I recently released this via my itch for free and figured it would be cool to host here, too.
10 Minute TTRPG by Cutestpatoot Games
The Mission
With the monthly podcast 10 Minute TTRPGs I’ve been trying to help demystify entry into the game design process, which is to say I want everyone to understand that they have what it takes to design games. I won’t say there’s not people who pick it up faster than others or for whom the work is more appealing than it is to others, but I really believe everyone can create at least one game. But what’s really incredible is that nobody else can create the games You create. I’m just here to lend a bit of a helping hand.
In this game we’re setting the timer to 10 minutes and putting ourselves in the hot seat. By the time that timer goes off we’re going to have at least an ashcan of a game, I promise.
An Ashcan* is like a demo, it’s a less fleshed out version of a game or a shorter one, to give people an impression of the full game and let them play a version of it before you finish/release the more polished version.
What You’re Going To Do
Grab a timer and something you feel comfortable quickly writing with. Personally I tend to scribble on a notebook when I’m doing the show 10 Minute TTRPGs, because it’s faster. It is, however, risky, because my handwriting is seriously abysmal. Anything you’re comfortable with is fine, you might even prefer to record yourself spitballing out loud to transcribe later.
You pick an Inspiration Seed. Either a title generator or something like the wheels of names you fill out yourself. The key aspect is that you don’t know until you’re ready to start the timer what the inspiration is.
Hit start on the 10 Minute timer and use The 3 Questions to come up with and flesh out your game concept. Write as much as you want/can until the timer rings or you feel you’re done with the concept, whichever happens first.
Congratulations!!! You’ve come up with a solid game! Sure, you might want to flesh things out more, polish them, but you did it, 10 minutes ago there was nothing to polish! Now there’s a game!
Seeds of Inspiration
You’ll want to use this tiny seed of inspiration as a starting point from which the game can bloom.
https://michael-klamerus.itch.io/indie-ttrpg-generator for example, gives you a title from which you then invent a concept for a game to match. Alternatively, take inspiration from a generator of your own creation by using something like https://www.wheelofnames.com.
I use Wheel of Names all the time in a sort of tiered function. I made wheels for different categories, one with a list of my fave TV shows, one for music, one for movies, PC games, GC games etc. Finally I made a wheel that just listed all the types of wheels I have. When I use that I spin the wheel of inspiration once and then spin whatever wheel it tells me to. That’s how I ended up designing New in Town, inspired by Animal Crossing Wild World, a DS game.
NEVER use AI. No GenAI of any kindGenAI is theft, it kills the planet and is in complete opposition to even the essence of creativity. Never use it.
The 3 Questions
“What’s the endgame vs where you start?”
This question helps us determine the premise & win condition, which can give us the framework for the entire game.
“How do you get there?”
This helps us determine the mechanics of the game. Dice, no dice, cards, something else. If there’s a GM or if it’s a solo game etc. How we get from starting premise to our endgame is basically half the game!
“Who do we play as?”
This gives us our Character Creation options, whether we play one pre-made protagonist or have options of a group of people or if we’re a stack of stats in a trench coat.
There you have it. Who you are, where we start and want to go, how we get there. Boom. It’s that simple.
What Now?
Of course, you have ten whole minutes to be a little more detailed than the most barebones answers to the questions, so you’ll likely end up with more than this very simple summary, still though summarizing like this can help you get a really solid overview of your game.
Still, let’s summarize your game:
You are a ____ in ____ trying to _____ by _____.
Ex. You are a villager who’s new in town, trying to settle into a new community by running errands and self-reflecting.
[New in Town by Cutestpatoot Games
S2E1 of 10 Minute TTRPGs]
cutestpatoot.itch.io/new-in-town
If you’d like, you can keep this game for yourself, for your friends and family, or publish it for free somewhere like itch.io (great hub for game designers and indie game enthusiasts) or Ko-fi (has a store function not dissimilar to itch). Personally, I’d absolutely love to see the games you designed using this system, so you can always comment on this game’s itch.io page to tell me about them!
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