Hi, it’s my first time making a TTRPG, let alone compete in a game jam. Do you have any advice?
Well, I would start out by deciding how big you want your project to be. I recommend some kind of one pager. After that, I would work out what kind of project you’re working on. Is it a setting guide? A journaling game? A solo game? A multiplayer game?
Once you have that figured out, you’ll start workout out how to interpret the theme. One other thing, this jam isn’t ranked, so there’s no competition aspect.
You can write whatever but to submit here you should probably do it somewhere you can export the end result to something like a .pdf or a .txt (so probably not Wattpad, I'm not sure).
And yes, you need to include the rules! The story is optional (but it can make for some really cool TTRPGS) , but the rules are what make your submission a game.
Lean on existing designs, look at other games and take mechanical concepts from them. It’s much harder to invent new mechanics from whole cloth when you’re inexperienced.
Some useful references:
a mechanically straightforward single* player journaling game, in making your own you will write a lot of thematic and flavorful directional text. There’s also a wealth of games based on AAtS if you want to see some spin other people have tried
A one-page multiplayer adventuring game, in making your own you will assemble several lists, the specifics are up to you but the basic format is a 4d6 plot generator (4 lists of 6 items that you can roll on to madlib an adventure together), and then additional lists for character and context, which don’t need to be rollable. There are many L&F based games, but I don’t have a convenient list of them to link you to. I’ll just point out Oh Dang! Bigfoot Stole My Car With My Friend’s Birthday Present Inside
Similar to Lasers & Feelings but with a bunch of the bits shifted around a little, the comparison is pretty useful, and likewise there are many games based on or inspired by Honey Heist
There’s a lot of games named 6e, in reference to D&D 5e, in part because of a jam to make 6e games, which Jared Sinclair’s 6e came out of. Because of the D&D association JS6e is much crunchier than the things I listed above, but it’s still not that complicated and there’s a bunch of other people’s spins you can look at. You would probably want to write a collection of playbooks, but there’s certainly examples of people doing more ambitious additions.
This is a game not about playing specific characters, but about the story of the place characters are in. You draw cards and then process questions, detailing the place, the people, and events across some timespan.
In each of these, making a game(/etc) inspired, influenced, expanding, or based on it involves understanding the shape of the game and making new text to fill it with. Some of that text is more mechanical, but in writing the text you are seeding a world and sketching characters. Players will use your text in play to produce specific worlds and characters.