Serial Experiment Jump is a role-playing, story-telling game designed to be run online and face-to-face.

You will play one of several characters who work for the Temporal Research Agency. Each character has a special power. They work mostly in the modern world, but are occasionally sent to other times.

The characters include:

• Mike, who can lay his hands on any metal machine and understand its mechanics. By touching a lawnmower, he will immediately know how to turn over the engine, where the throttle is, etc. More complex machines (bulldozers, construction cranes, guns) require more time to comprehend. Unfortunately, this is also very distracting when he's, for example, holding a gun.
• Amber, a brash young woman with a supercharged bio-electrical field. She can pump this up to affect electrical devices or discharge a painful electrical pulse into a target through her fists. She eats like a horse and stays rail-thin. She clearly has a thing for Mike, but she's too fiery and independent to act on it.
• Natalya is a tall, serious woman who wears glasses. If she touches a conscious person, she can read their surface thoughts and emotions. If she can touch a sleeping person for an hour, she can read their current dreams. If she touches a drugged person, she can direct that person to reveal memories. Cool and detached, she nevertheless has feelings for Mike, who is the only person not freaked out by her ability.
• Ken, a security agent with extraordinary vision. He can see distinctions on the order of one tenth of a millimeter and can identify a car model from five miles away on a clear day. He also favors guns. He lost his family a few years ago, and has thrown himself into his work. This is his family.

The group chooses a scenario. Each scenario describes a basic situation, a goal for the group, and a goal for each character.

Each player also chooses a character.

Randomly, choose one player to be the Teller, and another to be the Pusher.

Set up a timer to go off after one third of your scheduled time has elapsed. So, for a one hour game, set the timer for 20 minutes.

The Teller's job is to tell the story. The Teller describes how his or her character actively pushes the story forward, attempting to achieve the group's goal and his or her character's goal. The other player-characters may react and respond.

The Pusher has two jobs:

1. Describe threats and antagonists that are preventing the Teller's character from achieving his or her goal.
2. Monitor the Teller for delays (pausing, saying “umm,” or stuttering for more than about 5 seconds). If the Teller delays, the Pusher must call out “Switch!” At this point, the Teller's turn is over, and the Teller must call out the name of another player. That player becomes the new Teller, and the player who until now was the Teller becomes the new Pusher.

Example: Mary, John, and Rob are playing. Mary is Teller, and John is Pusher. Mary narrates for a while, then gets stuck and goes silent. John calls out “Switch!” Mary now chooses another player by calling out “Rob!” Rob is now the Teller, and Mary is the Pusher.

Note that the Pusher may also play as his or her character while acting as the Pusher, but the Pusher should always prioritize Pusher duties over his or her character.

If a player is neither Teller or Pusher, they may react to the Teller, talk in-character, and describe his or her character's actions. However, a side character may only propose actions that change the story's direction.

When the timer goes off the first time, the Pusher must introduce a significant plot twist. Reset the timer for the same length of time, so it will go off two-thirds into the session.

When the timer goess off the second time, the Pusher must introduce a major plot twist that pushes the characters towards a final confrontation with the antagonistic forces of this scenario.