Our theme this month is NIGHT SHIFT: a long awaited theme that's been second place in 5 polls in the last 9 months. This one is really open to interpretation I don't really have any guidance on where to start with it. I'll say, consider other meanings of those two words put together, instead of just the phrase.
Our challenge for this month is One Room. Make a really detailed, small space to explore. Focus into a very fine level.
I've been brain-fried for the past few months so sorry for so few updates on games from the jam. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of that for June so keep an eye out for a few reviews!
MAY ETERNAL JAM SUBMISSION TWO ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!!
Hey y'all,
If you don't already know, I have an Itch.io!! I post mostly TTRPGs on there and the occasional convert for games like Citizen Sleeper & the Pokemon TCG.
This month for the 'Eternal Game Jam: Void Rituals' I made and posted two new games with wholly original systems in them.
The first game is 'To Say Goodbye: A Game In Three Acts' which is a solo lyric game meant to be played once!
The game is based on a series of three poems I wrote years ago that I felt really fit the theme of Voids since the poems were based on the pain of creation and the inevitability of "Saying Goodbye" to your creations.
The game requires 2d6 & a series of blank note-cards! I won't spoil the contents of the game but if the vibes feel like something you'd like take a peak!! (Link is embedded in Image)
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The second game completed for the 'Eternal Jam: Void Rituals' is "Ground Control? Do You Read Me?" which is an abstract survival game set on a space station after permanent communications loss with Earth!
The game is based on classic NASA module documents from the 60s & 70s! My original intention was to make the game a re-flavor of 'The Quiet Year' by Buried Without Ceremony but I ended up feeling that the direct one-to-one translation didn't fit the vibes I was going for. We eventually hit on a more abstract system that utilizes beads to interpret Omens in the stars!
The game can be played with a group of Cosmonauts or you can go at the game alone (I know some of you like the wonderful Himeutsugi love Solo games so I wanted to include ways for y'all to play)!
If this sounds like something you'd enjoy playing or maybe something a friend might enjoy go ahead and take a peak!! (link embedded in image)
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The @eternalttrpgjam is full of an absolutely wonderful group of creators so I highly suggest you check out everyone else's work! We've got everything from cool Bookmark games by the great Ranarh at 'Make it a Triple Game Studios', 'Borg'-hacks inspired by Shin Megami Tensei by the super cool Discount Fry, to paper fortune teller games by the absolutely astounding @rowansender !! There's way more to talk about so if y'all like cool stuff take a peak!!
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Sometime in the future I will be posting about the other games on my Itch.io like a super rules-lite 'moppet' game or my swords & sorcery pamphlet game or my April sci-fi Eternal Jam submission or my Pokemon TCG ttrpg convert or my citizen sleeper pen and paper convert etc.
Our theme this month is NIGHT SHIFT: a long awaited theme that's been second place in 5 polls in the last 9 months. This one is really open to interpretation I don't really have any guidance on where to start with it. I'll say, consider other meanings of those two words put together, instead of just the phrase.
Our challenge for this month is One Room. Make a really detailed, small space to explore. Focus into a very fine level.
I've been brain-fried for the past few months so sorry for so few updates on games from the jam. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of that for June so keep an eye out for a few reviews!
For the past 3 & 1/2 years, I've been providing weekly ttrpg recommendations for folks, and I've been happy to do so! However, I've found myself in a new stage of life recently that has dramatically reduced my free time. Ultimately, this is a good thing, but it also means that right now, I need to re-focus what little free time I have towards personal projects and time spent with friends.
I really enjoy providing recommendations for folks, and I hope to do so in the future - in fact, if everything goes as I expect, I should be flipping through my archives again in September later this year. But until then, There's A TTRPG For That will be put on a reduced posting schedule.
What this means:
I'm not accepting any recommendation requests or review requests for the duration of my hiatus.
I will be re-posting old recommendation posts for the duration of my hiatus.
I have a Library Masterpost for the curious
There are one or two things that I may still release in the next 5 months or so, either because I agreed to them before going on hiatus or because I had the time & motivation to write about something.
Thank you so much everyone for the love and appreciation that has been sent my way over the past 3 years. I hope to see y'all again in September!
- Mint
Astronaut, psychonaut, chrononaut. This theme is all about travel and exploration. It also has a slight bent towards the scientific, implicit in many (though not all) of the ____-naut words. With this theme, think about documentation. Think about what it means to not just be in a space, move through a space; but to be immersed in it, subsumed by the subject of study. The subject, the study, and the state of being are one in the same.
This theme would be a great opportunity to do a take on many different types of speculative fiction, especially scifi classics. An Annihilation pastiche come to mind, bit just as easily a 2001: A Space Odyssey or Left Hand of Darkness would work just as well. This would also be a great time to stretch your legs as a world designer. Create a space to be immersed in. Fill it with texture and detail.
The challenge is
Simple layout/ .txt
This one's simple (rimshot.mp3). Make your game as simple as possible. Style it after an in world report, format it as an old monochrome crt display. Alternatively, really commit to the simplicity and make your game as a .txt file.
Come join Eternity in April
A game jam from 2026-05-01 to 2026-06-01 hosted by Rowan Sender. Welcome to the May 2026 Edition of the Eternal TTRPG Jam! This is a game ja
Astronaut, psychonaut, chrononaut. This theme is all about travel and exploration. It also has a slight bent towards the scientific, implicit in many (though not all) of the ____-naut words. With this theme, think about documentation. Think about what it means to not just be in a space, move through a space; but to be immersed in it, subsumed by the subject of study. The subject, the study, and the state of being are one in the same.
This theme would be a great opportunity to do a take on many different types of speculative fiction, especially scifi classics. An Annihilation pastiche come to mind, bit just as easily a 2001: A Space Odyssey or Left Hand of Darkness would work just as well. This would also be a great time to stretch your legs as a world designer. Create a space to be immersed in. Fill it with texture and detail.
The challenge is
Simple layout/ .txt
This one's simple (rimshot.mp3). Make your game as simple as possible. Style it after an in world report, format it as an old monochrome crt display. Alternatively, really commit to the simplicity and make your game as a .txt file.
Come join Eternity in April
A game jam from 2026-05-01 to 2026-06-01 hosted by Rowan Sender. Welcome to the May 2026 Edition of the Eternal TTRPG Jam! This is a game ja
This weeks’ recommendation post comes courtesy of @literalcatpod, the podcast all about making cats in your favourite ttrpgs! We’re turning the tables a little bit by recommending a bunch of my favourite cat games!
Are you ready for a number of different situations to put your cats in?
Sashimi Kitties, by Stormslegacy. **
After seeing an aquarium that a TV show set up for the rich and famous you fluffy sashimi-loving gourmets are going to relieve that mansion of its fish. This game tells that epic story! Do you succeed? How do you pull off the ultimate dine and dash? Play to find out!
A great set-up for a comical heist, Sashimi Kitties has a pretty quick character creation set-up, as is the standard for a one-shot. You’ve got your reputation, your role on the team, and a number that represents your skill in either Sass or Charm. The GM has a handy list of roll-tables for what kind of fish your after, where it’s found, and what kinds of obstacles are standing in your way. It’s time to go fishing, kitties!
Agent Purrvocateur, by David Garrett
You are a special agent who works for the secretive counter-terrorism organization known as the Feline Operations Group. Together with your fellow agents, you travel the world stopping dastardly villains from carrying out their diabolical plans.
Travel to exotic locales, investigate mysteries, fight henchmen, and save the world in this GM-less, no-prep game of heroic derring-do for one or more players. The ultra-light VRBS system emphasizes the fun of improvisational storytelling and learning by doing, and is appropriate for players aged six and up.
The concept of the game is pretty easy to pick up: you’re secret agents that are also cats. Character creation is fairly simple as well: you pick a name and describe your cat, and select three verbs from a suggested list to illustrate what your cat is good at. This is a game where you get better as you play, which is probably why character creation is so slim. If you want the GM to get in on the fun, there’s a bunch of roll tables to develop a mission for your furtive felines.
The Perfect Feline-y, by Furry Little Goblin Press.
The Purrfect Feline-y is a rules-lite TTRPG for one GM and players who are 1) willing to pretend to be cats and 2) willing to commit only the finest and most chaotic of crimes. Inspired by games such as Honey Heist and Lasers and Feelings, this game is intended for single sessions of low prep silly fun. The Purrfect Feline-y is built on Caltrop Core by Titanomachy RPG.
As you know, cats have a predisposition for crime. (Or at least, so say the folks on Literal Cat Pod). I needed to have a game that featured Caltrop Core on this list, and thankfully Furry Little Goblin Press did not disappoint! You get four traits, and to distribute numbers between them to determine how many d4’s go into each dice pool. You also can roll or select a skill and a flaw, and the GM rolls on a little table to figure out what kinds of crimes your kitties are up to.
Catching Strays, by drmhigginson.
The Boss has been captured by the cities animal control and it’s up to you and your posse to get them out. You’re a furrocious gang of criminal city cats out on the prowl, at least until dinner time. Evade capture, steal scraps from the fishmongers and put the pigeons in their place. Physically or otherwise, you always land on your feet.
This has pretty much everything I would expect from a one-page game: Honey Heist rules, some roll tables to give you some descriptive pieces that will be useful if you find a way to make them relevant, and some GM roll tables to build a situation for your gang to walk into. There’s also a little bonus feature that’s optional: an informant who might just give you the hint you need to find your boss, and where to find them. I think I’m a bit partial to Honk, myself.
Freya’s Vi-Cats, by Geek It Real Good.
All of Köttrby’s warriors went a-viking, leaving their lovely village unprotected, or so a group of invaders thought. They don’t know that Freyja herself blessed Köttrby with an abundance of cats, who will fight tooth, claw and nail to defend their home. After all, they’re the only ones allowed to knock a cup off a table … or set the longhouse on fire.
Morph all of the cats in your viking household into one mega Vi-Cat and repel three waves of invaders before the longships return home!
This is a pretty simple game, with pretty much every piece of your character rolled randomly. This is definitely a game that’s all about combat, what with the norse themes, rules about boss battles, and conflict-focused Feline Feats. What’s unique about this game is that nobody is really playing one cat - you’re actually each a kind of cat Mega-zord, made up of multiple cats! That’s more cat per cat!
Claw & Order: NAP Unit, by Lichlight Imprints.
You are a highly-trained agent of the Neighbourhood Assurance Patrol - a cat. And not just any cat. You’re part of an elite (read: completely self-appointed) unit tasked with keeping your block free of crime, chaos, and canine disruption. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to nap between the lines.
If you want to create a character using a partially-filled out template, Claw & Order might be the game for you. Choose from a series of Brindlewood/PbtA-style playbooks, from options such as the Himbo, the Mystic, or the Grand Dame. The noir twist certainly keeps the name on brand!
Witch Cats, by Ty Barbary.
Play as a Cat with your friends and work together to help your Witches succeed in their various magical plots! Made for the Horseshoe System Game Jam.
Every Witch has their familiar, and all of the cats in this game have their Witch! You roll randomly for two parts of this game: the cat characters, and the collectively shared Witch. The GM isn’t left out here either; this game comes with a task roll-table to randomly determine what our dear little witch needs help with.
CATastrophic, by Nekiya RPG
In CATastrophic, players are cats whose minds were fused with artificial intelligence during an experiment. Now more conscious and intelligent than ever, they launch a rebellion to overthrow the megacorporations that use animals as test subjects.
This is a great way to weave cyberpunk into your cat game. The designer says that this game uses the Bastet System which I think might have originated inside this game. There’s some more pieces to your cat in this game compared to a lot of the other games on this list: you’ll distribute modifiers among 5 attributes, but you ‘ll also choose a set of personalities & a quirk, as well as roll a d66 for your fleshware. The randomness added to the choices are likely going to create a really unique cat, for a really unique setting.
Kittens Mafia Pizza Meowhem, by Finiel.
Welcome to the ameowzing Nonna Lucía's Pizzería. Known pizza parlor… and mafia front. Step up as Nonna's Kittens to run the Pizzería. Deal with customers, defend the pizzería from enemy families, and avoid getting caught by the sanitary department.
This is hands down my favourite concept on this list. Kittens Mafia Pizza Meowhem comes with two sheets: one for Players, and one for the GM. Your kitties have a name, a breed, a role that gives you that extra kick, but what’s really neat to me is the paired stats that you start out with. You can choose to enhance one of your stats at the beginning, but doing so reduces its opposite, thus really creating gaps that you’ll likely depend on your fellow cats to cover as you play. You also get to roll to determine what your pizzeria looks like, that added zest that makes this cat game much more than just a cat game.
Neko No Mura, by chtos.
Nestled at the base of Mt. Fuji is a village of contradictions. With one foot in the spirit world, Spirits and Humans walk side-by-side on a daily basis only barely aware of each other's presence. Since time immemorial, you've guarded this place; you ensure rogue Spirits leave the humans in peace and that inconsiderate humans don't desecrate the shrines of the Spirits.
To the humans, you may seem like normal cats - but some of them know better, some of them think to give you a head pat or a small treat in thanks for your dedication to keeping this place safe. Is it any wonder that when the sky went dark and the humans disappeared from the streets that you were the first on the scene?
Then The Creatures appeared. The humans are now huddled in their homes, scared to leave. Some have been snatched off the streets. The Spirits have gone missing, and you know not why. It's up to you to find the spirits and enlist their aid to defeat the creatures and save your home.
For the folks who want a game that still has some bite to it, Neko No Mura is a game built on 24XX, an OSR-lite game that uses every part of the dice bag. Your cat has a name, description, and a magical domain. You also have a list of skills, one or two of which are boosted to indicate where you really shine. As for the tone of the game, I think it really depends on what the GM decides to throw at you from their roll-table: there’s some classic monsters like zombies or vampires, but there’s also some really unique, conceptual threats, like giant fish, red dots, or… the sun.
Honorable Mentions
The Cat Hack, by Kirt Dankmyer.
Faux Claw, by beccamay.
Battle Cats, by Tape Traveler.
Radical Air Felines, by Deadcoast Games
If you like what I do and want to leave a tip, you can always stop by my Ko-Fi page.
This recommendation post was made with help of @psychhound, also known as Luka Brave! You can check out his work here.
Astronaut, psychonaut, chrononaut. This theme is all about travel and exploration. It also has a slight bent towards the scientific, implicit in many (though not all) of the ____-naut words. With this theme, think about documentation. Think about what it means to not just be in a space, move through a space; but to be immersed in it, subsumed by the subject of study. The subject, the study, and the state of being are one in the same.
This theme would be a great opportunity to do a take on many different types of speculative fiction, especially scifi classics. An Annihilation pastiche come to mind, bit just as easily a 2001: A Space Odyssey or Left Hand of Darkness would work just as well. This would also be a great time to stretch your legs as a world designer. Create a space to be immersed in. Fill it with texture and detail.
The challenge is
Simple layout/ .txt
This one's simple (rimshot.mp3). Make your game as simple as possible. Style it after an in world report, format it as an old monochrome crt display. Alternatively, really commit to the simplicity and make your game as a .txt file.
Come join Eternity in April
A game jam from 2026-05-01 to 2026-06-01 hosted by Rowan Sender. Welcome to the May 2026 Edition of the Eternal TTRPG Jam! This is a game ja
if people are interested in getting more into ttrpg scholarship and actual academic conversations that are happening around ttrpgs some journals to check out (pared down from a list written by dr evan torner in the generation analog discord) are:
international journal of roleplaying
japanese journal of analog rpg studies
analog game studies
games: research and practice *
journal of roleplaying studies and steam
all journals are open access, meaning you can read them for free, except for the starred one, which is half open access. the two italicized journals are bilingual, the first in japanese and the second in spanish
theres a lot of interesting discussions happening out there that i think would be very enriching to some of the convos happening here, especially in indie ttrpg spaces. so, go forth. read. enjoy
The Eternal Jam for April is up! We're back to a more conceptual theme and I'm very excited about it.
Theme: "That shouldn't be there."
This one's going to be a fun one. Anachronisms, living fossils, aliens, cryptids. You can pull on almost anything here and mash it together with almost anything else. Put a phaser in your medieval game. Put the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand. Make a monster that only appears when you don't think about it, that feeds on the constant thoughts of those it has appeared to.
This one's perfect for making mashups and crossovers, too.
Thinking a layer deeper: make a game with rules inspired or directly pulled from another work. Put Uno reverse cards in your d20 game. Make your players follow proper Victorian Era table manners. Make rules that are an i-spy within your document. This one's very open for anything, and I'm very excited to see where people go with it!
Optional Challenge: Abhorrent Mundanity
Contrive of a situation in which normalcy seems out of place. A world so full of magic that a plowman defies logic. A system so esoteric that a +1 seems to break the spell.
Come join us!
A game jam from 2026-04-01 to 2026-05-01 hosted by Rowan Sender. Welcome to the April 2026 Edition of the Eternal TTRPG Jam! This is a game
The Eternal Jam for April is up! We're back to a more conceptual theme and I'm very excited about it.
Theme: "That shouldn't be there."
This one's going to be a fun one. Anachronisms, living fossils, aliens, cryptids. You can pull on almost anything here and mash it together with almost anything else. Put a phaser in your medieval game. Put the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand. Make a monster that only appears when you don't think about it, that feeds on the constant thoughts of those it has appeared to.
This one's perfect for making mashups and crossovers, too.
Thinking a layer deeper: make a game with rules inspired or directly pulled from another work. Put Uno reverse cards in your d20 game. Make your players follow proper Victorian Era table manners. Make rules that are an i-spy within your document. This one's very open for anything, and I'm very excited to see where people go with it!
Optional Challenge: Abhorrent Mundanity
Contrive of a situation in which normalcy seems out of place. A world so full of magic that a plowman defies logic. A system so esoteric that a +1 seems to break the spell.
Come join us!
A game jam from 2026-04-01 to 2026-05-01 hosted by Rowan Sender. Welcome to the April 2026 Edition of the Eternal TTRPG Jam! This is a game
if you work in a creative field...or if you do creative hobbies like writing or drawing...you need to make friends with people who don't do those things. you need to befriend normie Steve who has never written a story in his life. and this is because when you are in a creative job or hobby and spend all your time doing that thing, surrounded by very capable people, who you inevitably compare your own progress and skills to, you forget what the baseline human skill at that thing is. and it's usually zero. normie Steve has not written a story since the 3rd grade when his teacher made him do it. he's very good at other things that are not storytelling - but if you tell normie Steve that you wrote a full 300-page book from start to finish, he will think you're some kind of savant. he does not know ANYONE else who has done this. you need this perspective. because when you're constantly on Let's Write Stories dot Com then everyone on Let's Write Stories dot Com will inevitably be like "oh of course everyone on earth has written a book or several at this point!" and you canNOT let yourself think that. that is not even close to the average human experience. you are in a bubble. do not put yourself down. do not give up.
In incomplete recommendation list for folks who saw that last reblog and became physically distressed that "Fuck Doll Murder Bitches" isn't a real game they can play:
Daisy Chainsaw by Charlotte Laskowski
Doll.Bod by @ribstongrowback
Dungeon Bitches by @cavegirlpoems
GIRL FRAME by @anxiousmimicrpgs
Songbirds by Snow
(Feel free to add on; I'm more about games about awful little creatures, which has enough overlap with the "Fuck Doll Murder Bitches" design space that I'm broadly aware of it, but it's not my main thing!)
Fuck Doll Murder Bitches: less a game and more of a sexual lubricant. Played for approximately 45 minutes before someone breaks off to fumble some braless boymoder.
Wysmen of Lubeck: Unplayably complex. 175$ hardcover only but looks great on a shelf. You played exactly one session with an old college friend that was very into Diocletian, and still think of it fondly.
Selkie Valley: Dev cycle with a body count. Every 6 months a dev emerges from a discord to complain about not being paid. Chris Jasons is known for churning out SOLID 7/10s. This one has an app.
Wild Blue Yonder: Strangely popular due to a lightning-in-a-bottle YouTube series. You have never played. Nobody you know has ever played. But copies of the game seem to manifest spontaneously in board game closets.
