L'Yom Vayom

L'YOM VAYOM is a tabletop roleplaying game designed to simulate the experience of being Jewish for 3-4 players plus an MC to run the game. It is a Powered by the Apocalypse hack of Honey Heist.

The original version of L'Yom Vayom in its one-page iteration was created for the One-Page RPG 2024 game jam. The Complete Edition, which expands on the one-page rules by explaining them in more detail and also features larger print and a few inspirational texts, was released on Tisha B'Av 5784.

Please note: this game, if played correctly, may be a very difficult experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are you, the author, Jewish?

A: Yep! Born and raised!

Q: Is L'Yom Vayom for non-Jews?

A: L'Yom Vayom's rules do require that a Jewish MC run the game, but non-Jewish players are explicitly supported!

Q: What are some words that describe the experience of playing L'Yom Vayom?

A: Challenging, inspiring, thoughtful, harrowing, frightening, angering, educational, and certainly not least of all, fun!

Q: What's the intended player experience of L'Yom Vayom?

A: The ideal experience for Jewish players is to come away with stories about times we all know where someone manages to live for once. The ideal experience for goyische players is to have a better understanding of the kind of things we Jews live through daily.  

Q: What is L'Yom Vayom's setting?

A: L'Yom Vayom has four suggested settings, which come with a date, a location (which is a city), and a theme to get you started, but encourages the MC to do research on their own if they're not familiar with the details. The rules are extremely light and adaptable to pretty much any timeframe.

Q: How is being Jewish reflected in L'Yom Vayom?

A: Characters in L'Yom Vayom have stats representing their closeness or distance from Judaism which are in constant tension with each other. The game has ways to interact with Judaism on both a cultural and religious level; sometimes this is beneficial and sometimes not. Characters are rewarded for participating in Jewish ritual, but doing so might well endanger them in other ways.

Q: This game seems difficult, in more ways than one. Why would anyone play it?

A: L'Yom Vayom is definitely not an easy game; the difficulty is intentionally high. In many ways, it's also a survival horror game and a resource management game. For some people, those are appeals of their own. To everyone else: the game wants you to win, to survive. That's in the MC rules.

Q: What's the difference between the one-page version and the Complete Edition? 

A: The one-page version is the original form of the game and was made for the One-Page RPG Jam 2024. The Complete Edition features more complete and better-explained and organized rules, as well as a couple of pieces of inspirational text. If there's a conflict between the two versions, use the Complete Edition's text.

Q: I have a question that's not answered here.

A: Please feel free to leave a comment below, and your question will be answered as soon as possible!