Dorm Detective, or Wait, I Designed a Game?!

I’ve been playing RPGs for about 40 years.  I’ve been studying RPGs for nearly 4 years.  I’ve been noodling with design stuff for only about 2 years, but until now, nothing has ever made its way into a finished game.
 
I was inspired by Paul Beakley’s #OnRampJam (https://itch.io/jam/onrampjam-igrc) and started working on my design shortly after her announce the jam.  The premise of the jam is this:

---

Provide a tool for an experienced gamer to show the uninitiated what tabletop roleplaying is, what’s fun or rewarding about the experience, what’s unique to roleplaying compared to other forms of play, gaming, and interactive art.

​The experience should run no less than 10 minutes and no longer than 30. It should accommodate no fewer than 1 player in addition to a facilitator – no solitaire or zero-player games! – and scale up to as many folks as you think would enjoy a typical tabletop event.

​Not surprisingly, I had Apocalypse World on the brain (when don’t I have Apocalypse World on the brain?), but I also had the Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-playing Party Game on my mind and the way it uses cards to give the players something interesting to say whenever they need it.  Also back there was Sandman: Map of Halaal, and its use of cards to introduce mechanics to the players.  Finally, I had recently read John Harper’s 5 Minute One on One game, which I thought was a brilliant way to introduce new players to the hobby.
 
With all that, I knew I wanted a card-based game and I wanted to use the detective genre to cast as wide a net as possible.  Who doesn’t love watching/listening to/reading detective fiction?! No one I’d want to play with, I think.  I didn’t want to have any character creation, and I wanted the player, just by looking at the cards in their hand, the cards on the table, and the situation in their head to have something fun and exciting to say.  I wanted the new player to not only be able to play the game but to actively build the fiction with the GM.
 
Originally, all the cards were going to be on the player’s side, but then I decided the GM should have a hand of cards that functions similarly to the player’s.  This arrangement would make it clear that both players were equal participants in the game, with a different focus but with the same basic tools.  As I developed the game and talked it over with Ann, my wife, I decided that the game could not only serve to introduce new players to the hobby, but if the GM cards were done well, it could be a game to introduce experienced players to the role of GM.  I loved that idea and ran with it.
 
The resulting game is “Dorm Detective” (a weak pun on the phrase Dime Detective—I’m not proud).  Because some cards needed to have a front and a back, the resulting document is 8 pages long, which when printed out are 4 double-sided pages.  Since the jam was specific about the 1-2 page length, I decided against submitting the game to the jam.  So instead, I thought I’d share it here.
 
I am not a graphic designer, so there is nothing fancy in the layout or presentation. It took me 12 hours to lay it all out as it is.  I can’t imagine how long designers take to make their stuff look appealing in addition to being playable.
 
I welcome your thoughts and feedback, and will be happy to answer any questions!
 
Thanks for reading!

dorm_detective_ver_1_oct_2019.pdf
File Size:	15028 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---