Who here has created their own RPG?

[kitsune9]

Firstly, it's definitely not an insult or other form of pejorative. (Unless, of course, I use it in the context of D&D Next... but I simply don;t comment on that any more because I cannot make a positive contribution.)

Secondly, I don't know where it originated.

Thirdly, it describes how many of us have attempted to design our own version of D&D with elaborate clones of the core books etc... and it often seems to just end in something resembling heartbreak.

Ron Edwards wrote two articles called Fantasy Heartbreakers and More Fantasy Heartbreakers. I tried to look for the articles, but the links are dead. Maybe someone could post the links. They are interesting to read and there are pit traps to avoid when doing game design (how this links to the current topic). However, I did find some discussion about it on this link:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=17740.0

It is meant kind of like an insult, because it comes down to being a D&D knock-off when the game designer claimed otherwise

I think a more accurate way of describing it is how an author is claiming that their fantasy game is different or better than D&D, but in fact just reads and plays like D&D with some house rules. It's considered derivative.

In the end though, there are some games that are fairly derivative, but the style, presentation, and setting makes the game. Secondly, it's a subjective beauty in the eye of the beholder term. What may be unique and awesome to you may be an old hat cheap knock off to someone else.

Happy Gaming!

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) It is meant kind of like an insult, because it comes down to being a D&D knock-off when the game designer claimed otherwise (snip)

I've never seen it used as an insult (except when I am talking about D&D Next but I have banned myself from participating in Next threads ) but always as a piece of self-deprecation: I broke my heart writing this... and then went back to D&D.

 

[GMMichael]

I designed my RPG with the intent of saving myself headaches from memorizing too many rules. So I'll be going back to D&D when I feel like the grappling rules, and withdraw actions, and Tumble DC to avoid attacks of opportunity are actually fun to look up, again.

Although with what I've been reading about "imbalance" and "broken wizards" and things like that, I just might never look back.

And no, D&D Next does not have a hope of bringing me back (unless they hire me as a designer)!

 

[Mark Chance]

Yesterday, I played a short session of Matt Jackson's mini-RPG Edge of Space. It was a hoot, and it inspired to me write my own mini-RPG, The Accordian Files. In this game, players take the role of Accordian agents, those brave men and women who battle the nefarious forces of the Dischordians, that cabal of unseen puppet masters seeking to unleash mere anarchy upon the world.

 

[Mark Chance]

Free playtest versions of The Accordian Files Player's Book, available in both full size PDF and PocketMod PDF. Here's how you fold a PocketMod.

 

[The Gibbergeist]

Not an RPG but want to write a dungeon crawler ruleset.