything that you put into making the game really reflect the fun, cute premise that you started with.
The gameplay is simple, maybe a little bit too simple for my taste, but I can definitely see this appealing to a crowd that's much more into roleplay than crunch. I think it does lose some of the fun of the Havoc system in the decision making that happens when you choose to allocate successes. In this game, there's only one place for successes to go, which is the current scenario's objective. Therefore, the measure of how long it takes for the scenario to be wrapped up is really just dependent on luck. Despite this, it replaces the fun of allocating successes with the fun of roleplaying a little guy in a big world trying to get some cake.
The easy scenarios seem like they'd be over quickly, so quickly in fact that I imagine most of them will be over before everyone in the party has the opportunity to have a turn, especially if you have a medium-large group. This isn't necessarily an issue, as the group will likely prioritize specific players acting if they feel their character has something fun and interesting to contribute. I would probably try to avoid using easy scenarios because if the fun is in encouraging roleplay, then I'd like for everyone to have the opportunity to act. Maybe I'd rule that an objective cannot be completed until each player has acted, but that feels arbitrary. I would probably try to find a more elegant way to convey it in game.
The only real choice in the game is the ability to crash out a single time and automatically succeed at the current scenario. I do like that crashing out changes your character and hopefully refreshes the gameplay a little bit. I could see myself crashing out not because the rolls were bad, but rather to keep things fresh as I played. I also really like the heart to heart mechanic and its implications for roleplay. I think that ruling any player can automaticaly end a scenario unilaterally may leave some folks frustrated if they don't get to participate in a scene, so again, maybe I'd rule that you can't crash out until round 2. or that crashing out gives you 4 successes instead of ending the scenario. That would mean that some progress already needs to be made before someone can crash out at least. That still feels inelegant. Maybe I'm overthinking it.
Personally, if I were to run this myself, I would probably try to work in at least a little bit more complexity to the system, but in a way that doesn't feel like it ruins the magic of what's here. Here are some thoughts I had:
- I might try to add additional objectives or even competing objectives, so players can choose between multiple options when they allocate successes. The more I think about competing objectives, the more I like it. The GM could present several options and then players can roleplay trying to get each other to pick their favorite. I think that would organically drive roleplay in a way that also lends itself to increased mechanical complexity / decision making opportunity.
- I also think that I would try to work in some form of an equipment system. Given the theme, maybe everyone gets a single kitchen gadget/utensil. If they can work it into a scene, they get +1d6. If they don't get any successes when they use it, it breaks and maybe they need to spend some successes to fix it again.
- I might give the heart to heart just a little bit more mechanical weight. Maybe each player writes down a favorite food on their character sheet at the start of the game and if they eat the food after crashing out, they can choose to unlock their true self. This would allow the rest of the group to take them on a sidequest style scenario where they go hunting for their favorite food.
- I might try to add some time pressure to scenes using the Chaos ensues mechcanic (which I love btw). Maybe another way to activate it is a clock equal to the number of successes required to complete a scenario where each failure ticks it up. If the players are failing more than they're succeeding, something bonkers happens and maybe adds a few more successes required to complete the scenario or adds a new objective they have to complete before they can finish the scenario.
Overall, I can see how this would make for a fun time goofing around with friends but also providing a decent framework to help identify success vs. failure. Even if I would like it to be just a bit more crunchy, I think it's a great game and it was very fun to read and think about.