A fun concept here with some interesting ideas. The way you've streamlined and simplified the core Havoc Engine rules feels very clean. One thing that did occur to me, however, was I wonder if, in stripping out a lot of the crunch, there might need to be some additional ways for the narrative or role-playing to affect the outcome as it might feel that the players have limited mechanical means to influence success. Also, I did really like the layout and design, it's gorgeous work.
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The Pigeons Council's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Does the game seem fun to play? | #18 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Did it build on the Havoc Engine and add interesting stuff? | #35 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
| Overall | #36 | 3.519 | 3.519 |
| Did it make good use of the Havoc Engine? | #43 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
This looks like a lot of fun, my mind immediately thought I can play this like "blades in the dark but with pigeons" and I'm here for that. Really appreciated the imaginative writing style, little snippets full of ideas.
Also enjoyed the layout and colour choices, it brings it all together nicely and creates a really clean and perfectly package one-shot.
Submitted
Killer Crips 3000This game is so simple and pretty. I really like the way players compete for objective successes with the GM.
Personally, I think I would like a bit more crunch in the system, but that's a personal taste thing. The mechanics here are very straightforward and easy to understand, which I'm certain would be a strong draw for a different type of ttrpg player.
One thing that is partially related to the lack of crunch, but not entirely, is that I feel like there is a bit of a loss of player decision-making that comes with the Havoc engine. With only one trait, one skill, and one place for successes to go, I feel that the game would often boil down to finding a way to describe every single action in a way that incorporates your trait and skills and then just hoping that the dice are on your side.
I do think that maybe there are ways to increase player choice without adding crunch by adding more objectives and/or things to spend your dice on. I don't think you'd have to go crazy with it. Maybe it's just a system where you can bank successes for future objectives or some narrative reason if you feel like you're likely to succeed on the current objective. I could even envision adding something like:
- Pigeons may choose to spend successes to increase the objective counter or they may choose to bank as many successes as they wish into their personal collection. At the end of the game, the pigeon with the most successes banked is the wealthiest pigeon around. If the pigeons have successfully earned three claims, that player describes how their pigeon transitions to a life of decadence after the events of the game. If the pigeons failed to earn three claims, that player describes how the powers that be seized their assets and that pigeon transitions to a life of destitution.
That would offer some risk/reward and maybe be a way to drive drama and conflict in the story. Just a thought!
Great submission!
Submitted
Shoulder Parrots and Hooks for HandsThis is extremely cute and thematic game which is straight to the point and ooozing with vibes. It definetly falls more on the goat cracshers territory than ETR but it seems like extremely fun afteroon and good excuse to rope in people who might not be that much into ttrpgs. Artwork and laytout is great. If i had to be nitpicky reading rules It might not be straight away obvious that Each die that shows 4+ is a success does indeed count 4 towards success as well(or i assumed it did based on havoc engine). Very adorable game and sounds like a cool gateway into RPGS.
Submitted
Dead and Breakfastvery interesting mechanic for adding the possibility of failure and getting rid of GM dice, although the example doesn’t seem to match the rule
Submitted
Free MovementSeems fascinating, but I’m not sure how well it works with Havoc. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of narrative guidance to the turns and the dice pool building into assigning to objectives doesn’t seem to fit with what seems like a more traditional skill roll format here.
Submitted
War Bonds: Battle of the Somme
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