For the Campus
1. Students have gone missing from the dorms
TTRPG 1-page Jam
CAMPUS
FEAR!
You are a group of college students.
You are back on campus for the fall
semester. You are excited to see your
friends and anxious about your
classes. Your college campus looks
colorful and crisp on this early fall day.
But something seems wrong, and you
want to investigate.
A game by
campfirerpg.itch.io
All pictures by authors
Roll 1D8 for mystery:
Manager (CM)
Roll 1D10 twice for locations:
1. Old library
2. New and shiny student union
3. State-of-the-art student gym
4. Underground maintenance tunnels
5. Outdated computer lab
6. Fraternity or Sorority party house
7. Weirdly-shaped performance hall
8. Overgrown track field
9. Thick woods bordering campus
10. Gritty boiler room/HVAC
Roll 1D8 for NPC who will help/hinder the
group: (your pick)
1. A nosy squirrel
2. A feral graduate student
3. A stern administrator
4. A moody professor
5. A group of scared freshmen
6. Public Safety team
7. An unsettling raven
8. A chatty maintenance person
2. Noises coming from the chemistry lab
3. Strange creatures seen at night
4. Oddly-glowing mushrooms growing on the
lawn
5. The college President rumored to be a
vampire
6. Giant campus statue replaced overnight
with inflatable Tube Guy
7. The campus theater suddenly caught on fire
8. A secret society rumored to perform rituals
on campus
Campus Manager
Tips
This game is meant for one shot sessions, so
keep it short and sweet – like a good term
paper!
Start with a dramatic event, in medias res: a
blackout at night; a day so hot that
authorities have told students to stay home;
student housing flooding overnight (this
happened on my campus!)
Remember to implement safety tools, such as
lines, veils, and X-card.
 Student creation
Roll 1D8 for main student stereotype:
1. The Life of the Party
2. The Tech Wizard
3. The Jock / Cheerleader
4. The “Just Coasting Along”
5. The Over-Achiever
6. The Hippie/Grunge Revival
7. The Gossip Authority
8. The Trust-fund Kid
Roll 1D8 for special ability:
1. Easily smells lies or bs
2. Cat-like night vision
3. Runs unexpectedly fast
4. Encyclopedic knowledge of oddly specific
topics (max 3)
5. Courage to question authority
6. Can fix nearly anything
7. Photographic memory
8. Great at eaves-dropping
You all have your smartphones, obviously.
But you forgot to charge them. Roll 1D6 to
see how much battery you have.
At each bell toll (see “The bell tolls”) your
phone loses 1D4 battery.
Roll 1D8 for equipment:
1. Chalk and eraser, probably stolen
2. Backpack full of snacks
3. Scooter or Skateboard
4. Textbook of your choice
5. Campus map
6. First aid kit
7. Swiss Knife
8. Towel
How to play
Whenever the action makes sense, let it
happen. Fiction first.
When the outcome of the action is in doubt or
presents a risk, ask the players to roll:
1D6 as a base
+ 1D6 if their stereotype or special ability
applies (max + 1D6)
+ 1D6 if another player helps out (but they
will share the consequences)
If equipment can be used, it grants a reroll
of one die – only final result applies
Look at the highest dice result:
1/2 fail miserably + mark Fear
3 fail but there is some silver lining + mark
Fear
4/5 success but something bad happens
6 success
Fear points
If a student character reaches 3 Fear points,
they run away for good – you decide where. Or
they curl up in a ball and cry. Or they get
frustrated and call it a night. Either way, they
exit the game.
You can eliminate 1 Fear point by calling your
family or friends (if you still have battery in your
smartphone - each call uses 1D4 battery life),
or by finding some comfort food on campus
(either from friends or at a vending machine).
The bell tolls
The bells of the old and abandoned campus
chapel will toll every two hours (every 40
minutes of real time). At every bell toll,
something strange happens. After 6 hours (2
hours of real time), it is morning and everyone
on campus starts waking up - the session will
end, whether the mystery has been solved or
not.
Game end
If students fail to solve the mystery (either
they all run away in fear, or they simply
cannot understand what happened), the
strange happenings will continue and
become more frequent. Some other brave
students will have to solve the mystery!
If students succeed in solving the campus
mystery but lots is lost in the process, as
reward they can pick an item to be
featured on the student cafeteria menu
this semester.
If students succeed with flying colors, with
no major consequences, they can have
extra-credit at the end of the semester. Or
you can blackmail the college
administration!