<Cool Name Goes Here>: Community Input, Pro Designed

[Endroren]

If you're a 5E player or designer, check out our project to create a new fantasy RPG system. We're working with some of the best designers in the business to help make this happen and looking to the community and small publishers to come to the table and share their ideas. No company will own the game when it's done—we're giving it to the community.

In a very short time we've made tremendous progress. The Kickstarter page is taking sign-ups for notification, we've got a mailing list sign-up, and a the start of the website where we've outlined the core philosophies of the project. There is also a ton of discussion already going on over on Facebook.

If you want to know anything about our project, I'm happy to answer any questions you have!

Here are the primary links:

• Cool Name RPG Page: http://coolnamerpg.com/
• Kickstarter Notification Page: https://www.kickstarter.com/.../cool-name-rpg-a-community...
• Cool Name RPG Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coolgamerpg
• Mailing List: https://mailchi.mp/56319fddb69c/coolname-rpg

We're also doing a series of live stream events at 8 PM ET all this week (we've already done three of these). If you miss them, you can find the recordings here!

 

[Endroren]

As part of this project, we're bringing on some of the best designers in the business as Consulting Designers. It's all part of the plan to make the best game possible before we give it back to the world. We made our first announcement a few days ago with Steven S. Long of HERO System fame coming onboard.

 

[aco175]

You need to have something that can have an easy website name to make finding it easy to remember. Maybe it should also have something that helps describe the type of game it is. Dungeons and Dragons makes me think medieval fantasy, and Mutants and Mastermind gives me another feel of the game.

 

[Endroren]

You need to have something that can have an easy website name to make finding it easy to remember. Maybe it should also have something that helps describe the type of game it is. Dungeons and Dragons makes me think medieval fantasy, and Mutants and Mastermind gives me another feel of the game.

Excellent advice and I totally agree!

coolnamerpg.com is the site name we've been using when we talk about it, but that name is for the project of building the system. When all is said and done, odds are there will be a community owned site for the final system.

AND choosing that name is part of what we're going to work with the community on. The community will own this when we're done with it, and we think they should help name it. So yes, that sort of advice is definitely what people should consider when they're helping to choose a name.

 

[Endroren]

Just to clarify, building that system is actually what the project is about. We're not just launching a system we've been working on that fits our own interpretation of what is needed. Rather, we're taking a set of core design principals and values, concepts developed in part by working with both the players and designers, and using that as the roadmap for development. At the core of it all is a goal to build a new fantasy RPG system that is easy for 5E players to adopt and easy for 5E creators to convert to—but we are NOT "reskinning" 5E.

Community feedback (from both players and designers) is a key element of this process. Meanwhile, our Consulting Designers are there to keep us on the right track, leveraging their experience and talent to ensure that the end result is a top quality game. I'm taking on the Lead Designer/Writer role, but I see myself more like the gamemaster than the author. I will help lay out a framework and a path, and then Consulting Designers and the community at large will determine where the project goes. This avoids the "design by committee" effect but ensures that this is a community endeavor and not one person's vision. Feedback and playtest will be vital to the process.

This is why we need folks like all of you involved. We're already gathering feedback in the Facebook group (so if you're on Facebook please join and make your voice heard), but we want to hear it here as well. This will ramp up even more when the Kickstarter launches.

We aren't trying to create the perfect system for everyone - that's impossible. We're trying to create a really fun system that people will love playing and publishers/creators can use without any fears of someone taking it away in the future. It won't be the right solution for everyone, but if we succeed, it will be a great option for many. And not owned by us but literally turned over to the world.

 

[Endroren]

A key part of this project are our Consulting Designers, and we're pleased to introduce you to eight of them today!

Toiya Kristen Finley
Toiya is a skilled designer experienced in both digital and tabletop game design. She's the co-author of The Game Narrative Toolbox, holds a Ph. D in literature and creative writing, and she's the owner of Schnoodle Media, LLC offering writing, editing, and story consulting service.

Matt Forbeck
Matt Forbeck is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer. He has over thirty novels and countless games published to date. His recent work includes Halo: Bad Blood, the new Dungeons & Dragons: Endless Quest books, Life Is Strange: Welcome to Blackwell, the Star Wars: Rogue One junior novel, Dungeonology, and The Marvel Encyclopedia, plus work on Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and the Shotguns & Sorcery roleplaying game based on his novels. He's also the writer and co-designer of the upcoming Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game.

DBJ
DBJ (Davae Breon Jaxon) has designed game content for a host of systems including Fifth Edition, Pathfinder 1E, Basic Roleplaying, and the Storypath system. He's the author of nearly 30 books including the fantastic Cinematic Environs collection. He's also the host of the YouTube show, RPG with DBJ.

Eloy Lasanta
Eloy Lasanta is an ENnie-Nominated game designer, the owner of Third Eye Games, and one of the instructors for Central Michigan University's game design program. He's been involved in gaming for more than 20 years, and his outstanding work has appeared in more than 100 roleplaying titles.

Steven S. Long
Steven S. Long has been a writer and RPG designer for nearly 30 years, during which he’s written over 200 gaming books, short stories, and nonfiction books. He’s best known for his work with the award-winning HERO System, although he's written for Abberant, Deadlands, Star Trek Roleplaying Game, Mythras, Mage: The Ascension, The Babylon Project, Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, The Wheel of Time RPG, and more.

Monica Marlowe
Monica Marlowe is a Paizo RPG Superstar winner and the author of the highly rated Pathfinder adventure module, Down the Blighted Path. She's the co-owner of Marlowe House and a co-creators of Blood & Chrome, an occult-cyberpunk campaign setting for the Cypher System RPG.

Crystal Mazur
Crystal Mazur is a Freelance game designer whose work has appeared in products from Onyx Path, Third Eye Games, Apotheosis Studios, Black Void, and Iron Bound. Her work also appeared in the Ennie Nominated Never Going Home RPG from Wet Ink Games.

Owen K.C. Stephens
Owen K.C. Stephens is a full-time freelance game designer, writer, developer, publisher, and consultant. He has served as co-creator of the Star Wars Saga Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Design Lead for Paizo, the Freeport and Pathfinder developer for Green Ronin Publishing, a consultant and developer for Rite Publishing, and is the owner and publisher of Rogue Genius Games (with stores on DriveThruRPG and Open Gaming Store).

 

[GMMichael]

You need to have something that can have an easy website name to make finding it easy to remember. Maybe it should also have something that helps describe the type of game it is. Dungeons and Dragons makes me think medieval fantasy, and Mutants and Mastermind gives me another feel of the game.

Lasers and Licenses?

Designers and Dragons.

Avoid the initials O.R.C. if possible.

I'm concerned that there are too many consulting designers in the kitchen, but maybe that's what it takes to avoid another OGL/SRD fiasco. I have high hopes!

 

[Yaarel]

Heh, ENWorld is a tough crowd for creating new content.

It is important to keep D&D rules and concepts in the control of the gaming community "in the wild" beyond the control of corporations.

I appreciate the work you are doing to sift thru and make the SRD content − its ideas and processes − irrevocably available to the gaming community.

 

[Yaarel]

I think "Cool Name" itself is a catchy name for an RPG. I would probably check it if I saw it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Gotta say, HERO is my #1 RPG system, so Mr. Long’s involvement piques my interest.

As for names…

All Worlds Envisioned (AWE is a positive acronym)

Roleplaying Unbound

Unfettered Paragons (UP is a positive acronym)