Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is an innovative investigative TTRPG about amateur detectives from all walks of life solving “fair play” mysteries with fixed truths, while also often dealing with interpersonal conflict.

The rulebook is available (for free) at this link (https://anim-ttrpg.itch.io/eureka-urban-investigative-fantasy-ttrpg-haunted-house-murder-mystery-module).

Eureka needs more mysteries for parties to solve, and this game jam is a community event to encourage fans to come together and write mystery modules.

This game jam is non-competitive, but any submissions the developers like will likely receive free editing consultation from the Eureka developers themselves and may be “canonized” with a link within future versions of the Eureka rulebook itself.

While you're working, and especially if you have questions, join us on the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club Discord Server (https://discord.gg/ztnxPVSqCz). It's a club for discussing and playing all kinds of RPGs, not just Eureka, run by the creators of Eureka. You can also join our "Top Secret" Patreon Discord server and further support the A.N.I.M. team by subscribing for any amount to our patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAgencyofNarrativeIntrigueandMysteryPatreon). We'll be happy to answer your questions about this game jam or Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy either way!

Here are the rules for submission:

1. It’s Okay to Submit Unfinished Work:Eureka mystery modules take a lot of work, and we don’t expect basically anyone to be 100% finished before the deadline. Submit your work, and then keep working on finishing it up even after the deadline is passed.

**2. Working in Groups is Encouraged but Not Mandatory:**This game jam is non-competitive and there is no monetary prize on the line. It’s perfectly okay to work solo or in groups. In fact, working in groups is recommended.

3. Follow the Guide in Chapter 5 of the Eureka Rulebook: Chapter 5 in the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook contains extensive advice, guidelines, best practices, and rules for the creation of Eureka mystery modules. Do not start working before you read it.

1. Modern, Mundane, and “Kolchakian”: One thing the library of available Eureka mystery modules lacks right now is a strong foundation of “baseline” adventures to which weirder, more unconventional mysteries can be contrasted. One of the main purposes of this game jam is to help rectify that. To this end, every submission to this game jam must fulfill at least two out of the following three criteria.

4a. Be “Modern”: It is often recommended, but not required, that Eureka adventure modules not take place within a specific year unless necessary. Whether the module takes place in a specific time period such as a decade or a specific year, it must take place in the “present.” That is, the 2020s.

4b. Be “Mundane”: Investigating a mystery is in and of itself of course an extraordinary circumstance, but by “mundane” here we mean the mystery does not involve uncovering elements which would be considered “paranormal” or “supernatural.”

4c. Be “Kolchakian”: This is a specific Eureka rulebook term that you will find a better definition of in Chapter 5 of the E ureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook, but in short it means that the investigation will take the investigators across a relatively broad area with multiple distinct locations rather than all taking place within one location, and will typically utilize the Travel rules (found in Chapter 1 of the Eureka rulebook) for investigators moving between locations. Kolchakian mystery modules will always use the Ticking Clock rules found in Chapter 1.

5. Don’t Overdo It: Be careful of being too ambitious, especially if this is your first time writing a module like this! One murder or missing person already typically provides more than enough mystery solving to fill an entire multi-session adventure module. It is tempting to write about a serial killer or some other phenomenon with many victims, but if you do that then you’re looking at having to write multiple modules worth of information for just a single module. In the last game jam, many first-time mystery module writers started too big and burnt out before they were able to finish their work. Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

6. Consider Optional Rules and Expansions: You can consider this rule optional too, I just thought it would be a good idea to put it here and remind everyone that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy has multiple optional rules and expansions. Consider utilizing the Heat rules if police are likely to be a factor for instance. Eureka: Extreme Conditions (https://anim-ttrpg.itch.io/eureka-extreme-conditions) also provides rules for modules taking place outside of conventional civilization. You might also find inspiration by looking at Eureka: The Fanservice Files (https://anim-ttrpg.itch.io/eureka-the-fanservice-files) or Eureka: The XXX-Files (https://anim-ttrpg.itch.io/eureka-the-xxx-files).

7.Submissions Must Be Adventure Modules and Be Compatible with Eureka****: This game jam is for mystery adventure modules to be run with Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. If you're unfamiliar, an adventure module is a guide for game masters to running a specific scenario for their gaming group. You can find an example of one made for Eureka alongside the rulebook linked above.

**8. Third-person Verbiage:**Avoid saying "you" when referring to player-characters.

9. Separation of Player and Character: Ensure that your module says "investigators" when it is referring to the player-characters, and "players" when it is referring to the real people sitting around the table, and don't get them mixed up. More information on following rules 8 and 9 can be found in Chapter 1 of the rulebook.

10. Characters Can Be Bigoted, but We'd Rather You Weren't: NPCs in your module may express hateful attitudes, but we do not approve of hateful attitudes from submitters themselves.

11. Stay Grounded in Eureka's Lore: Please keep your module within the bounds of what the world of Eureka offers. You can read more about this within Chapter 5.

12. Submissions Must be 5,000 Words Minimum**:**There is no upper limit, so be careful not to overdo it, as long as your submission has at least 5,000 words. This is the bare minimum size. Most good Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy adventure modules are about 50-100 pages, as Eureka really stresses providing detailed information to the GM and players alike.

13. No Generative AI: Do not submit anything that has been created in whole or in part through the use of generative "AI."

14. We Don't Own Your Submission: Your submission is still your property. You can even sell it after the game jam is concluded if you want. Though if you do, we recommend you keep working on it a bit to polish it up, since one month is plenty of time to get a first draft out, but even the best submissions will benefit from some critique and further refinement and editing!

15.Finally, don't wait until June 1st to sign up for the jam or start working on your submission! You can, and probably should,join and****start working now so you have something to submit for the jam. The submission window is just a formality, you should work on your module before it opens and still after it closes.

Additional Advice and Inspiration: Here are links to a few resources that might help you find inspiration. First, here is atumblr post containing links to a variety of “mystery module pitches” (https://www.tumblr.com/anim-ttrpgs/813356643841671168/extended-list-star-detective-the-creature?source=share) that include as much advice and scaffolding for writing a particular idea for a mystery module as possible. Second,here is a link to a YouTube playlist containing videos that might provide inspiration for writing Eureka mysteries (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHtU5--OKGwwdImOFMEPPO7atwD0U4mtE).

If you are already in the process of writing a Eureka mystery module, and that module does not fit within the guidelines set for this particular jam, don't worry! There will be other mystery jams in the future, and it's not like you even need a mystery jam's permission to make a module.It is recommended that you finish your current module before you attempt to participate in this jam, as working on two at once just increases the likelihood that neither gets finished.