Malls & Morons Revamp

Oy. So, Malls & Morons made it's debut to the net scene in 2001 as a d20 variant. It's 7 years later with little or nothing to show, and I'm thinking to myself, "Orion, this has to get out there and this procrastination has to end. No more starting over, no more untouched documents, partially or fully complete sitting in your hard drive: finish this while you still can!"

Sadly, I seem to be in an endless cycle of concept re-evaluation and procrastination. I will not make any promises about the future of this game until the book is done and out of my hands. So, the next time you see a promise, you will know that it is finished and changing hands between people whose job is to release this game. I know the fans of the game, what few are left, want to see something. A revision has been promised to them, but really, is it necessary? Sure, the d20 version is unpolished and shares more similarities with D&D than a modern RPG, but it works. Is it necessary?

To me, it is. d20 is great and fine, but I want to make the game my own and ride on no one's coat tails. This is merely a matter of pride and a desire to really flex my muscles as a game designer and design something for myself, from the ground up. Making up rules, the contexts, the settings, and everything else, to me, is fun. Believe it or not (and among the D&D crowd, I imagine it's more common than not), but I like to determine statistical probability of dice ranges with certain numbers of dice. It's a great mental exercise, and one that I like to do when creating game mechanics.

There is also the matter of simplicity. I adknowledge that Malls & Morons is a niche game at best, and it will never find mainstream success like D&D, GURPS, and of the White Wolf games, and so on and so forth. The setting and the characters, because of their unusual nature and specificity, will not appeal to a wide market of gamers. It does to some, and those who like it and support it, are enough for me. Using d20 to play this game is, in my opinion, a bit overkill, because of the necessity of memorizing so many rules. That is not to say that d20 is too complex - however, more people will like, try, and play the game if it is easier to pick up and play without so much mental work involved.

The simplicity is also a reflection of my changing tastes and preferences of games. When I first began scribbling notes and designing rules for pre-d20 Malls & Morons during 1997-98, I was into AD&D 2nd Edition and GURPS, and therefore I wanted lots of rules to cover many situations, as well as lots of options for characters. These days, I prefer more DM Fiat/Rules light games, like a combination of Castles and Crusades and AD&D 1st Edition. When I'm running, I want to be able to run a game without referring to a book; just my notes. Sure, I could do that with 3rd edition (excluding spells and monsters), but I don't want to anymore. Rules mastery doesn't mean as much to me as it once did.

Another big factor is designing a game I would like to run as a GM, more so than making a game I would like to play. My preference of GM Fiat and rules-lightness will more than likely show up in the book itself. I derive my greatest enjoyment as a GM, more so than a player (where I find, admittedly, frustration at the lack of omnipotent knowledge), and thus make games from the perspective of a GM first, a player second. Somewhere in there, the reader also ranks in there.

So, my goals for Malls & Morons are: built from the ground up (by me), simple to pick up and read / play, and ultimately gives more power to the GM rather than the rules. Also, the game must contain the classic group setup (1 GM + 4-5 players, give or take a few), emphasize social situations as much as combat situations, with modern trappings, all while inside of an all-inclusive setting (the mall).

Well, when I decided to scrap my latest draft, I talked to TheLe, and he proposed writing a 10 page game, as a way to focus efforts and to help decide what to keep and what not to keep. It is a challenge, because one (being me), must decide what is critical, what is not critical, how to balance fluff with crunch, all the while creating a self-contained and (relatively) complete game. I welcomed this challenge, and now in the process of outlining this newest draft.

You will hear more in the future, as I describe the process in this blog as game design journals. I will reveal my thoughts, reasons, and conclusions as I wok on parts of the game, and tie them all together. It will provide you, gentle reader, with an unparralleled insight into the game and to my creative process (more importantly, the game), and you will hopefully get a sense of a timeline of the game.

Here's looking to Malls & Morons for final publication!