Hints and Hijinx
A downloadable Creator's Guide
HnH now supports multiplayer!
Hints and Hijinx has been given an update. The classic solo rules you know and love are untouched, but a new "Solo+" ruleset has been released, designed for making epic 1+ player mysteries.
While the Solo rules are perfect for striking out as your favorite detective like Sherlock Holmes, the Solo+ rules allows players to form a mystery solving team like Scooby-Doo!
The Hints and Hijinx system is a purpose-built solo mystery system that's easy to design mystery games for, and puts the power of deduction in the hands of the player!
This is done by a clue gathering mechanic, where the player needs to overcome a challenge or complication with one of their skills at thirteen different locations. On failures, their skill’s dice rating can degrade, making finding future clues more difficult.
After their investigation is complete, the clues they gathered are used to make a hypothesis. The more clues the player can string together to create their hypothesis, the larger the dice they roll to see if their character’s hypothesis is correct. On a 5+ die roll, their deductions are correct and the mystery solved!
Like Choose Your Own Adventure books of yore, the goal of Hints and Hijinx is to provide a structure that players can be familiar with to go on a myriad of mystery adventures. When a player sees the Hints and Hijinx logo, they take comfort in knowing how to play, coupled with the excitement of new mysteries and the twists of each game.
As a designer of a Hints and Hijinx game, how you have players construct clues, complications, and locations is up to you and is how we recommend adding your own flavor and spice to the games!
Included in the download is:
- PDF Creator's Guide for Solo and Solo+ rulesets
- PDF condensed Core Rules
- Alternative Formats: txt, html, epub, markdown, & gdoc
- High resolution png's of the Hints and Hijinx logo
- Affinity Publisher and PDF templates, prepopulated with the basic rules.
In addition to the Creator's Guide, we have released two games that use Hints and Hijinx and have 2 more in development, as examples of what can be done with the system.
- Waffles for Esther - the game that started it all, a fun and silly mystery of trying to find your favorite regular to deliver her daily waffles.
- The Jester King's Dance - a dark mystery of remembering the evils the Jester King committed by gathering clues from demons in hell.
- The Hints and Hijinx Jam Page has additional resources and mysteries.
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (22 total ratings) |
Author | Pandion Games |
Genre | Adventure |
Tags | creator-guide, Game Design, Mystery, Solo RPG, srd, system, Tabletop role-playing game |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Solo+ Rules UpdateMay 20, 2023
- Character Sheet + Additional TemplatesFeb 25, 2023
- Minor fixesFeb 15, 2023
- Condensed Core Rules PDFFeb 13, 2023
- Hints and Hijinx has Launched!Jan 28, 2023
Comments
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Hi ! This was interesting to read, I like how it looks both simple yet sufficiently complete to have a game with investigation !
A great system! I really like it. I’m currently designing a game derived from the Solo+ version where you play a journalist/superhero. One of the mysteries (called Scoop) I’m working on will be a three parts one with clues identical from one part to the other, to help having links and deeper connections between the different parts of the Scoop.
That sounds amazing! I can’t wait to see how it turns out - definitely let us know when you release it. I really like the idea of having a table of clues being shared between Scoops like that! Brilliant.
BTW the google docs Hints and Hijinx Creator’s Guide & Hints and Hijinx Solo+ Creator’s Guide require permission for some reasons to open.
But excited to dive into this.
Thanks for letting me know! I have updated the permissions.
Thanks! Very much a system right up my alley! I’m already eager to fit something from my hive of ideas over it
Oh wow, this sounds AWESOME!!! I'm really excited to see how this works and potentially make something with it, thanks for sharing it! 🥳
- ✨Beth
Thank you so much! Definitely let me know what you make! I’m so excited to see what people do with this system.