crunchy, push-your-luck tactical vampire fighting combat.

lyrical coming of age drama about birds on their first migration.

bumbling villains comically attempting a heist of a mech.

but through it all: the token bag.

token bag game jam is a 3-week tabletop roleplaying game jam hosted by amber autumn faebrooke and violet henderson focusing on the creative ludic potential of the token bag. we define a token bag game as “any game that uses drawing objects from a bag or other opaque container as a way of creating randomization.” games from arkham horror: the card game to the quacks of quedlinburg to troika have made a big splash using token bags the last few years, but we believe there is a treasure trove of unexplored design space in the mechanic. that’s where you come in.

requirements

tokens might feature numbers, words, colors, or symbols. they might be in one bag or split across several. there might be many of them or only a few. the only requirement is that the game you submit is:

• made by you
• finished during the game jam duration
• a token bag game

the rest is up to you!

prizes

token bag games are necessarily tactile games difficult to format for print and play. so, for each prize winner, we will be sending you a bag of circular wooden tokens and corresponding sticker printer paper so that you can realize your game in a material form! we won't be judging what the "best" games are - instead, we have five different awards a game can win, any of which would get you your sweet token supplies.

• best visual token design
• most innovative token mechanic
• best writing
• most original theme
• most affective core system

these categories will be judged by the two game jam cohosts. we have non-overlapping social circles, so in order to reduce bias, when someone one of us knows submits a game, the other one of us will be the one to evaluate that game. no game will receive multiple prizes, but one person may receive prizes for multiple submitted games. we will try to announce the winners within a week of the game jam closing, but it may depend how many submissions we get!

note that in order to be eligible for a prize, we need access to a free copy of your game, either through the page itself or through our emails. if you don't want to give away free copies of your game, understandably, we are happy to delete the files you send after judgement is complete, or you're welcome to submit a game to the jam without making it eligible to win a prize.

community

we lack the resources to effectively moderate a discord, but we intend to monitor the community posts actively. we encourage you to use the tag #tokenbagjam when posting about your game! we'll be checking in on that tag on twitter, bluesky, and tumblr.

for any questions, you can reach us at ambs@hamzardo.com or violethhenderson@gmail.com.

go forth

token bags can do many things. they can feel tense, they can feel satisfying, they can feel heartbreaking. they are mechanically flexible, emotionally powerful, and criminally underutilized in ttrpg design. that's why we can't wait to see what you can do with them.