Once upon a time, I had 10 followers on twitter and no one gave a damn what I released, let alone what I was writing. I worked an office job and stress cried in my car during my lunch break while watching Jacob Geller videos, dreaming of escape.
A lot has changed since then, and one of the things that helped it change were these little things called game jams. Over on itch.io, people were hosting these amazing calls to action, focusing in on small concepts for maximum experimentation. If it weren’t for these jams, writing projects for them, joining communities to talk about them, and eventually hosting my own, I don’t think I would be where I am today, writing this to you all.
I think the surface of our industry has changed. In good ways and bad. But regardless of that, I believe in the power of a good game jam. I think their magic still courses through twitter threads, secret discords, and the disparate blogs that make up the outskirts of the indie scene.
Through the years I and other creators have used jams to encourage people to make stuff for *our stuff*. Add-ons, expansions, hacks. And while that is good and fun, I want to turn the clock back a bit and do like we did back when I was coming up. As a way of giving back, but also as a way to experiment and maybe, just maybe, get us all to discover something new about what a TTRPG can be for us.
Introducing the Lost, Broken, Unplayable Jam. Inspired by things like the most recent Super Eyepatch Wolf video, the 2022 Manifesto Jam, and just my history of participating and enjoying the 2018-2020 TTRPG Jam scene.
This jam is for all of your, well, lost, broken, and unplayable ideas. Experiments. In both form and function. This is for you fragmented manuscripts. This is for reviews of games that don’t exist. This is for lyric games, poems, and all manner of outsider art. It’s to let loose the slush pile onto an unsuspecting public.
There are nearly 100 people in the jam right now, and already 6 entries, including one that asks you to *eat* playing cards. Wild stuff. But the spirit of it is alive and it’s running for the next month. So I want you to join, I want you to write something, and I want you to submit it.
All the information can be found on the jam page. I hope to see you there.
-snow