The Great Conjunction II (RPG Design Contest)

[arscott]

My advice: Start in December, and switch back to the 2-month timeline. One month is just about enough time to kick around the theme, come up with a decent game concept and the mechanics and setting to back it up. Problem is, you need a second month to actually write it down. And in my case at least, January is a much busier month than December.

I'll still be turning in my submission eventually. Just don't expect it before the beginning of March.

 

[Wik]

My advice: Start in December, and switch back to the 2-month timeline. One month is just about enough time to kick around the theme, come up with a decent game concept and the mechanics and setting to back it up. Problem is, you need a second month to actually write it down. And in my case at least, January is a much busier month than December.

I'll still be turning in my submission eventually. Just don't expect it before the beginning of March.

Yeah, I think the one month timeline was a bad idea. Dunno when to actually place this thing - January/February is historically my "slow" months - there's no way I can work/judge during the summer. Maybe next year I'll go back to the Jan/Feb timeline.

And maybe I'll put together a mini project later on in the year. Or something.

 

[jdrakeh]

I just never got around to putting anything together due to other projects eating up my time (see links in my .sig). If you try to organize another event though, I'll give my best effort to throw something together.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Ah, crap. Genuinely sorry to hear that there were no entries for this one.

And for the record, that offhand comment I made about you as a RPG judge, in some thread or other, was *totally* tongue-in-cheek! I know, you probably knew that, but hey, just in case.

In fact, I really was going to submit a RPG, but other things (notably, a lack of sufficient free time) got in the way.

And yeah, a different time of year would be easier (well, for me.) Halfway between summer here and summer there, perhaps?

Also, two months sounds much better.

 

[arscott]

I seriously urge December/January over January/February. Students have a break in December, which means a lot of spare time for anyone who is a student or a teacher (or, as in my case, whose friends are mostly students, and is thus stuck with nothing to do for three weeks because his friends are out of town). February is also the start of Convention Season, and a lot of Gamer energy is focused on Cons instead of stuff like this.

Of course, December might be terrible for other people... Chime up if you've got better scheduling suggestions than mine, folks.

 

[Wik]

Aus: I know, I know. It's all good, I have a pretty good sense for "tongue in cheek" (cue inappropriate joke).

As for everyone else.... Jan/Feb may be a bad time, I guess? What would be a good time to stage this? Also, I think next time around it might be a good idea to cut down the page limit, so a lot of people don't go in thinking they need to create the equivalent to d20 or GURPS or anything.

 

[jmucchiello]

Have you considered doing it yearlong? Kinda like a 24-hour RPG except you aren't strict about the time frame. You've put it out there: Submit Discovery themed RPGs here. Now just let people send them in. You can judge them at your leisure. In fact you can do it semi-annually. Have a Winter/Spring session and Summer/Fall session with a different theme. If the volume suddenly picks up I'm sure you can find volunteers to help you judge.

The trick is keeping the thread in the view of folks who haven't stumbled upon it.

 

[jaerdaph]

The Big Theme

This year's big theme? It's an easy one.... Discovery. Exploration, the discovery of the unknown, and unraveling mystery. An "Old school" theme of RPGs that sometimes gets overlooked in the modern era of RPGs. Let's bring back that sense of discovery in RPGs! How? Well, that's up to you!

Other Things to Incorporate

There are also some sub-themes, which can be used as you see fit. These sub-themes are 1) A Criminal Element, 2) Religious Mania, 3) Hazardous Magic, and 3) Sentient Constructs.

Reading this after reading this, I had a sudden flash of Steampunk Caprica inspiration...

 

[Jack7]

Have you considered doing it yearlong? Kinda like a 24-hour RPG except you aren't strict about the time frame. You've put it out there: Submit Discovery themed RPGs here. Now just let people send them in. You can judge them at your leisure. In fact you can do it semi-annually. Have a Winter/Spring session and Summer/Fall session with a different theme. If the volume suddenly picks up I'm sure you can find volunteers to help you judge.

The trick is keeping the thread in the view of folks who haven't stumbled upon it.

I agree with this sentiment generally speaking. It could be like a small term paper assignment (though I'm long outta collage as a student) that could be done on a quarterly, or even semester basis.

Or you could have semester contests with smaller sub-contests (component contests - developing smaller game aspects or mechanical systems - instead of whole games, sort of like extended white papers) on various lesser subject matters.

I'm still writing my book on Exploration and Vadding though. And personally I think this project's particular subject matter, that of Exploration and Discovery should be exploited for a future project.

The subject matter is too good to waste or discard.