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That sounds super adorable! Yeah, feel free to do this. If it brings some joy to folks out there, I am 100% for that. :) Sorry I didn't see this earlier, itch is really bad about giving me notifications. lol

The ranks are the suggested order to run the scenes between the characters in any given round. So if you have 2, 4 and 5 for ranks, then you would run Rank 2 first, rank 4 second and rank 5 last before moving to the next round.

This is just a suggestion, however, and you can run them in any order you like for that round. Just note the ranks change from round to round, and depending on which character types you include, of course.

Let me know if that helps!

There was a jenga-less way to play Star Crossed a few years ago that just required a D20 roll. You write out each number, 1 through 20, on a sheet of paper, and when asked to pull a block, you roll the d20 instead. If you hit the same number 4 or 5 times (I think it was 5?), the tower falls.

I'm not sure how that would work with holding onto the blocks for later, though... Just thinking off the top of my head, to modify this, roll a d20 for every pull, and another d20 for every placement, then when the same number comes up 10 times, the tower would fall. Which would work like this:

Player A got Player B to complete a 3 Pull goal.

Player A rolls 1d20 to start the attack and records the result on the sheet and marks that they now have one more block in their hand.

Player B rolls 2d20 three times to defend and records the result of each die.

The next time Player A wishes to have their reserve block added to the tower by another player, that player rolls 1d20 and records the number on the sheet, and Player A records that they no longer have that reserve block.

This should give you a similar tension once a number approaches 8 rolls in a round. Even more tension with each roll if a number is at 9.

Let me know if you end up trying this out. I'd be very curious if it works well.

Thanks for reaching out!

This game has changed my mind on what journal games are all about! One part LARP, one part solo RPG, one part writing exercise, with a dash of culinary delight and extremely good retrospective thinking makes this a delicious game that you really should try out.

Also, if you know Victoria at all, you will know that this game is Victoria on paper, and it's delightful to see her passion expressed in this form. 😁

I know I plan to give this a try as soon as I'm able to entertain company again!

I just released my first game a few days ago! Our Final Gathering: The Dreaded Reflections of the Immortal Soul is a tabletop RPG game that uses a tumbling tower (a Jenga tower or equivalent) as its main mechanic. You play as the last 2-4 remaining Highlander-esque immortals who have agreed to fight one another until only one survives. It combines the tower building tension of RPGs like Dread with the flashback style competitive storytelling of RPGs like Reflections.

The game starts out in a 1980's abandoned warehouse, but the game itself is told via flashbacks to different moments in your character's past lives throughout the multiple centuries they've been alive, showing how your lives had intertwined throughout history. To play the game, first you will select your character's playbook, which determine the type of stories you'll be telling during the session. During each of these flashbacks, you'll select goals to achieve, and if someone completes a goal for you, they have to pull bricks at the end of the scene equal to the difficulty level of the goal you set. You also get to pull and keep a brick to give to any other player to place onto the tower for you before their first pull. The pulling of these bricks represents the tension of the fight, where each brick is you trying to defend against your attacker's blade.

If the tower falls while you are trying to pull or place bricks, then your character dies in the present to the player's character who forced you to touch the tower in the first place. At that point, your reserve bricks passes to the player who's character killed yours, and any secrets you've accrued throughout the centuries also passes to them, representing your power and your knowledge passing from one immortal to the other. You also have the option to push the tower over yourself  where you get to choose to either give up your power willingly to the other player and become mortal, or allow them to kill you honorably after a special one on one scene that takes place at a time where you would feel redeemed in the other character's eyes. Once this is all taken care of, the tower is built back up and then set to the amount of players left.

Play then continues until only one player remains. The longer the tower stands, the more you will find out about the history of these characters. Play is designed to be intense and serious, but don't let that stop you from adding levity to the game to break the tension.

If this interests you, definitely check it out here: https://lordneptune.itch.io/our-final-gathering. I have copies for sale at $15, but for every copy sold, I'll be adding community copies to the stack for anyone to grab, no questions asked. If you can't afford the game, feel free to grab a copy from the stack, but once they are gone, they're gone until someone else buys a copy.

I had a blast watching this played at AcadeCon 2019 earlier this month, so I really hope you enjoy what it has to offer!