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A jam submission

JAMS!View project page

A TTRPG about a punk band fighting the system and getting into trouble.
Submitted by Devil Whale Games — 1 minute, 5 seconds before the deadline
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JAMS!'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Did it make good use of the Havoc Engine?#194.0074.250
Overall#253.7323.958
Did it build on the Havoc Engine and add interesting stuff?#263.5363.750
Does the game seem fun to play?#333.6533.875

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

With so many games in this jam about punching fascists (including mine), I appreciate the note of pure joy this book adds. Giving time limits and throwing way more objectives at the players than they can possibly complete in time is punk as hell, and as someone who regularly does live cabaret, absolutely accurate. However, my instincts tell me that the timers could be made a wee bit more forgiving and/or the objectives slightly easier to complete, particularly with the number of negative objectives hanging around.  Transposing equipment into allies does a lot to sell your theme, and I like attaching ally refreshes to a narrative rather than a mechanical requirement. I'm a big fan of jams evolving into advances and Living On the Edge; characters getting more powerful as they take conditions just seems to really vibe well with Havoc. I'm not sure I'm quite on board with the show objective being just one big roll. I get that a lot of the strategizing around the show roll happens in the lead-up, but I feel like it could use one more mechanical wrinkle just to make it feel special. (Can I offer you exploding dice in this trying time?)

I definitely know all of the band members. Jackie's character art reminds me of a young me, so thank you for that.

Developer(+1)

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

Submitted(+2)

First impression: The title is so evocative and simple. Why say lot word when few word do trick

Love the idea. Placeholder punk bunny has my whole heart. He can come live in my house and smoke all my cigarettes and drink all my beer. 

Here are some thoughts and notes (in no particular order):

  • The characters are great, but I agree with everyone else that placeholder punk bunny needs to be worked into the mix. The art is fantastic, I love you how have the stats on the art page. 
  • Speaking of, I love the stats as well. They're simple, elegant, and fit the theme so well. 
  • Using "Allies" in place of Equipment is a great way to recharacterize the equipment system in Havoc. 
  • The Jam system being tied into the advances and then inflicting the living on the edge condition does a great job of incentivizing characters to take risk and mark jams. That's exactly what I was trying to do with the flaw system in my submission. Living on the edge is such a good way to show the player the barrel of the gun and because players have agency in deciding who takes jams and when, I feel like it can lead to some great roleplay at the table as people work together to keep their friends safe. 
  • The special Show Objective step is a great way to represent the characters working together to play the show. I really like how you have the gig timer counting down to represent the limited time to prep for the show, where players act independently using the normal dice pool rolling rules. The decision to make the perform show action work differently from the rest seems like a really good one and it really feels like a great way to build in a climax for each gig. 
  • I like the system for managing objectives via index cards. Totally going to steal that for my Major/Minor objectives from my submission.
  • The guidance for creating custom objectives is just way better written than my guidance for creating minor objectives in my submission. Stealing that too
  • I love how the gigs go from Skate Park -> Dive Bar/ Festival -> Protest. That's awesome. The objectives that have "Ask the Players X" are so good. I love the idea of using objectives as ways to get the players to think about their characters and improvise some drama. 

Absolutely incredible work. More placeholder punk bunny please. 

Developer

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

Submitted(+1)

Placeholder bunny only has three images instead of 30. 0/10

In all seriousness this looks fun. I’d like to see a little more about the downtime part of the round but Punk band on the go is a solid theme!

Developer (1 edit)

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

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Placeholder Bunny should definitely be a playable character! I already feel oddly attached to them.

Developer

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