Don’t reinvent the wheel, being well versed in different RPGs

[Joshua Randall]

Also there is a limited amount you can learn by reading.

You need to play. As many different games as possible. With as many different people as possible. Conventions are great for this. So is online although I’m an old man so IDK how that new fangled online thing works.

 

[Dire Bare]

If you want to design your own game, a "fantasy heartbreaker" or other type of game . . .

Sure, it would be helpful to be familiar with as many other existing games as possible, but . . . hardly necessary.

If you end up reinventing the wheel, and creating rules that are very similar to existing rules . . . who cares?

If your game design is tight and your game fun, it's well produced and finds an audience . . . good work!

Like many fans, I dabble in game design . . . if I ever graduate to actually designing my own game (which is very unlikely), I'm not going to waste time tracking down all the games I've never played to learn from . . . I'd rather spend my time designing and developing.

There's a lot of good games out there you could learn from as a budding designer, but . . . that's kinda my point. There is an awful LOT.

If I decide I want to write novels . . . should I spend time tracking down and reading all of the "classics" and "must-reads" that have come before? Or just start writing?

 

[Piperken]

Following the advice to be well versed in the different kinds of RPGs before attempting to make a heartbreaker. What RPGs (or near RPG) would you suggest?
My guess at a comprehensive list:
(I have not read most of these)
-Dungeons & Dragons B/X
-Cairn
-Ultraviolet Grasslands
-Fate
-Fiasco
-Amber Diceless
-BRP (Basic Roleplaying)
-Hillfolk
-Bubblegum Shoe (is that a good Gumshoe system to start with?)
-Over the Edge
-Apocalypse World
-Honey Heist
-Burning Wheel
But I really don’t know what amazing features each system brings (or what they don’t do.)
Also, it’s hard to recommend reading a ton of books to people

Posting to 1st echo calls for Traveler & Dragonbane.

Another avenue to consider would be how these game systems you look at are constructed towards exclusively solo play, or to cater to solo play.

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

I am going to call this the vacation problem.
You have limited amount of time and very many options to use it. The optimal way to spend the time is to chose:
-Options as different from each other as possible
-Options that are great experiences
-Options that have meaning to you

So do I think I need to read a thousand different RPG books? I don’t think anyone has the time to. (Maybe some rich people can vacation for the next ten years, but not me and probably not you.)

 

[Dire Bare]

I am going to call this the vacation problem.
You have limited amount of time and very many options to use it. The optimal way to spend the time is to chose:
-Options as different from each other as possible
-Options that are great experiences
-Options that have meaning to you

So do I think I need to read a thousand different RPG books? I don’t think anyone has the time to. (Maybe some rich people can vacation for the next ten years, but not me and probably not you.)

I would add . . . options that speak to you and seem exciting!

Games that make you feel like you'd want to experience them, regardless of any plans to design your own someday, pick those up!

Folks will tell you that playing "The One Ring" is a great experience . . . and it is . . . but I wouldn't recommend it unless the game excites you personally.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Folks will tell you that playing "The One Ring" is a great experience . . . and it is . . . but I wouldn't recommend it unless the game excites you personally.

( I would suggest looking at the One Ring is good because it shows a way to reward working as a team; it incentivizes positive party dynamics not through tactical synergy, but through having specific effects that key off of other PCs (and does so better than any game I have read).)

 

[Aldarc]

I would also add Pendragon.

 

[pemerton]

Maelstrom Storytelling, and/or some version of HeroWars/HeroQuest, I think are pretty fundamental for scene-based play and resolution. Burning Wheel has that too, but probably not quite as tightly as the other two systems.

To take two of the games mentioned above: both Burning Wheel and Reign offer non-D&D fantasy, and both of them require a high degree of GM control -- more than D&D. And both produce deep, rich characters out the gate, that are in my view well balanced against each other. And yet they couldn't be further apart: BW uses lifepaths (the only implementation of that approach I like other than Traveller), and Reign has you roll a fistful of d10s and a unique and deep character emerges.

Both systems are also cheat-resistant, in that you can choose lifepaths to get what you want or pick your d10 rolls, and the character still stands alongside one rolled randomly.

Burning Wheel doesn't have random character generation. I also wouldn't describe it as requiring "a high degree of GM control" - as the rulebook sets out, it is players who establish the priorities for their PCs, and the GM's job is to respond to those. Players also have the capacity to directly influence the framing of scenes, especially via Wises and Circles checks.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Burning Wheel doesn't have random character generation.

You are right. As I said, it uses lifepaths.

I also wouldn't describe it as requiring "a high degree of GM control" - as the rulebook sets out, it is players who establish the priorities for their PCs, and the GM's job is to respond to those. Players also have the capacity to directly influence the framing of scenes, especially via Wises and Circles checks.

That's true, and perhaps I misspoke. The onus is placed on the GM, with clear expectations from the players that have to be met. The GM needs to be much more responsive to the players and that creates (in my experience) a very different dynamic than D&D. Where I can freewheel as a GM in a FATE game easily, I find it impossible to do so in BW (which is part of why I don't run it!).

 

[Thomas Shey]

If you end up reinventing the wheel, and creating rules that are very similar to existing rules . . . who cares?

Potentially the people who might buy your game. I certainly skip a lot of fantasy games that don't look like they're bringing anything really new to the table.