Like substantially all games from Magpie's developers, Passing offers a really deep and moving experience for under-represented and marginalized people. But even if you strip those elements out, you have a unique and highly-engaging premise with rules and setting that thoroughly engage players regardless of their background and makes it easy for GMs to build interesting and captivating stories with their players.
If you are preparing to run Passing, you will definitely want to be sure to familiarize yourself with all of the options players have with each playbook. Each playbook offers so much depth, that the MC will have an easy time finding things to build into the story but maybe suffer from a little bit of option paralysis on where to tke the story next. Together the players will also build their Cell, the group of aliens working together in a world that hates and fears them, from its goals to its organization.
Thematically, there is so much depth, especially for a game that is technically still in development. For my group, the game plays like an inversion of the horror genre. While the player characters, shape-shifting aliens, are the horrors that everyone is afraid of - and keep in mind: all too aware of - it is the irrational fear of the world at large that creates the real horror for the player characters. The game can be played as anything from a straight-up espionage thriller to an in-depth character study with themes of identity and erasure. But the game really sings because it is built around being all of it all at once.
Magpie continues to produce games that not only push the envelope as far as what is possible in roleplaying games, but to also expand the hobby to people who would have found themselves on the outside looking in just years ago.
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