itch.io

Thanks for the feedback! Glad the way they read matches the intentions in designing them. 

Definitely get what you're saying regarding the fonts; Rik figured out what fonts they seemed to have used for the sheets in the Eat the Reich book so I used those to match the style, but as a result the character blurbs can be tough to read. I've been considering making a more "reader friendly" version, so I should probably get on that. 

- Jorrit 

The Disappointed injury was a favorite of mine too yeah, haha! 

And, yeah, I'm also baffled Rik somehow managed to design, write, and draw this ON TOP OF the JAMS! game he wrote. It's definitely insane. (Investigations as to whether he's sold his soul to some otherwordly presence are ongoing.) 

Thanks for the kind words :)

- Jorrit

Thanks for all the kind words, and please steal anything you want! I probably nicked it from somewhere else too.

I love that everyone is enjoying punk bunny, considering I drew him in like 2 minutes. I'll be sure to give him a spot in the finished document!

- Rik

Thanks so much for the feedback! Really glad to hear you resonated with the characters and the overall tone. Everything I make tends to be slightly depressive so this was definitely a deliberate effort to create something more empowering and joyful, I'm glad that came across.

As for the show objective, that's definitely on top of the list of changes I wanna make. I'd love to make the mechanic more evocative of playing music, but I couldn't work it out before the deadline. Stuff for a future update, for sure! (Also, I do love me some exploding dice, so you might be onto something there)

- Rik

Hey! Thanks for the comment.

Page 4 mentions how come the Grotesques are hostile to the players (they were indeed manipulated by the occupying Nazi forces):  

"An ancient family of frightful protector spirits who found a permanent home on the walls and buttresses of the Notre-Dame cathedral, their eclectic forms slowly turned to stone. That is, until some occultist carved mystic runes into the church bells and rang them, binding the stony host to serve the Nazi war machine. Now, their endless monstrous forms swarm the skies above Paris, relentlessly stalking intruders."

Do you know what's (typically) the cause for such issues? Hard agree that accessibility is important to keep in mind, but I'm not at all familiar with read/write software so knowing what to look out for and avoid would be super helpful!

Thank you so much for the kind words! The Habsburg injury might be my favorite too, haha. Also glad the pain of having to format for Friedrich's adjusted stats paid off :P

- Jorrit 

Time is never on our side, and I do wanna say I feel like it's commendable that you've created all this within the timeframe of the jam. Looking forward to seeing the prettied up version! 

In JAMS, which my friend/fellow Devil Whale Rik wrote, durign playtesting we came up with a similar idea to what you're describing (and apparently that Trash to Treasure does, though I haven't gotten around to reading that one yet). JAMS just has one static number that players have to whittle down during a round, as opposed to one shared "threat dice pool", but the concept is similar. During playtesting we found that it really amped up the teamwork and community aspects of the game, but further abstracted what exactly you were defending against. As JAMS has a lot of objectives/situations that aren't as hostile as in Eat the Reich or Shoulder Parrots and Hooks for Hands, that actually worked out really well for JAMS, but your mileage might vary. Interesting idea to play around with at the least, for sure! 

I feel like either idea for a ship situation sounds fire! I think having it be a bit more "focused"/straightforward, with a smaller location and mostly a main objective to focus on, could work really well, yeah. 

This does remind me that I really rather liked the way you handled locations and objectives, specifically for a heist-centered game!

Anyways, I look forward to seeing the next version, and good luck with your further yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee-ing. 

- Jorrit

Rik has been notified the people demand more placeholder bunny, thank you! 

Jokes aside, thanks for the feedback! Anything specific you feel like is missing in the downtime part? Right now it's mostly there to give the players a bit of a breather and some room for freeform roleplay if they'd like. Though, thinking about it, a list of some suggested scenes could be a fun additions to get the players' creative juices flowing.

- Jorrit

BEING A PIRATE IS ALRIGHT WITH ME!

This looks like such a blast! Having read Bright Sun Games' comment, I have to say that they're probably correct regarding Kozel. That said, I personally will riot if there is no playable bear character in Shoulder Parrots and Hooks for Hands, and I would die for Kozel. 

I really like all the characters, they're so fun and colorful. Like the other comment already said, I think the flaws system is really clever, and I love how there's a mixture of good and bad stuff in there, and how a lot of them have specific triggers. Generally, adding a minus(-)-die mechanic as a negative counterpart to bonus(+)-die is such a clever addition to the system. 

Honestly I'm impressed by how well some of the groundwork you laid out here would work (I think) for a heist-centric Havoc game. I suppose this is a heist-centric Havoc game as well, though the pirate flavoring comes out on top for me. Although I agree with the sentiment that a ship-based objective/location would've been fire and laid on the pirate vibes extra thick. That said, I'm not sure if a boarding action scene would've been able to interact interestingly with the Heat mechanic.

Speaking of: love the Heat mechanic, it's the main thing that made me comment on how well the ideas here could be applied to a heist-centric game. 

The game needs a little polishing here and there (which is both fair and to be expected when it's a game jam submission, I feel like), but I think you've got a stellar idea with really cool foundations to build upon! 

Bonebeard would be proud.

- Jorrit 

YAR-HAR, FIDDLEE-DEE-DEE

Thank you for the kind words! Sorry for stepping on your turf though, haha. There were several moments where, after having already finished writing up Pier and Bonebeard, I was questioning whether I was overdoing it with 2 pirates. But I didn't want to get rid of either of them, and neither felt right without them being a pirate (not to mention that Big Pier is based on the Frisian historical figure Grutte Pier, who was in fact a pirate). 

Rik pointed out how he was impressed it "took me 3 whole characters" before I went about making a knight, so I have to admit Friedrich has also occupied a special place in my heart. 

In regards to Bonebeard, I'm not sure if you were talking in hyperbole, but if not: you hereby have my permission to "steal" him for Shoulder Parrots and Hooks for Hands :) 

Also, goddammit, I can't believe I didn't think of the Holy Hand Grenades! Not sure if I'm going to add them in at this point (not sure what + I'd give them, especially considering there's already a +hordes of enemies, and I don't think killer-rabbits will show up in Eat the Reich anytime soon), but you're definitely correct they were a blatant miss, haha.

- Jorrit 

No worries! It happens :)

Did you see the  "Notre-Dame de Paris" location on the last page of the file? The idea of that is almost exactly what you're describing! You get to permanently disable the pursuit of the Grotesques and (spoilers, I guess?) one PC gets to henceforth summon them as an ability. 

Thank you so much!! Really glad to hear you enjoyed them. Please let us know how it went when you've used the sweet amphibious speedboat with no idea how it works ;P

Oh!! Thank you so much :D (the link worked btw!)

Oh this sounds like it'd be absolutely horrifying in the best ways, looking forward to reading this! 

Hey! Thanks for the compliment & the feedback. Glad you like Marie :)

You raise a good point regarding the Grotesques! (I just responded to Mynar's comment before seeing this one, who had a somewhat similar point of critique, so I'll echo similar sentiments as I did there.) 

You could make it where the Grotesques add Challenge to the Objective as long as they're around, or just make it so players can't advance the Objective while they're around, or have them erase progress/successes on the Objective (which is probably equivalent to adding Challenge, but might feel different in play). I have to admit we haven't had the chance to playtest the Grotesques, but once we do we'll make sure to update them if we feel like they're not providing the intended challenge and tension to a scene. 

- Jorrit 

Hey! Thanks for the compliments! And thanks for the feedback as well. Really glad to hear you enjoy Marie. Personally I'm especially fond of her "Disappointed (+2 Terrify, -2 Con)" Injury, haha :P

(Mind you, I also have no idea how Rik managed to get all this work in before the submission deadline; his drive to create stuff is kind of insane.) 

You raise a good point regarding the Grotesques. Hadn't really thought of it like that before, hm. I have to admit we weren't able to playtest this submission before the deadline, so I'd have to see how it feels in play before reaching a final verdict. But as-is there's definitely a good chance they won't offer the challenge and tension they're meant to bring to the table. 

I think you could amp up how they actually interact with the scene by making the Objective more difficult to achieve while they're around. You could have them add Challenge to the Objective, or just have it them make it so you can't advance the Objective while they're around, or have them remove successes/progress from the Objective (that would probably equate to adding Challenge with extra steps, but it might feel different in play). Then again, that doesn't really address the main complaint you raise, of them being just another bag of hitpoints.

We're trying to schedule some playtests with our friends soon, so I hope we'll be able to deliver on a cool ability/interesting mechanics once we've incorporated playtest feedback. I'm definitely going to keep this in mind.  

Thanks again for the feedback :) Cheers!

- Jorrit 

P.S.: Freak Squad looks absolutely sick, the art's vibe is just chef's kiss

Hahahah, same. Half of my comments when Rik asked for feedback on his draft were remarks expressing my love for Placeholder Bunny. I'm not sure if they will ever find their way into being a playable character, but I'm definitely going to lobby for them to be an ally you can befriend. Rik has also been notified that there will be riots if Placeholder Bunny's art doesn't show up in the final product. 

- Jorrit

Hey folks! 

While Rik was (somehow) able to squeeze in 2 whole submissions for the jam (one with only a minute left on the clock!), I, uh, thought the jam's deadline would be, like, somewhat later today. So I missed it. Oops. :(

I still wanted to share my submission with the rest of the game jam (game jammers?), so: here's Bag of Strix, an Eat the Reich expansion/add-on of 6 characters, most of which try to do something interesting  and fun with existing game mechanics. 

I've been having a lot of fun going through other people's submissions, absolutely awesome work on display here! 

Cheers! :)

- Jorrit

Thank you so much!

On the one hand, this is exactly the kind of silly shenanigans ttrpg about the North Docks' Knights that I've been thinking about designing and playing, ever since falling in love with my Knight character in Spire.

On the other hand, my reaction to seeing this game was to fall to my knees and exclaim "GRANT HOWITT, HOW COULD YOU, I WANTED TO BE THE ONE TO MAKE THIS GAME!"

Jokes aside, this looks hilarious. Super excited to give it a go sometime!

- Jorrit (in honor of Ser Lavanne of the Order of the Devil Whale)

Thank you so much for the compliments! And yeah, I got one tour around a (docked) submarine once and that was more than enough to convince me that they're claustrophobic little coffins of death that nobody should ever enter. I probably channeled a lot of that into making the game.

- Rik

Thank you so much for the kind words, and we really appreciate the feedback!

Templates for making your own modules are definitely on the to-do list, but there's still quite a bit to figure out (how to customize characters and vessels, for example). Honestly, I'd be happy enough if people end up playing this once.

We plan on updating the character sheets today or tomorrow, so we'll make sure to incorporate your feedback - making a double-sided version is a great idea!

Thanks! Hope you get a chance to play it :)