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Thanks for the feedback. There was some cross-pollination between GSU and Monster Mech Bash, the latter unfortunately unfinished. Regardless of where the keywords come from, it feels good to hear they inspire someone :)

After a cursory skim, I was initially uncertain whether I would like this or not, but looking into this, I found a lot of clever design choices.

The clean layout is super reduced (3 fonts mixing hippy aesthetic with special agent typewriter vive, that’s it).

The PCs form a left-wing activist/terrorist cell in the US in the 70s. As one might expect, many politically left and 70s tropes are represented (hippies, Vietnam veterans, left professors …). I guess all players interested in the premise, will find something interesting in the cast. I liked the artwork for the firebrands (somewhere between arsonist and David Bowie) and Flowechildren (I understood from the text that they are accompanied by trained ferrets which I mistook for meerkats from the image – regardless, very cool drawing).

What makes this unique is found in the GM section (spoiler alert!) and convinced me that this is a great submission: PCs have a secret second agenda, e.g., they secretly come from a rich family. I imagine a lot of funny RP moments arising from this.

The Cash mechanic is a somewhat blunt anti-capitalist critique (with Cash even reducing reputation “injury”). I was briefly wondering, whether there is the potential to reduce Cash’s impact at some point during the campaign?

What a stunning entry!

This game fully delivers on its premise: In a colorful fantasy city, a diverse cast of firefighters combat a fire in a wizard’s tower.

Let’s start with the layout of the 56(!) pages and artwork: I liked the character artworks, the map, and the little burns on the paper texture edges. I am not a super big fan of a two column layout for on-screen reading, but I can see how this will work very well in print.

This submission also does a lot of worldbuilding. While it is clearly a capsule game (and states this clearly in the intro), reading about the city and looking at the map, I felt there is a vast additional potential of the setting. I was curious to learn more and I liked I could learn some more by reading the characters.

Ruleswise, the game is clearly in the footsteps of EtR, but many small changes reinforce the firefighter-theme.

The story itself is not as linear as one might guess at first glance (it’s a tower after all). The firefighters often have two ways to continue, leading to some replayability.

I can understand why the characters share so many mechanics and equipment (they are all fire fighters after all). However, I felt the overlap in “generics” is prone to hide the differences between the characters. I would have to play the game to really understand this point though. I love the “Flashbackdrafts” and Appendix A.

Just a quick addition to Marvin’s reply: None of us ever played or ran Eat the Reich (we will have to catch up on that), so we probably just don’t know what we are missing. From reading other Jam entries, I understand some of the complexity that “full” Havoc offers. I am keen to explore that and see whether it ties in with our approach to the challenges.

Thanks for your kind post and sharing your play experience. The frogs and the princess made it into the pdf.

Credit for the layout really goes to the artists of the cutouts (some of them over 100 years old).

Thanks for mentioning the layout. I steel feel like a total dilletante, doing this in google docs.

The starting point for us was RRD’s Havoc Toolkit document (which of course is based on the various styles). None of us had any experience designing for Havoc, so we took from the toolkit what felt good and what turned out to work in playtests.

I love the artwork. It transports the vision of the characters. This vision seems somewhat distinct from the media touchstones you mention. There is great creative potential here! Please continue building this.

Some more work is needed to make this fully playable, with a lot of things implied in the context of the jam but not really in the document.

Given the title, it surprises me that Gut Hunch is a Stat that varies by characters. Narratively, all seem to have a different kind of intuition, but mechanically only some really shine.

I am not sure the equipment list is a good idea (I see players hoarding the “good” stuff).

This feels very much like it does not belong in here.

This is a whopping 44 pages! It has really everything needed to play it, including a very detailed GM section, and a three act storyline for a few-shot.

There are a lot of small things reinforcing the theme (e.g., the ressource is called “Drive”), and the characters all have a unique feel to them.

A feel a sensitivity reader might have some comments (e.g. on Grandma Cheng), though the game is careful to discuss stereotypes.

Would love to play or run this at some point.

Thanks so much for your feedback :) We hope to playtest this one soon and continue the development. I totally agree a sample storyline is missing. Also, a plot generator like in Lasers & Feelings could work well here (based on a solid random table).

Thanks for your feedback! We never had the chance to playtest an actual session. The drawing and building phase got us really excited, creating a crazy number of weird doodles. Once we give it a spin, I will know whether the Havoc Engine’s free-wheeling narrative compensates for what you call downsides.

A very nice interpretation of the theme, with probably the best intro of a ttrpg product I have ever read. It has a fantastic vibe reminding me of “intelligent Rat“ short stories like “Barney“. This is next in line to be ran.