The Appx N Jam, Community, my Top10 entries
Do you want to jump straight into the TOP 10 entries I believe are the underrated? Just scroll down past my open hearted feelings.
The Appx N Jam, in no other words, helped me found myself in this TTRPG space.
But before that, it made me feel vulnerable and silly.
For a good moment, I felt like that for spending so much time doing my entry.
I was actually on some days off work, some of them traveling on vacation, and I would write on a hand sized little journal.
And it's a weird headspace. Is this relaxing? Shouldn't I be doing nothing instead? I was spending days on end thinking about alchemy and the location of the souls in our bodies and what kind of animal would be funny to swap souls. Was I actually getting some rest?
That's a can of worms on itself we will leave for later.
Eventually - after much more time than I should ever spend on it - I found the spark on the module; everything connected neatly. Rooms working together all around, a major clock mechanic, different souls scattered.
I do feel I did a good enough job with my writing and my ideas, with although some - let's call them unprofessional - choices on layouting and the excess of text. It felt amateurish which, by definition, it was. Even so, most comments on the Jam to this point had praise to it, so I will take their word.
It was eventually done, and I was glad I did it.
To be good at something you have to suck at it at first, right?
At that point, some of the best entries started to pop up, works done by an actual group of people, artists, published writers.
And so I was in the limbo, in between my submission and the end of the window, and life went on uncerimoniously, and what stayed was the lingering feeling of inadequacy, of standing among pros with my silly little story about love and grief.
Until the time came around.
The time of ratings.
I didn't really expect such a community, I must admit.
Everyone starts reading each other's work! Absorb it fully, see its choices and funny decisions!
And as fun and satisfying as it was to see other incredible writers and artists noticing my own little ideas and perceiving the nooks and crannies on it, the real realization was from my own perspective.
Not only could I read them, rate them, help them, enjoy them. I had the means to give every game that same happy feeling of aknowledgement with ease, and for that all I had to do was actually read a bunch of adventures?!
This is a mountain of expertly written adventures, free, made to be easy to use and read, that wanted to be read and discussed!
People around the world just made all that.
There's just something quite endearing about Show and Tell, you know?
And at that point, the majority of submissions you see on the top were already there; they are the unconstested good by anyone that sees them. They are playable, beautiful, and incredibly written.
But there were so many more to discover!
And shoutout to Itch.io for being such a great platform for that; both ordering from least rated as well as rating from most karma are excellent ways to reward both engagement and participation and finding the underdogs.
Believe me when I say,
There are many other amazing entries.
Which I say confidently after checking and rating exactly 79 of them, out of more than 300.
It doesn't really feel like a lot, but oh it is. It's not easy to give someone your full attention. That's more than 300 pages total after all! I don't envy the judges for having the obligation of doing that to all entries.
And of those 79, I have 10 entries that are both below a threshold of ratings that I find egregious, and so spectacular that I can see myself playing any of them in a heartbeat.
I do have to share my own criteria,
Even if briefly, unfortunately.
The truth is, if something captures me, entrances me, explains to me the story up front, and let me piece that prologue together while I am reading afterwards, I am much more ready to like the piece.
If I have to piece together its goal by clues loose around, I usually feel that barrier as something that would give me trouble to GM quickly in pick up and play - which is exactly my goal whenever I look for an adventure. That's my true gameability.
Along with that, I also try to be more severe with the Theme rating; mostly because I changed a lot of things in my own entry to appeal to the retrofit theme of the Jam.
And finally, as writing really is less of a particular criteria, I have to mention I consider visual design very flexibly; as someone that does not have an artist helping them, give me creative use of spaces and even handdrawn stuff and I am down to play. Doing nothing is perfectly valid and better than getting in the way, after all.
Let's get to the TOP 10 already.
These are my ten favorites, with no particular order.
Consider any entry here worth a print, to be kept nearby for an spectacular adventure.
Bread for the Bukavac
A full solo card game about appeasing a patron with bread.
A huge table of sparks and ideas based on your current card.
Fully understandable mechanics from a single readthrough.
This is still - by far - the most creative entry I have seen until now. A title that could trip up a more traditional style dungeon, made shine with a deck of cards and journaling.
Get a deck of card and try it out. I know I will soon (and probably post a session report about it).
Gemini Spires
What a delightful use of the title; a full 8 room map, occupied by 10 different types of NPC, with 4 very flavorful tables.
I am a sucker for the irony of eternal balanced war between two halves that can only resolve it by uniting. Which is also the perfect design space for a TTRPG; it benefits greatly from intruders disrupting that balance. You can slap the Gemini Spires in any hex and have a great session.
That's perfect gameability.
Hearts of Onyx
I now have a soft spot for modules that also go for the paper pile style. And with handwritten notes too? I am right at home.
A beautiful hand-drawn map, an excellent evocative clock, and 5 NPCs and a dragon...
The simple rule that requires the party to have a guide makes this a hidden highly social game, which the author know full well with how much space and dedication went into each Character of this excellent adventure.
Woe of the Pale Prince
Oh, lost love. Not enough entries have it as a central theme, and not any as beautifully as the Woe of the Pale Prince.
Every room is a piece of art. The art straight out of Sol Cesto is so unique and alive. The gameability of collecting mementos of his grief.
Everything about this is beautiful, poetic and goes beyond a simple dungeon with a simple problem.
The Lost Expedition of Adria
If you told me this was an official adventure from the Into the Odd book, I would have believed you.
What this adventure does with four pages, making it delight in its free space allwhile carrying a full hexcrawl climb, full art, three! tables and 6 locations, is nothing short of spectacular.
All that with a concise, economic adventure that still works and has mechanical depth.
A Seance on North Fork Road
Continuing on the same theme as above, you could have handed me this pamphlet and said it came as an official supplement to Mork Borg and I would not question it.
The gameability here is off the charts; slap this as a stretch of road, or a scenario for a witch coven, and it fits any and all.
On the "print this to use on your game whenever you need" metric, this is one of, if not the best.
The Pillars of Creation
This is one of those adventures that make me selfconscious about my own. How could this all fit so well?! Three factions, four enemies, 4 different random event tables - each entry ocean deep with flavor and lore and heart.
All that with a full drawn map, and an excellent story of weird science fantasy on top.
Pillars of Creation is quite possibly the best On Theme entry of this list, if not all.
Knives of the Agave Syndicate
If all those other adventures were hexes on a map, or sessions on the road, this is your city session.
Three awful factions with interests at odd give everything you need to make the Players scratch their heads. Do we support any of them, actually?
So wildly easy to slap onto any major city with a sketchy neighborhood. This is all a 4 page adventure could hope for.
Oh, and have you noticed the amazing art for the factions?
The Gladsome Horror
What a delight. The use of a deck of cards for making NPCs and the village is simple and yet captivating.
The timeline of events is easy to grasp and to follow, but the highlight here is the incredible NPC table. So many secrets! And using the face cards to represent them? Exquisite!
This whodunnit murder mystery is a very unique take for the Jam, with few others working similarly (shoutout Sons of the Horn Mask, another excellent mystery with cultists).
Cemetery of the Silent Monks
This one is hard for me to mention.
Contrary to the others above, this is a very professional job, done by Exeunt Press, who has many releases.
It is in A6 format, which is so annoying to parse through in print, going back and forth this book for ants.
But it stands at this moment with a criminal 18 Ratings, and it is, to me, a real contender for the crown in this entire thing.
Every single line in this adventure paints a picture for the imagination to see. Each entry in each table drips flavor and feels straight out of Mork Borg. The adventure matches the art matches the theme, the theme matches the retrovibe of the Jam with its bizarre weird scifi fantasy.
This adventure doesn't make me want to print it out to be ready; it makes me want to stop my campaign to play it.