I'd also like to hear the elevator pitch for Hillfolk. That was the one that I hadn't heard of before.
Hillfolk, the first DramaSystem RPG from Robin D. Laws, gives players the experience of being in a dramatic series such as Deadwood, Carnivàle, Mad Men, and The Sopranos. The emphasis is on character relationships and emotions rather than tests of skill or combat.
"Hillfolk" is the series that the game provides, a drama of Iron Age tribal conflict. But groups can create any kind of drama they're interested in. For example, a Jane Austen book club with no prior RPG experience could easily use it to play out Regency drama using the characters from her books.
The game uses cards to determine the outcome of "procedural" scenes where the characters' skills are tested, and those are rare. There's no math during play, and some simple arithmetic in the post-game bookkeeping phase. The goal is to create an RPG that satisfies experienced gamers and people who've never played an RPG.
The game's Kickstarter resulted in the Blood on the Snow companion volume, which contains a slew of "series pitches" from several designers, including:
Jason Morningstar’s Hollywoodland, in which you play the founding figures of American film.
Kenneth Hite’s Moscow Station, drama against a backdrop of realistic cold war espionage.
Emily Care Boss' Colony Wars, taking players to Jupiter and Mars as humanity expands through the solar system.
Wolfgang Baur's Teatime for Elephants, a genteel bit of mayhem in Colonial India during the Raj.
Mark Rein•Hagen's Endure!, in which contestants and crew of a reality show are trapped alone on their island when a freak hurricane devastates the mainland...and things take a turn for the strange.
