General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Anyone Interested in a "Create Your Own RPG" Competition?
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.
*******
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 millionsthousandshundreds tens?
__________________ Current Campaign:The Shattered Isles Homebrew - Hammer (Minotaur Fighter 8), Kirra (Drow Rogue 8), Shedin (Dragonborn Paladin 8), Zahar (Half-Eladrin/Half Drow Bard 8), and Seahorse (Halfling Rogue 8). Currently the group is in the Feywild, trying to discover who is poisoning the drow.
Glad we got one. Hopefully we can get a couple dozen in, and maybe one or two judges (Crothian is my number one pick ).
__________________ Current Campaign:The Shattered Isles Homebrew - Hammer (Minotaur Fighter 8), Kirra (Drow Rogue 8), Shedin (Dragonborn Paladin 8), Zahar (Half-Eladrin/Half Drow Bard 8), and Seahorse (Halfling Rogue 8). Currently the group is in the Feywild, trying to discover who is poisoning the drow.
There seems to be somthing missing though...
Reward
If this is a competition, what exactly would the winner... well... WIN?
The title of "Winner"? And, who knows? Maybe someone can donate a prize.
__________________ Current Campaign:The Shattered Isles Homebrew - Hammer (Minotaur Fighter 8), Kirra (Drow Rogue 8), Shedin (Dragonborn Paladin 8), Zahar (Half-Eladrin/Half Drow Bard 8), and Seahorse (Halfling Rogue 8). Currently the group is in the Feywild, trying to discover who is poisoning the drow.
Awesome. So, we have another one in. Is everyone cool with the few rules I've put down? 35 page limit sound (with art, if you wanna include it) good? Or should there be some debate?
__________________ Current Campaign:The Shattered Isles Homebrew - Hammer (Minotaur Fighter 8), Kirra (Drow Rogue 8), Shedin (Dragonborn Paladin 8), Zahar (Half-Eladrin/Half Drow Bard 8), and Seahorse (Halfling Rogue 8). Currently the group is in the Feywild, trying to discover who is poisoning the drow.
Awesome. So, we have another one in. Is everyone cool with the few rules I've put down? 35 page limit sound (with art, if you wanna include it) good? Or should there be some debate?
We still don't have a judge, or themes.
This is your pet progect, YOU should be the judge and set the theme!
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_Rouse
"You called Master?"
Amateur Writer trying to break into the RPG buisness.
Works in progress:
Level 1-30 D&D 4E campaign
D&D 4E Campaign setting
Other minor works
I'm in, but only if you drop that namby three month work time thing. I mean, three months is great, but people do the 24-Hour competition every year and come up with killer stuff, so it's not necessary. I say the work window should be one month max.
I'm in, but only if you drop that namby three month work time thing. I mean, three months is great, but people do the 24-Hour competition every year and come up with killer stuff, so it's not necessary. I say the work window should be one month max.
Between work, My D&D sessions, trying to refine my 4E campaign for publishing and Real life, I couldn't do that.
But thats just me.
I can be a judge if it's just 1 month of work time.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_Rouse
"You called Master?"
Amateur Writer trying to break into the RPG buisness.
Works in progress:
Level 1-30 D&D 4E campaign
D&D 4E Campaign setting
Other minor works
Between work, My D&D sessions, trying to refine my 4E campaign for publishing and Real life, I couldn't do that.
But thats just me.
I can be a judge if it's just 1 month of work time.
Well, everybody has their priorities, but in terms of impromptu-ish design contests three months is really unheard of insofar as contest durations are concerned. I mean, look at the various Game Chef competitions and the 24-Hour RPG competition. Or even the various Story Games competitions.
Don't get me wrong, I hear where you're coming from (I, too, have a 40+ hour-a-week day job, numerous civic duties to attend to in my free time, and personal projects to work on), but a big part of the challenge for such contests is the limited time windows. And the challenge is what draws most of the participants.
Giving somebody three months to design a game isn't really all that challenging and, I suspect, might cut down on the number of interested parties (frex, I'd have no interest in submitting to a contest with that time-frame, even with my harried schedule, though I might volunteer to serve as a judge).
I freely admit that I could be wrong, but I don't think it's coincidence that most of the successful and well-known game design contests have a narrow work window available for participants to submit within.
Well, everybody has their priorities, but in terms of impromptu-ish design contests three months is really unheard of insofar as contest durations are concerned. I mean, look at the various Game Chef competitions and the 24-Hour RPG competition. Or even the various Story Games competitions.
Don't get me wrong, I hear where you're coming from (I, too, have a 40+ hour-a-week day job, numerous civic duties to attend to in my free time, and personal projects to work on), but a big part of the challenge for such contests is the limited time windows. And the challenge is what draws most of the participants.
Giving somebody three months to design a game isn't really all that challenging and, I suspect, might cut down on the number of interested parties (frex, I'd have no interest in submitting to a contest with that time-frame, even with my harried schedule, though I might volunteer to serve as a judge).
I freely admit that I could be wrong, but I don't think it's coincidence that most of the successful and well-known game design contests have a narrow work window available for participants to submit within.
This seems more like a "Just for fun" contest to me though. But I can see where a more restricted timeline might make for better competition. I, However, can not come up with the free time in 1 month to put somthing together from scratch that even so much as makes sense.
OTOH: I can see what I can do
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_Rouse
"You called Master?"
Amateur Writer trying to break into the RPG buisness.
Works in progress:
Level 1-30 D&D 4E campaign
D&D 4E Campaign setting
Other minor works
Can we still use the SRD? I know you don't want "Refer to the SRD for rules" but if we include things like the 6 main stats, the bonuses for said stats, the concept of feats and such would that be alright?
What if we accidently "create" an existing yet obscure (or less obscure) game? (I've read so many RPG books, I'm not sure if any idea I have going through my head is orriginal or not)
Is blatant copywright infringement out of the question ("This is my '300, the RPG!!!' ")
I may have more later, but I'm tired and can't think of anything but bikini babes and banana cream pie.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_Rouse
"You called Master?"
Amateur Writer trying to break into the RPG buisness.
Works in progress:
Level 1-30 D&D 4E campaign
D&D 4E Campaign setting
Other minor works
Well, everybody has their priorities, but in terms of impromptu-ish design contests three months is really unheard of insofar as contest durations are concerned. I mean, look at the various Game Chef competitions and the 24-Hour RPG competition. Or even the various Story Games competitions.
Well yes, but maybe the idea is to try something different, rather than yet another 24-hour RPG design contest. I don't think the OP mentioned anything about it being an impromptu-ish design contest.
__________________ Iain Fyffe
Original member of the Rouseketeers!
I have played 4E. And just like all other editions of D&D, it is awesome!
no one quotes me in sigs - Crothian
For some reason, this doesn't fill me with rage. I must be interwebbing wrong. - Cadfan
I think three months is about right for a well-conceived but not intensively designed pamphlet style game. I for one do not have a week or a month until well into January I could just throw at something like this, but with a wider time frame, it would be fun. This is something different than a 24 hour game design or something... my impression is something more old school, more of putting a framework on paper that someone could run a campaign in for years.
) 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?
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
