Thanks for hosting this! I've created settings and adventures before, but this will be my first game jam! I've got an idea that I've had in the back of my mind for a premise for a while, and there is a mechanic I'd like to try, so I'm going to see if I can put an ashcan version together in a week!
Title: Pro Scientia!
Theme/pitch: You're a team of science heroes, where everyone character mixes and matches a domain (temporal, cosmic, mystical, etc.) and a research area (physicist, psychologist, archaeologist, etc.).
Touchstones: Doctor Who, Fantastic Four/FF, Johnny Quest.
Goal: Create an ashcan with character creation rules, basic moves, and some story hooks.
Number of players: 3+
Session time: 1-2 hours
I'm planning to try a modification of the Apocalypse World engine, that makes it a little more similar to Forged in the Dark, Cypher, or 5e.
Basic move structure is:
ā¢ Player says what they want to do
ā¢ GM sets a difficulty number, and sets the consequences of failure. This could range from ānothingā to āyou dieā, depending on fictional positioning.
ā¢ You roll 2d6 + Mod, same as typical descendants of Apocalypse World
ā¢ If you hit the difficulty, you succeed
ā¢ If you donāt hit the difficulty, you can choose to accept one or more consequences. Each consequence adds to your roll until you hit the difficulty number
For example, say you want to rig an alien ship to explode on a timer. GM could set that difficulty at 10, and say that the consequences of failure are that you fail, and a squad of alien soldiers will be on your tail. You roll 2d6 + Mod, and get an 8. You choose two consequences: (1) the timer is shorter than you anticipated, and (2) the alien soldiers are right on top of you. This increases your result to 10.
In a way this feels a lot like Forged in the Darkās system of choosing how to mitigate the consequences of a bad roll. Not exactly the same but similar flavour.
This hits the points I like about PbtA and d20 systems:
ā¢ The player has agency; they make frequent small decisions
ā¢ The mechanics support the idea that tasks have different difficulties numerically, rather than needing new moves or GM permission when the PCs and opposition are unmatched
ā¢ Easy structure for doing ācatch-allā actions not covered by explicit moves, similar to Forged in the Dark