Want to make cool sci-fi one-shot modules for your favorite tabletop RPG? You’re in the right place. 

This jam is for making sci-fi modules for tabletop roleplaying games (not video games) based on a common theme.

Check out the previous four years' entries in this collection.

Theme: “Side Effects May Include...”

Whether about some far-future pharmaceutical that's too good to be true, unexpected  behavior in a robot, or an alternative take on the Butterfly Effect, this year's one-shots will explore unexpected impact in science fiction.

The Rules

1. Write a sci-fi one-shot adventure module (not just a new ruleset - save that for the One Page RPG Jam).
   • Can be system-agnostic or for a specific RPG.
2. Write the submission during the jam. No pre-existing one-shots.
3. The submission must use  this year's theme of "Side Effects May Include...."
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.

Judging

Submissions will be judged based on the following criteria:

• Legibility. How well-written and easy-to-understand is this one-shot? This includes clear writing, layout, and organization.
• Design. How well does this one-shot apply adventure design principles to create a compelling one-shot? This includes scenario structure/flow, encounter design and quantity, player objectives, and other things that go into the quality of a one-shot session.
• Aesthetics. How visually-appealing is this one-shot?
• Theme usage. How creatively and effectively does this one-shot use the mandatory theme (and its optional themes)?

Hard Mode Challenges

Hankering for a challenge? Try any combination of these:

• Use any of these additional themes:
  • Moonshot
  • Voices In The Void
  • We Aren't The First Ones Here
  • Muppets
• Limit the submission to a single sheet (two A4/letter pages).
• No images or diagrams, only text (ASCII art is allowed). 
• Don't use words with the vowel "U" (except for credits and licenses).
• Write your adventure for 1 player, no GM.

Does [X] 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 make cool stuff for sci-fi TTRPGs. If you want to chat about the jam or sci-fi RPGs in general, join the server here: https://discord.gg/TxA6b63gzj

Previous Year's Entries

You can view all the previous years' entries in this collection: https://itch.io/c/2779605/sci-fi-one-shot-jam-submissions

Useful Resources

• Our Community Resource page. If anyone finds more cool resources, they'll post it there!
• Itch Game Page Image Guide & Template by Star West - Helps you create itch.io project pages and properly-sized images for them.
• Cities Without Number Mission Worksheet by Glitched Tabletop (me) - Form-fillable worksheet for CWN's mission creation procedure.
• 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.
• OpenGameArt.org - massive repository of artwork with a variety of licenses.
• Letter TTRPG Pamphlet Template by me - Free template in Google Docs for letter-sized pamphlets.
• A4 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

Banner & Thumbnail: The young starts of Taurus. ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Duchêne.  https://esahubble.org/images/potw2526a/