Give your TTRPG the Criterion treatment in the Disc 2 Jam
Queue up special features, commentaries, and more for your design darling
Do you have a TTRPG you think deserves a little more love?
Do you want to write marginalia in your game, explaining your choices?
Do you want to record audio "director's commentary" to hold forth on your design genius?
Do you want to write a scholarly appraisal for a game that does not, technically, exist?
All of that and more is fair game in the Disc 2 TTRPG Jam. Hosted by Ken Lowery of Bannerless Games, publisher of ENNIE-winning VOID 1680 AM and the brand-new solo murder mystery No-Tell Motel, the Disc 2 TTRPG Jam gives seasoned and novice game designers alike a chance to get weird and go deep on their games in a fresh way.
"All this started because I wanted to give TargMargs the Criterion treatment," Lowery said, referring to the 4-page improv-heavy game about being drunk with your friends in a Super Target. "Because I think, secretly, it's a pretty smart piece of game design. In short order I realized that probably every single designer has a desire to 'go long' on at least one of their games. So why not give them a chance to do so?"
The objective of the Disc 2 TTRPG Jam is for designers to create special features for new or existing games in the manner of DVD "extras." What constitutes a special feature is deliberately left up to interpretation, but examples include director's commentaries, interviews, "deleted mechanics," and faux scholarly essays.
"I encourage you to be as serious or as silly as you want," Lowery said. "And I don't really care if the game you're featuring is new, old, or invented for the purposes of the Jam. If you want to make special features for a completely fictional game, go right ahead. In fact, that sounds pretty fun."
The Disc 2 TTRPG Jam runs from May 1 to May 22. There is no prize, but Lowery will give his favorites a shout-out in his newsletter and you'll have made a cool thing.
