Have you (and to what extent) designed your own RPG?
- Thread starter Mercurius
- Start date
I put yes, Unpublished, but that's not completely accurate becuase it's not going to be published, it was created to fill a need I know longer have so it just sits and it'll stay. Still pretty happy with it for it's time.
A
amerigoV
Guest
Made two versions of the Greatest Game System Ever (tm) - GGSE, in response to the horrid AD&D 2nd Ed. Unpublished of course.
V1 - Percentile based, Grand Differential Table, Continuous Action System, Styles. Eventually collapsed under its own weight and complex magic system
V2 - d6 based (dice pool, 6s are success), small number of skills. Had a building block magic system, but usually defaulted to moding AD&D 1e spells. Fast and fun, but not well defined. Dropped when D&D 3.0 came out.
What I learned:
V1 -
1. Too many skills sucks (lacks focus), but like the Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master catagories
2. Used Offense vs. Defense with fairly static HP in an attempt at realism. Discovered the Realism in game mechanic sucks (miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, dead - how droll).
3. Plotting a fight segment by segment is a DM burden.
4. Loved the idea the difference in the rolls influenced the outcome (so a dagger could one-shot)
V2
1. Fast and Fun - much quicker and easier on the numbers
2. Too few skills sucks too.
3. Magic ala D&D is hard to do, that is why they made spells. Building block systems are hard to balance.
4. Having to make everything on your own wears one out.
So, D&D 3e comes out. Having gone through the design process, I loved feats and now appreciate the HP/AC approach (which is why I ignore anyone that uses realism as an arguement for a game mechanic -- it needs to be fun first, realistic second). It had a nice balance of skills.
But then I encountered Savage Worlds and I am hooked. It had the elegance of V2 and the Raise concept from V1. It was like they stole all our (one other designer) ideas and actually made them work
. That has to be the basis for some sort of lawsuit 
V1 - Percentile based, Grand Differential Table, Continuous Action System, Styles. Eventually collapsed under its own weight and complex magic system
V2 - d6 based (dice pool, 6s are success), small number of skills. Had a building block magic system, but usually defaulted to moding AD&D 1e spells. Fast and fun, but not well defined. Dropped when D&D 3.0 came out.
What I learned:
V1 -
1. Too many skills sucks (lacks focus), but like the Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master catagories
2. Used Offense vs. Defense with fairly static HP in an attempt at realism. Discovered the Realism in game mechanic sucks (miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, dead - how droll).
3. Plotting a fight segment by segment is a DM burden.
4. Loved the idea the difference in the rolls influenced the outcome (so a dagger could one-shot)
V2
1. Fast and Fun - much quicker and easier on the numbers
2. Too few skills sucks too.
3. Magic ala D&D is hard to do, that is why they made spells. Building block systems are hard to balance.
4. Having to make everything on your own wears one out.
So, D&D 3e comes out. Having gone through the design process, I loved feats and now appreciate the HP/AC approach (which is why I ignore anyone that uses realism as an arguement for a game mechanic -- it needs to be fun first, realistic second). It had a nice balance of skills.
But then I encountered Savage Worlds and I am hooked. It had the elegance of V2 and the Raise concept from V1. It was like they stole all our (one other designer) ideas and actually made them work
. That has to be the basis for some sort of lawsuit 
Shades of Green
Explorer
From time to time I get the urge to write my own rules-light skill-based sci-fi or post-apocalyptic system, but I've never written anything concrete in that direction (so far).
From time to time I also get the urge to design my own D20 rules-light variant with an Old School taste, but I've neither done this (so far).
The main reason for me not writing my own RPG ruleset is that BFRPG and Mongoose Traveller suit my fantasy and sci-fi/modern (respectively) needs quite well, so I end up modding these systems instead of creating a whole system of my own.
From time to time I also get the urge to design my own D20 rules-light variant with an Old School taste, but I've neither done this (so far).
The main reason for me not writing my own RPG ruleset is that BFRPG and Mongoose Traveller suit my fantasy and sci-fi/modern (respectively) needs quite well, so I end up modding these systems instead of creating a whole system of my own.
Last edited:
Ahnehnois
First Post
The 3.5 I run is so heavily houseruled with combinations of UA, PF, and my own personal ideas that it is hardly recognizable. I've tried to write a psionics system that does what I want, but that is such a monumental task I've never gotten very far. Writing an RPG from scratch, though, is beyond me.
Roadkill101
Explorer
I designed my own system for personal use. It is a heavily revised version of an incomplete system I originally wrote back in 1998 when deciding to call it quits with running D&D.
The system is a 73 page MS Word document (including cover page and tables of content). I have no plans to publish, but gave the members of my group a printed and electronic copy (any new members will only recieve an electronic copy).
In the last 3 months I went back to my D&D roots cherry picking sub-systems ranging from B/X through 4E. I'm about to run my 3rd session with this and seems to work pretty well so far. So I also fall under the Heavily House-ruled poll option as well.
The system is a 73 page MS Word document (including cover page and tables of content). I have no plans to publish, but gave the members of my group a printed and electronic copy (any new members will only recieve an electronic copy).
In the last 3 months I went back to my D&D roots cherry picking sub-systems ranging from B/X through 4E. I'm about to run my 3rd session with this and seems to work pretty well so far. So I also fall under the Heavily House-ruled poll option as well.
Ssadral
First Post
I put "In process" only it doesn't really count, and none of the others really describe what I did.
Back in the late 80's I started my own game rules because I was burnt out from playing the games I was playing. I wanted more out of a rpg than the normal rules- I had played with- could offer.
So, I went and started to create my own rules from the ground up, trying to incorporate all the things I wanted out of a rpg. The process had taken almost 2 years. In that time I was still buying and playing various rpg's. When I was finally on the downhill portion of creating I was exposed to BRP for the first time. It turned out I was creating a amateur version of the BRP rules. I quit development and decided to just run BRP as it had pretty much everything I wanted in rpg rules.
Of course I dabbled in creating other games, but it was more creating rules to fit the game world/style than to create rules then take on a world/style.
Currently, it is just a whole lot easier to use a existing set of rules to use, if you have the time to create a world/campaign. It is also much easier to create a game, with intentions to sell, by using some kind of license or open set of rules.
Back in the late 80's I started my own game rules because I was burnt out from playing the games I was playing. I wanted more out of a rpg than the normal rules- I had played with- could offer.
So, I went and started to create my own rules from the ground up, trying to incorporate all the things I wanted out of a rpg. The process had taken almost 2 years. In that time I was still buying and playing various rpg's. When I was finally on the downhill portion of creating I was exposed to BRP for the first time. It turned out I was creating a amateur version of the BRP rules. I quit development and decided to just run BRP as it had pretty much everything I wanted in rpg rules.
Of course I dabbled in creating other games, but it was more creating rules to fit the game world/style than to create rules then take on a world/style.
Currently, it is just a whole lot easier to use a existing set of rules to use, if you have the time to create a world/campaign. It is also much easier to create a game, with intentions to sell, by using some kind of license or open set of rules.
kigmatzomat
Legend
I designed a cyberpunk game back when the options were SR1 and R.Tal CP. It was informative. I learned that whatever the statistical elegance, multiplication and division suck at the game table for most people and that playability always trumps mechanics. Elegant design is more about playability than how easy it is to write the system.
The other big insight is that people don't learn new mechanics, they learn new games, so mechanics can ruin a game but they can't make up for a bad setting.
Plus people will often prefer to use mediocre rules that come with a setting over porting a setting to another system. (this was played out in the less than stellar performance of all the d20 adaptations)
The other big insight is that people don't learn new mechanics, they learn new games, so mechanics can ruin a game but they can't make up for a bad setting.
Plus people will often prefer to use mediocre rules that come with a setting over porting a setting to another system. (this was played out in the less than stellar performance of all the d20 adaptations)
Similar Threads
- Poll