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Hi! So, Wreck This Deck is a prompt-based game. A lot of the detail of how the world, demons and magic works is implied rather than described in detail. When playing it, you fill in the blanks, using the prompts in the game as seeds for your own imagination. "Third order demon" means whatever you want it to mean, bearing in mind it's in a table with "first order demon" and "second order demon".

The bit you're referring to, with the "message", is part of the fortune telling section. The idea is that you are doing a fortune telling spread. Like tarot, or astrology, you are given symbols and snippets of ideas which you have to interpret. You're doing that both as your character, to try and glean information, but also as a player, to decide what direction the story is pointing in. The bit about "what message are they sending me" is about when you draw one of your demon cards - the ones you'll create in play, see p22. E.g. you've drawn Astaroth, so what does that mean? But also, given that Astaroth is a demon, think of that meaning as coming from a sentient and deceptive source, maybe it's trying to manipulate you and the spread can't be taken at face value.

However in this case it sounds like you've drawn the prompt "third order demon" so you don't (necessarily) need to think about it in that way. You haven't drawn a demon card, you've drawn a card that's telling you something about a demon. So you combine that prompt with the other prompts in your spread to think what that might mean in your story.

If you're struggling a bit with the business of reading and interpreting prompts, or just want to get some input from other people who play the game (or indeed interact with other people's characters) you might want to check around the internet for Wreck This Deck communities. There's the #WreckThisDeckRPG hashtag, but there's also Discord servers, Facebook groups and SubReddits.

They're compatible with 1e. Essentially a 2e scenario is some character cards (replacing the list of characters in a 1e scenario), some location cards (replacing the locations in a 1e scenario) and some clue cards (replacing the clue list in a 1e scenario). If you just arrange the cards on the table where everyone can see them, you've effectively got the same stuff as you'd see in a 1e scenario, just written on cards.

There's no special cards list so you'd have to figure that out for yourselves if you're using them. There's the odd 2e scenario that contains a special card, so again you'd have to decide how to make use of those yourselves - or just take them out, if you're not using special cards.

The main difference is that a 2e scenario assumes you will be combining the clue cards in the scenario with those in the 2e core deck - this is essentially the same as the way 1e allows you to just make up a clue, rather than selecting one from the scenario list.

Thanks Marx!

If you're OK with the premise ie demon summoning/binding, then it should be fine. Even then you could reskin it as a Pokemon type thing if you wanted. NB that it's a (mostly) solo game - could be fun to craft your cards together though.

I've done it with both normal and tarot cards. Tarot cards can look more busy and take more work to wreck but it is doable. When I did it I used more paint on the cards and played around with altering the images more.

If you just write on them with a sharpie like you can on the playing cards it can get a bit lost.

Thanks for highlighting this! I've been meaning to fix this for a while and your comment has prompted me to get it done. The correct stat is Heart.

I've also updated the files to include the ref sheets, to cut out the extra step of clicking through to the Black Armada website.

Plus obvs: a bunch more scenarios.

(Incidentally the physical game is really lovely - a very nice product with great art including a cool hidden UV art gimmick. So if that appeals, that's an option too. Though the one here on itch is of course the PDF version.)

The main change is that everything is now card-driven. There are cards with prompts for the characters and locations, cards with prompts for clues, alongside special cards (like the ones used in 1e). And the scenarios are card-based too.

This has two effects: it shortcuts the creative process a bit; and it increases replayability by giving you varied prompts every time you play (including when using a scenario). A nice side-effect is that you can mix and match the core cards with cards from scenarios, to make unique combinations.

There are some other little tweaks - small rule changes to improve the flow of the game. And, the structure of the game has been embedded in cards as well, with rule cards that summarise stuff like the creeping horror rule, and a playmat and cards to work through the stages of the game. Which basically just increases your ability to get started quickly and move through the game without needing to consult the manual all the time - and means folks who are new to it can easily e.g. pick up the leap to conclusions rule and remind themselves how it works.

The overall effect is that it still feels like the same game, but it's slicker, quicker, easier to teach and with better creative support than it had before.

24 pages

Hiya! Most of this is "it's up to you" but here are some answers anyway!

1. Usually people play this as close to our world, except with playing card-based demon summoning in it.

2. Usually it's an invented character, though you could always play someone who shares your name and background, if you wish. The downside there is that you may find yourself doing stuff like putting hexes on real people, which we wouldn't really advise doing.

3. Hmmm. That's kind of an in character decision I guess? I'm not sure what Jax would say about that. What I will point out is that if you keep the extra Jokers, you'll have a greater chance of being magically attacked and/or contacted by another deck runner, because that's what those cards do.

4. It's entirely open-ended. Wreck This Deck is the kind of game you can play as a short, as a lengthy campaign or dip into when you feel like it. There's nothing in the game that gets in the way of any of these approaches.

5. You decide what each card draw and prompt means. You could end up deciding that something has gone so badly wrong that your character quits as a deck runner, or dies. Similarly you might decide that you "lost" an individual challenge in your deck runner's life. But that is up to you, to interpret what the cards are telling you about your story.

6. The only thing you have to perform is the annotating of the cards and writing your journal, since the game won't really work without this. Some people like to perform in character rituals or other physical actions associated with annotating the cards. (For instance, we have a Wreck This Deck card in our freezer at the moment.) You can go beyond that, but there aren't any rules in the game for doing so and all the usual warnings about emotional bleed and so forth in relation to live action roleplaying apply. In short: if you have never Larped before, it might be an idea to read around it a bit before diving in, as this could be quite an intense experience!

Hi! I'm not familiar with Ex Novo, so can't compare them, but Polis is really an engine for building and exploring your city. The mechanics are crafted to create an interesting and enjoyable interaction between the physical geography of the settlement, the external and internal forces at play in the city, the culture and factions in the city and the decisions made by the people of the city. It guides you to introduce events and changes and then react to them, before diving into roleplayed scenes which might generate more changes in turn.

It contains a lot of examples but no tables, so yes it's primarily down to your imagination. If you're looking to throw together a city from random elements, this probably isn't the right game for you, but if you like the idea of playing through the development of your city organically, bouncing off the contributions of the other players at the table, you'll have a great time with Polis.

There are a lot of ideas and resources for this on both the facebook group and the discord.

Personally I like to prep my cards with gesso first. But I also find that the thicker sharpies tend to work just fine

Hiya - I've used sharpie myself, but you might want to check into the various communities online where you can get loads of tips:

• There's the unofficial Deck Runner Safehouse on Facebook
• There's the Wreck This Deck channels on the Black Armada Discord
• There's the unofficial Wreck This Deck discord server
• There's the unofficial Wreck This Deck Reddit community
• And of course there's the hashtag #WreckThisDeckRPG

Thank you for your kind words!

Hi! My feeling is that if you're comfortable with witch-themed stuff, you'll be ok with the content of the game. The closest thing to a possible line-crossing piece of content is partway through the game you uncover something scary in the basement, which might be (paraphrasing slightly from the rulebook):

1. A giant eyeball

2. Tentacles

3. The Fairy Queen

4. A Werewolf

5. A servant of the Great Old Ones.

6. The demon Azathoth.

...that's the scariest and least kid-appropriate page in the game, so if you're ok with the above, I think you're golden.

https://blackarmada.itch.io/last-fleet

We'd love to hear about your exploits! Share below!

This is a Q&A thread for anyone needing help with the rules of the game (or anything else related to MMIB!)

Do get in touch if you have questions about the game!

MMIB was funded by the generous support of the Black Armada Patreon.

MMIB uses cards to fuel your creativity. Each game you get some prompts which you can draw on to shape the kind of story you'll tell. They're different every time, but evoke the weird, madcap romps of television SF.

The game comes with a print file so you can play physically, but also a file you can upload to playingcards.io in order to play virtually.

Unlike many other -esque games, there are several central characters: the Traveller, of course, but also their Companions. The Companions are there to ask stupid questions and get into trouble, making life more interesting for the Traveller. You can also follow the Companions when they go off on their own adventures.

The Traveller and their Companions are each interesting, quirky individuals who are great fun to play!

MMIB is a GMless mystery game, like Lovecraftesque. When the game starts you'll arrive on a new planet, or a new historical period, and begin populating it with intriguing details. Each turn one of you will play the Nemesis, bringing in Lore that will later be woven together into a villainous plot! Between scenes you each privately leap to conclusions about what the Lore so far might mean, and who the villain is - then use that to guide your contributions when you take your turn as Nemesis.

I've just published Madman In A Box to itch. Here's some interesting stuff about the game.

Thank you so much for you lovely comments :)

Thanks for your thoughts!

This is a really beautifully presented and well-written game, highly evocative of the genre. It looks mechanically innovative and well-designed as well. A triumph!

How long do you need? The end date was pretty arbitrary, so I don't mind a short extension.

(Cool concept, too.)

@J Walton not worried at all! I really want to see multiple people building on the same seed, I feel like that's what it's all about (hence the jam title). Our concepts are wildly different, for what it's worth. :)

Come to think of it, order by most recently submitted and you'll get mostly the stage 2 entries. There's one stage 1 entry came in late, but the rest I think are all neatly segregated by the stage 1 deadline date.

Stage 2-wise I'm (Josh) working on a game based on the very-popular Other Worlds and Road Goes Ever On, with a dash of Bury Me In Starlight. Will be interesting to see how our entries compare @J Walton!

You can tell when you click on them, it's right at the bottom of each entry. But annoyingly there doesn't seem to be any way to make this visible in the list of submissions.

Yes, what Dice Problems said.

Hmm, maybe? The effect of that licence seems to be to prevent the person building on the game from selling it exclusively - since anyone who buys it is then entitled to distribute it for free.

I guess it's ok on the grounds that (a) people share RPG PDFs all the time anyway, and people can generally be trusted to pay for them; and (b) if anyone finds it off-putting they can always choose not to use this particular seed.

that is broadly my thinking - but then other people love all the maps and setting detail so I'm never sure :

I love some Hypoxia when I'm writing the creepy games - 

Hi everyone

I've just submitted an old game of mine to this jam.  I love it and I'm very happy with it - but I don't think I've ever perfectly cracked the big design problem of epistolary games (the big problem to me anyway!).  That is how do you get people to sustain writing.  The longest epistolary game I was in lasted about 5-6 months (and it was the game I've submitted).  But almost all letter writing games seem to fizzle as people lose focus or can't find the time.  Once the fizzle has set in, once a letter has been missed - it seems almost impossible to reignite it.

How do people tackle the whole - sustaining momentum issue?

I might write another letter writing game for this jam, or just generally.  Because I love the idea of them, I love the tactile artefact of the physical letter... but I just wish they were more reliable.

Cheers!