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A jam submission

Pop-Up↑ Crash Out!View project page

TTRPG about journeying to get some food from a Pop-Up while trying not to Crash Out built with the Havoc Engine.
Submitted by Starrite — 51 minutes before the deadline
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Pop-Up↑ Crash Out!'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Does the game seem fun to play?#283.7783.778
Did it build on the Havoc Engine and add interesting stuff?#313.3333.333
Did it make good use of the Havoc Engine?#323.6673.667
Overall#333.5933.593

Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

I love that this game took the simplest possible expression of the Havoc Engine and made a kid-friendly game about animals, emotions, and scoring free food. I really love the idea of crashing out swapping your persona, which reminds of other games like DramaSystem or Smallville that model internal conflict. My only worry is whether the game is still interesting for a player after a successful heart-to-heart, which seems like an appropriately climactic moment but doesn't leave much to do after mechanically.   And the art is PERFECT.

Submitted

This is a cute little game about anthropomorphic animals on their quest for free food.

The game has a very reduced version of the Havoc engine at its core, where you just roll 2d6 plus an additional 2d6 if your main personality ties in. Players are encouraged to get creative about finding ways to incorporate their personalities. Generally, getting creative and working together to tell a fun story are explicitly written into the game.
The character sheet is very reduced too but it’s cool and has a big button that you can mash once you crash out. I really liked the mechanic as well as the representation on the sheet. The random tables are good points of inspiration and help convey the spirit of the game.

what I really love: 
chaos,
crash out,
heart to heart,
difficulty chart,
your random tables,
general appearance/style.
Plus: the art is really beautiful and fitting. ^^

what I was missing:
maybe more ways to add dice, like tying in your background, your dreams, your occupation …(because you are encouraged to decide those in the beginning [which is great])
maybe some items that you can use a limited number of times (like once)

Developer

I’m glad you like the game! As for your thoughts, we originally planned for the game to be more crunchier and have you utilize your background and items to help with gameplay. But we ended up having to scrap some of the ideas due to time constraints, as we really only started working on it for less than a week. However, if we were to continue working on this game I think definitely your suggestions of having crunchier systems are something we would definitely prioritize.

Submitted(+2)

The premise is great: anthropomorphic animals try to navigate a wacky world to get to a local joint that's offering free food. The art style is very fun. The writing is clever and cute. I really appreciate everything that you put into making the game really reflect the fun, cute premise that you started with. 

The gameplay is simple, maybe a little bit too simple for my taste, but I can definitely see this appealing to a crowd that's much more into roleplay than crunch. I think it does lose some of the fun of the Havoc system in the decision making that happens when you choose to allocate successes. In this game, there's only one place for successes to go, which is the current scenario's objective. Therefore, the measure of how long it takes for the scenario to be wrapped up is really just dependent on luck. Despite this, it replaces the fun of allocating successes with the fun of roleplaying a little guy in a big world trying to get some cake. 

The easy scenarios seem like they'd be over quickly, so quickly in fact that I imagine most of them will be over before everyone in the party has the opportunity to have a turn, especially if you have a medium-large group. This isn't necessarily an issue, as the group will likely prioritize specific players acting if they feel their character has something fun and interesting to contribute. I would probably try to avoid using easy scenarios because if the fun is in encouraging roleplay, then I'd like for everyone to have the opportunity to act. Maybe I'd rule that an objective cannot be completed until each player has acted, but that feels arbitrary. I would probably try to find a more elegant way to convey it in game. 

The only real choice in the game is the ability to crash out a single time and automatically succeed at the current scenario. I do like that crashing out changes your character and hopefully refreshes the gameplay a little bit. I could see myself crashing out not because the rolls were bad, but rather to keep things fresh as I played. I also really like the heart to heart mechanic and its implications for roleplay. I think that ruling any player can automaticaly end a scenario unilaterally may leave some folks frustrated if they don't get to participate in a scene, so again, maybe I'd rule that you can't crash out until round 2. or that crashing out gives you 4 successes instead of ending the scenario. That would mean that some progress already needs to be made before someone can crash out at least. That still feels inelegant. Maybe I'm overthinking it. 

Personally, if I were to run this myself, I would probably try to work in at least a little bit more complexity to the system, but in a way that doesn't feel like it ruins the magic of what's here. Here are some thoughts I had:

  •  I might try to add additional objectives or even competing objectives, so players can choose between multiple options when they allocate successes. The more I think about competing objectives, the more I like it. The GM could present several options and then players can roleplay trying to get each other to pick their favorite. I think that would organically drive roleplay in a way that also lends itself to increased mechanical complexity / decision making opportunity. 
  • I also think that I would try to work in some form of an equipment system. Given the theme, maybe everyone gets a single kitchen gadget/utensil. If they can work it into a scene, they get +1d6. If they don't get any successes when they use it, it breaks and maybe they need to spend some successes to fix it again. 
  • I might give the heart to heart just a little bit more mechanical weight. Maybe each player writes down a favorite food on their character sheet at the start of the game and if they eat the food after crashing out, they can choose to unlock their true self. This would allow the rest of the group to take them on a sidequest style scenario where they go hunting for their favorite food. 
  • I might try to add some time pressure to scenes using the Chaos ensues mechcanic (which I love btw). Maybe another way to activate it is a clock equal to the number of successes required to complete a scenario where each failure ticks it up. If the players are failing more than they're succeeding, something bonkers happens and maybe adds a few more successes required to complete the scenario or adds a new objective they have to complete before they can finish the scenario. 

Overall, I can see how this would make for a fun time goofing around with friends but also providing a decent framework to help identify success vs. failure. Even if I would like it to be just a bit more crunchy, I think it's a great game and it was very fun to read and think about. 

Developer

Thanks for the in-depth analysis, I love the feedback and suggestions! To start, I agree that Crash Out! as a mechanic can be pretty broken. The idea behind Crashing Out! was supposed to act like a big table flip in case luck wasn't going your way as well as adding a new flavor to a character. But if used to powergame, especially with how it's written currently (as I forgot to include it in the document). A player can theoretically use it to skip the climax scenario. This is obviously unintentional and I do think that changing it from an instant success to 4 successes would solve that issue.

Otherwise, I really like all of your other suggestions. I personally love the idea of Chaos tying in with success and failure. In fact, more mechanical crunch is something we were originally going to add, but we had to cut it out due to scope. Initially, the game actually revolved around completing side objectives, as every character would have some type of personal goal they had to complete. This actually leads to the possible outcome that you would be unable to reach the pop-up at the end. But we viewed that as a good outcome, as a big theme about the game is that it’s not about the destination but the journey.

Submitted

I love the art! I do appreciate the BW printable version too. 

Submitted

Well-written and extremely charming. The painted background texture makes it extremely difficult to print and use, though — consider an additional b/w version without it?

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the review! Uploaded a BW printable version w/o the napkin background.