Creating Games ((The Beginning of Creating Games))

So I began designing another game today...

Ever since I can remember I’ve added rules to everything I’ve ever played with, or modified existing rules into something more of my liking. I’m sure there is some name for this mental disorder I have, if you know it please let me know so I can seek help.

You see, I couldn’t play with my action heroes until I created rules for them, usually with some kind of resource management abilities, when you run out of poker chips you can no longer fire your weapon until you restock your chips.

Legos? Everyone gets a certain number of specific colored blocks to build their spaceship (or what-have-you) out of. After everyone is finished we fly around shooting each other. Each person gets one shot a turn. When you take a shot, you pull a random block out of the pillowcase. If your spaceship has that shape and colored block, then it is destroyed and removed from your ship. If you lose a wing you crash and burn.

A large piece of paper? Turns into a board game.

Books? I might have done well if I read them instead of building houses out of them. I would then decorate each “house” with bad guys, hostages, weapons stocks. My little brother would be armed with nothing but bombs (AAA batteries) and listening devices (a scrap wire with a broken toy tied to the end of it). He could only use the listening devices a certain number of times before it broke and at times had to guess whether or not he should use bombs on certain houses risking the lives of the hostages he was trying to save. Each hostage saved was a point, each one killed lost one point.

Drawing? I even made rules for my art and turn pictures into games. Depending on what the picture or drawing was determined stats for the picture. It’s still a bit fuzzy remembering how I made my drawings come to life, but I remember having fun with it.

Then one day I was introduced to D&D and had a blast in my only game. I played someone else’s character, a wizard armed with all kinds of magical devices. The one that stuck out at me the most was something called the wand of wonder. The first opportunity I got to use that wand I went for it, and it didn’t take long, “I wonder what is behind this wall” I said to myself before pointing the wand and unleashing holy hell into the dinky room I was in. I was hooked. I bugged my mom for days, weeks, months, and yes, years for her to buy me the game known as D&D.

But I didn’t just sit around doing nothing waiting for her to buy me the game…I made my own D&D game. I called it “The Beginning of Dungeons and Dragons”. Ok, so I wasn’t very original with the name and I wasn’t very original with the game either. The game started exactly like that one game I played, we were all sitting in a bar minding our own business when a stranger walks up and asks us to go on a treasure hunt. I guess my first DM wasn’t very original either; he helped lay the brickwork for all those tavern starting games in my youth. Did I mention that everyone who played The Beginning of Dungeons and Dragons always started out with a wand of wonder and that we were stuck with boring dice with only six sides?

Oh and when I finally got the red box for Christmas I added a lot of my own rules. “Why is there no ability for perception?” The seventh ability is called sight, then came hearing, smelling, and huge homemade charts to determine what color your hair was. Sometimes I think I went a little too far.

I’ve played so many different games growing up that mechanics or rules I liked in one game ended up in other games.

I even made rules for video games! Super Streetfighter II Turbo had a cheat code that allowed you to lock special moves of the fighters. I created charts where you roll to determine your character, his handicap (stars), and which specials he had unlocked. We would then randomly determine how many turbo stars each fight would have, then we fought. One of my friends ended up with Saget with max stars and a tiger knee attack. He was tough to beat, but if I remember correctly I was the one that finally took him out. This apparently was one of the most fun created ideas I had, since I still hear about it to this day.

These days I still find myself modifying or creating games. I’ve created a super monopoly game, added a campaign storyline to Magic the Gathering, made games out of boxing, pro wrestling, football, and baseball. I have homebrewed war games and my very own poker game (which I'm very proud of). I have numerous hard drives filled with homemade games, homebrewed house rules for just about any game you can think of, and folders of game ideas and started, yet unfinished games.

So I began designing another game today...and in my next blog I will go into details of why and what kind of game I am working on. Along with why I am making a blog about it.

KING NATE