I partook in a couple of little game jams this past week. First of them was the 48-word-game jam, for which my contribution was The Ladder. You can get the pretty version right here, for free:
https://xiaofang64.itch.io/the-ladder
But since it's just 48 words, I can also reprint the whole thing, like so:
The LADDER
A Storytelling Game about Money for up to 6 Players
Each Player Chooses 1 die. You were born…
d20 = ULTRAWEALTHY
d12 = WEALTHY
d10 = RICH
d8 = MIDDLE CLASS
d6 = WORKER
d4 = POOR
Roll All (including unused dice). High = Good Year.
Roll 1 = swap w/die BELOW yours.
POOR rolls 1 = starve. Invent a new POOR character.
Repeat until ULTRAWEALTHY rolls 20: Environmental collapse. Everyone dies.
Jam Thoughts
By necessity, the extreme strictures of the Jam kind of push you towards making a game that's more of a... statement. And mine's pretty on the nose. Still, I tried to introduce some mechanical interest in the limited scope that I had.
And because of that, I kept thinking about how I'd add to it. So here's the spitballed, DX version with clearer rules and with 1 extra mechanic...
The LADDER (DX ver.)
A Storytelling Game about Money for up to 6 Players
(CW: Poverty, Starvation, Socio-economic inequality, Death, Inevitable Disaster)
Creating the Characters
For this game, you will need a set of 6 polyhedral dice, including: d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4
Each die represents one character. The number of faces on a die represents the socio-economic status that character was born into, with higher numbers representing a higher status, like so:
d20 = ULTRAWEALTHY
d12 = WEALTHY
d10 = RICH
d8 = MIDDLE CLASS
d6 = WORKER
d4 = POOR
At the start of the game, all players choose a starting die. This may involve some debate between players. If you reach an impasse, determine your starting die randomly.
Once you have a die, take a moment to imagine a character that fits your status. Remember, your starting die is how you were born. When everyone is ready, go around the table and introduce each character. Be as detailed as you like, but make sure to say something about how your character sees the world. Like so:
FRANK: "I chose the d8, so my character is middle class-- not poor, but not elite. Alright, so my character is Sarah Wilson. Her parents are both high-school teachers, but on the nice side of town. Sarah believes that you can achieve anything with hard work. She's a straight-A student but she's a little boring.
Non-Player "Characters"
If you have less than 6 characters, the unused dice are "NPCs." They don't need names or descriptions, but they represent... someone, out there.
Playing the Game: The Basics
The game is played in rounds. Every round, everyone rolls their dice. Someone rolls all the NPC dice as well.
Each round represent 1 year passing. The number you roll represents how well the year went for you, with higher numbers being better. Everyone's dice starts at 1, so everyone has a chance of meeting disaster, but the poor can't hope to experience the same highs as the rich.
After rolling, take a moment to describe what your year was like. Like so:
FRANK: Oh, I rolled a 3. That's not as bad as it could be, but it's not good for Middle Class. Alright, I think Sarah graduated college but she's not been able to get a job in the field she wanted to get into: journalism. She's had to get a job waiting tables at a local diner and her college debt is looming. She still has her parents to bail her out, but... she's too proud to ask.
Meetings
If more than 1 player roll the exact same number, their characters have a chance meeting (unless the number is 1). The meeting may have lasted less than a day, or may be a relationship lasting months, but either way it must leave a lasting impression on both characters. Describe, together, what this chance meeting is like. Remember, a "good" year for one class might be a "bad" year for another.
JANE: I also rolled a 3! But since my character, Polly, is Poor, that's actually a good year for me. I think Polly probably got a job at the same diner as Sarah. But for her, this is the most she's ever been paid. When Sarah complains about the job and how she'd rather be doing anything else, that hurts Polly deep down.
FRANK: That's so sad! I think Sarah would be sympathetic but she's too blinkered to notice Polly's feeligns unless she says them explicitly. Still, she'd be Polly's friend, I think.
Social Mobility
When a character OR an NPC die comes up as a 1, that character/NPC has the worst year possible. If they aren't Poor (d4), they swap with the die below them, meaning the two characters will swap their socio-economic statuses. If more than one dice rolls 1 in a round, make sure to swap starting with the lowest die. Describe why this exchange happens.
MAX: Oh no, I rolled a 1 this time! Since my character, Chet, is Rich, that means I'm swapping with Middle Class.
FRANK: That's me! Nice, now Sarah's moving up to Rich!
MAX: Alright, I think Chet screwed up and got drunk at the office party, then started really saying what he thinks about his boss. This came after a long string of infractions. Even as an experienced accountant, his firm just had to let him go. He's coasting on savings for now while he gets his shit together.
FRANK: Yeah, and for Sarah, her parents finally ponied up some money they got from some good investments, pulled a few strings, and got her that job at a big name newspaper. She's a total nepo-baby but she thinks it's her hard work that got her there.
JANE: Polly's gonna miss Sarah...
(You may have noticed that rolling low can move you down, but rolling high doesn't move you up. This is intentional. Remember, your wealth only exists when the conditions of the system allow it.)
Starvation
If the Poor character rolls a 1, they die. Yeah, it's rough.
Describe why your character died, but be respectful to the other players and potentially triggering content. Remember, there's a 1/4 chance that this happens every round. It will happen, because it does happen.
JANE: Oh no guys... it happened. I rolled a 1.
FRANK: Oh no!!!
JANE: Yeah, that's gonna be the end of Polly. Alright, I won't be too descriptive. I think Polly was young and didn't have any health issues. No, she's gonna get shot in a stupid robbery-gone-wrong at the diner. The robber didn't even mean to, they just got scared. There'll be a little memorial for her out front for a while.
FRANK: Sarah is totally at your funeral. She writes the local story about it and tries to link it to a wider concern about gun crime.
That player then creates a new character, as they did at the start. They can either make a new Poor character or choose an NPC die not currently being used by a player.
Collapse (Game Over)
The game is over when the Ultrawealthy character (whether Player or NPC) rolls a 20.
When the Ultrawealthy rolls a 20, they have a great year... at first. But their enormous wealth has knock-on effects that trigger wide-scale destruction, be that environmental collapse, war, crime, economic crisis, or all of the above. The ultimate result is that all the characters die. For this final round, the story can take place over multiple years or even decades. But everyone dies.
The Ultrawealthy character describes what the nature of the Collapse is. If it's an NPC, the players decide together.
Then, each player describes how it affects them, and why they die.
ANGELA: Uh-oh... I finally rolled a 20.
MAX: Here we go!
ANGELA: Okay. Since my character, Archibald, was a Tech CEO, we had government contracts with the military at the highest levels. But I got greedy: I cut corners, trimmed my staff, fired the experts. So the computer programs Archie's company was responsible for incorrectly flagged that there was a nuclear missile headed for the capital. In response, our government sent out real nukes, triggering World War 3. Archie probably died trying to escape earth when his prototype escape rocket failed
JANE: Well I barely got to play my new character, Zeke. But since he was also Poor, I think he was first in line to be drafted into the war, and he died in some nameless skirmish.
FRANK: Sarah tries to be a war journalist, but I figure things get desperate enough that the normal rules of war start to fly out the window. She's killed in an indiscriminate bombing campaign.
MAX: There's just no real call for Chet's skillset in this bleak future we're creating! I think he got the last of his tinned food and tried to rough it in the woods with the knowledge he got from Survivalism podcasts. But it doesn't matter when he's killed by a bear that smelled his open peanut butter jar.
ANGELA: Alright, and that's all she wrote... the world ends under mushroom clouds, and humankind is no moer!
JANE: We should totally play Mutant: Year Zero after this. It'll be like a sequel.
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