The Circuit

The track is oval. The rules are rigged. Your body is both a weapon and a paycheck. The crowd wants blood or spectacle. You want something harder to name.

THE CIRCUIT is a solo journaling RPG set in the 1970s flat-track roller derby revival. One bout. One night. One body that keeps score whether you want it to or not.

Your choice: A One Session Trifold Quickplay or an Extended Gamebook.

You are a professional skater navigating the tension between athletic excellence and the promoter's script -- between the bout you want to skate and the one you're being paid to perform. Every jam, you choose your mode:

SKATE REAL -- Play it straight. Genuine effort. Real consequences. SELL THE SHOW -- Work the script. Do what the promoter needs. Mark the cost. REFUSE THE SCRIPT -- The mode that costs the most and matters the most.

CHOOSE YOUR ARCHETYPE

The Jammer -- Point scorer. Spotlight magnet. You break through, and the crowd goes wild. The pack hits back harder every season.

The Blocker -- The wall. Nobody notices you until you're gone. And then the whole team falls apart.

The Enforcer -- You police the pack. You know when the real ends and the show begins. The line between them is tonight's question.

The Veteran -- Seven seasons. You've seen the circuit's lies. You skate out of spite. That's still enough.

The Rookie -- Fresh meat. Everything is real to you. You'll learn. The question is what.

TRACK TWO RESOURCES IN TENSION

BRUISES -- What your body is paying. Doesn't fully heal between bouts. At 6, your body decides for you.

SPOTLIGHT -- What the circuit values you for. At 0, the promoter stops returning your calls. At 6, everyone wants a piece of what you've built.

WHAT THIS GAME IS

A game about women who built something real out of a system designed to use them up.

About athletic legitimacy in a sport that couldn't decide if it was competition or entertainment.

About found family, wrecked knees, and the particular math of a $75 payday against a $200 medical bill.

WHAT'S IN THE FILE

The Tri-Fold

One print-and-play trifold -- prints on a single 11x8.5 sheet, folds to a 6-panel brochure. Complete 1-2 hour solo session:

• 5 asymmetric skater archetypes with unique special abilities
• Dual resource system: Bruises and Spotlight in tension
• The 3-mode jam resolution system (2d6)
• 8 random generation tables (venue, opposition, promoter instructions, complications, consequences)
• Sample bout scenario with pre-rolled setup
• Journal prompts for every stage
• Extended season play rules for campaign use

The Expanded Gamebook

Sixteen teams. One championship. One body. One season to prove they were wrong to write you off.

THE CIRCUIT: NATIONAL is a solo journaling RPG campaign about a skater navigating a complete national roller derby season -- from regional qualifier bouts to the championship finals.

This is not a game about winning. It is a game about what winning costs.

THE SEASON

ACT ONE -- THE REGIONAL QUALIFIER (Bouts 1-4) Skate your home circuit. Earn one of sixteen national spots. Establish who you are before the machine gets hold of you.

ACT TWO -- THE NATIONAL CIRCUIT (Bouts 5-12) Eight cities. Eight weeks. New promoters with their own agendas. The bracket is visible now. You can see who you'll need to beat. Your Bruises accumulate faster than they heal.

ACT THREE -- THE FINALS (Bouts 13-16) Four teams remain. Everything you've spent and preserved across the season converges here. The belt is real. So is the question you've been avoiding all season.

ON THE TRACK

Five archetypes with full-season arcs and mid-season evolution. Each creates a genuinely different campaign experience.

The three-mode jam system -- Skate Real, Sell the Show, Refuse the Script: every bout, the same question from a different angle.

The Promoter Network -- 11 named promoters with relationship tracking. Eddie Falk is small time. Victor Laine runs the whole circuit. Nick Petrocelli knows people you don't want to meet.

Eight regional leagues -- Northeast union halls, Great Lakes power skating, Southern showmanship, West Coast politics, the Mountain circuit that pays in loyalty because it can't pay in cash.

The sixteen-team bracket -- a countdown built into the structure. Every bout advanced means one fewer remaining. The end is always visible from where you're standing.

OFF THE TRACK

This is the other half of the game. What happens in motel rooms, diner booths and phone booths at 2 am?

Substance Abuse -- Pain management on the road, 1970s style. Pills, alcohol, and the promoters who looked away because it kept you compliant.

Abusive Relationships -- The circuit gave women something rare: a reason to leave, a community to leave into, and the physical capability to defend themselves they hadn't had before. It also made them targets for men threatened by that.

Townies and Predators -- Every city has them. The circuit teaches women to read rooms fast.

The Criminal Underworld -- Gun running through the equipment van. Drug smuggling using the circuit's travel routes. Fixed bouts with real gambling money behind them. The hidden compartment you found during a breakdown on I-70. The favor that's small. The precedent that is not.

Financial Desperation -- $75 a bout. $200 medical bills. The math never worked. Women skated anyway.

All conflict tables include opt-out rules. Honest engagement requires consent. You decide what this season holds.

FIVE WAYS IT ENDS

THE BELT -- You won. Write about what it costs.

THE LEGEND -- You didn't win the belt. You built something that lasts longer.

THE EXIT -- You leave on your own terms. Or your body decides for you. Write about the difference.

THE SACRIFICE -- You give everything to carry a teammate to the belt instead of you. Nobody in the stands understands what just happened. Your teammates do.

THE EXPOSURE -- You use the championship as a platform. Fixed bouts. Criminal connections. You burn it down. You lose everything except the truth.

WHAT'S IN THE FILE

35+ page expanded gamebook in PDF

• Complete 3-act national season structure (16 bouts)
• 5 archetypes with season arcs and mid-season evolution options
• Advancement system: 8 milestone abilities
• 11 named promoters with relationship tracking (-3 to +3)
• 8 regional leagues with distinct mechanics and home bonuses
• 6 off-track conflict systems with full tables + opt-out rules
• 16-team national bracket with elimination mechanics
• 20+ random generation tables
• Named NPC roster: 6 skaters with full personality notes
• Complete example of play (Skinny Minny Miller, Act One, Bout 2)
• Historical notes and curated bibliography
• Journal prompts for every stage of the season
• The Five Endings with their defining questions

THE CIRCUIT -- COMPLETE EDITION Everything you need to skate the local circuit and climb to the national stage.

THE CIRCUIT -- Quickplay Trifold One bout. One night. One body that keeps score. Print on a single sheet. Fold. Skate. The essential entry point.

THE CIRCUIT: NATIONAL -- Expanded Gamebook: The complete national season campaign. 16 bouts. 3 acts. 5 possible endings. The belt or what you preserved, trying to reach it.

Start with the trifold. One night, one bout, learn the system. Graduate to the national campaign when you're ready for a season that accumulates, deepens, and asks harder questions.

Skinny Minny Miller started on the local circuit too.

CONTENT NOTICE

Contains: physical injury, economic precarity, and promoter exploitation. Also contains: solidarity, athletic excellence, found family, and women who refuse to be written off.

Designed by Julian Grant. Inspired by Ann Calvello, the Bay Bombers, and every skater who ever laced up on a flat track in an armory or a parking lot.

For the full national season campaign: THE CIRCUIT: NATIONAL -- Expanded Gamebook Edition ($5 PWYW)