This jam is now over. It ran from 2024-09-28 04:00:00 to 2024-12-07 00:35:32. View 93 entries

Make a Thing Right Now, Third Time's The Charm

This, for a third time, is a jam all about primal, elemental, close-to-the-metal TTRPG creation! No pictures, no layout, all killer, no filler. Fire up google docs or the markdown editor of your choice and go to town!

Before I get any (further) well-actually's, this is for games that are minimalist in a visual sense. Make as complicated a thing as you like mechanically. Or don't. The world is your oyster, as long as you follow...

The Rules

This jam will accept entries with the following conditions:

  • Make a game with markdown , in plaintext, or one of these templates:
    • Cormorant
    • IBM Plex Sans
    • B612 Mono
    • Lexend
    • Comic Sans
    • If starting with a google docs template (File -> Make a Copy), don't change any fonts or colors. One font, white background, black text is the goal. When your game is done, export as PDF/ePub/etc. (File -> Download -> select the file type.) If starting with markdown, you may use a tool such as pandoc to convert it to a PDF, or just leave it in raw markdown.
  • No pictures, no drawings, no diagrams. Text only as much as possible!
  • No further layout. Keep the page setup as “pageless”. Avoid alignment changes, ASCII pictoral representations, etc. Try not to mess with form too much. The intent is to focus on what's being written, not how it's shaped on the page. Header 1/2/3, bold, italic, ordered/unordered lists, etc. are fine.
  • You can make something and add layout, pictures, etc. later. If you do, I would encourage you to wait until after the jam is over to do so. This isn’t a hard-hard requirement but to be perfectly clear, if I see something that blatantly breaks these rules I’m going to throw out your submission.
  • In the same spirit, I encourage you to not style any itch page you make for it during the jam, but do what you want! If you do, I suggest you add a cover image of the title or something so it shows up properly on itch and maybe a few choice screenshots.
  • Charge whatever you want to for it, including PWYW or nothing at all, and add community copies if you'd like.
    • Bear in mind that this jam isn't a band-aid for the problems of platform discoverability and perceived value without visuals, layout, itch page customization, etc, so I wouldn't expect to strike gold with it...on the other hand, I maintain that very few projects aren't worth at least a few bucks, and at the very least, I hope this jam normalizes for at least a few people that you can make a quality game/etc without all of the trappings.
  • No fascists, no racists, no homophobes, no transphobes, etc.

Within those conditions, make whatever you want! A game, a supplement, a setting, a list of characters, plot hooks, you name it. 

Hard Mode

These aren't strictly required, but try any or all of the below in addition.

  • No tables.
    • Nightmare Mode: No ordered or unordered lists either.
  • Keep the amount of expository/prose writing low - aim for like 10% of the work, tops. See what kind of tone, feel, vibe, and themes you can get across with just text as conveyed through mechanics, list choices, etc.
    • Nightmare Mode: None.
  • Make a standalone game, framework, supplement, etc. that can be run without any other sourcebook, system knowledge, or etc.
    • Nightmare Mode: Make a fully new game, framework, etc. that isn't directly based on any existing SRD, toolkit, etc. (Inspiration from others is of course fine and good.)
  • Keep it minimal! Aim for a tiny number of words - like 2000 max.
    • Nightmare Mode: 1000 max.

Ok, but why?

  • I want to encourage new developers to start making stuff. If you want to get into game design, comparing your work to lavish products that are the result of crowdfunding campaigns with several-person teams can feel really unfair and intimidating. This jam is a way to encourage those potential new developers: Come up with a thing and put it out there. Make the best game you can within these limitations and worry about the rest later. We're all on the same footing here.
  • I want to remind existing developers why they started making stuff. A lot of existing developers (myself included) started off by making something in a google doc or whatever because they got the itch to create something and couldn't let it go. This jam is a way to encourage them to strip away all of the scene-related worries and anxieties about a holistic visual product and try to reclaim that feeling. If you're already a developer, you've definitely got something hanging out on the back burner that you've convinced yourself isn't a priority because there's no time to make it a full production. This is a great opportunity to put it on the front burner and get it out of your head and onto something. Life's too short to lose sight of what brought you to the table. Make A Thing Right Now.

This isn't a ranked jam and as such I'm not going to be rating entries/etc. If you submit a valid entry to this jam, you won! Feel free to contact me (my itch page has my relevant info) and ask me for a download key to anything I've made as a reward.

Resources

  • A good guide to markdown/pandoc, if you're planning to go that route and aren't experienced, is here. Ignore the stuff about images and such and don't worry about styling. If you want a more google docs-ish in-browser experience for markdown, I can recommend hackmd.io. When you're ready to bring it to your computer to export via pandoc, there's a download option in the 3-dot menu at the top right.
  • Year 1 entries
  • Year 2 entries

Submissions(88)

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A Tactical Action Game in the Neonoir Chromed Out World of Tomorrow
A short ttrpg about Beasts and people, unlikely alliances, and lost souls.
Rise and grind, runners.
A Thalassophobic TTRPG
A Fantasy Punk TTRPG
A simple game about a dungeon and the people going into it
Fight, die, then do it again. A rogue-lite inspired solo ttrpg.
Be punk. Do magic. Have a blast.
The wanderings of an immortal mass.
A solo journaling TTRPG set during the golden age of polar exploration.
A solo journaling RPG of action thriller revenge rampages
Pilgrims traverse an otherworldly land to their final judgments. A TTRPG.
tricktaking labyrinth escape based on Hearts
A minimalist setting-agnostic dungeon-crawl system
A minimalist game about a future of bodies and tech.
A silly game about being a person who is thrown out of a window.
A TTRPG about plurality, traumatic dungeons and getting your shit together.
A minimalist game of rage Induced creation
Short RPG about life after The Company
Role Playing
Intrusive thoughts, the game
A little ttrpg about words and how to use it
A narrative TTRPG about a community in the belly of a sea beast.
A solo character journaling TTRPG, made for Minimalist TTRPG Jam #3
A minimal TTRPG where you have 5 days to slay a Kaiju and save the world
A Dungeon Crawl with just two Decks and a handful of dice
God, can you hear me?
a game of explosive small town drama
A 1d6 TTRPG System
Mysteries unfold with every draw.
Startle your friends — In Real Life!
GMless game about being locked in a collective hallucination
A system-agnostic TTRPG supplement
A diceless, minimal storytelling game.
A Minimalist TTRPG of Entropy and Memory
buckling swash at the end of the world
Rise from the scrap of the world and protect your heart as you work to survive in this rules-lite TTRPG
warlock-patron paperwork ttrpg
Minimalist summer vacation time loop TTRPG under 1k words.
A 2,000 word ttrpg about lucky people trying to survive in a cheesy apocalypse
A weapon-crafting supplement for Otaidokan
Minimalist ad-hoc magic system for TTRPGs
Rules for events, explosives and vehicles for Necroworlda
A new scenario for Super Space Knights
a solo journaling ttrpg about involuntary shapeshifting and moving very slowly
An explosive one page ttrpg about being too powerful for consequences
Dare the Dice or face your Doom. An action-packed rules-lite TTRPG with split-and-push dicepool resolution.
A solo game of delving into the darkest caves.
Palad-Inns is a rules-lite ttrpg about being a Paladin and saving up to start your own inn!
Laser and feeling hack for the Minimalist TTRPG Jam 3
Community Building and Survival in a Liminal Labyrinth
A quiet world-building game you can play with your newborn.
A Tactical...Dating Sim?
A duet game about pulling the plug on a program.
A Narrativist RPG Forever Project
A pocket sized game for running adventures and designing characters on the fly with nothing but a d12 and a pencil.
A simple roleplaying game for little freaks and weirdos
A minimal rpg in exactly 1000 words. For grizzled gunslingers.
Modular difficulty rules for PBTA
A simple dice game by Curtin Parloe
A collaborative storytelling game to remember long-gone friends
Field Rangers investigating and uprooting the seeds of cosmic horrors
Small minimalist TTRPG with less than 1000 words.
A minimalist ttrpg about being the first teenagers growing up after the zombie apocalypse.
A group of engineers trying to escape a sprawling derelict space station using nothing but their wits
RPG for Minimalist TTRPG Jam 3
A minimalist Spy TTRPG made for the Minimalist game jam
An improvisational game about magical wishes, unintended consequences and self-reflection.
A two-player TTRPG for a human and their golem
1-2 players + GM game of Detective(s) solving cases in the slightly occult city of Nur
A TTRPG about doing something else
Crack a vault of treasure, foil the heist, or succumb to corruption
Minimalist TTRPG Jam 3
A slice-of-life solo journaling ttrpg for any setting
An Adventure Time-esque TTRPG
A minimalist RPG under 350 words
A collaborative storytelling game about hiking on a winding path.
Meet your love interest and win their heart before trouble wins in paradise.
What will you sacrifice to escape from the monster? What will they sacrifice to keep you?
RICO Rats, a micro tabletop roleplaying game, but with Blackjack and Hookers.
A solo RPG about a Librarian recovering wayward magical tomes.
A micro-rpg where your health and ammo are one and the same.
a game about leaving something behind, even though you don't know it at the time.