Join the September Jam NOW!

Welcome to the August Edition Eternal TTRPG Jam! 

This is a game jam for TTRPG designers to test ideas, experiment with concepts, and maybe find their next big idea! Every month there will be a new Jam with new themes and challenges. 

Hosted by Rowan Sender

Come join the Discord!!

There's also the Reddit if you're so inclined.

Follow the Jam's Tumblr

Theme: Monster Hunt

Monster Hunt is finally here. I'm not going to dissuade you from doing an over-the-plate Monster Hunter copy. All I'll say is that you should consider carefully the affordances that tabletop games may grant that a 3D action game may not. 

To anyone else working through the idea of a monster hunt, there's a lot of space to be explored here. What is a monster? Where is the line between monster and animal? What of people? Would that distinction even be useful? Mountains and websites and all that. 

Challenge: Teaching Principles: Player Duties

How can we design games that distribute responsibility for the general management of the game to the players, rather than the GM? How do we encourage system knowledge through designed incentives? This one's a little more out there as far as design goes. It'll really only apply to people making games from the ground up. 

Rules

• Your project should be made within the time of the jam. Ideas from before are fine, and it's totally okay to develop after the end, but the bulk of the work should be done during the jam time.
• Keep it short! The point is to not kill yourself on this one project. Loosen up, follow your creativity, and maybe you’ll land somewhere you wouldn’t have otherwise.
• No previously published works. Make something fresh!
• No AI generation of any kind. Text, images, ideation. None of it. You’re better than that. What are we doing here?
• Charge what you like! I encourage pay-what-you-want, but it’s your call!
• Label adult, NSFW, and violent content appropriately. 

FAQ (Presumably)

What is the Eternal Jam?

This jam is a continuous series of jams that run until the heat death of the universe (aspirational). Every month has a new theme and an extra challenge for designers. The idea is that it’s always here, so even if you don’t have time or aren’t interested in the theme of the month, you can pick it up on the next one!

What is the point?

The Eternal Jam is meant to be an outlet for experimentation within the TTRPG space. These projects are supposed to be tiny, quick, and creative. Most probably won’t be fully fleshed out. But every so often, the spark of an idea will catch and a new project will be born from the breeding ground of the Eternal Jam.

What kind of content is allowed?

Anything, in theory. Explicit content should be tagged appropriately, but other than that: games, settings, waxing prose masquerading as playable content. Really anything goes.

Format?

One pagers, micro-zines, booklets, a loose collection of notes. It really doesn’t matter. It should be small ideally. The original idea was handmade zines, so it should fall somewhere around there. Check out Electric Zine Maker if you want a cool tool!

Art?

I don’t know. I think it’s art, but who am I to say? 

Draw it yourself. Use creative commons images. I don’t know, make a collage? Are crayons still a thing? You’ll figure it out, I believe in you.