Get creative with one-page RPGs

Exploring the limitations and creativity in one-page RPGs with Lacksmith by Jamie Daggers, an entry in the 2024 One-Page RPG Jam

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The most recent One-Page RPG Jam has been over for quite a while. Ending back in August 2024, it received 660 submissions. This description captures it well:

Entire rule-lite roleplaying systems and settings on single sheets of paper. One-page RPGs are easy to pick up and learn, but that doesn't mean there can't be emergent complexity or that they can't result in excellent games. Restriction breeds creativity, the only limit is the imagination of the designers and the players.

Games ranged from sci-fi worldbuilding for rock collectors to minimalist tactical skirmish games and everything in between. My own one-page entry, Caveat Emptor (a game about being an assistant demon selling cursed items while on a PIP) is now a 36-page zine.¹

The One-Page RPG Jam is one of my favorite annual events, and I quite literally think about it all year. This week I’d like to explore one of the games that caught my attention.

Lacksmith

Lacksmith is a one-page game and jam entry by Jamie Daggers.² It features striking, woodblock-style art by Sydney Spears (girlgremmy) with chains, fire, and a blacksmith demon. Here’s the pitch:

Congratulations! You have inherited your family’s smithy! It’s a well-stocked, well-equipped workshop in a bustling fantasy port town. Your clientele range from the lowly farmer to the highest rankings of the noble and merchant classes. The business has been in your family for years, passed down from parent to child from time immemorial; the proud accumulation of countless years of sweat and fire now rests in your hands.

The problem is that you have no idea what you are doing. You’ve “barely held a hammer” and are reliant on a diary of secret techniques. Iron, bronze, copper, and gold — each with their own recipe and requirements.

You’ll need to satisfy the demands of nine clients before time runs out or end in failure, bringing shame to your family’s name.

Heat, hammer, and hone

Pairs of dice to create an iron-based project

Mechanically simple in all the right ways, it’s the kind of game that captures my interest in game design:

1. Draw 3 cards and pick one to be your metalworking project, discarding the rest.

2. Roll a 6d6 dice pool that can be upgraded over time.

3. Assign pairs of dice to the Heat, Hammer, and Hone for the metal’s recipe.

4. Successfully complete the project or put it on the “shelf” to try later.

5. The value of the completed project determines if it satisfies the client.

Each project’s metal type is determined by the card suit — spades are iron, clubs are bronze, hearts are copper, and diamonds are gold. A metal’s recipe is a combination of three possible symbols: ↑, ↓, and ~. These symbols indicate the dice value range required to satisfy that part of the recipe:

• ↑ = 8–12 range

• ↓ = 2–6 range

• ~ = exactly 7

For example, iron projects require ↑↑↓. The three pairs of dice rolled and selected must be in the ranges of [8–12], [8–12], and [2–6] respectively. Using pairs of [4+4], [6+3], and [1+5] would work.

Complete projects to satisfy multiple clients and earn more dice, expanding the pool from its original 6d6.

Dice, choice, and luck mitigation

The Smithy’s Diary

On the first few rounds of the game you either rolled the right dice to complete the recipe or not. There isn’t much choice to be had. Eventually, however, you build up some projects on your shelf. This allows you to choose from up to four different projects to complete with your dice. It turns into a fun little puzzle: Do you complete the iron card that is easy? Or do you finish the harder bronze or copper projects that require a pair that is exactly 7?

In some ways, the Lacksmith system reminds me of a more complex Ship, Captain, and Crew or Midnight, games I explored during Dice Week.³ You roll dice and try to get the right combination to be able to score that round. Unlike those games, however, it does not require multiple re-rolls which I’ve found can greatly slow down gameplay and start to feel like a chore.

Lacksmith also has a tiny bit of luck mitigation in the form of masterworks. If you ever use a “perfect combo” when completing an item, you gain a masterwork item. This item allows you to adjust a single die +1/-1 once per project for the rest of the game. Without the ability to re-roll, this is a much needed feature.

Expanding one page into many pages

In many ways, Lacksmith is a wonderful example of the innovation that shows up in one-page RPGs. It effectively uses one or two pieces of well-chosen art, a small introductory paragraph, and simple rules to create a thematic experience. I could easily imagine an expanded version of this game, making it a worldbuilding and journaling experience:

• Names, details, and personalities for clients

• Expanded details for the metalwork items created for use in other games

• Varying degrees of success for each project rather than the binary pass/fail

• Additional luck mitigation and dice placement choices

That’s the beauty of one-page RPGs. The tight restrictions are fertile ground for innovation and creativity, but there is nothing stopping a later expanded edition. This is what Deep Dark Games is doing with the one-page A Perfect Rock — now an extremely successful Kickstarter project.

Make your own one-page RPG

Eleventh Beast, a one-page RPG from Exeunt Press

I’ve made a few one-page TTRPGs, one of which earned an ENNIE nomination.⁴ So I wrote a guide to encourage and help others create their own one-page games. It covers everything from generating ideas to publishing your game online. It’s available in a few different formats:

• Print: Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game in print (A5, 46 pages)

• Digital PDF: Same as above but in PDF format rather than print

• Online: Read it for free as a six-part series at Skeleton Code Machine

This guide will be the framework for a class I’m teaching in May at my local public library. After the success of the last class, I can’t wait to run this one!

Conclusion

Lacksmith

Some things to think about:

• Embrace creative limitation: Commonly expressed as “restrictions breed creativity” and sometimes called creative limitation, self-imposed limits often spark innovative ideas. Limiting yourself to one page is a form of constrained writing.⁵

• Innovate with dice games: As noted during Dice Week, there are many traditional dice games that can be modified for use in board games and TTRPGs. If more player choice and luck mitigation are added, they can become really interesting mechanisms.

• Make your own one-page RPG: If the past is any indicator, 2025 will see the return of the One-Page RPG Jam this summer — probably in July or August. Start thinking of ideas and give it a try! You can do it!

What do you think? Have you made a one-page RPG? Would you like to give it a try this year?

— E.P. 💀

P.S. I wrote a new guide called ADVENTURE! Make Your Own TTRPG Adventure that will be coming soon. You can see a preview of the cover on Bluesky.

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1. You can purchase a copy of Caveat Emptor in print at the Exeunt Press Shop.

2. Follow Jamie on Twitch for some amazing mini painting.

3. Dice Week was a five-part series I ran in 2023 looking at traditional dice games and how they might be adapted for use in modern board games and TTRPGs. You can read the series starting with Part 1 - Pig.

4. The one-page edition Exclusion Zone Botanist earned an ENNIE-nomination. It’s available in print at the Exeunt Press Shop.

5. An interesting example of constrained writing is Gadsby, a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright. It’s a story of over 50,000 words — none of which contain the letter “e”. A more recent example is Dinosaur Comics which only changes the text and never the panel art.