Here's four more tips and ideas for your consideration when designing a game.
To deal with this you can make the skills much more general. Grant the characters a basic general knowledge and allow them to specialise. Now the character has a general rating in ‘Science’ with a speciality in herbalism which makes things clearer.
So, when defining a list of skills, make sure they are broad enough not to cause confusing clashes, but specialised enough to let all the players pick individual skill spreads.
The simple answer is to decide if you want a simple system or a simulationist one. If you go simple, expect the game to rely on more narrative and broader options to make sense of the rolls. If you go simulationist you can develop a bespoke system for each situation, but be prepared for it to be complicated.
So if you use an oddity, give it a purpose that nothing else will do. Card decks have court cards, so use those for more than numbers above 10. A D12 (like feet and inches) will divide in half for a whole number more times than a D10 (12, 6, 3 as opposed to 10, 5) which might allow more staged results, such as three tiers on a d12 of 1-4, 5-8, 9-12. As a side note, avoid items so special that if you lose them they are hard to replace and you can’t play the game.
For instance, I’ve played several different versions of Middle Earth games, and never really got the appeal until Cubicle 7 made One Ring. Its tighter detail on a smaller part of the world really brought out where Middle Earth was different from the D&D I was used to. So when we made Dune: Adventures in the Imperium we made Arrakis the focus (with some detail on the rest of the universe) as that was the planet most new people would be familiar with, and expanded from there.
However, in 7th Sea, whilst all the nations benefit from more background detail, they are easy to get to grips with for new players. You just need to say “Montaigne? Think 3 musketeers. Castille? Think Zorro. Eisen? Think The Witcher” and your players know where to start. So in this case a broad world overview was the best choice.
Whatever you do you can expand the rest in later supplements, but you should always be able to play the game forever with just the Core Rulebook (which I suppose is another tip in itself).
Your Turn: What tips did I miss?
Consider your skills list carefully
It’s often very tempting to create a long skill list, pleased you have covered everything. But it can work against you. The more specific and numerous the different skills, the more they will cross over. So players will ask “why should I get herbalism if I have biology?” then the next question will be “if I have herbalism and biology, which do I roll and do I get a bonus for having both?” The longer your list the more points the players will want, as there are more skills they will want.To deal with this you can make the skills much more general. Grant the characters a basic general knowledge and allow them to specialise. Now the character has a general rating in ‘Science’ with a speciality in herbalism which makes things clearer.
So, when defining a list of skills, make sure they are broad enough not to cause confusing clashes, but specialised enough to let all the players pick individual skill spreads.
Beware of Creeping Complications
Once you have a basic system, you should make as much as you can be driven by it. But the simpler the system the more tempting it is to add fixes and additional rules for specific situations. Before long you can have a list of exceptions as long as your arm that no one is going to remember. D&D is especially bad for this. While the basic idea is now “roll 1D20 and add a bonus to beat a difficulty number” there are all manner of exceptions and situational modifiers that complicate it.The simple answer is to decide if you want a simple system or a simulationist one. If you go simple, expect the game to rely on more narrative and broader options to make sense of the rolls. If you go simulationist you can develop a bespoke system for each situation, but be prepared for it to be complicated.
Gimmicks
All game designers have a stage where they want to make a system that uses D12s or cards (often tarot cards). There isn’t anything wrong with this, but make sure your idea fits the game you are making. In Deadlands, huckster card sharp magicians using a deck of cards at the table is inspired. But otherwise it’s just another random number generator.So if you use an oddity, give it a purpose that nothing else will do. Card decks have court cards, so use those for more than numbers above 10. A D12 (like feet and inches) will divide in half for a whole number more times than a D10 (12, 6, 3 as opposed to 10, 5) which might allow more staged results, such as three tiers on a d12 of 1-4, 5-8, 9-12. As a side note, avoid items so special that if you lose them they are hard to replace and you can’t play the game.
Mini or Macro setting
This is a tough one, especially when you have a vast and expansive setting. Do you have a Core Rulebook featuring a guide to the whole world, or just one part? A wide gazetteer offers more character options and shows the variety and diversity of the world. But that can often be too much and a smaller focus can bring out more of the everyday detail that will make the world live. You only have a limited amount of pages after all.For instance, I’ve played several different versions of Middle Earth games, and never really got the appeal until Cubicle 7 made One Ring. Its tighter detail on a smaller part of the world really brought out where Middle Earth was different from the D&D I was used to. So when we made Dune: Adventures in the Imperium we made Arrakis the focus (with some detail on the rest of the universe) as that was the planet most new people would be familiar with, and expanded from there.
However, in 7th Sea, whilst all the nations benefit from more background detail, they are easy to get to grips with for new players. You just need to say “Montaigne? Think 3 musketeers. Castille? Think Zorro. Eisen? Think The Witcher” and your players know where to start. So in this case a broad world overview was the best choice.
Whatever you do you can expand the rest in later supplements, but you should always be able to play the game forever with just the Core Rulebook (which I suppose is another tip in itself).
Your Turn: What tips did I miss?
