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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nedjer" data-source="post: 5819734" data-attributes="member: 83796">I'm looking for advice/ comments/ feedback with an on-going project that's well underway, but easy to adapt further/ adjust at this stage. I've copied a post about it below and would greatly appreciate general views and opinions on the basis of the information given. I will then follow-up in 7-10 days time with a complete draft ready for download; asking for more specific comments. It would be especially helpful to have comments/ recollections from any self-starting players and GMs who picked-up and ran a game with limited or no help. TIA <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Here's the post:We've take <a href="http://thistlegames.com/thistle/corruption/" target="_blank">Corruption</a>,  (our extra content clone of the Original Game by Gary Gygax and Dave  Arneson/ Swords and Wizardry variant), and trimmed it down to form a  short, family-friendly starter RPG. The target audiences are roughly for  players of 8+ and GMs of 11 or 12+; so the intention is not to create a  simplified, glittery kids' RPG.Ideally,  the game should look like and play much along the same lines as a clone  aimed at adults. Consequently, the changes from Swords and Wizardry,  and Corruption, are concerned with helping new players to start playing  as quickly as possible - and encouraging players to try-out a variety of  different styles of RPG gameplay.The changes so far are as follows:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The  volume of the rules has been reduced from Corruption's 'full-fat' 365  pages to a Players' Handbook of 80 pages and a Referee's Guide of 120  pages. This has involved:</li> </ul><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sidelining Corruption's 'twist of evil' material on gritty campaigns, uncertainty and dark campaigns.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Setting aside most of Corruption's new high-level monsters.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Limiting the spells available to adventurers and monsters to 5th level.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Removing devils, demons and spells or magic relating to them.</li> </ol><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some of the features built into Corruption have served as a starting point:</li> </ul><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Swords and Wizardry engine is already playable at  7 or 8 with limited help from an older GM.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Standardised attack roll tables, advancement and saving throws streamline play at the table.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The option of using learned spells at will lowers frustration over interrupted spellcasting.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Placing no racial restrictions or caps on classes and multi-classing varies and simplifies making PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Full HD and slightly generous attributes at 1st level increase survival at lower levels.</li> </ol><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> A system of gameplay building challenges has been added:</li> </ul><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">These challenges suggest and reward a wide range of gameplay options.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">At the same time they model and scaffold roleplaying skills and basic characterisation.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The  challenges are available at all levels of play, e.g. a new PC tries-out  her/ his class skills and teamwork-building missions follow.</li> </ol><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> The adventure and campaign-building step-by-steps in Corruption have been adjusted and extended:</li> </ul><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">New GMs/ Referees are guided through laying-out a basic dungeon adventure</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">GMs are then encouraged to  try-out wilderness adventures before being walked through a campaign build.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The staged progression sets out to scaffold GMs' skills by making it very easy to outline and run games.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The  step-by-step support maps gameplay options, but leaves and encourages  GMs to put their own clear mark on each adventure or campaign.</li> </ol>There  are a number of areas, including presentation, which remain to be  decided. Young people usually prefer colour images, but that puts costs  up for anyone printing off a copy of the game? Balancing a clean  accessible layout for use on tablets against a shorter page count? . . .The  next step is to check for ideas and feedback in the larger RPG forums.  We've already looked through many accounts of games with kids - mostly  run by parents or older relatives. There are also quite a few examples  of teachers using RPGs in various circumstances. However, anecdotes  about self-starting RPG players seem thinner on the ground; and putting  the question directly may shake-out a few useful suggestions.</blockquote>

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