BREAKTHROUGH
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This was made as part of Prokopetz's November 2023 200-Word Unofficial TTRPG Game Jam.
The game is simple: there is a problem that must be overcome with brains and persistence. The problem isn't solving it, the problem is time. The minigame uses the standard polyhedral dice array and plays similar to codebreaker-type games.
BREAKTHROUGH was the first original game I wrote (at least that I published). This was back when I was basically only reading and playing D&D 5e (which may be evident in some of the design choices in the game).
I enjoy writing to restrictions, and the 200-word limit was useful in focusing in on the idea I wanted to explore. I've done wordcount restrictions twice more so far, on The Boulder (100 words) and Head of a Bull (200 words). I really enjoy David J Prokopetz's annual 200 word jams over on Tumblr: the TTRPG design community there is lovely.
This version is actually the second version of the game. The original formatting was... not my favourite, so I redid it earlier this year. I still think the game holds up, though if I were to rewrite it today I might change the structure and wording somewhat.