Clown Motel

Clown Motel is an experience. It feels a little disorganized, and it's not 100% clear to me how every part of it works, but it's also bristling with energy and creativity. Also you play as what I'm assuming are spec ops clowns. We need more games like that.

Clown Motel's PDF is actually a collection of PDFs, and they're all mandatory. Not everything is labeled clearly, so: Clown Core is the core system. Clown Motel is the character sheet. Clown Weapon Sheet 1 and 2 are equipment. And Creature Sheet (Clown Motel) is the bestiary.

Visuals-wise, most of the PDFs that make up Clown Motel are a little sparse. There's some photo art, and the bestiary, equipment lists, and character sheet are well organized, but there's a lot of bare text.

Setting-wise, Clown Motel feels like there's a little information missing. You play as a clown, you have weapons and can tame creatures, and the character sheet references unnatural entities, goop, and fear level, but I'm not 100% sure how these all tie together.

On the other hand, the weapons and creatures are great. There's a really solid sense of comedy in the names and descriptions, such as the BHG (big honkin' gun) and there's a ton of creativity threaded throughout the design. For example, the weapon called Name allows you to rename and transform enemies. Also you can get bonus stats from the GM by drawing your character. And you can also build your own weapon out of custom clown parts, using a system that's flexible and rewards player innovation.

The creature sheet doesn't really have any foes on it (although maybe you could fight a raccoon), but all of the creatures are fun and compelling and have the game's signature humor.

Overall, if you want a game with a solid theme, lots of chaos, and just enough mechanics to get rolling, give this a try. It's a fun read and---with a few judgement calls on how its game world works---I think it'd make a neat (and extremely hectic) oneshot.

Minor Issues:

-There's a few spelling errors, but they don't interfere with readability, and honestly they're kind of part of the aesthetic?

-Clown Motel's name is super hard to search on itchio. It just doesn't show up in the results. I think this is because there are so many other clown games and motel games, and because itch's search doesn't prioritize whole phrases.