Instructions for Payday is a GMless game for 2-4 players about unionising your factory, told as a series of paydays and events in a town running on company scrip.
It uses a children's fishing toy to simulate continuing to work while attempting to organise. The rules are intended to be simple, but easily overwhelming. Please note the safety information.
Little Gods is a tabletop role-playing game where one person is on a quest, and the remaining players are the little gods of the world, intent on meddling for their own ends.
Little Gods is a game for three to seven players, total. One player takes on the role of a mortal creature on a quest. (Figure out among yourselves who that is going to be.) Everyone else takes on the role of a minor deity, the eponymous little gods.
In terms of stuff, you need a piece of paper and a pencil, a small bag, and two tokens per player - one light, one dark. It’s important that these tokens be as physically similar as possible, except in color.
The Aster Academy burnt one year ago today. Now it is time to remember the school, the people who made it their home, and the experiences they had together. But beware: much of what you remember will be lost forever in the flames.
To play, you will need:
A light-hearted game of necromancy for 2-4 players
You and your friends play as student necromancers at a prestigious school of magic and it’s time for your final exam. After a long year of study, you get to make a new friend by raising the dead! But first, you must build a body.
Roll dice to dig through the boneyard in order to collect all the body parts needed to animate your cadaver. But beware! Wherever a group of necromancers gather, chaos ensues.
In this game the players take on the roles of several Kobolds (the folklore kind) attempting to leave a mine that the local humans are about to close down. The way is fraught with obstacles, traps, and temptations. Using a dice-less system that involves the burning of a "candle" to preform actions, you must make your way out of the darkness together or not at all...
You are a coven of witches, meeting from across the region to discuss their plans for the next few months. You want to make sure things are working towards your goals as much as possible. This happens in an almost secret fashion under the guise of conversation over tea. Each witch will attempt to guide the selection of the other’s upcoming projects to further their own goals and gain the most influence in the coming months.
The Desert Dialogues is a small roleplaying game written in the 2018 Ingenuity Alive game jam. Inspired by the joke prompt "Hot Dog Water", this game follows a group of Dogmatic Philosophers as they argue across an endless desert, trying to convince one another that only they see the truth of the world. These Dogs are watched from afar by distant Gods built from the beliefs they espouse.
Will you die embarrassed and out-argued by you fellow Dogs, or escape the desert vindicated by the Gods above?
This game is proof of concept for a mistrust exercise. I wanted to experiment with an analog game that allows players to secretly murder one another, and then turn on one another.
This game draws its mechanic from a game called "liar" I played in high school. You'll get snippy with each other, you'll doubt each other, you'll fight. You may not all survive (except Blaze, Blaze will survive.)
Have I mentioned Blaze? He's a horse. He's a horse and he's a playable character.
For 2 to 13 players. No, really.
You and your friends are sunflowers growing in a field once torn by human war. The battles are long over, but the soil your roots drink from holds the memory of blood. When the memories wash through you, you share your experiences with your friends.
Where Sunflowers Grow is a game for three to six players and can be played remotely or in person. The game requires ten unshelled sunflower seeds (or ten small slips of paper) in addition to the PDF in order to play.
Content Warning: This game contains references to violence, suffering, and death. Humans, animals, and the land are involved.
You have been called to an ancient and noble profession - clowning! At Cluck's Clown College you will learn secret clown magic, find evil and defeat it, and grow into the very best clown you can be!
Clowning is a longstanding and noble profession. A Calling, really. In this micro-game, the players take on the role of evil-vanquishing clowns making the world a safer, and more amusing, place.
Play as different subroutines of an algorithm used by a hacker. Venture into the dungeon like ‘Firewall’ to create a path from one side to the other. Encounter other subroutines, solve puzzles, and fight your way through if necessary:
Foul Play is a role-playing game for 2-4 horrible geese and one Goose Master. During this one shot the geese wreak havoc in a perfectly decent location—annoying victims, evading rivals and misusing a measure of items.
All in pursuit of some spiteful little goal: petty revenge or a juicy treasure.
A Game of Approx. 90 Minutes for 3 or More Players
Together you will play the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future as you regale the other spirits with the tale of an especially memorable sullied soul you were once sent to shepherd.
Burnbright is a 9 page one-shot storytelling rpg in which the core mechanic is blowing out a candle.
It supports both single-player and group games, and is best played in the dark.
Born of Cold is an asymmetrical and gm-less storytelling game for 2-4 players. Each of four available roles has different rules & mechanics to interact with one another and tell a compelling and hazardous tale:
each role uses different dice, moves, and mechanics to interact and affect one another to create a compelling and hazardous tale. A standard set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) can be shared and split among the group. Each role is presented as an individual PDF as well as a common file with the core rules every player should know.
Mendicant Spell Vixens is a 153 page tabletop roleplaying game about foxes breaking into ancient dungeonesque henhouses in order to steal chicken.
It's built to take maybe ten minutes to learn or teach, but also to serve up a satisfying platter of challenge and crunch in oneshots or campaigns.
Some of the big inspirations are Into The Odd, Slumbering Ursine Dunes, and Deep Carbon Observatory, but if you're used to D20 or other OSR, you'll definitely be comfortable here.
Warmer in the Winter is a tabletop roleplaying game about finding love in a cozy winter world. It is inspired by Hallmark and Lifetime style holiday romances such as The Spirit of Christmas, Let It Snow, and A Royal Christmas but the system works equally well for romantic dramedies in the vein of Gilmore Girls and Good Witch.
The game is Powered by the Apocalypse, With some inspiration drawn from teen drama Monsterhearts but filtered through a rosy, cozy lens. Warmer in the Winter is geared toward brief stories of a few sessions or even oneshots. The game contains a variety of sample side characters, locations, and scheme prompts that players can use to quickly tailor their experience or even get the creative juices flowing to craft their own cozy world with a minimum of prep time.
The River turns a game of Texas Hold'em into a narrative of survival. Instead of betting money you'll be betting pieces of a fragile life, threatened by cold and hunger. The rules are simple, most of the rules allign with Texas Hold'em asside from the betting structure and who your opponent is; Winter Itself.
Can be played with 2 to 6 players, or by yourself if you feel comfortable. Play Sessions will vary depending on your luck; average game length is under 1 hour with a longer game approaching 2 hours.
Upon hearing that their father, Bob Cratchit, would not be given Christmas Day off with pay, the typically good-spirited and Jolly children of the Cratchit house devise a scheme: one that will bring Scrooge’s miserly reign of terror to an end, one way or another. Will you seek the favor of heaven to accomplish your righteous journey, or turn to darker forces in the hopes of silencing the darkest force in the village? The choice is yours, dear children. Just be sure to return by sun up on Christmas morn!
Secluded in the darkest room of his workshop in Siberia, Ded Moroz (the true and only Father Christmas) was playing with forbidden knowledge... When he turned to the darkness for inspiration, the darkness came to him. Possessed by a powerful cosmic horror, Ded Moroz almost completely destroyed his factory and escaped, delivering gifts that fill the hearts with sheer horror. Survivors emerge from the ashes of the factory and organize into squads to recover and neutralize the cursed gifts, hoping to find Ded Moroz and put an end to the Black Christmas.
Krampus Comes at Night is a fast paced dice rolling game so simple it fits on a business card. All you'll need are the instructions, one or two 6-sided die, one 8-sided die, and one 12-sided die. It can be played in solo mode as a way to pass some time or in a group with simultaneous rolls to see who lasts the longest!
Longing For Tranquility is a one-page adventure made for Clean-Up Crew - illuminated by LUMEN!
Even if you don't have any experience with LUMEN games, Longing For Tranquility is easy to pick up and just play.
Santa's Helpers is a 3-6 player storytelling game for the whole family. Players take on the role of a Santa's Helpers, each with their own specialties. Craft, deliver, and organize your way into keeping things running smoothly for Santa so that children keep their faith in the Christmas Spirit!
THE BIG RED NEEDS YOUR HELP: You’re little elves, helpers of Santa Claus. Most of the time, you work at the factory, helping in the production of everything the Big Red needs to deliver.
But not tonight. You’re one of few members of the squadron 2412, only summoned when there is something endangering the special day.
A threat has appeared! GO! SAVE CHRISTMAS!
You are a hunter, and great beasts are threatening your village. Gather your weapon and your friends, and defend your home. Along the way, you will gather materials, craft traps and potions, and maintain your weapon, all while following the great beast's tracks.
After the Great Beast is a Breathless game inspired by the Monster Hunter franchise.
Content Warning(s): violence, hunting animals and monsters
Supplies Needed: a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20), pencils, and these rules
Game Length: 2-3 hours
SWORDS AND SHADES is a collection of one-page fantasy roleplaying games designed to tell stories about mercenaries and spirits adrift in a magical land consumed by a continent-spanning war. 1-3 players
BREATHE LIFE INTO THESE BONES
You are a skeleton.
You don’t know how long you’ve been dead. Maybe it’s been a few months and a lot of bugs ate your flesh in the woods. Maybe it’s been millennia and the flesh slowly rotted away in a tomb full of the riches you accumulated in your life.
The point is, some jackass necromancer just raised your bones back to life and you’re a reanimated skeleton. There’s not much you can do about that. But, what will you do about that necromancer?
Experience terror and hijinks as desperate bunnies run from their pursuers in a busy city, stopping only to pose for pictures and do what they're drawn to do.
Created for the Dash Jam, because what the Dash system really needed was a game about running.
