JASON ERMER
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Project Portfolio


Combat Kitchen

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Combat Kitchen is a web app for cooking up monster fights in the world's most well-known roleplaying game.

The primary audience for Combat Kitchen includes Game Masters who are designing monster encounters. Several online tools exist to support GMs in this regard. My main inspiration here is Kobold Fight Club, though KFC lacks a convenient “monster viewer” (such as the pages found at Open5e).

The app's front end uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript at its core, including the jQuery and Boostrap frameworks. The back end is written in Python, using the Flask web app framework and a PostgresSQL database.

More information about the project can be found at the Combat Kitchen GitHub repository.


Chronicles of the Everflame Collective

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Chronicles of the Everflame Collective is my original rules-light roleplaying game (RPG) designed for running short adventures with younger players and beginners of all ages.

I designed and play-tested the new game, then wrote and typeset its 24-page rule booklet. To raise money for a print run of the booklet, I completed a successful crowdfunding campaign, and fulfilled backer rewards ahead of schedule. Throughout the process, I coordinated with two artists and the print shop to create digital and print versions of the rules booklet and a poster-sized map.

Arithmetiquities

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The Arithmetiquities is my mathematical fantasy adventure story featuring a quirky band of heroes undertakes a quest to recover a collection of powerful mathemagical artifacts. The story is told through a sequence of 36 mathematical puzzles.

I researched and curated a collection of appropriate puzzles, then reframed each puzzle to fit the plot and overall context of the adventure story. I typeset the chapters using LaTeX, and released the collection online. I also coordinated with an illustrator to create character artwork for the website and spot illustrations for each chapter.
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This project was the focus of an article in the Spring 2022 issue of Math Circular, a publication of the Math Circle Network (a project of the American Institute of Mathematics): Rethinking Story Problems to Engage Students’ Mathematical Curiosity.
I'm always looking forward to the next chapter. Even though it's challenging, it makes me think outside the box.
​-- 6th Grader
They have a fun little twist to them and more detail. It’s not like, “Sally had 3 apples,” but instead there are chapters that all come together and are actually fun for kids.
​-- 7th Grader
​I've been very impressed with the rich discussion that's taken place (particularly when they disagree with one another).
​-- Middle Grades Teacher

Quests of Epic Proportions

Collage of adventure supplies: torch, compass, canteen, and rope
The Quests of Epic Proportions are my choose-your-own-adventure games that have been built with young people's social-emotional learning (SEL) in mind. The fictional challenges are engaging while presenting "real enough" situations that deep SEL conversations can arise around skills like active listening, perspective-taking, disagreeing agreeably, and tolerating ambiguity and frustration.

I wrote and programmed the stories using Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive stories. I also coordinated with an artist to create custom game cards to represent supplies and treasures.

Play through a sample chapter: Mausoleum of the Murmuring Mummies, Chapter 3
The funny thing is that [my students] have not even caught on to this being SEL. They are stating sentences like, "Our group is using active listening, and it works." [and] "I feel like our group overpowers people's opinions. How can we change that?"
      ​-- School Wellness Coordinator

Other Projects

Image with text interactive fiction
Interactive Fiction is part creative writing, part computer programming. Here you can read my stories and learn how to write your own.
​TURN TO PAGE 42
Image with text collaborative mathematics
Collaborative Mathematics offers an assortment of puzzle videos and user-submitted solutions.
​VISIT COLLABOMATH
Image with text meat a morphosis
Meat-A-Morphosis: An Introduction to Functions is my goofy animated short about a key concept from beginning algebra.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is by Jason Ermer and licensed under
​a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license (
CC BY-NC 4.0).
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