MRD Ectoplasmic Game Jam (with a prize!)

EDIT: I rarely edit posts after publishing unless it's a minor cleanup thing, but actually, I realized after the fact that rather than just reiterating the exact details from the game jam page, it might be better to first share Klintron's (Sewer Mutant, Kid Minotaur) excellent description:

Max Cantor is running a game jam for his Maximum Recursion Depth game, specifically for "Poltergeists" which are essentially the game's equivalent of classes/background. The winner of the jam will get their Poltergeist professionally illustrated and laid out. Submissions open December 16th 2021 to January 30th 2022.

If you're not familiar, MRD is a little hard to explain. The lazy way to describe it is Persona 5 powered by the Into the Odd system. Influences range from Doom Patrol and Invisibles to Bojack Horseman. I think I see a little Neil Gaiman in there too but maybe that's just me. The more esoteric explanation is to cite the game's full title: Maximum Recursion Depth, or Sometimes the Only Way to Win is to Stop Playing: The Karmapunk RPG.

With the release of Maximum Recursion Depth (available on drivethrurpg and itch.io), I'm running the MRD Ectoplasmic Jam! It's an itch.io game jam to create your own Poltergeist Form, but with this game jam, there's a special prize. For one of the entries, I will work with the creator, an illustration artist, and a layout artist, to create a two-page spread of the Poltergeist Form comparable to those in the book! The winner will still be allowed to sell the Poltergeist Form independently and keep all profits, they just need to state that it's fan/3rd-party/community content and reference the main game (there's probably a proper copyright way to do that but in lieu of knowing how to do it offhand...).

The winner will be chosen by a panel including myself, Fiona Maeve Geist, Semiurge, and Jones Smith. There are no specific scoring criteria, we'll just talk it over amongst ourselves and decide which we would most like to see made into a full product.

Given the nature of the contest, I'll ask that the entries include no art, and minimal layout- only as much as will facilitate readability. Since the art and layout are all going to be redone anyway, I want to start things out on an even playing field. That being said, I would encourage entrants to add art and layout after the fact even if they don't win, it would be really cool to see what directions people take with it!

I'm assuming there will not be an absurd number of entries, but if I end up being incorrect on that front, I reserve the right to adapt the rules and conditions accordingly; if there are a hundred entries it might be too much to ask from my panelists! Along those lines, please only one entry per person! (unless I end up with the opposite problem and there aren't enough entries, in which case go wild...).

While I would appreciate it if you bought the book, it is not entirely necessary, although if I get too many entries, I reserve the right to retroactively make proof of purchase a requirement.

While the overall quality and quantity of the content in the Pay What You Want Ashcan Edition is significantly worse than the main book in practically every way (much of the writing has been rewritten and all of it edited, the game mechanics themselves haven't radically changed but many of the Poltergeist Features and Special Items have been rewritten after playtesting, the Module itself was completely overhauled, etc.), that is one alternative to buying the full game.

Another would be to use the Poltergeist Form Hacking blog post and other MRD blog posts as a point of reference.

Finally, you can ask questions on the #mrd channel of the NSR Discord Server or on the #ttrpg channel of the Weird Places and Liminal Spaces Discord Server.

I realize there are a million TTRPG game jams and blogs and published games. I feel a little guilty leveraging my personal resources to provide a prize that might incentivize someone to choose my game jam over any number of other equally deserving game jams or to buy my book or read my content over many other equally qualified games because of this extrinsic incentive. At the same time, the winner of this game jam may be someone who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to have their work professionally produced. If you have feelings about this approach one way or another, please let me know.