Hi! I'm Joe/Sofinho. I saw this game jam posted on a discord server I'm on with Arthur and thought I'd join, it looks fun!
I'm not on twitter any longer so not sure if there's a conversation around this jam that I'm unaware of. Suffice to say I'm super interested in what people are planning on producing for this!
So... who are you and what's your big (or small, or medium-sized) idea?
Hi Joe, welcome to the jam and thanks for making a post! I don't know if there's a lot of discourse around it. People have suggested a lot of random examples in one thread, one that stood out to me was Mazes and Monsters, a book/movie from the satanic panic in the 80's that was a form of negative propaganda about D&D. It featured a fictional stand in game for D&D called Mazes and Monsters. Also I made a thread about the works of Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote book reviews of fictional books.
My plan for my entry is to make up some kind of new form of game and write a supplement for it. I am leaning maybe a Choose Your Own Adventure style game written by an actual play group with a revolving GM, it's not really fleshed out yet.
Hi David! thanks, very happy to be here. Just wanted to get involved with the conversation, really.
When I was just getting into D&D my dad told me about Mazes and Monsters, (mis)informing me it was based on a true story (it's very based on a sensationalised tragedy with tenuous connections to RPGs!)... but (weirdly) he was sort of implying this fact made D&D "cool"? Like, "this game is so wild- apparently kids play, think it's real and go crazy and kill themselves and their friends! Enjoy!" He's a strange man.
As for Borges, you might discern I am a fan (my blog is Alone in the Labyrinth, name inspired partly by House of Asterion and also his anthology, Labyrinths). Confess I hadn't connected the jam to his work- but t's an inspirational concept! A game supplement, Atlas of Tlön, perhaps?
howdy, everyone! i'm Seth, weirdslimething on twitter and cats_are_dragons here on itch.
i have at least two pieces ill be contributing to the jam - first is a lore heavy item/equipment supplement for a game that doesnt exist (the second campaign book in a loose trilogy of ttrpgs that take place across various epochs in a wildly changing world, the previous game's campaign conclusion affecting the campaign that follows). i'm trying to make it as vague and confusing and strange as possible. something that would make perfect sense for a fan or player of that game, but everyone else has zero frame of reference. will also include allusions to mechanics and rules that, again, taken out of context make little sense but provide an uncanny sense of depth. even includes rules for an in-universe card game you can play at the table! that's a lot of exciting words for what's basically a stream-of-consciousness zine full of weird treasures though, haha. i have an artist friend working on this now, and my hope is to actually have art and layout done by the end of the jam with a few handmade physical copies to toss out there, but if it's cutting too close i'll just throw what i have up, barebones.
second is similar, but it's a set of classes for another "ttrpg that never was" about a neon-soaked super sentai setting where people turn into bird-themed magical girls/persons. not as big or in-depth as the first idea, and i probably won't have any custom or commissioned art for it, but i still like what i'm putting together for it. same situation as above, with references to mechanics, abilities, rulesets that on their own merits should just be "?????". we'll see if im successful!
im really excited for this, as it's the first jam i feel comfortable taking part in! im fairly new to working in the ttrpg space, but my biggest problem is just having no real anchorpoint or idea on how to get started, especially when a lot of my ideas might require a weightier knowledge of actual rules and "how-to-play-it" versus just lore and narrative stuff. also, i have zero idea how to draw, design, build, layout, or do anything like that, and my only working PC is a decade plus old laptop that definitely would chug if i tried to use any free editing or publishing programs. im hoping getting involved with this helps me to learn a lot more and maybe to network a little, too.
These ideas sound cool, I'm psyched to see them take shape! I feel like this is the sort of thing that makes System Fictional seem cool to me!
There's a good collection of free public domain art here, although I think it might be hard to find anything that works for super sentai. https://newschoolrevolution.com/public-domain-art
Also for free layout and image processing software for an old laptop, have you tried google docs and slides? They are pretty powerful and can get you a ways. They have a decent built in font selection.
A few months ago, as a writing exercise to help me get out of a creative slump, I attempted to write the "worst" game system I possibly could. I like minimalist games combat-lite games. This game's systems were as convoluted as possible, written in a verbose first-person perspective, and included a very strange tic-tac-toe inspired card-based combat system. I found the whole experience helped me break out of habits, and examine what I like/don't like about games. But I still don't have much interest in fleshing the system out beyond scribbles in my notebook.
But it still has a framework and terminology I can reference back to in an adventure. So basically, I plan on writing an adventure for the worst system I could think up.
I'm thinking about doing something that I planned on doing for a while, just not starting with the main rules but with a supplement: The Eye of Argon RPG! Hailing from an alternative history, where poor teenage Jim Theis wasn't just put down by all the criticism for his short story, but went all out "Well, you do better then!" and thus invented the first RPG, with a lot less mechanical rigor than D&D, but more enthusiasm.
Now, a few years later, third party stuff is coming in, and this is what my fake product will be, one supplement for the Tales from the Emerald Orb game.
My main goals are
I'm not doing this as a parody with badly spelled Thesaurus abuse. Big inspiration will be early adventures (e.g. Judges Guild) and what Christian Conklehas been doing with his take on Revolt on Antares or Encounter Critical.
My job workload has been a bit wobbly recently, so I hope I'll be able to finish this in time.
There aren't that many games like this, but I'd regard EC as an existing game, albeit with a fictional history/background, and thus not applicable to this jam? If so, I'd encourage everyone to make something for Conkle's Mork Borg-derived new rules for the original setting, not EC directly, given who currently holds the rights to that.
This jam is SO my vibe! I want to write a lot of stuff for it, though I am working hard on my dissertation so I am not sure I'll have the time.
I have a publication that may fit the jam, though: it is a fictional academic journal on the also fictional field of archæoludonarratology, that is, the study of lost ancient roleplaying games. https://tragos-games.itch.io/aaj
What do you guys think? Should I submit it?
(BTW, the Archæoludonarratological Academy Journal is always open for submissions).
