Confessions of a Hack Game Designer

[aramis erak]

Maybe it took you a week, cobbling together bits and pieces of systems you like. Maybe it took you months or years, but eventually you say "at last, rules for everything!".

Then you realize in horror that you need to create enemies. NPC's. Monsters. And somehow figure out how to make enough of them that feel different and interesting, as well as determine what, exactly, is a balanced encounter..

One of my released 24hr games has no need of any monsters, critters, etc... only the humans... and char gen is fast enough to use for NPCs. The question to answer for the PCs... "Who am I?" ... on an STL interstellar colonial ship.

 

[James Gasik]

One of my released 24hr games has no need of any monsters, critters, etc... only the humans... and char gen is fast enough to use for NPCs. The question to answer for the PCs... "Who am I?" ... on an STL interstellar colonial ship.

Man. The greatest monster of them all!

 

[aia_2]

Well, i've just completed a "supplement" last week: a booklet kindof GM's aid which is helpful to create and keep track of an NPC on one page... It'd take few minutes to create a single character and have it always available!

 

[James Gasik]

That's a useful thing to have!

 

[aramis erak]

Man. The greatest monster of them all!

Yep. For he is capable of knowing the evil of his ways, yet continues in them, assuring himself of his rightness...

When I create villainous NPCs, I always try to figure how they manage to see themselves as good.

 

[James Gasik]

Yep. For he is capable of knowing the evil of his ways, yet continues in them, assuring himself of his rightness...

When I create villainous NPCs, I always try to figure how they manage to see themselves as good.

As I often say, no one is the villain of their own story.

 

[aramis erak]

As I often say, no one is the villain of their own story.

There have been a few who relished in their own evil. Fortunately, not very many.

I knew one such... last I heard, had a lot of time in prison.