“We live in capitalism,” said Le Guin, “Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” It’s up to us, as games makers, to help people envision alternatives to how we live now, how we can build a better world.

DEADLINE EXTENSION: JAM ENDS ON SEPT 22 2025

TTRPGs are a fantastic way to build community and bring solace in harrowing times. Many of us, all over the world, are going through difficult and anxious days. With the community at The Lost Bay server we’ve decided to host this jam as a space for the indie TTRPG scene to come together and imagine a better future.

The jam lasts until summer solstice on June 21st 2025. During the jam you’re invited to craft TTRPG material: a game, an adventure, a setting, a player handout, something, anything!

The jam is open to any system and any kind of game, as long as you follow the rules and guidelines below. You can write about goblin revolutions, post-apocalyptic house-builders, space fantasy maintainers of intergalactic love streams or anything else you can imagine.

If you’re looking for friends and collaborators, folks to share your visions of a new brighter world and RPG project, jump on The Lost Bay server. During the jam various public events will be held, such as online/IRL workshops, game sessions. Subscribe to The Dispatch newsletter to get news about the jam.

Thumbnail and banner art by Roque Romero

RULES

• Create a tabletop role-playing zine/game/supplement about Building a better world.
• Please consider making your work accessible, by at least uploading a text file version. Check Make Accessible TTRPGs! For more information about accessibility and RPGs.
• You're free to charge for your submissions if you want, but for the sake of building a more welcoming community consider offering a free version: snippet, demo or Community Copy.
• Submissions may be in any language but please add to the entry page a short description in English for accessibility purposes.\
• Submissions may include work that critiques oppressive and bigoted powers.
• Your product must have appropriate content warnings.
• No submissions may include AI generated content, art, text or otherwise.
• No submissions may include NFTs.
• No submissions may include hate speech or bigoted speech towards minorities or marginalized identities.

You may add to your submission one of the official jam logos. If you do so, be sure to add a credit line: Logo: Roque Romero. Adding jam logos is totally optional.

WHO

This jam is organised by the community of The Lost Bay Studio discord server.

RESOURCES

Building a Better World Game Jam

SRDs

System Reference Documents AKA cool games you can hack

• https://tunnelgoons.com/srd Tunnel Goons is a simple table-top role-playing game. It's a light weight 2d6 system that can be applied to many different genres and settings.
• https://fari-rpgs.itch.io/breathless-srd The Breathless SRD is a creation toolkit that helps you design a game where every mechanic ever-increasingly rises the tension until the characters are forced to suffer dangerous consequences.
• PUSH SRD https://capacle.itch.io/push A story-driven, stat-free system for games that want lots of action without a lot of number crunching. Built on an easy to grasp push-your-luck mechanism.
• CHARGE SRD https://fari-rpgs.itch.io/charge-srd What if Forged in The Dark was super lightweight? You’d get something that looks like this. Players can explore and challenge an existing world, instead of building one around themselves.
• Second Guess SRD https://gamenomicon.itch.io/second-guess-system-srd If you have 1d20, 1d6, and want to write a profoundly weird one-page solo game, the Second Guess system was written for you.
• Caltrop Core https://titanomachyrpg.itch.io/caltropcore When you need bare-bones elegance, it doesn’t get more condensed than “roll 1d4 to determine degrees of success and failure.”
• A more complex version of Caltrop Core: https://titanomachyrpg.itch.io/ccex
• PASSKEY SRD https://penflower-ink.itch.io/passkey-srd This system allows players to choose between spending points and testing their luck to achieve varying degrees of success. Great for strictly narrative games. (Known for Stravagante!)

Making Zines: how to’s & tutorials

• Making An RPG Zine Start To Finish By the great Nate Treme (Highland Paranormal Society
• https://shoutingcrow.itch.io/make-your-own-zine There are three issues of PIY available for free, and all three are extremely relevant to zine making.This one happens to have “zine” in the title. All three are linked on this page.
• How to photobash art for your zines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYrUzzS8SnE
• Free art for your zines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=002DLqLko00 
• Making a zine from start to finish by Nate Treme Making An RPG Zine Start To Finish
• Dungeon Mapping in Procreate Dungeon Mapping in Procreate
• Making an HTML Dungeon (and upload it to itch) Making an HTML Dungeon

Free zine-making app

• Electric Zine Maker  https://alienmelon.itch.io/electric-zine-maker

Writing roleplaying games

• https://the-lost-bay.itch.io/make-accessible-ttrpgs A guide to making accessible tabletop roleplaying games
• https://exeuntpress.itch.io/adventure Written by the author of Skeleton Code Machine, ADVENTURE! covers the essential TTRPG adventure-making elements such as hooks, encounters, maps, and NPCs.
• https://dungeons.hismajestytheworm.games/ Designing Dungeons Course

Solarpunk and Climate Games

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aBx1_jj-aVBcID0X1ouqQz8RuopNVvx8GSpXsg63cq8/edit?usp=sharing alxd’s main resource doc
• https://alxd.org/notes-towards-a-solarpunk-game-design-overview.html - analysis of climate games in TTRPG, video, card and board games
• https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts - a podcast for writers and game designers with realistic and positive climate stories, 15 minutes an episode, with a community and a tension already set up