What is the Grit System?

The Grit System is a story-forward, player-empowering rules set for TTRPGs. The Grit System drives Stillfleet (as heard on Worlds Beyond Number and Fun City), Blister Critters, Danse Macabre: Medieval Horror Roleplaying, PICARO!, The Sometimes Kingdom, ULTRADELVE, and other games in development.

This jam is open to all game designers and offers prizes. The goal is to have fun exploring the Grit System together! Thanks to Plus One Experience for helping us get the word out.

What can I make for the jam?

New rules for the Grit System or whole new Grit-powered games

• Get the Grit System: System Reference Document (SRD, free) >
• Check out this new game—Michael J. Cohen’s Dungeon Divers (high fantasy) >
• Explore the draft Dreamtime rules using playing cards (dream/Surreal) >
• This remix of Borough Bound’s rogue-like Sootwyn Barrow uses the system (high fantasy) >
  
• This Grit System one-shot game, Battlefellaz, uses playing cards (modern/political) >

Adventures or other materials for existing Grit System games by the Stillfleet Studio

• The Critter City Crawl Jam generated lots of fun third-party settings for Blister Critters (modern/cartoon) >

Is there a third-party license?

Yes, and our third-party licenses are chill! TL;DR, just add a logo and a credit line, and you’re good to make your own free or commercial content using the system (including for existing games).

The rules

• You must use one of the third-party licenses for the Grit System itself or an existing Grit System game (they are chill, see link above)
• You can submit entries of any length—one page is fine!
• No generative AI—don’t do it!
• No hate—no fascism, homophobia, misogyny, racism, transphobia, etc.
• We make physical games (TTRPGs), but if you want to make a video game using our system, that’s extremely cool! We’ll be curious to see the results

How will this jam be judged?

Special guest judges from the indie TTRPG community will read all entries and award prizes. The guest judges are:

• Lauren Bilanko
• Kayla Dice
• Daniel Kwan
• Sam Sorensen
• Arthur Wells

The prize categories are:

• Best new Grit System power – Prize: any 1 Stillfleet Studio digital product + shout-out
• Weirdest new item using the Grit System – Prize: any 1 Stillfleet Studio digital product + shout-out
• Best character sheet design – Prize: any 1 Stillfleet Studio digital product + shout-outa
• Most useful mechanical addition to the Grit System – Prize: any 1 Stillfleet Studio digital product + shout-out
• Best visual design – Prize: $25 cash + every Stillfleet Studio game digital core rulebook + shout-out
• Most creative writing – Prize: $25 cash + every Stillfleet Studio game digital core rulebook + shout-out
• Best overall entry – Prize: $50 cash + publication offer of an official physical/digital zine version of the entry (up to 24 pages, A5) + every Stillfleet Studio game digital core rulebook + shout-out

Can you summarize the Grit System for a newcomer?

The basics:

• Each player character has scores (stats) represented by different types of dice
• Players roll 6 or above to succeed on checks (difficult things they want to do)
• Characters’ vitals are a “pool” split into grit (GRT) and health (HEA), or grit (GRT) and a smaller number of wounds (WND)
• Grit can be burned (used) to boost dice rolls (improve them) and to use special powers

Key features:

• Fast to learn, fast to play – Your scores are dice, and the math—when needed—is simple. There’s no barrier to diving in. We think of the system as “medium-crunch”: good at simulating lots of high-stakes situations, but not complicated, bogged down by constant arithmetic
• Narrative-focused – Your powers often have immediate narrative effects: they just happen, no need to roll! Moreover, the ability to boost rolls by burning points called grit allows for big swings. You, the player, have a lot of authority over the story
• Naturally epic – The ranges rolled—typically, from a d6 to a d12—are satisfyingly different, yet unified in that success and failure feel fair, since they’re tied to the scores’ sizes and whether or not you boost a given roll
• Player-empowering – Immediate power effects and the ability to boost rolls are formidable tools for players. How will you burn your grit?
• Highly extensible – Because scores are dice, and because powers are unique, it’s easy and fun to add to—or hack apart—the system

What kinds of games have been made using the Grit System?

What kinds of games have not been made?

Below are genres and settings that the existing Grit System games don’t cover. We’d love to see new games exploring them. You can also make new games or hacks of games in genres and settings we have explored. That is cool, too!

Genre and setting thoughtstarters

• Alt history outside of the late medieval and early modern (iron age, industrial revolution, mid-twentieth century)
• Anticolonial steampunk
• Anticolonial western
• Art theft
• Comedy-themed (late show, stand-up)
• Cyberpunk
• Dieselpunk (Mad Max)
• Dinopunk (Dino-Riders, Torg, Turok)
• Horror (A24, final person/slasher, gore)
• JRPG
• Music-themed (you’re the band)
• Mycopunk (oops, all fungi)
• Paleo (early hominins)
• Racing
• Romance (paperback, serious, telenovela, vampires)
• Space opera
• Sportsball
• Time travel
• Upstairs/downstairs (but rooting for the downstairs, please)

Who created the Grit System and the existing GS games?

Wythe Marschall created the system, and the Stillfleet Studio collaborated to bring to life the original GS games: Stillfleet, Anthony Grasso’s Blister Critters, Christopher Pickett’s Danse Macabre: Medieval Horror Roleplaying, and Ethan Gouldini’s Sometimes Kingdom. Sunaree Paiwong leads marketing and operations for these games.