What and why?
For me I design fantasy games for the most part. I've dabbled in some other areas, like steampunk, but those are mostly just fantasy with window dressing. As for why its more like why not? I guess I've just been making games for so long that I just never really stopped. Growing up my friends and I didn't have the money for DnD, or at least we didn't spend it on the books, and so ended up playing by our own rules.
Design Principles?
I tend to use two. Keep it simple, there are few things that will stop me from playing a game, especially an rpg, like a wall of text to describe how to get a yes or no answer. Do I hit him is an obvious one but usually in D20 games (my fave) its skills that suffer from this the most.
The other one is give people options. This may seem like its counter productive when paired with the first principle but really its necessary if you want people to continue to play the game. I mean if a player can't make the character they want (within reason) then they will play a game where they can and if being a certain character type means no variation every time its played then the players will get bored fast.
Theories?
Not really sure I use any. I try to read as much about it as I can on sites like this. But mostly I read posts to see what others like and go with my guts on what I make.
Design Elements
As Bedrockgames said I'm not sure how this differs from principles but here goes.
If I am designing an RPG I always try to use d20 and the OGL as a frame work. I have spent too many years designing games from scratch only to abandon them. I find d20 to be an super flexible framework on which to hang my ideas.
For board games I like d6s and cards. D6s are great because everyone has them and they can combine nicely with variety of rolling mechanics and cards are good because they contain all the needed info of whatever it is that they represent.
For me I design fantasy games for the most part. I've dabbled in some other areas, like steampunk, but those are mostly just fantasy with window dressing. As for why its more like why not? I guess I've just been making games for so long that I just never really stopped. Growing up my friends and I didn't have the money for DnD, or at least we didn't spend it on the books, and so ended up playing by our own rules.
Design Principles?
I tend to use two. Keep it simple, there are few things that will stop me from playing a game, especially an rpg, like a wall of text to describe how to get a yes or no answer. Do I hit him is an obvious one but usually in D20 games (my fave) its skills that suffer from this the most.
The other one is give people options. This may seem like its counter productive when paired with the first principle but really its necessary if you want people to continue to play the game. I mean if a player can't make the character they want (within reason) then they will play a game where they can and if being a certain character type means no variation every time its played then the players will get bored fast.
Theories?
Not really sure I use any. I try to read as much about it as I can on sites like this. But mostly I read posts to see what others like and go with my guts on what I make.
Design Elements
As Bedrockgames said I'm not sure how this differs from principles but here goes.
If I am designing an RPG I always try to use d20 and the OGL as a frame work. I have spent too many years designing games from scratch only to abandon them. I find d20 to be an super flexible framework on which to hang my ideas.
For board games I like d6s and cards. D6s are great because everyone has them and they can combine nicely with variety of rolling mechanics and cards are good because they contain all the needed info of whatever it is that they represent.