The dice degradation mechanic is incredible. Having the same target number with every roll, which initially feels trivial to clear up until you're desperately trying to do anything at all is some palpable tension. I love that this comes with several interesting sample settings in multiple genres, highlighting just how adaptable this system is. I've always appreciated concise, simple gameplay, and 4: The Survival Tabletop Roleplaying Game uses this to haunting effect. Excellent work!

I haven't gotten a chance to play this yet, but I cannot wait to run it! I already have a group or two in mind who I think would enjoy it. I absolutely love the simplicity of it, it'll be so quick an easy to set up and jump right into things. I also really appreciate the fact that you didn't stop at simply explaining the mechanics and call it a day; the fact that you go on to give suggestions for running the game/flow of play, suggest safety tools, and list so many scenarios (every page I scrolled I was surprised that there were even more!) made this feel incredibly polished and easy to run. The longer I've played TTRPGs, the more I've been drawn to simple, rules lite systems, and this feels like a wonderful example of exactly the kind of game I want to try.

The Guardian Angel mechanic also feels like a great way to keep players invested and involved, I can easily imagine the tension ramping up as more and more PCs die but start jumping in to help their surviving friends.

Also, the layout and design of the document were great and made everything very easy to read, which I hugely appreciate.

WOW! There are always a handful of games in Ludum Dare jams where it’s like… “someone made this in 72 hours?!?!” It feels like a standard game release, one that’s had far more time to create it, or at least none of the time pressure. And this game is one of those.

I’ll admit, when I saw the title of this game, I thought the “4 -” was a typo, like “This is the 4th file for the game and whoops we named it that” or “This belongs to a collection of games, and it’s the fourth.” Actually, now that I think about it, it would be kinda awesome to make 1, 2, and 3 using a similar system of having all the dice, and making a set!

Anyway, this is just fantastic. Aside from my own assumption, and a single tiny little “I have to find a negative, so here it is” —the separate paragraphs in the sample scenarios could use a blank line between them— I’ve got no notes here. This is spectacular. The layout is great, the concept is fantastic (I can easily see this becoming an SRD for people to make games using the “4 System”), you have loads of examples, and there’s even a character sheet! The inclusion of safety tips, suggestions for the DM, hints about possibilities for gameplay without outright pointing players to them, and the rapid character creation are all fantastic too; things that I’d assume would be in the “when the jam is over and I have time, I’ll add this stuff.”

Seriously, this is just terrific!

- ✨Beth

I’ve never gm’d before, but really liked that this was super accessible and made me feel a bit more encouraged to try. It has simple mechanics, a nice variety of scenario suggestions, and I appreciate you including the safety section, and not assuming that everyone that plays TTRPGs would know them. 

This is elegantly written, easy to understand and laid out pleasantly. If I had any critique, it’s that I don’t love games that eliminate players and have them sitting around waiting for others to finish playing. However I like your clever solution of The Guardian Angel to keep people engaged and involved even after their demise. 

~Angel

I'm really digging the system - clean and well defined and continually cranking up the tension.  I kinda want to use it as a framework to hack a full setting / scenario.

I love the layout, it looks very much like I would expect a TTRPG layout to look like. I also think the mechanics would be indeed very effecting at building tension and forcing the players to make stressful choices. There's something pleasing about having little accomplishing a lot, and leaving a lot of space for the GM to create the world they want to create too.

This is really good. From the first line I was thinking of Alien (the movie). I like how simple the rules are and how tension naturally rises as the dice get smaller and smaller. I do wish you encouraged eliminated players to throw obstacles at the remaining players. This game could be played with a spinner (or a bottle ;) who ever it points to has to roll, make an obstacle for the next player and spin the spinner. That way it would not need a GM, there is no way for one player to be singled out and everything is guaranteed to move quickly.

This game is so beautifully presented and mechanically elegant .  The rules are very clear and bring out the theme superbly , and I really appreciate the sample scenarios. Having a starting point really makes it so much easier to pick up and plan games quickly and helps your games night get to the fun part quicker :)