The 2024 Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam is an event to create sci-fi one-shot adventures based on a theme.

Theme: Stellar Phenomena

The one-shot must be linked to some kind of space phenomenon (nova, black hole, pulsar, galactic superwind, solar flares, etc). For some inspiration, check out the Stellar Phenomenon Wikipedia page.

The Rules

1. Write a sci-fi one-shot adventure for an RPG of your choice (or system-agnostic).
2. The submission must be written during the jam period. No pre-existing one-shots.
3. The submission must use the theme "Stellar Phenomena."
4. No AI text or images.
   
5. No bigoted submissions.

You are free to submit as many adventures as you want and charge whatever you want for them, as long as they each follow the above rules.

Hard Mode

These aren't required, but try any of the following for an extra challenge:

• Limit the scenario to one sheet (two A4/letter pages).
• Use one of the secondary themes: "Unintended Consequences" or "Mystery".
• No images or diagrams, only text (ASCII art is allowed).
• Make it system-agnostic.

Does ____ count as sci-fi?

Probably.  Sci-fi is incredibly broad and diverse, and soft sci-fi shares a very thin border with fantasy (via Space Fantasy and Science Fantasy). We trust your judgement. Just remember to put the "science" in your sci-fi one-shot.

Community

This jam is sponsored by the Sci-Fi RPG Collective, a Discord server dedicated to being a welcoming safe space to discuss, play, and create for sci-fi TTRPGs. 

If you want to chat about your sci-fi one-shot, feel free to hop in: https://discord.gg/CjkSQprKC9

Useful Resources

• Itch Game Page Image Guide & Template by Star West - Helps you create itch.io project pages and properly-sized images for them.
• Sci-fi character portraits project by Ashen Victor - 100 free, Creative Commons-NonCommercial portraits. Ashen has a second and third collection (paid) with additional portraits.
• NASA Images - The US's National Aeronautics and Space Association has a bunch of images in the public domain. Double-check with their guidelines before using any of their images.
• OpenGameArt.org - massive repository of artwork with a variety of licenses.
• TTRPG Pamphlet Template by Hugh Lashbrooke - Free templates in Google Docs, Canva, and Microsoft Word.
• WTF Pamphlet RPG Template by Wizardthieffighter. Free pamphlet template for Affinity Publisher (the pay-once alternative to Adobe InDesign).
• Mothership Third Party Publishing Guide - If you want your submission to be Mothership-compatible, you need to fill this out and get approval. It usually takes a week, but can take longer.

Credits

Thumbnail: Illustration by Aurore Simonnet and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Banner: Black Hole Visualization by Jeremy Schnittman and NASA, retrieved from Wikipedia.

GRB 190114C gif from esahubble.org.