D&D — 48e

Back in 2048, after years of abandonment, the last edition of the world’s greatest role-playing game was quietly released.

Totalling 48 words only, the document was quickly lost to time. Fortunately, I (Le Joyeux Scribe) managed to find and re-transcribe a miraculously preserved copy.

This is the work I am presenting here today: a masterclass of game design boiled down to its barest essentials. The game is here, the fluff is yours.

This is a submission for the 48-word RPG Jam.

I mostly wanted to have fun, and see if I could boil down the game to its residual skeleton: the d20 roll, and a system of clocks / skill challenges to manage the pace of the story and the progress of the heroes. Note that combats are treated the same way under this system. It stems from the ugly truth: hit points are just score counters, just like gauges, clocks or skill challenges are. :)

To do: add fluff someday ; do the layout, add screenshots and a decent cover ; add the French version.

This game is © Le Joyeux Scribe, 2026. It is freely distributed under the CC-BY-SA licence (share and adapt freely, even commercially, but always with attribution and under the same licence). License link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/