I wanna hear about it! Post it here along with any WIPs!
I, uh, happen to have a heartbreaker lying around that's already formatted entirely in markdown. I look back on it less as a game and more "oh, so here's all the things I was frustrated about when trapped in the D&D ecosystem". I believe the word is "cringe". But in the spirit of the jam, here's an excerpt.
(oh god the cringe)
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# Chapter One: Core Rules
## Materials For Play
+ At least six (6) six-sided die; the more, the better
+ One (1) completed character sheet per player
+ Spare pen and paper
+ Cynicism, three (3) quarts
## The Basics
Cynic System is an all-in-one roleplaying game for two or more people and/or lizardpeople. Players take the role of fictional characters in a unique story of your own creation. You could be soldiers surviving horrors in a modern war, knights battling evil in a fantasy universe, aliens invading planets in another galaxy, stoners watching paint dry, marketers promising more than their roleplaying game can handle, or anything else you could think of. If you can think it, Cynic System can do it! Probably.
One person, designated before play, acts as **Game Master (GM)**. This special position crafts the story's setting, manages the game, and steps in as referee. They don't have a character of their own, though they can control **non-player characters (NPCs)**, or the fictional characters that the players interact with. Everyone else takes the role of a **player character (PC)**, or fictional character controlled by a player. You probably already know this if you're reading some nobody designer's rulebook, but I'm detailing the uber-basics just in case.
During play, the GM describes the scene to the players, who then describe their character's actions. The GM then describes the results of their actions. For instance:
>**Susan (GM):** "In front of you is a rickety wooden bridge, suspended with rope, crossing a deep chasm bathed in subtle moonlight."
>**Steve (Player):** "I test the bridge to see how stable it is."
>**Susan:** "How so?"
>**Steve:** "I put one foot on the bridge and try to rock it back and forth."
>**Susan:** "The bridge sways, and the wood oh-so-slightly bends under your foot."
There are no limits on what a player can attempt. However, if a PC's action requires luck or skill (remember this wording), the GM makes the player roll a six-sided die. The higher the number, the closer they get to your goal.
>**Steve:** "I'll try to cross the bridge."
>**Susan:** "Roll for it."
>**Steve:** "Uh...2? That isn't good, is it?"
>**Susan:** "No. No, it's not. You dash across the bridge as fast as possible, but the rope snaps halfway across, and you start falling into the chasm."
Because not every character has the same set of skills, each player can customize their PC with advantages and disadvantages. Advantages let you fudge the dice in your favor, while disadvantages force you to take penalties.
>**Steve:** "I grab the rope! I swing across."
>**Susan:** "Roll it."
>**Steve:** "1...but my [athletic] advantage gives me another roll!...6!"
>**Susan:** "You grab the rope as you're falling, grip it firmly, and effortlessly swing across. You now rest, feet planted against the opposite chasm wall, about twenty feet from the ledge above."
You can also gain advantages and disadvantages from your current status. Carrying a sledgehammer could let you fudge rolls to break things, but the extra weight could slow you down. And taking a bullet to the leg might slow you down.
>**Steve:** "All right, I'll use my grappling hook to get up. That'll let me roll two dice and ignore the lower roll."
>**Susan:** "Got it. Roll."
>**Steve:** "...1 and 3. So, uh, 3?"
>**Susan:** "Hmm. Not bad, but not good either. You zip up to the ledge, but you nick your arm on the hook. There's a throbbing pain, and you're now injured."
>**Steve:** "Ow."
>**Susan:** "Why didn't you take the helicopter, again?"
Cynic System is modular. That is, the GM decides ahead of time what (if any) special rules will be used. For instance, if the PCs are WWII soldiers, the GM could use a Combat Module to add depth to combat.
>**Susan:** "You hear footsteps approaching from the darkness."
>**Steve:** "I hide. What's around?"
>**Susan:** "There's some short grass and a dirt path. Nothing big enough to hide behind."
>**Steve:** "Okay, I'll dangle from the ledge."
>**Susan:** "Just to be clear, we're using Lite Stealth. I'll roll to test the enemy's perception; you'll need to roll higher then them. You're carrying yourself on the ledge, so your injury applies; you'll need to roll two dice and ignore the highest. And the enemy's aware, so they'll be rolling two dice and ignoring the lowest. Are you sure you want to-"
>**Steve:** "Yes!...2 and 1."
>**Susan:** "They got a 3 and 5. The strain on your arms forces you to groan. You can't see from your position, but you hear heavy footsteps coming closer."
>**Steve:** "I jump off and swing across the chasm with my grappling hook! ...1."
>**Susan:** "There was an attempt."
And that's the basics! There's more nuances, but if you've got some friends that know the rules, you can start playing right now!
Love to see people using this jam as an opportunity to make their first stuff!
To answer my own question, I had an idea when thinking about 36th Way to make a game with a similar 3d6 resolution method (roll each die and add them, advantage/disadvantage add dice and you pick the highest/lowest 3 to use) but without any other addition/subtraction or math scaling. That idea, combined with something from a draft from years ago where I used the highest, middle, or lowest die of 3d6 in addition to the total to get multiple results for things, is brewing into a proper system. I wrote up a quick game with ideas to test it out, and right now I’m trying to write a more generic framework for that game with as many kinds of play, sub-systems, and variations as I can think of to include for easy dropping into your own games.
(I’m also sketching out the outlines of 3 flavors of game with it in the text - heroic fantasy, gritty sci-fi, political mecha - as worked examples in the hopes that it doesn’t read like a technical manual.)
A game I call INK (short for Invocation Nano-Kanji) >> In a twilight, retro-future Japan, a secret war to control society through quasi-governmental Agents utilizing nano tattoos seethes beneath the harmonious veneer. Original content, original "rules" (or strip them and use your own), easy to learn, under 4000 words (9 pages), includes Hooks.
I was trying to come up with a concept that sparked with the Minimalist ideal instead of just omitting formatting and layout. What game necessitates this presentation, you know? So earlier today I came across a meme post about how dungeons just happen when the conditions are correct: hoard too much wealth, bam, dragons. Let your keep fall into disrepair? A necromancer will move in. Which means a kingdom is incentivized to prevent those conditions from coming about.
So my game will be the employee and operations manual for the Department of Dungeon Prevention. Basically a one-shot rpg where you make your team of field agents who will explore a structure and assess it for code violations that could result in a goblin infestation or being overrun by mimics. The spare presentation of the information is because it is an in-world bureaucratic document: these scribes aren't making something fancy, it's a government handbook.
The players make their investigators and write up their particular strengths (as well as some weaknesses in their approach that could cause them to overlook certain violations). We'll go around the table pitching issues and how they violate code and might lead to dungeonization, and other players will have to step up and either address it directly or just have to write it up. If you can't solve enough of the problems while you're there, you run the risk of the dungeon attracting adventurers, and then there's law-breaking and negligent death suits and it's just a whole mess. So the fail state of my little indie game is you'll have to play D&D in your new dungeon and take advantage of all these code violations. (I leave that last part as an exercise for the players.)
I just submitted mine into the jam! It's a short narrative dice TTRPG based on Titanfall. You play a Mech and a Pilot working through multiple missions, overcoming obstacles and growing their relationship together. It has themes of sacrifice, dependence and teamwork. I was also inspired by the latest Gundam anime to look at more mech-based stuff. It brought back the memories I had from playing Titanfall 2.
It's a pretty short game running at 4 pages. All you need to play is some dice, paper, pencils and storytelling. I plan to add community copies soon!
The jam has been pretty fun! I usually focus a lot on the layout and art of the game before I write. And I had trouble finishing games from that. So this was really refreshing.
https://cabbageheadgames.itch.io/protocol-3
I'm working on a "noir" RPG where players wager their own consequences for failure on a coin flip, working together to take down the kingpin that runs the city... and they've got a little bit of help from the devil to do it. It's an idea that's been simmering for a while, and I'm finally actually writing it up thanks to this jam.
I made a prototype for a GM-Free combat system that uses a card deck. The main idea behind it is you don't know what anyone else is holding in their hand, including the monster, so you have moves to see cards and move cards around. Once you figure out what other people have in their hand, you can do moves together for extra effects.
It hasn't been tested though, so I don't know how balanced it is. But I went ahead and published it as "in development" in case anyone who wants to take it for a spin
I'm so happy you started this jam. I just want to design systems, not focus on art
I made 666, it's a game about using 1 dice to tell a story for characters with tragic fates.
https://tigranexe.itch.io/666
My Department of Dungeon Prevention has been through its first full draft. I'll be playtesting it at least once before I submit it, but you can check it out here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ag_avKs4susShRdYH3Z_n4Zva5poGjnDmHM3jw8QzCg/...
Feel free to comment! I'm considering releasing some additional material in the form of Appendixes, like lists of code violations or new location charts, so let me know if you want to be a part of those.