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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 7815991" data-attributes="member: 32740"><p>Every DM who runs their own campaign is an RPG maker. Every tweak, every new rule or class or spell or mechanic, every element that is removed/ignored is REDESIGNING that RPG. Maybe only in little ways, but sometimes A LOT of little ways. Sometimes you never really even notice the changes. Sometimes the changes of just one thing are HUGE. An RPG maker is not just somebody who starts from scratch and invents all new stuff and never borrows or copies ANYTHING from another RPG.</p><p></p><p>Don't reinvent the wheel. Don't invest too much time relative to the benefits you expect to get from the effort. Don't start it if you haven't looked into who you're aiming to sell/present to - who your target audience is.</p><p></p><p>Making a new RPG doesn't mean you can't at least start with an existing RPG as a basis to work from. It doesn't much matter if you end up with something entirely different from where you started or something very similar. If you're spending time testing out new resolution mechanics only to end up with a d20D&D-ish system anyway you're reinventing the wheel. Start with the things you know you want, are familiar with, and/or that the players and DM's of your "new" RPG will prefer. If you prefer to use... 1E D&D as your starting point you can begin with OSRIC, a clone of 1E made using the d20 Open Game License. OSRIC was even written specifically FOR people who wanted to publish material for use in 1E games in a clearly legally permitted way. Pathfinder was developed from 3E D&D under the Open Game License. If you're intending to publish and profit from your newly made RPG you could do worse than to develop it under the OGL. Of course, you can also start from scratch and reinvent the wheel, carefully avoiding stepping on ALL other RPG's that have been created - which you even acknowledge you have no experience with - but unless you've started with... a new resolution mechanic you're sure nobody has ever thought of before, you shouldn't (and don't need) to reinvent the wheel.</p><p></p><p>Next is how much effort you put into changing things to your own tastes. You can spend countless hours, YEARS, inventing a whole new magic system, but if the people who use and play your new RPG don't want it or actually don't like it you're wasting your time. If you're strictly doing all that work for your own enjoyment, fritter away as much time as you like. But, again, if you're intending to publicly publish and profit from your new RPG that's a business practice that will doom you to failure and personal bankruptcy right now before you really even start. You can devote pages and pages of tables and rules to recovering hit points by natural/non-magical means, but nobody will likely care and nobody will use them if magical healing is always available and always better.</p><p></p><p>If this is a project primarily for your own use and your own amusement, maybe for a few friends or a couple random strangers who read your ideas and like them enough to take a formal interest, then it doesn't matter if you have no familiarity with other RPG's and no market research into which RPG's are popular and why. But, again, if you're going to make this a business then you HAVE to know as many other RPG's as you can, and you have to have a clear and comprehensive understanding of what your target consumer wants to see out of your new RPG. Passion projects are FAR <em>FAR</em> from guaranteed sellers. Passion alone doesn't sell an RPG. Even great mechanics doesn't equate directly to great sales. Hell, D&D (any edition) is often objectively criticized as having the worst mechanics of all comparable RPG's and there is a lot of truth in that criticism - but that doesn't stop D&D from selling. People may buy a crappy RPG because they like the setting provided with it, whereas others will ignore the setting entirely and just use the mechanics. People may buy an RPG because it's cheap, or they may buy it because it's got tons of beautiful artwork and stunning presentation and lots of bells and whistles in a boxed set - and then overlook the fact that the ACTUAL RPG underneath all that really sucks. They may prefer a set of easy and breezy mechanics with a lot of roleplaying fluff, or they may care NOTHING for RPG fluff but want to have 300 pages of the nerdiest crunchy rules you can make which they then drop into their own setting. Which of those consumers is your RPG for? Design your RPG without ever forgetting or wavering from that answer.</p><p></p><p>And when you're done you might find all your effort was wasted anyway. That's a really depressing and negative attitude - but for RPG's it's a realistic attitude. Unless you're WotC or Paizo or a few select other companies, ANY level of success at RPG design is a crapshoot and probably LESS likely to be profitable than it is TO BE profitable. Or if it is profitable it will barely cover production costs and never pay you a decent compensation for the amount of work you put into it. Only if the end results are intended for just yourself is that going to be different. If this is a project which simply IS your hobby then it's really no different than any DM who runs any RPG (as noted at the outset).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 7815991, member: 32740"] Every DM who runs their own campaign is an RPG maker. Every tweak, every new rule or class or spell or mechanic, every element that is removed/ignored is REDESIGNING that RPG. Maybe only in little ways, but sometimes A LOT of little ways. Sometimes you never really even notice the changes. Sometimes the changes of just one thing are HUGE. An RPG maker is not just somebody who starts from scratch and invents all new stuff and never borrows or copies ANYTHING from another RPG. Don't reinvent the wheel. Don't invest too much time relative to the benefits you expect to get from the effort. Don't start it if you haven't looked into who you're aiming to sell/present to - who your target audience is. Making a new RPG doesn't mean you can't at least start with an existing RPG as a basis to work from. It doesn't much matter if you end up with something entirely different from where you started or something very similar. If you're spending time testing out new resolution mechanics only to end up with a d20D&D-ish system anyway you're reinventing the wheel. Start with the things you know you want, are familiar with, and/or that the players and DM's of your "new" RPG will prefer. If you prefer to use... 1E D&D as your starting point you can begin with OSRIC, a clone of 1E made using the d20 Open Game License. OSRIC was even written specifically FOR people who wanted to publish material for use in 1E games in a clearly legally permitted way. Pathfinder was developed from 3E D&D under the Open Game License. If you're intending to publish and profit from your newly made RPG you could do worse than to develop it under the OGL. Of course, you can also start from scratch and reinvent the wheel, carefully avoiding stepping on ALL other RPG's that have been created - which you even acknowledge you have no experience with - but unless you've started with... a new resolution mechanic you're sure nobody has ever thought of before, you shouldn't (and don't need) to reinvent the wheel. Next is how much effort you put into changing things to your own tastes. You can spend countless hours, YEARS, inventing a whole new magic system, but if the people who use and play your new RPG don't want it or actually don't like it you're wasting your time. If you're strictly doing all that work for your own enjoyment, fritter away as much time as you like. But, again, if you're intending to publicly publish and profit from your new RPG that's a business practice that will doom you to failure and personal bankruptcy right now before you really even start. You can devote pages and pages of tables and rules to recovering hit points by natural/non-magical means, but nobody will likely care and nobody will use them if magical healing is always available and always better. If this is a project primarily for your own use and your own amusement, maybe for a few friends or a couple random strangers who read your ideas and like them enough to take a formal interest, then it doesn't matter if you have no familiarity with other RPG's and no market research into which RPG's are popular and why. But, again, if you're going to make this a business then you HAVE to know as many other RPG's as you can, and you have to have a clear and comprehensive understanding of what your target consumer wants to see out of your new RPG. Passion projects are FAR [I]FAR[/I] from guaranteed sellers. Passion alone doesn't sell an RPG. Even great mechanics doesn't equate directly to great sales. Hell, D&D (any edition) is often objectively criticized as having the worst mechanics of all comparable RPG's and there is a lot of truth in that criticism - but that doesn't stop D&D from selling. People may buy a crappy RPG because they like the setting provided with it, whereas others will ignore the setting entirely and just use the mechanics. People may buy an RPG because it's cheap, or they may buy it because it's got tons of beautiful artwork and stunning presentation and lots of bells and whistles in a boxed set - and then overlook the fact that the ACTUAL RPG underneath all that really sucks. They may prefer a set of easy and breezy mechanics with a lot of roleplaying fluff, or they may care NOTHING for RPG fluff but want to have 300 pages of the nerdiest crunchy rules you can make which they then drop into their own setting. Which of those consumers is your RPG for? Design your RPG without ever forgetting or wavering from that answer. And when you're done you might find all your effort was wasted anyway. That's a really depressing and negative attitude - but for RPG's it's a realistic attitude. Unless you're WotC or Paizo or a few select other companies, ANY level of success at RPG design is a crapshoot and probably LESS likely to be profitable than it is TO BE profitable. Or if it is profitable it will barely cover production costs and never pay you a decent compensation for the amount of work you put into it. Only if the end results are intended for just yourself is that going to be different. If this is a project which simply IS your hobby then it's really no different than any DM who runs any RPG (as noted at the outset). [/QUOTE]
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