The 2:45 Pop Song RPG

How we created a complete roleplaying game in an hour, and what it means for the future of tabletop design

The Beatles Knew Something We Forgot

In 1963, The Beatles released "Please Please Me" - a perfect two minute pop song that changed everything. No extended guitar solos, no conceptual narrative arc spanning four vinyl sides, just verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-done. It was complete, satisfying, and you could listen to it three times in the span of one prog rock track.

Sixty years later, tabletop RPG design is having its own "Please Please Me" moment.

The Triple-LP Problem

Walk into any game store and you'll find shelves lined with what we might call "triple-LP RPGs" – magnificent, sprawling works that demand serious commitment. D&D 5e clocks in at over 300 pages for each of the three core books. Pathfinder 2e weighs in at 640 pages just for the Core Rulebook. These are The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and The Wall - artistic monuments that require dedicated listening sessions and careful attention to appreciate fully.

But here's the thing about concept albums: they're intimidating. When someone hands you Tales from Topographic Oceans, you don't casually throw it on during lunch break. You need time, space, and mental energy to properly engage with Yes's vision of cosmic awakening through four 20-minute movements.

The same barrier exists with comprehensive RPG systems. That beautiful Blades in the Dark book sitting on your shelf? It's been there for six months because finding time to properly digest 320 pages of faction mechanics and flashback rules feels like planning a moon landing.

Enter the Pop Song RPG

What if, instead of building another concept double LP (or even a standard long player), we created "I Want to Hold Your Hand"?

This question led to an experiment that unfolded in real-time collaboration between human creativity and AI assistance. It started with Robert Schultz sharing an image of goblin bowlers on a Facebook group. Within an hour, that image had become TiGGR: The Green Lebowski - a complete, playable RPG that fits on eight pages and delivers a full gaming experience in 30-45 minutes.

The process looked like this:

0:00 - See goblin bowler art, make Big Lebowski pun
0:15 - Riff on cast (trolls as Jesus Quintana, ogres as German nihilists)
0:30 - Structure three scenes with clear goals
0:45 - Integrate TiGGR system mechanics
1:00 - Complete PDF ready for publication

This is the RPG equivalent of walking into Abbey Road Studios and walking out with "Yesterday."

The Anatomy of a Pop Song RPG

Like a perfect pop song, The Green Lebowski follows a deceptively simple structure that maximizes impact:

Hook (0:00-0:15): "Cosmic bowling mayhem with goblins" - you immediately know if this is for you
Verse 1 (Scene 1): Setup tension at the bowling alley
Chorus (Core Mechanics): Simple 2d6 system anyone can learn
Verse 2 (Scene 2): Escalate with the tournament
Bridge (Scene 3): Everything goes sideways in the parking lot
Outro: Resolution and cosmic wisdom from the Stone Giant Stranger

The entire experience has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Like "Love Me Do," it doesn't outstay its welcome or demand more attention than you're willing to give. Sure it lacks the cinematic breadth, extended arcs, and robust character development of the traditional RPG, and it is working as intended.

Why This Matters Now

The pop song RPG isn't just about brevity - it's about a shared experience within timeboxed constraints. In 1973, Pink Floyd could assume their audience would sit still for 43 minutes of Dark Side of the Moon (they sat through all of “Echoes” and loved it). Today's cultural landscape doesn't offer that luxury.

Consider the numbers:

• 300-page RPG: 10+ hours to read, weeks to master, months to find a group that's also invested
• 8-page one-shot: 15 minutes to read, playable immediately, perfect for pickup groups

This isn't about dumbing down - it's a completely different design philosophy. The Ramones weren't less creative than Genesis; they just understood that "Blitzkrieg Bop" could deliver punk's entire ethos in 2:12. It may have lacked the theatricality and breadth of “Supper’s Ready,” but that wasn’t the intended use case.

The Collaborative Singles Chart

What made our process particularly interesting was the multi-AI collaboration. Claude, Grok, Gemini, and ChatGPT each contributed different elements - mechanical clarity, creative riffing, structural feedback, and polish suggestions. This mirrors how pop music evolved: producers, songwriters, musicians, and engineers each bringing specialized skills to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

The result feels less like a designed product and more like a creative jam session that happened to produce something playable. It has the loose, energetic feel of a great garage band - rough around the edges but with a weirdly catchy hook.

The Long Tail of Short Games

Here’s where the music analogy gets really interesting. The short-form pop song doesn’t replace long players and concept albums—The Wall and OK Computer still exist and still matter. They just explore different kinds of artistic expression within different temporal constraints.

Pop song RPGs are no different. They’re not here to replace your campaign-length epics. They’re here to fill the gaps: the sugar high between courses, the track you put on repeat because it makes you feel something now, the thing you share with friends who “don’t really do RPGs.”

Not every game needs to be 30 sessions long to matter. Some only need 30 minutes.

The Democratization of Design

Perhaps most importantly, pop song RPGs democratize game creation. Writing a 300-page RPG is like producing multiple concept albums - it requires resources, time, and bloodsworn commitment. Writing a 7-page one-shot is like writing a pop song - you can do it in an afternoon with whatever tools you have lying around and share it on itch.io.

This lowers the barrier to entry for new designers and creates space for weird, experimental ideas that might not sustain a full system but make for perfect one-shots. It's the difference between needing a record label and just posting to SoundCloud.

"Please Please Me" for Players

When The Beatles released "Please Please Me," they weren't trying to create the greatest artistic statement in popular music history (Yes, we know about The White Album…). They were trying to create something that would make people feel good for three minutes. Mission accomplished.

TiGGR: The Green Lebowski has the same modest ambition: make a table of friends laugh for 45 minutes while rolling dice about cosmic bowling. In an era of increasingly complex systems and elaborate worldbuilding, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is just write a really good pop song.

Because here's the secret The Beatles understood: if you can create a perfect three-minute experience, you've mastered something that all the 20-minute guitar solos in the world can't touch. You've created something immediately lovable.

And in a world full of triple-LP RPGs straining bookshelves, maybe what we need more of are games you can hum along to on the first listen.

The Dude’s Gran Torino isn't just transportation—it's a character in its own right, full of memories and mysterious supplies. And sometimes the ball comes back, and sometimes it doesn't.

"TiGGR: The Green Lebowski" is available as a free download under CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. Like any good pop song, it belongs to everyone.