August 2026 - A Jam-Packed Month
Welcome! We're coming off a whirlwind month after July's game jams, and everyone's refilling the creative well in different ways. Luckily, there's no shortage of inspiration with all this new blood in the scene. This issue, we've got enticing glimpses into the world of Violence, some achingly imperfect Appendix N entries, and monsters-as-traps. Whatever your taste, we hope you'll leave invigorated. Enjoy!
Roll to Carouse!
- Lighten your coin purse at the Projects Pavilion.
- Pilfer ideas from the Blog Bazaar.
- Sample the delights of the Gameable Gallery.
- Hear the raving of Reviewers Row.
Projects Pavilion ⤴
Here at Carouse, five of us submitted jam entries last month!
In Appendix N land, we've got:
- Blood-Pact of Paititi by Zak H.
High energy chaos in the early 1500s. Play as a group of Incans rushing to resurrect their emperor while fending off attacks from time-traveling Nazis, causality gremlins, and, worst of all, conquistadors. Unabashedly pulpy with some fun mechanical flare. - Revenants of Europa by Kati B.
Sci-fi horror on an icy moon. Presented as field notes from a lost expedition, this scenario tasks players with recovering the black box from an abandoned spaceship. But Europa wasn't always a moon, and her old memories and unrestrained emotion warp the planet. Can the players escape before her benevolence runs dry? - The Jikininki in the Jug by Rowan H.
Creeping dread in lonely mountains. The village of Feltarn has a strange affliction - parts of their houses disappear at sunset and return with the light. A lone investigator climbed the mountain path and has not returned. A hideous presence has made its home in a buried temple, unkillable, despicable. Contains some juicy horror in a land that'd feel haunted on a good day. - The Gravity Plague by Taylor B. (and Robin!)
Fight for absolution in a race against time. The Monks of Siena have cast away their sins in an attempt to reach Heaven. Their unforgiven burdens sink into the populace, threatening to drag the whole city down to Hell. With each step you take, the weight of their sin burrows deeper through your flesh. Stop the monks before dust reclaims us all.
From the Violence in July jam, we've got:
- Big Carl's Bones by Markus M.
March is coming to an end, the magnolia trees by the Aachener Dom are blooming. An underground anti-government group is planning a heist: to steal the bones of Charlemagne from the iconic cathedral.
Get in, take the bones, get out. Maybe steal some other relics. Get rich. Destroy the national states of Europe.
Outside of jam work, some cool stuff for your consideration:
- Pocket Birds by Pandion Games
Birbs. - Kati B. - Universel Riche Ashcan by Aaron King and Alex Degen
A card-based RPG in a bastard world run by money, sex, trucks, and nepotism. I almost never buy early access works, but this is astonishing. Aaron's words and Alex's art are completely in sync here. It might just be an ashcan, but this is plenty playable. I've already run (and loved!) a session. All proceeds go straight to the artist, so check it out! - Taylor B.
Blog Bazaar ⤴
I have been trying to write some cities by Amanda Lee Franck
New blog alert! Amanda's second post is packed with inspiring ideas. I love Calvino's Invisible Cities, and this list of strange cities feels akin to it. - Rowan
Wages of Sin Gave Me a Midlife Crisis by Valeria Loves
Valeria walks us all through having her mind blown by the quality of Luke Gearing's recent Mothership supplement, Wages of Sin. Tuesday Knight's output is so good that she has to ask: why run anything else? Frankly, she's right to. This shit is crazy. - Taylor B.
The Springfield School of Worldbuilding by Magnolia Keep
A great post about easy naming conventions! - John B.
Gameable Gallery ⤴
Four Monsters-As-Traps
by Rowan H.
There's plenty of good advice about traps out there already. My takeaway is that the best traps are telegraphed by entice the players to interact anyway. Monsters can fill a similar role.
The Bees In the Bell Jar
The monster is trapped somewhere along with something the characters want. The challenge lies in retrieving that thing without releasing the monster.
Examples: A huge bell jar encases a glittering gem tree—and a swarm of deadly mechanical bees; sealed within a stone coffin is an enchanted dagger and a terrifying mummy.
It's Just a Baby
A monster guards a small treasure hoard, but it's just a baby. Keep it preoccupied and you can make off with the loot. Frighten or upset it, however, and its parents will come running (or slithering, or oozing, or whatever).
Example: A displacer beast kitten gambols among gold and silver. A golden-framed mirror bears scratch and bite marks. Removing it provokes a cry of distress from the kitten.
The Subverted Pit Trap
There's an obvious trap that's easy to bypass in a way that makes one vulnerable to the monsters lurking nearby.
Example: A sturdy rope hangs from the ceiling above an open spiked pit. Characters can swing across the rope one at a time—only to be pounced on by ghouls waiting in dark alcoves on the other side. (A horrible stench and bloodstained floor hint at their presence).
The Shapeshifter
A monster has been transformed into something harmless. Although there's clear signs that it's not what it seems, it'll say anything to convince the characters to restore its original form.
Example: A manticore has been transformed into a house cat that speaks with a startling deep voice through several rows of teeth. The cat promises to reveal a secret to the characters if they'll just remove its collar.
Reviewers Row ⤴
A Violence Jam retrospective
by Markus M.
As advertised in our previous issue, this past July has hosted both the Violence in July jam, and the second Appendix N jam. Being bound by the constraints of humanity, space, and time, I participated only in the Violence jam this year. My adventure Big Carl's Bones is available on itch.
I have been interested in Luke Gearing's Violence for a while. It provides a framework for mechanising, well, violence, and not much else. People can have a few skills, which grants them advantages on rolls where they are applicable, but it is generally a very lightweight system, though non-traditional, doing away with HP in favour of counting (diegetic) wounds. Earlier this year, I read The War on Children, which really helped the system click for me, and was a huge inspiration for writing my own jam submission. I set it in my local neighbourhood (yeah, I'm doxxing myself, deal with it, find me if you can) and introduced a set of caricatured people (temporarily) working towards the same goal for very different reasons, as well as an opposing faction with their own quirks. A powder keg ready to explode. Hopefully I've built something fund and playable.
Of course, I'm not the only one who submitted to this jam, so here is an overview of some of my favourites:
Pills. by Jay Hawking
A really shitty, messy, situation (a positive for a Violence module). A grim break-in to steal some trans women's estrogen to give to some other trans women who have none. The module makes sure that there is a web of personal connections between the PCs and the victims. Nobody is going to be clean at the end. Nobody involved deserves this. A recipe for feeling bad. The included aftermath section just twists the knife further.
Waffle House by elliot norwood
The aftermath of a heist, spent in a Waffle House, presented as a timeline. The writing is painterly, and the picture is a grungy waffle house at night. A liminal space, teetering on the edge of reality. Feels interstitial, in a good way. It's short, and I don't want to spoil it, go check it out yourself, or ask someone to run it for you.
The Steam Curled Cuneiform by Riley Adamson
A module pulling double duty, submited to the Appendix N jam as well. You get to steal a monkey from a Jacuzzi venue. It's got ancient curses, gratuitous nudity, and a dodgy mob-run business, which feels very real. On the more light-hearted end of the submissions, this reads like a lot of fun to run.
The Balmer Mystery House by Gromb
A creepy house in the American south-west, abandoned on its hill. A million dollar painting hanging in its attic. Surely it's worth a little breaking and entering, what could go wrong?
ICD-10 Code W54 by Robin M. Rondel
Drugs, drink, and dogs. A perfect recipe for a group of Scottish teenageers to have a really bad night. A great set of characters and the setup for a night that's bound to go wrong somehow, with illicit dogfighting in the demolished Tesco, and a nice bit of class division. Someone's bound to get hurt.
Rating the Appendix N Jam
by Taylor B.
The nice part about rating for a large game jam is this: thinking critically about an enormous body of work gives you the freedom to dig deep into your own thoughts. Having such a large supply of data adds clarity to your feelings; you can figure out not just What excites you but Why it does so. It grants you space to articulate the difference between good, great, and exceptional, all while exposing you to a blaring chorus of artistic voices. It reminds me of trawling through Newgrounds as a stupid kid and thinking "oh my God, you can just do that?" This kind of experience is formational.
The bad part is that there's too fucking much of it. At time of writing I've reviewed a heroic 25 entries out of....... 332. Turns out I'm a little too employed to achieve artistic nirvana right now. Still, even this modest effort has surprised and delighted me. No entry I've read has been perfect, but almost every one has had something that stuck around in my head long after closing the document.
As much as I love being swept away by a truly incredible work, it's almost more fun to chew on something that just didn't quite hit the mark. What was this missing for me? How far off was it from glory? Why do I care? Today, I'd like to highlight a few entries I feel are imperfect but still live rent-free in my head. For each category (Writing, Visual Design, Gameability, Theme) I'm going to discuss a four-star entry that didn't go all the way, but in a way I find interesting and even valuable.
Quick caveat so I don't have to write IMO before every sentence: this is all just my opinion! Every entry linked here is one I fully support and feel is worth your time. Full stop. Let's dig in.
Writing: The Multiverse Melody, by Licet Bovi Games
An incredibly atmospheric piece for the author's own Panic Engine system, Mountain Resonance. It depicts a snowy mountain town under a horrific affliction: a strange melody forces the outcome of every possible decision you make, in every moment, to play out in kaleidoscopic agony. Every moment. The people of our world can only manage microscopic movements before the melody sends alternate versions of them spiraling out into the snow, only to collapse inwards just as the tune harmonizes. This psychedelic nightmare shit is playing out under an endless supply of fireworks bursting overhead, juxtaposing it all with serene, distant lights. Ooooh it's so good y'all.
My main issue centers on the melody's source. At the end of the module, when the party finally comes to what's causing all this mess, you don't get a big reveal or interesting setpiece. Instead you get a random table of possible causes that you can roll or choose from as desired. My problem here isn't one of quality - all the listed options are bangers. It's also not one of intention - when I asked about this in the comments, the author stated his desire to flip the common d6 hook format on its head. Instead of multiple hooks for one adventure, he's interested in multiple endings that a GM can select from based on how the module plays out.
I dig it! I bring it up here because I think this is a fabulous choice for gameability, but a weak choice for writing. The climax feels disconnected from the rest of the text, and it's noticeable because the rest is tightly written. The strange atmosphere, the phase-shifting populace, the permanent festivities over a town of colonizers celebrating its conquest over an indiginous people, it all works. It's weighty. But in intentionally separating the ending, it sucks the air out of reading. You can't shine new light on earlier details and feel the spark of connection because those connections don't exist, at least not until you make them happen. Is this intentional gap fitting with the spirit of TTRPGs? I think so. But something I discovered while reading is that, when it comes to adventures, I'm hungry for a holistic text. I'm interested in strong bones that I can build a body on top of, not a skeleton missing a head plus six cool skulls to kludge together as I like.
Still, there's something special here. Check it out on itch.
Visual Design: Lament of the Jade Prophet, by Forlorn Skulk
A B/X adventure site about religion in bad decline. This one oozes atmosphere on every level. The prose, the art, and even the pregen characters all come together to tell the story of a church in a dying world, unwilling to loosen its grip on the populace and unable to see how far away it's walked from its founder's teachings. There's an ache to the text that's cemented by the moody visual choices - swampy jade backgrounds, bubbling / watery texture, bold pops of color. I can't articulate how, but this reminds me of some olds maps I used to play in an ancient Star Wars game. It rocks.
But these bold visuals don't always work. The fonts are all over the place, sometimes difficult to read in both shape and color, and it makes the hierarchy of information tough to parse. I'll be the first to admit I'm clueless when it comes to visual design - it's a language I don't speak. The author's in a similar boat, and they've been upfront in the comments that they're still figuring out graphics, but the thing is, I don't think they're that far off from nailing this. The psychedelic backgrounds and general energy of the text give a lot of leeway for some of the more interesting design choices to pop. Mostly where this needs help is in its literal readability, and even that's mostly fixed in the (helpfully available) black and white version.
The raw confidence of this thing is inspiring. Even if it's not perfect, it's got unshakeable aura. Check it out here.
Gameability: The Brilliant Bows of Babylon, by raspberrycat
An unhinged Cairn adventure about a surreal tower where words shape all. This is maximalist through and through, combining strange minigames, metatextual gimmicks, and some really striking visual design choices to create a work that's desperate to escape the page. Players can collect relics and debate to rewrite the rules of reality; three factions, each with an unshakeable view on the nature of language, all vie for power to literally define the world. Digging into this thing is work, it's conceptually dense, it's visually abstract, it's such a mess of additional mechanics that I have no idea how it would play out at the table. And the work required to get inside the necessary headspace is worth it! But... is it gameable?
Tbh I think gameability is kind of a shitty category. The jam defines it with questions like: is it easy to run? are the concepts accessible? how much prep does it require? All of which are just asking you to rate your own skill issues IMO. More than that, it's inextricable from the quality of the writing. My goal as GM is to portray the world; the most "gameable" thing a text can do is inspire me in doing so. Paint a vivid picture, bring characters to life, inject a spark into my veins. A simple machine can handle stats and mechanics. I need feeling.
The Brilliant Bows of Babylon has feeling. It's strange, abstract, and labyrinthine, but never in a way that reads as intangible. So, why am I including it in a list of four star reviews? Because....... I play most of my games digitally, and this adventure really wants to be tactile lmao. A major mechanic involves collecting magic stones (as d4s) and using them as pieces in a Game of Ur. It's got a physicality that just can't be replicated online, and even coming close would be a bitch and a half. This is one of the few entries in the jam that would require actual work for me to run outside of just "reading it".
I can dream, though. Check out the adventure here.
Theme: Into the Viridian Pit, by Weeping Stag
A Star Trek-inspired adventure for Cairn about stranded spacefarers at the mercy of a verdant hivemind. "Inspired" is underselling it - this is Trek in all but publisher. And, to be clear, it's good Trek! On top of the obvious trappings (a Prime-ish Directive, redshirts, a guy fucking an alien), there's a strong emotional core uplifting this whole thing. Each of the twenty crewmembers gets a name, position, personality, and usually some kind of small dynamic with a colleague. The planet's locals have a culture that predates interference and a relationship with Starfleet that predates the players. The social density is a wild feat within the confines of the jam, and it's worth it because these relationships and messy emotions bring the whole thing to life. The whole scenario just has a ton of heart.
But, I have to ask, is the Trek connection a good thing? I go back and forth on this. On the one hand, yes: the author's passion is obvious and they turned out some cool shit by drawing from this well. On the other, I feel they've kneecapped their own work. The text has placed itself firmly in the shadow of an existing brand; it cannot stand on its own merits. I don't think you can reasonably read this without having to ask "does this feel like Star Trek?" And I think inviting that comparison, even if the answer is "yes, it does", limits the text's ability to feel truly visionary.
I hesitate to say "don't hew this close to your muses." It's obviously intentional here, and certainly it is Appendix N-coded to pull blatantly from your inspirations. But when I look at some of the exceptional work in this jam, I see many authors who synthesize their touchstones without drowning in them. I really like Into the Viridian Pit, but more than anything I want to see this author's voice shine undiluted, away from the baggage of intellectual property.