appx. n jam ratings, 1/?
Appendix N Jam 2026 rating season is upon us! The jam itself was highly successful in its sophomore year, with over 890 people joining and 332 entries total.
People have been diligently reading, playing, and rating entries since the start of the month, with the rating season ending in roughly two months at the time of this post.
As a self-proclaimed "TTRPG hype-man," I've been playing catch up since getting back home from Gen Con 59. In no particular order, here are a few of the titles I've rated thus far:
MUTANTS OF CATFISH HOLLOW by Nemysisrelapse
"Mutants of Catfish Hollow" somehow manages to pack this system neutral adventure with lore, hooks, unique rules for chimeras and other mutants into an overland point crawl adventure. That's not all! There is also a small four room dungeon, bestiary, loot table, and random encounter table.
On top of the robust amount of content within, the art direction of the cover gives strong '80s and '90s "Choose Your Adventure" vibes, which speaks to me on a deep, personal level. The overland point crawl map has a similar simple style to it that is evocative and easy to parse.
Nemysisrelapse makes great use of font choice in the body with a plain sans serif and uses color and more decorative font to help separate out sections with headers. The layout makes use of a very clean, two column format.
This is a contender and is a great example of what the limitations of the jam can produce. Fantastic job!
THE ANVIL OF WINTER by Seba, Rackhir, and Semi
This submission understood the assignment. The art evokes classic swords and sorcery (and sandals) with a strange, bald warlock and a point crawl through strange lands. The cartography is rich and dense, immediately evoking a feeling of frigid cold and danger. GMs and players alike know what to expect.
For the limited space, the adventure is packed with content. Random encounters as you traverse the region and unique rules for battling the frigid elements included alongside ten unique locations that promise rich adventures. The GM will have to do some light work to expand upon these locales, but the bones are solid and strong as presented. In the hands of the right GM, this adventure could be a one shot or short multi-session campaign.
Fantastic job Seba, Rackhir, and Simi!
SPELL OF THE WORLD-WEAVERS by Gravy Press
Gravy Press' "Spell of the World-Weavers" is excellent.
It's hard to expand upon my thoughts about this entry because I think it may be perfect. That's not hyperbole. In judging based on the metrics of the game jam, "World-Weavers" is the total package in terms of writing, visual design, gameability, and theme.
Gravy Press, like many others, manages to pack so much into so little space. The layout and art make for an adventure that is visually stunning, incredibly playable, and immediately accessible. The font choices and layout pop amongst the strong visual design elements.
The science-fantasy adventure itself is a point crawl up a massive statue that is filled with challenges, puzzles, and conflict along the way. The use of Cairn to reinforce the themes of combat being something to be avoided due to its great damage helps encourage players to seek out clever solutions to problems.
Bravo, Gravy Press!
WORDS ON THE RIME WIND by JimmyShelter
"Words on the Rime Wind" is a hex crawl, dungeon, small bestiary, random encounter table all rolled into one. The author expertly tucks all of this very game-able content into a very small space for use with any OSR-adjacent game.
The use of black and white public domain artwork blends perfectly with the hand drawn hex crawl map. It all works together well. (I love the hex map. It's charming and simple in the best possible ways.)
This is a stellar entry. Fantastic work!
THAUMATURGE OF THE ALIZARIN POOL by Vandalorum
"Thaumaturge of the Alizarin Pool" is, as it says on the cover, a "terse weird fantasy dungeon" and it delivers on that promise.
The dungeon is dense, written in a simple and readable serif font, that offers a series of puzzles to complete. While there are options for danger, death, and combat, successful adventures must be more like the heroes from Appendix N novels, using their wits and creativity to survive and thrive.
I am particularly keen on the dungeon's focus being almost entirely on puzzles.
The entry makes great use of its limited space, including its map peeking out from underneath the torn cover. The art itself is from the public domain and used in a way that elevates the dungeon. This would not look at all out of place in the dusty shelves of a used book store!
TEN KNIGHTS TILL SUNRISE by Tavern Lore
Somehow Tavern Lore packed a whole unique game into "Ten Knights Till Sunrise" for their entry. That alone is an impressive feat given the tight space limitations of the jam.
The system itself is meant for solo play and simple and straightforward. It is imminently playable after a quick read through, even encouraging replayability with consequences from previous runs impacting future ones.
The dungeon itself is made up of ten rooms that a solo knight player traverses in a linear fashion. The rooms themselves don't have much description, thought a few do have uniquely called out features, and there isn't much to distinguish them from one another, however given the jam's space limitations, this is far from a meaningful critique. Each room presents a challenge (or two) by way of a combat trial, with the goal to reach and beat the tenth room with treasures awarded alongside a knight's progress.
The replayability makes for an interesting twist, where a player wants their knight to succeed and get good gear while also balancing what that means for future runs. The gear and loot itself vary in usability, with the most vital being ones that heal or increase stats for future conflict.
The entry itself is cleanly laid out and easy to parse. The cover combines charming hand-drawn art with public domain art.
I think "Ten Knights" is a very fun, straight forward entry that masterfully uses its space to bring some roguelite elements to solo play. Well done!
ESCAPE TO THE PAST by Hodag RPG
"Escape to the Past" is a real one. It combines Hodag's always excellent art with a meta commentary on the hobby featuring the likeness of a certain prominent gaming legend.
The adventure itself focuses around the "Thaal" and takes place in a six room cave acting as their lair. It's rife with annotated game notes from a GM prepping for their next session, sussing out how to make the Thaal from some bestiary's stat block memorable and game-able. The notes in particular speak to me as a GM, looking like my own in every adventure and campaign I've ran for friends, including references to comics that only I would get.
While the Thaal stat block itself is very immediately useful to plug into games, the map is simple and without much guidance. It very much mimics dungeons from a certain era of gaming (complementary).
The art alone makes this entry a treat. Hodag's art elevates every project it touches.
It feels like "Escape to the Past" was specifically made for people like me in the hobby. I love it.
THE MEMORY MATRIX by Mark Felps
"The Memory Matrix" is unique. It's the first fully sci-fi entry I've rated in the jam so far and it uses ShadowDark to great effect.
The adventure's premise is solid and straightforward: traverse the dangers of the spaceship and restart the engines or else!
The entry has a compelling twist on ShadowDark's torch mechanic, and instead every half hour of play the titular "Memory Matrix" activates, causing the players to swap bodies with another player or monster in the ship.
The dungeon consists of eleven rooms with various challenges, from perilous skill checks to deadly combat and traps. Given the pool of fresh minds being swapped, these deadly challenges do not mean the end for a player and keep them in the action. Still, adventurers should not dawdle in each room long, as danger has a way of finding them.
Overall I find "The Memory Matrix" a really compelling twist of the game jam itself and ShadowDark. While I do find some of the room descriptions to be a bit overwritten and could be simplified, that does not take away from how gameable this excellent entry is.