What do you need for a game jam? “Two tables. Done,” says Danielle Costello, science librarian at Louisiana State University.
While game jams—or accelerated game creation events—started as a way to develop video games, they’re also useful for creating tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). The best-known TTRPG systems, like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Call of Cthulhu, include rulebooks that can run to hundreds of pages and have steep price tags, but there are a host of smaller, independently developed games with simple and shareable systems. The Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) President’s Session, “Creating Role-Playing Games in the Library,” featured panelists sharing ways that libraries can host game jams to help students and patrons of all ages create games and engage in the creative process.
TTRPGs have grown in popularity in recent years as they’ve become more visible in pop culture and online spaces through streaming and social media. That’s not the only reason for strong interest, though: Collaborative storytelling gives players agency in the world and control, “which is something a lot of our patrons really need right now,” Costello said.
Why create games instead of just playing them? Game jams open up the process of game development and make it more accessible, Costello said, adding that “The act of creation itself is a wonderful process for your patrons to get into.” Game jams are free-to-cheap to host, and can promote literacy, community building, and partnerships. You don’t have to be a game designer to run a game jam at your library, said Rebecca Strang, children’s services librarian at Naperville (Ill.) Public Library. You can partner with local game developers, game shops, and even your library’s makerspace. And game jams are not just for adults, they add. “I’ve run game jams for third-graders.”
Many existing TTRPG systems will have system reference documents (SRDs) that help developers create modules or extensions to those games that work within those rules. You can also just host a freeform creative process or use open-ended structure suggestions. “Business card game jams”—where people develop a game with a ruleset no longer than what can fit on a standard business card—“are some of my favorites,” Strang said.
“As an academic tool, games are this beautiful conflagration of many different ideas from books, from movies, from other games,” said Russell Brandon, data services librarian at Fant Library at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus. It’s important for creators to credit their sources and influences, not just for legal and copyright reasons: “[These influences] allow for people who play your games to experience the same sort of mindset that you were in when you’re thinking about designing, and that can really create a much more genuine experience.”
Remixing and reimagining the TTRPG experience is not just limited to fantasy; exploring history, pop culture, and modern ideas is very exciting, Costello said. “You’re playing against the gatekeeping of the concept of what is a game and what isn’t,” she says. Many people have the impression that TTRPGs as a medium are only for fantasy and war games, and “that can be really hard to get past.”
Creativity and learning can continue after the end of the jam. The games patrons and students create can be tied into many library functions, such as publishing, archiving, and cataloging, Brandon said. You can create a game that can go into circulation at your library. And you can hold more game jams. “Always be jamming. Jam forever,” Brandon said. This iterative process is an important part of game design, Strang notes: “You make the thing, then make it better next time.”
Updated June 30 to correct the location of Mississippi College for Women.
