Something happened that drastically changed the destiny of a small coastal town. Its exact location and the memory of what happened have been erased by time. The only trace of the events that struck the city are preserved in an archival book. The book is a collection of partially redacted artifacts, paper clippings, newspaper articles, police files.
WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?
Together we are writing a solo tabletop journaling game. In the game you play as an investigator who is trying to uncover the mysterious events that transformed the city into a ghost town. The main game prop is an archive, a collection of artifacts, made by a previous mysterious investigator.
Each participant will make one or more artifacts inspired by one of the omens. All the jam entries, the artifacts, will be gathered to make the solo game.
AFTER SUBMISSION
Please complete the following form: https://forms.gle/ThrWc3bqsjjBVWJs6
RULES
- Be kind to the rest of the community. Unless used with the intent to illustrate a positive impact avoid racism, sexual harassment/abuse, domestic violence and discrimination in your jam entries.
- The solo game will be edited once the jam is finished and shared for free on itch.
- All submissions must be free to download.
- By submitting a project to the jam you understand that it can be added to the final solo game.
- Pick an omen and write an artifact inspired by it.
- You can submit multiple artifacts in the same entry
- Entries must be between A5, one page or one spread
- All proper names (locations, people) should be redacted, as to leave the actual location of the town open for interpretation
- The omens are set in the 90s: try to stick to 90s technology & vibes
On your submission page you can add the following text:
"This artifact was created for the Artifacts of Horror Jam. Together all jam entries, the artifacts, will be gathered to make the solo game. Check the jam page for updates about the game."
Below the omens you'll find some examples of artifacts, the list is non exhaustive. The artifacts must be "flat" things that can be filed in an archival book, like clippings, articles, photographs, letters.
Sound artifacts are accepted, but they must be accompanied by transcriptions.
COMMUNITY
You can hang out with the folks who created the jam and meet other participants on The Lost Bay discord server channel #artifacts-of-horror-jam
This Jam was created collectively on The Lost Bay server by Alfred Valley | Archaeomancer/Neonrelic | Christian Platzer | Iko | Goblin Archives | Marx of High Water | Peter Eijk | Philip Jensen | STATIONS and a bunch of other fine folks. Photo by Philip Jensen.
OMEN
Select an omen from the list below, or use the Perchance Omen Oracle to randomly pick one.
Omens list in google doc, white background, here
Date | Omen |
Wednesday 31 July 1991 | Ears of human, animal, or unclassifiable origin have been found in street food meals. |
Sunday 4 August 1991 | All the letters in newspapers, magazines & billboards changed to an unknown script. No one notices. |
Thursday 8 August 1991 | The queen of clubs is missing in every deck of cards of the city. |
Wednesday 21 August 1991 | A sinkhole opens on the outskirts of town, swallowing the old dilapidated vocational school |
Sunday 25 August 1991 | All the statues in town are facing the same direction. If moved back to their original place they are found moved again the next morning |
Thursday 29 August 1991 | Ice cream truck music heard at night. |
Monday 9 September 1991 | People's shadows always precede them, wherever the light source is. |
Monday 16 September 1991 | A surprisingly large number of twins start moving into the town. |
Monday 23 September 1991 | Someone died. On the day of their death a stranger that looks exctly like them moved into town. |
Sunday 29 September 1991 | With every low tide the ocean just keeps receding further and further. Strange ruins are being uncovered in the seabed |
Wednesday 9 October 1991 | A humming sound is slowly becoming louder and louder. It has the same volume wherever you are in town |
Friday 11 October 1991 | Sleepwalking kids converge to the beach, and walk into the ocean. |
Monday 21 October 1991 | Hundreds of seagulls are lying on the beaches, apparently dead with their bellies up and wings spread. If disturbed they simply get up and fly away. |
Monday 28 October 1991 | Reclusive author posts new work for first time in local paper. |
Saturday 2 November 1991 | Teeth appear inside fruit in the local orchard |
Friday 8 November 1991 | The layout of the museum changed on its own. |
Tuesday 19 November 1991 | All human figures in pedestrian crossing signs look like they were killed |
Sunday 24 November 1991 | A slowly expanding circle of mushrooms is moving through town. No one sees it move, but every day the circle is slightly bigger. |
Tuesday 3 December 1991 | At the high school's Battle of the Bands talent show, all of the acts perform the same song, a popular 60s ballad. The singers' voices all sound the same. |
Friday 6 December 1991 | Tanned dog full skins dumped in front of the library |
Thursday 12 December 1991 | People start seeing the same mysterious figure in their dreams. |
Thursday 19 December 1991 | Herds of famished wild horses eat in garbage bins. |
Monday 30 December 1991 | The commercials on the local tv channel are referencing conspiracy theories and ancient esoteric texts, in between peddling mattresses and local sales. |
Saturday 4 January 1992 | A cappella music is heard at certain crossroads. No choir in sight. |
Wednesday 15 January 1992 | Reports of small men riding antiquated tricycles up the sides of buildings. |
Friday 17 January 1992 | Strings of white yarn lead into the woods, have no end. |
Saturday 25 January 1992 | Some folks start sweating a gelatinous blue substance. |
Monday 3 February 1992 | Groups of people wearing masks are seen digging holes. |
Wednesday 12 February 1992 | Their fire can be seen on the beach every night this week, they meet every night to dance and make offerings. The bones are left, warped and charred in the ash. |
Sunday 16 February 1992 | “One Hour Photo” shop pops into existence for one hour each day. |
Friday 21 February 1992 | Some people have been seen eating in an increasingly violent fashion, stabbing, ribbing and devouring meals. When pointing it out people just shrug it off with a grunt. |
Thursday 27 February 1992 | Local news report an alarming increasing number of kidnappings. |
Wednesday 11 March 1992 | There’s an elevator that several people have disappeared in. Police doesn’t want to investigate |
Saturday 14 March 1992 | An eclipse that lasts 72 hours. |
Saturday 21 March 1992 | Looking at a face on a photograph gives a chill, but nobody can say why. |
Monday 30 March 1992 | People disappear in the parking lot of the mall. |
Saturday 4 April 1992 | Some people are convinced that they themselves are copies who were placed in town to cover up mysterious disappearings. |
Tuesday 14 April 1992 | People’s teeth are falling out, and are growing back, again and again |
Thursday 16 April 1992 | A body is found full of hundreds of holes dripping a black tar-like substance. |
Monday 27 April 1992 | People don't recognize themselves in the mirror anymore and see their own face in random people - but to everybody else they still look like they always have |
Saturday 2 May 1992 | People staring down one particular long straight and flat road in town have been seeing a doppelgänger version of themselves. There's rumors that those doppelgängers develop a life of their own afterwards. |
Saturday 9 May 1992 | There is a new station on the radio. |
Saturday 16 May 1992 | The lighthouse goes out. No one knows how to get in |
Wednesday 27 May 1992 | Several people wake up in the morning marked by extreme sunburns. |
Tuesday 2 June 1992 | A dead and decomposing mermaid is washed to the shore. |
Wednesday 10 June 1992 | The stray cats from the city streets have gone. There are no bodies, no other signs, just gone. |
Friday 12 June 1992 | Whenever somebody laughs, other laughters are heard coming from somewhere beyond. Like a 90s sitcom. But it's real. |
Tuesday 23 June 1992 | A giant deer has been seen around town. Its antlers are twisted and massive, they seem to drip a black tar-like substance. |
Thursday 25 June 1992 | Letters start falling off newspapers, but only in such a fashion that it ultimately spells out a cry for help, just for a brief moment of time before all letters fall off. |
Wednesday 8 July 1992 | On dark moon night dogs have gathered at the feet of the most famous landmark of the town. |
Friday 10 July 1992 | Locked doors rattle throughout town, the voice of a child pleads to be let in. |
Friday 31 July 1992 | On the radio news: A Teacher was stabbed this week by students with pencils. |
POSSIBLE ARTIFACTS
(see artifact example image below)
- Cinema/concert ticket
- Business card
- Ripped diary page
- Worn out touristic attractions map
- Medical record
- Obituary
- Classified listing
- Mailer
- Church rally flyers
- Audio Cassette
- Device blueprint
- Address Book
- ID magnetic badge.
- Handwritten check
- “Have you seen me” type flyers
- Tarot card
- Photo Album
- Pawn Ticket
- Movie ticket Stub
- Mixtape
- Trading cards with scratched faces
- Journal entry from a previous investigator
- Scary TTRPG character sheet
- Sky map
- Accounting journal
- Satellite/Aerial photo
- Instruction Manual (Appliance/Home Computer/Arcade Game)
- Picture/drawing of odd foot(?)prints found in mud.
- Set of really unsettling finger(?)prints
- Medically challenging X-ray
- (Snippet of) newspaper article
- DIY punk rock show flyer
- Baseball scorecard for local little league game
- Photographic negatives and test prints
- Product flyers for new video game
- A postcard displaying unknown local location
- A blurry photo or surveillance footage
- Graffiti on a wall
- A self-published book or pamphlet
- A hand-written note on a scrap piece of paper
- Hand-written notes/commentary in the margins of a book
- Doodles
- A hand-written personal letter
- An e-mail or newsgroup posting (from the early days of the internet)
- A 911 call
- A police report
- A live radio show / listener calling in
- Insurance records
Here's an example of what an artifact could look like:
In this example we are using the omen:
"Thursday 29 august 1991 - Ice cream truck music heard at night."
(in this jam, you should select one of the pre-existing omens)
We chose to make the artifact a receipt, as the artifact list is just made as an aid, not a comprehensive list. The artifact contains clues to the date, potentially an important NPC (the server) as well as the main omen BEWARE THE MUSIC. Which is a hint to the ice cream truck music.
Submissions(71)
No submissions match your filter
