Wik
First Post
So, in the New Year, I'll have acces to a laptop at work (no internet, though 
) and a lot of ree break time. I was thinking I'd use this time to hammer together some new RPG, and then I thought - why not make a competition out of it?
I was thinking we could arrange one, on ENWorld, with everyone putting together an RPG and then putting them up for vote on ENWorld in a survivor-type contest or something.
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A few rules I was thinking could help:
1) The Rules of the RPG have to be original, and self-contained. No OGL/d20 clones, and you can't simply write new classes for the d20 system and then say "see the Hypertext SRD for the rest of the rules". Your entire rules set has to be in the game.
2) A page maximum. I was thinking around 35 pages maximum, to make it easier for people voting. No one needs to make a huge RPG, and you can fit quite a bit into a 35 page game. The original Star Wars game could probably be described in maybe 20 pages or so (the rest detailed special exceptions), and there are plenty of free rules that do it in a lot less. The other advantage of a page maximum is that you have to cull the game down to it's best elements, and that it doesn't reward the guy who can spend 8 hours a day working on his game, compared to the guy who spends a few hours a week working on it.
That being said, we could argue and debate a good page maximum - as low as 30, or maybe as high as 40?
3) A deadline. I think a 3 month deadline (say, April 1st or so) would be enough time to get everyone's butts in gear, and short enough to keep interest strong in the competition. At a three month deadline, assuming a 35 page maximum, that means competitors really only have to finish 3 pages a week, with maybe a bit of time left over for editing.
4) Theme. I think there should be a judge or two who could release a few themes for the competitors to work within. There should be a few choices, some being mechanical themes ("Make a system that uses only d12s" or "Make a system with randomized or semi-randomized character generation") while a few would be setting choices ("Make a post-apocalyptic game").
Why a theme? Because I'm sure there are plenty of people who have their own self-made RPGs already, and I'd hate to see a bunch of people enter their own playtested and long-running games to compete against people who are just starting now. The point is to get us all brainstorming and creating - not dusting off a long-standing game we've had sitting on our hard drives. If there's a theme, there's less chance we have a game sitting around that fits that theme.
Plus, working around a set theme can force us to think outside of the box.
5) Judge. There should be one or two judges who would select the theme, and weed out entries that fail to meet the criteria (exceeds page length, doesn't follow theme, etc..)
Hopefully we can get some volunteer judges (who, for obvious reasons, couldn't compete). The judging of the final winner, though, I think should be done through an ENWorld poll. (Maybe it could be a survivor-type poll, and competitors could release "expansions" in between rounds?)
6) Setting. The game can't just be a rules sytem. It needs a setting of some sort, even if it's just a page or two of setting detail and a map. Before people object, think of this: the setting for D&D is pretty threadbare, but there is a setting implied. Savage Worlds, while it spans many different genres, still follows an implied setting - one of pulp adventure.
*******
So, is anyone interested in competing? Making your very own RPG to be played bymillions thousands hundreds tens?
) and a lot of ree break time. I was thinking I'd use this time to hammer together some new RPG, and then I thought - why not make a competition out of it?I was thinking we could arrange one, on ENWorld, with everyone putting together an RPG and then putting them up for vote on ENWorld in a survivor-type contest or something.
*******
A few rules I was thinking could help:
1) The Rules of the RPG have to be original, and self-contained. No OGL/d20 clones, and you can't simply write new classes for the d20 system and then say "see the Hypertext SRD for the rest of the rules". Your entire rules set has to be in the game.
2) A page maximum. I was thinking around 35 pages maximum, to make it easier for people voting. No one needs to make a huge RPG, and you can fit quite a bit into a 35 page game. The original Star Wars game could probably be described in maybe 20 pages or so (the rest detailed special exceptions), and there are plenty of free rules that do it in a lot less. The other advantage of a page maximum is that you have to cull the game down to it's best elements, and that it doesn't reward the guy who can spend 8 hours a day working on his game, compared to the guy who spends a few hours a week working on it.
That being said, we could argue and debate a good page maximum - as low as 30, or maybe as high as 40?
3) A deadline. I think a 3 month deadline (say, April 1st or so) would be enough time to get everyone's butts in gear, and short enough to keep interest strong in the competition. At a three month deadline, assuming a 35 page maximum, that means competitors really only have to finish 3 pages a week, with maybe a bit of time left over for editing.
4) Theme. I think there should be a judge or two who could release a few themes for the competitors to work within. There should be a few choices, some being mechanical themes ("Make a system that uses only d12s" or "Make a system with randomized or semi-randomized character generation") while a few would be setting choices ("Make a post-apocalyptic game").
Why a theme? Because I'm sure there are plenty of people who have their own self-made RPGs already, and I'd hate to see a bunch of people enter their own playtested and long-running games to compete against people who are just starting now. The point is to get us all brainstorming and creating - not dusting off a long-standing game we've had sitting on our hard drives. If there's a theme, there's less chance we have a game sitting around that fits that theme.
Plus, working around a set theme can force us to think outside of the box.
5) Judge. There should be one or two judges who would select the theme, and weed out entries that fail to meet the criteria (exceeds page length, doesn't follow theme, etc..)
Hopefully we can get some volunteer judges (who, for obvious reasons, couldn't compete). The judging of the final winner, though, I think should be done through an ENWorld poll. (Maybe it could be a survivor-type poll, and competitors could release "expansions" in between rounds?)
6) Setting. The game can't just be a rules sytem. It needs a setting of some sort, even if it's just a page or two of setting detail and a map. Before people object, think of this: the setting for D&D is pretty threadbare, but there is a setting implied. Savage Worlds, while it spans many different genres, still follows an implied setting - one of pulp adventure.
*******
So, is anyone interested in competing? Making your very own RPG to be played by
