Backbone SRD

A system reference document (SRD) for creating bookmark games

Backbone SRD (or simply “Backbone”) is a system that you can use to create your own bookmark games. These are games meant to live on a bookmark and be paired with a book. While this implies that they should be small, once you consider that the book itself can be an extension of the game, or that the words on the page serve as seeds for the mechanics, then a lot more possibilities open up.

Why “Backbone?”

I originally wanted to name it “Spine SRD,” but I figured that would mostly attract horror creators. I figured Backbone was enough of a play on the spine of books anyway, slightly more removed from horror connotations, and it plays on the fact that you’re using these mechanics to build the backbone of your game.

Contains:

• CC BY 4.0 License
• An introduction
• Guiding principles
• Notes on pacing
• Direction on choice and RNG
• Help understanding success margins of bookmark games
• Direction on tracking play and progress
• Aids for oracle prompt types
• A lot of mechanics and examples
• 3 bookmark game samples

Credits

Backbone was designed in 🍁 Canada with love by Spencer Goldade of Monkey’s Lunch. It is set in Georgia (titles) and Proxima Nova (body).

License

Backbone SRD is © Spencer Goldade and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

You are free to use, adapt, remix, and build on Backbone, including commercially, to make your own bookmark games, so long as you give appropriate credit.

Preferred attribution

→ Built with Backbone by Spencer Goldade of Monkey's Lunch.

Where the medium allows (websites, digital storefronts, PDFs), please link "Monkey's Lunch" to monkeyslunch.com. Bonus points if you post your game on social media and also link to a Monkey’s Lunch account on that site.

No endorsement is implied or granted by this license, and any use that suggests endorsement is itself a violation of CC BY 4.0.

A note on bookmarks

Bookmarks have very little space, so attribution is not required on the bookmark itself. Instead, include the credit wherever your game is documented or distributed: such as a website, an itch.io listing, a sales page, anywhere a curious player or buyer can find it. This is consistent with the license's allowance for attribution "in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context."