I have been working on one for nigh on 20 years. Still waiting for a chance to get the name to put on it though. 
Home made game systems
- Thread starter FriarRosing
- Start date
Oni
First Post
I don't know if it qualifies, since I'm certianly lifting a lot from previous incarnations, but I've started working on my own edition of D&D. Neither 4e or Pathfinder are going where I really want so I've decided I'll try my hand at it since remarkably enough I kind of know what I want. 
So far it's all hand written notes but I've already addressed a lot of the things I don't like in other versions of the game I've played in at least broadstrokes. Knowing what you want to avoid seems to be as important as knowing what want to create. The Weakness by Edition thread I made has given me a lot of food for thought for instance.
So far it's all hand written notes but I've already addressed a lot of the things I don't like in other versions of the game I've played in at least broadstrokes. Knowing what you want to avoid seems to be as important as knowing what want to create. The Weakness by Edition thread I made has given me a lot of food for thought for instance.
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
I've made plenty. When I first started playing, around '77ish, the group I played with were constantly playing around with various rules. Mostly we tried to turn the micro games Melee and Wizard into a unified RPG with airships, plane hopping and other stuff.
Eventually AD&D came out and we used that as our default game. But there have always been things about every edition of D&D that I haven't liked, so I've written several homebrew games to 'fix' the problems. (Bearing in mind that I started GMing with Runequest, not D&D.) I've had a fair amount of success with one group of players, although they always figured out how to break whatever system I came up with.
Currently I've got the latest version mostly written up, but haven't been able to play for a few years, so haven't been able to inflict it, I mean playtest it, with anyone yet.
Eventually AD&D came out and we used that as our default game. But there have always been things about every edition of D&D that I haven't liked, so I've written several homebrew games to 'fix' the problems. (Bearing in mind that I started GMing with Runequest, not D&D.) I've had a fair amount of success with one group of players, although they always figured out how to break whatever system I came up with.
Currently I've got the latest version mostly written up, but haven't been able to play for a few years, so haven't been able to inflict it, I mean playtest it, with anyone yet.
Grazzt
Demon Lord
Pure win. Pro wrestling has lots of opportunities for roleplaying even during combat. I've played Ivan Koloff as a character in other RPGs, but it sounds like it would have been a perfect fit in yours.
Yeah. Tons of opportunities for RP. And as an aside, since you mentioned Koloff, one of the guys I designed the game with, we had our characters create a tag team in the NWA and work our way up the ranks to battle the Koloffs (Ivan and Nikita; both played by two other players) for the tag titles.
Betote
First Post
I've designed myself quite a few rpgs back in the day...
The first one, at school, was a Dragonball-Z game. It was based solely on Namek and we got to play one of the anime characters looking for the Dragon Balls, having encounters and fighting each other.
Later on I created a d6-based game (which now I know had the same system as Space:1889) based on Ranma 1/2. It had some cool features like rules for "one-hit battles" and the fact that, at character creation, you had to declare which other PC you had a crush with. Pretty funny when you game mostly with obese nerd guys
From then, I've created another d6-based (but with the d6 working in a different way) mecha-fantasy-cyberpunk-slapstick wacky little game, a horror diceless game for a massive e-mail campaign I run for some time, and some iterations using Fudge.
Nowadays, I'm mostly happy just tinkering with 3.5 and BD&D rules, coming up with some little house rules depending on the specific flavor I'd like to achieve (my playes seem to like quite a bit my death and dying rules).
The first one, at school, was a Dragonball-Z game. It was based solely on Namek and we got to play one of the anime characters looking for the Dragon Balls, having encounters and fighting each other.
Later on I created a d6-based game (which now I know had the same system as Space:1889) based on Ranma 1/2. It had some cool features like rules for "one-hit battles" and the fact that, at character creation, you had to declare which other PC you had a crush with. Pretty funny when you game mostly with obese nerd guys
From then, I've created another d6-based (but with the d6 working in a different way) mecha-fantasy-cyberpunk-slapstick wacky little game, a horror diceless game for a massive e-mail campaign I run for some time, and some iterations using Fudge.
Nowadays, I'm mostly happy just tinkering with 3.5 and BD&D rules, coming up with some little house rules depending on the specific flavor I'd like to achieve (my playes seem to like quite a bit my death and dying rules
).I did.
Before I ever got into contact with rpgs I created 'copies' of card and board games I enjoyed. Initially, my main motivation for this was saving money. It helped me to improve my creative skills (drawing, etc.). More importantly it helped me to strip down a game to its core, recognizing what was just fluff and what were the important mechanisms that made the game work.
Later, I also started tweaking rules and came up with a few original concepts for new board games, some of which I implemented and playtested (with moderate success).
When I first got my hands on one of the Fantasy Fighting books, I wrote one myself (a small one), slightly tweaking the concept: I didn't like that in most situations you couldn't turn around and revisit previous locations.
After my first rpg session (back in 1984, playing DSA) I immediately got to work to recreate what I remembered. It didn't work very well, though. There were too many new concepts that I didn't have a clue about. It was quite wonky and the math was completely off.
After being introduced to AD&D 1E and playing a few sessions things got decidedly better. I started creating an rpg system that more closely resembled how AD&D had been advertised to me:
Mainly I wanted it to have a more flexible magic system and more tactical options in combat. The system that finally evolved from this was quite a hit among my friends and we played it for about three years. It also inspired at least three of my players to create their own rpg systems, though only one of them survived longer than a couple of sessions.
What basically killed my system was bloat:
Whenever I came into contact with something I liked (movies, novels, other rpg systems), I started to integrate some version of it into my system. In the end I started to loathe the crazy hodge-podge it had become.
I was also not satisfied about the simulationist aspects of the game. While I did a lot of research to create a somewhat realistic setting it simply wasn't enough. It was also sometimes difficult to get the required information (a problem of the past in the internet-age).
In my world-building phase I became interested in pretty much everything.
After that I made several attempts to design a new system but they never survived the concept stages. Time (or rather the lack thereof) also started to become a problem:
I became frustrated because I realized it wasn't really possible to create a competitive system single-handedly and balancing required lots and lots of playtesting (and willing playtesters).
So, I ended up collecting and analyzing 'professional' rpg systems available on the market. Which is pretty much what I'm still doing today.
It helps that I enjoy mathematical problems. One of the first things I do when I dissect new systems is calculating probabilities and making statistics. But this interest in math predates my interest in rpgs.
ExploderWizard
Hero
LOL! How could you beat them? They were training in dungeon for the ALL UNITY TOUR man!!! Did you have to start out at the very bottom? Was your first match against the dynamic tag team of Keith Larson and Ben Alexander?
EDIT: One mechanic that would be perfect for this would be the " no slouch" rule.
Once the commentators stopped referring to your character as "no slouch" then you are on the road to becoming a real player.
I think I would have loved this game.
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Grazzt
Demon Lord
Did you have to start out at the very bottom? Was your first match against the dynamic tag team of Keith Larson and Ben Alexander?
EDIT: One mechanic that would be perfect for this would be the " no slouch" rule.
Once the commentators stopped referring to your character as "no slouch" then you are on the road to becoming a real player.
I think I would have loved this game.
Yes. Started at the bottom o' the singles and tag-team ranks. First tag match, IIRC, was against the Mulkey Boys in the NWA.The only reason I’ve never finished one myself is that I’m horribly indecisive.
Anybody can do it. First thing to realize is that even (especially) the best creators in any field leverage the existing corpus—stand on the shoulders of giants. Prefer using (or tweaking) an existing and proven mechanic to inventing all new ones. This means finding out what has come before, BTW.
Of course, you’ll probably have at least one different idea you’ll really want to explore. I’m not saying to not pursuit that. I’m saying, don’t try to make the rest of the game unique just for the sake of being unique. Concentrate your effort on that one idea and liberally borrow for everything else.
The second key is that all that really matters is how well it plays for your group. Try it out. If it don’t work, take the experience and adjust it accordingly. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
And really, there are so many talents that can be useful to a game designer. Perhaps the question isn’t so much what talents make a good designer as what talents do you have that you can apply to game design. (Much like game mastering.)
Anybody can do it. First thing to realize is that even (especially) the best creators in any field leverage the existing corpus—stand on the shoulders of giants. Prefer using (or tweaking) an existing and proven mechanic to inventing all new ones. This means finding out what has come before, BTW.
Of course, you’ll probably have at least one different idea you’ll really want to explore. I’m not saying to not pursuit that. I’m saying, don’t try to make the rest of the game unique just for the sake of being unique. Concentrate your effort on that one idea and liberally borrow for everything else.
The second key is that all that really matters is how well it plays for your group. Try it out. If it don’t work, take the experience and adjust it accordingly. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
And really, there are so many talents that can be useful to a game designer. Perhaps the question isn’t so much what talents make a good designer as what talents do you have that you can apply to game design. (Much like game mastering.)
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