Pocketmod RPGs - Weird West

A good few years ago I was listening to the "Feat the Boot" podcast when they interviewed the author of "Weird West" which was a pocketmod PDF. I'd never heard of "pocketmod" so grabbed a copy of Weird West and investigated.

It turns out a "pocketmod" is not a type of RPG but is the name given to a booklet made from a single sheet of paper. Its pretty neat. Fold the paper in a certain way, make one short cut with scissors and you have an 8 page booklet that can fit in your top pocket.

Which leads us to a "Pocketmod PDF". This is a standard pocketmod BUT some with its 8 pages filled with the rules of an RPG. That's the core of it, a short RPG but in a tiny little form factor. Its cute! It also shows you that the core of a game can be a tiny thing and that the 400 page games are waaaay more than is really needed.

This format is also so small and cheap to print (a single side of A4/Legal), that you can print out a copy of the rules for everyone at the table. Of course you can pack it to take on holiday too if you want, or smuggle one into a prison between the sheets of a toilette paper roll!

I was so enamoured by the concept of the pocketmod RPG that I've gone on to write a few myself. I've also produced some tools for game masters in the format, as having such a small format save on printing out A$ manuals to carry around.

If you want to try it yourself, you start needing something that allows you to save to PDF. For instance Microsoft Word, or Open Office's Writer. Then write your 8 page RPG and save into PDF. Trawl the web and download the "PDF to Pocketmod" software and run your PDF through it.