itch.io

Oooh yeah you're absolutely right, I think I pulled my punches with that resolution mechanic (and this certainly isn't the concept for me to be doing that 😅). I had an early version of it that was wayyyy too harsh, but I must have overcorrected and made it more forgiving than I wanted. Live and learn, but now that the jam is over I have all the time in the world to fiddle with it! 

And going PBTA/borrowing some ideas is soooo tempting. I absolutely love PBTA and how those systems inject narrative beats into the game. I think those design principles would work well here, especially for The Cauldron like you said. DM moves as a concept were probably floating around in my brain somewhere when I started The Cauldron, but ty for helping me make that connection! I really appreciate you taking the time to give your feedback on this, I'll definitely be using it when I salvage this for a more concrete version someday 💚

omg thank you so much!!! 💚💚 yes, definitely some ways to go but I'm so glad you like the cauldron so far. Taking a temporary win in exchange for delaying the inevitable really just felt natural for a game about people with absolutely rotten luck 

and yeah I LOVE josefin sans, it's one of those fonts I keep coming back to. I think it's the tilted e's that rly do it for me 😂

thanks Strep! 💚

Hey all,

Just a quick heads up: Itch staff helped us out and set up our rev share on the backend. While they were in there it looks like they validated the bundle, so there's no need for approval on your ends. For transparency, 69.41% of the proceeds will go to Honor the Earth, and I'll be withdrawing that to my account to send through HTE's website. I'll be sure to remind y'all when the bundle goes live, and afterwards in March, I'll also share what our final donation amount is (how much was raised, any PayPal fees, etc.).

If anyone wants to check out the bundle page, you can do so here: Hope Jam! Bundle by Mean Green Press and 31 others - itch.io

Really excited for this to go live! As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Nate

Hey! I sent out an email and we've been talking about it in the Discord forum, but in case you missed it, we're just waiting for Itch support staff to help us set up our unique cut distribution before I can send out the link to accept the bundle. 

We had hoped to have the bundle out by the start of February but Itch is having difficulty addressing support tickets quickly right now. It's not ideal, but we may have to push the bundle back to run later in February if they cannot adjust the revenue sharing in time. I'll keep poking them about it in the meantime. Sorry for the delay!

Townsville Needs You

Welcome to Townsville, a quaint town of no particular renown, infamous only for its long line of corrupt elected officials. Here in Townsville, we’ve seen all manner of fibbers, fortune hunters, and most detestably, mouth-breathers. But despair not, dear Reader, for the townspeople of Townsville have finally united in voting for the most trustworthy candidate of all: The beloved puppet from the local library’s story hour.

How To Play

In this wacky political TTRPG, you and a couple of friends will play as the Strings attached to and controlling the town’s new puppet leader, Madame Mayor. Individually, you are uncoordinated and nearly talentless, but in concert, you are Townsville’s only hope at putting its history of greed and dysfunction squarely in the past. 

Each of you, whether Head or Hand Strings, have unique abilities, and in contributing them to the collective, Madame Mayor will sail her way through her weekly mayoral duties and serve her constituents with Muppet-like fervor. Attend municipal assemblies! Enact lofty statutes! Cut satin ribbons with comically large scissors!

What's Inside?

• 36-pages of Politics and Puppetry, interspersed with color illustrations of our leading lady, Madame Mayor!  
• Guides for building Townsville, and the ever-nefarious other Candidates. 
• Community-centric gameplay that rewards players for public service and good deeds. 
• 60 Unique Perks, 5 Departments, Over a Thousand Combinations 
• Optional rules for extra fun, with more updates on the way via our Itchfunding Sale.
• ...and a mention of Sonic the Hedgehog. Go on. Find it.

You can find this new TTRPG here: Madame Mayor! by Mean Green Press (itch.io)

I added a couple community copies for other jam participants that may need them! 🙌💚

i LOVE the vibes of this! you did a great job laying out the game with only 24 words, what a delightfully weird concept

Thank you so much!!!! I'm glad you liked it :)

No worries at all. This looks really neat by the way, thanks for joining the jam!!

also psssst don't tell anyone but free download for Hope Jammers https://mean-green-press.itch.io/madame-mayor/download/Kv8uzrT5ilnmZ7oG4xIIT5_xoXolTB09qgtdswjN

I said it in the Jam comments and I'll say it here so people see this: SO beautifully written. like. this is phenomenal

i clicked into this out of curiosity and now i am legitimately staring slack-jawed at my screen because of how captivating this story is. i mean it genuinely when i say this: this game elicited an emotional reaction from me that I cant recall any other ttrpgs doing. just.... wow. this is incredibly written and i hope you feel very proud of it!!!!

happens to the best of us lol. this looks awesome, what a neat little tool for brainstorming!

Is there a PDF for this project? It looks like it isn't uploaded yet 😅

Hey! Would you be able to add community copies or share a download link in our Discord server so other jam participants can see your great work? 

A Final Note (For the Ten of Wands)

“Mariah was my name. It means ‘bitter.' My mother named me so, for she ate little but rapini in her hard days of bearing me. She said its sharp bitterness was the only thing that eased her pain, but I think it was the only thing that matched her sorrow. For my father had died before I was born, and I was left alone with her grief.

I grew up bitter, too, and cared for little but myself. When my mother fell ill with a wasting disease, I did not tend to her, but left her to my younger brothers and sisters, who loved her more than I. 

This is why I walked my path. I hoped to find the Old Gods and beg them, or rather, curse them, to take away my mother's life. I wished to be free from the burden of caring for her. I was simply not fated for sweetness. It was not my namesake.

But the Old Gods did not heed me, or if they did, they did so wickedly. I've cried out to them ceaselessly in this everlasting night, and I heard nothing in return. I suppose I have gotten my wish after all: I do not have to tend to my mother anymore. We will both be buried soon. She by earth, and I by bitter frost."

this is so cool!!! its so neat that you went and built upon something that you had already worked on, plus i loveeee the art style of it all. simple but very polished :) 💚

The U.S.S. Titania thanks you for your contribution. Now we finally have a place to detail the events of our recent Salamangler encounter, a creature that is fluorescent, aquatic, and very. very. aggressive.

this is so cool! i love how you set up the pages too, ascii art is ALWAYS in style

i got sent to the year 1513 and all i got was this lousy plague

neat concept! (also this page looks cool as hell)

"it was sentimental and irreplaceable. I was relieved. it ended in celebration"

oh now thats interesting 👀 what a cool idea!

its always so disarmingly kind when someone remembers something about you that even you almost forgot. i hope this puts a little more of it out into the world :) nice work!

this is so sweet! as someone who crochets a lot, I sometimes wonder about where it'll all go one day. i hope when my friends grow tired of their sweaters and scarves, their kids will find them in a box one day and ask where they came from. thanks for inspiring that nice thought :)

thanks so much!

you made me break my mirror! so much for a lucky 2024 😅

i love this goofy little game. good job!

this is so creative and original! im a huge nerd about embodiment theory, so this was just a delight to read. i have a lot of freckles on my arm, so now i'm thinking about how they almost look like differently-sized cities on an otherwise empty desert map. i've been needing a map like that for a campaign im working on, so now i think ill use my freckles as city locations so i always have a story aid built into my skin

this was cool as hell! thank you for installing it into my brain lol

what a fantastic description to go with a similarly fantastic game! you capture the feeling of being a wandering lone wolf so well in just two pages and it's really impressive. i think the decision to include snap judgements from others and the ways in which you navigate changing/confirming them creates a really interesting dichotomy between public perception and the private self. it's really thought-provoking!

what a neat idea! hell yeah 💚

thanks! I can't wait to check out you and everyone else's projects this week :)

Jules!! that's so nice of you to say, I really appreciate that. this comment just made my day :)

btw i finally have a free week to binge-read your games, so prepare for me to repay all the compliments lol 😂

this is so cool!!!!!! I LOVE your art style so much, great job!

thank you!!! I really appreciate that :)))

That's a great idea! I've used Obsidian a bit in the past, so maybe I can throw something together

Hey! For some reason your email kept bouncing back, so please check your Discord DM's when possible. Thanks!

I love the foreword you included about your background and what drew you to create this! I felt like it gave me a really clear understanding of your thought process for this project and your draw toward aesthetics.

This is such a gentle concept! I really like the decision to include spirits, entities, and animals that counteract the players, and how the solution is always to lead with compassion and patience in interacting with them. It brings a kind of tenderness to the game to try and bring peace back to a place that is both in pain and causing pain. It's truly about regrowing, rather than just sweeping the transgressions of the past under a rug. I love that idea so much. 

This is such a thought-provoking game for just one page! I love the discussion that it explores about rightful ownership and how it reframes the hero's journey through such an interesting lens. Oftentimes, people are heralded as legends without giving any credit to the people and things that helped them turn the tide. By tracing backward through "the" hero's tale and returning to people what is rightfully theirs, it really gives thanks to the unsung heroes of the story. They, too, contributed something precious, and whether they wanted to or not, they helped fight for this new world, too.

I'll definitely be asking my table if we can use this game when our D&D campaign eventually comes to a close. We have a ton of special items that have helped save the day, so it would be a nice conclusion to trace our way back to the beginning and thank those who were generous enough (or careless enough) to put them into our hands.

So freaking cool!!!!!

I've been meaning to get back to this, so you'll probably see an update for it soon 👀

This thread is a place for participants to drop any essays, articles, videos, artwork, etc. that they come across that could help inspire others while brainstorming their project. Remember, sharing is caring!

These references could be directly related to hopepunk or solarpunk, but they don't necessarily have to be. I might even take some of these and put them in the corresponding section on the jam page if they're good (with credit, of course).