Jam Dives, Seminars and killer resources
Jam Dives, Seminars and killer resources
Continued musings on how the community is growing.
This week is really focusing on the different ways we are trying to build our Liminal Horror community. One of those ways are the jams we host (and the resources we make to support creators making things). The entire Liminal Horror Dev team has always felt so supported by the ttrpg community, and we try to aim our efforts in giving back where we can.
Last week we announced our winner of the Twisted Classics jam (Ex Inferis by boryan.online, Tyler Welch). We’ve been meeting together and have some really cool things planned coming up for that one. But this week Josh wanted to share some thoughts on some of the other entries as well as highlight some resources for the next jam!
Writing Short Form Horror: Liminal Horror Writing Seminar
Last Sunday, Josh Domanski hosted a second writing seminar on The Weekly Scroll focusing on short form horror content for ttrpgs. In it they break down the tips and tricks for making impactful short form horror content both for your home games and for published products. While this is written to support the Horror of the Americas Jam - itch.io, its subject matter is suitable for any type of horror ttrpg writing. We’ve also updated the Liminal Horror Website Adventure Writing Resrouces to catalog this along with other great tools: https://liminalhorrorrpg.com/seminars/
Design Template
Next time we are going to dive in to some of the specific tools that have been created for the Horrors of the Americas jam, but I wanted to give a quick preview/shout out to the design templates. Not only are these perfect for the upcoming jam, they are versatile enough to be used for any of your ttrpg layout needs.
Crafted by Josh Domanski, they have everything you need to make a clean, modern layout. Not only that, but Josh has embeded advice on how to use them for different types of entries:
Liminal Horror Design Templates by Unenthuser for Horror of the Americas Jam - itch.io
But before we go head long into the next jam, we wanted to take some more time to highlight entries from our previous jam (and remember, if you want any advice on how to get to print, you can use our Print Support for Your Liminal Horror Adventures page on the website)
Twisted Classics Deep Dive by Josh Domanski
I wanted to take a quick dive into the Twisted Classics jam, and break down how we ended up selecting our winners. First and foremost, our criteria were intentionally very loose, primarily just “the entry that we think captures the theme and makes us go ‘hell yeah!’ and ‘agh, fuck!’ the most”. We considered all entries, from the fully print ready to the barebones WIPs, looking for the one we thought captured the spirit of a Twisted Classic the best. Since we’ve only ever done a few of these ourselves, this is still very much a “know it when we see it” type of deal.
So what exactly is a Twisted Classic? We describe it as “from the ground up reimaginings of classic adventures and favored stories”. The original idea was to take old modules that could not be directly converted to Liminal Horror and put a unique spin on the core concepts to better fit with modern horror. This idea expanded a bit to include other sources of inspiration, such as movies, books, games, and TV shows. The key is to find a clever way to take a core concept and spin it so that it can be run at the table and stands alone as a unique scenario even if the reader has never read/watched the original inspiration.
There were 32 entries to the jam that were not art packs or from the LH dev team directly, which is an incredible achievement for the timeframe we set. Beyond just those mentioned directly here, there’s a ton of really great stuff in this jam, and I would highly recommend taking the time to read through the entries yourself. Beyond our winners, I also wanted to highlight some Honorable Mentions that I think do some very clever stuff with the format.
Winner
Ex Inernis by Tyler Welch and Bo Ryan
This scenario pretty much perfectly encapsulates a Twisted Classic. It starts with a basic concept, “Event Horizon on a boat”, and builds outward from there. The influence of the original is very clearly felt, but it diverges enough to make it also feel like a wholly unique concept.
Beyond the basics, this module is immediately playable. I don’t necessarily mean this in the “completed work” sense, as that was never a hard requirement to be selected as the winner for the jam. More so that I know that I can take the core concept and bring it to the table without really any concern over whether or not it will work for a given group.
Winner’s Circle
Hotel Dracula by Luke Simonds and Seth Kinkaid
This module is a really clever reinterpretation of Dracula. Instead of directly retelling the story of the original novel, it acts as a sequel of sorts, branching off to do something new with the original elements. It doesn’t really diverge away from your standard vampire affair, but using the hotel as a basis and trapping the Investigators inside with the titular vampire is just a recipe for a good few sessions. The module does get just a little goofy with the time travelers and how everything ties back into the original story, but in a way that feels in line with the type of fiction that inspired it. Just like Ex Infernis, I know this is something that’s going to work well at the table from even just the core premise.
Messenger National Park by Capacity for Wonder
Not even considering the theme of the jam, this is the entry that made me immediately think “I want a copy of this on my shelf”. I’ve long been a fan of depthcrawl, and having one for Liminal Horror is a nut I’ve long been trying to crack. To be honest, most of my attempts have been urban based, so I didn’t really even consider the possibility of a national park. The project is still a WIP, but the format is well utilized here and meshes incredibly well with the subject matter and its inspirations.
Honorable Mentions
Beyond those chosen above, there were a lot of really great pieces from participants, including some that are ready to hit the press right now. I wanted to highlight an additional 4 submissions that caught our eye for one reason or another to draw attention to the type of stuff we love seeing and provide a couple of quick tips of ways to potentially elevate these projects beyond the jam. (though please note that not getting a callout doesn’t mean we didn’t love your project, there are simply too many cool things happening here to highlight them all)
Another Hollow by A. Denbigh Strickland
This one is just a two-pager, but it’s a funnel and it’s got fungus, so it firmly has my attention. Conceptually, it looks like it’ll work quite well and is near guaranteed to give you a hell of a one-shot. However, as an avid fan of one page and pamphlet adventures, this feels just a bit limited by its format constraints. Writing in this format is very tricky, and while I feel like this is very well done, I imagine it could really sing if blown out a bit into something like a 12-page zine given its scope and subject matter. A few more locations, some problems to throw bodies at, and some intentional funneling and we’re golden.
Lost Souls in Nekomura by Andrew Steadman and Jan Waeben
This is a tri-fold pamphlet involving a deserted Japanese neighborhood and some spooky cat creatures, drawing inspiration from the works of Junji Ito. Even though we have the Japanese translation of Liminal Horror, our projects have been focused on the Pacific Northwest, so it’s really cool to see something quite a bit outside the usual wheelhouse. Beyond that, the core concept of the pamphlet is solid. There’s a looping element to the neighborhood, which is a really creative way to use the constraints of a pamphlet to your advantage. I can see some road bumps happening during a session with this if a group is not particularly proactive, but it’s got a lot of potential. This is another idea I would love to see expanded. Maybe something like expanding the neighborhood a bit, and adding a couple of other small mysteries to the batch with the Nekomata serving as the central throughline. Could create a real nice World of Horror or Silent Hill style module.
A hiking trip goes very wrong in this 20 page zine. For a good portion of the jam, this was sitting at the head of the pack as our favorite, but was eventually just edged out by our winner. It’s a great example of what we want to see out of Twisted Classics. There are some things that I’d personally like to see tweaked, but it’s sitting there ready for print. Y’all should pick this up if you’re in need of something to run for a session or two, and it’d be dead simple to slap it into the same region as the official modules to bolster up an extended campaign.
Mr. Hall, if you’re reading this update, if you can get a version of this cleaned up to be 10 pages or under while leaving the core concept preserved, I absolutely want it for the Horrors of the Americas collection.
Ranpo Detective Agency by Kyle Tam
This was one of the projects submitted as a work-in-progress, but I really love the potential. It’s a creative spin on Liminal Horror, where you play as members of the titular detective agency in Japan investigating the sudden demise of a powerful family’s patriarch, all while slowly uncovering the true horrors behind the occurrences. While I really like the core of the mystery itself, this would also have a lot of potential as a full hack of Liminal Horror to refine the focus of being members of a detective agency a bit more. Regardless of where it ends up, I’m excited to see the final version come together.
Next Time
We’ll dive into more Horrors of the Americas resources, content, and ideas. I’ll also let you in on a musing I have on getting a ttrpg movie night screening of It doesn’t get any better than this? in Portland. Also a peak into what I’ve been working on as we wrap up the Deluxe Edition manuscript along with a very exciting way to present Appendix N.