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What? You heard me. Talk about your game designs, but more importantly try to finish them. We'll all give support, maybe some feedback, maybe some reactions to your thinking-out-loud rambling nonsense posts, but ultimately we're here to give ourselves the impetus to actually finish those game projects we've had cooking in our brains for far too long, like a particularly nerdy and disfunctional writer's workshop. All Game Writing Workshop Success Stories will be catalogued in this post, including sales links if you end up putting things up for sale. So is there a penalty for failure or what? No, but if you desperately want to  yourself we're not going to stop you. I will be compelled to file you in the Boulevard of Broken Games here in this post, though.Other than those two points, just talk like mad. Chat about mechanics, game design theory, how much better your game will be than D&D, whatever. But remember, we're here to finish. None of this self-doubt nonsense. As such, if people want to offer incentives for specific projects to finish, feel free to do so. The only ones liable for such offers are the ones who make them. What are you waiting for? Go finish!  Game Writing Workshop Success Stories
Rulebook Heavily fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Nov 5, 2015 |
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Nov 5, 2013 03:49
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How do I finish a game? The long and short of it is to write it and never stop. Some of you may recognize me from various game design contests. You may also know that I finish most of the ones I enter (and almost always in second place for some reason). My secret is that I don't hesitate, I don't waffle and I don't let awful writing get in my way. I've written things that were in no way presentable for sale, but here's how it works: once you finish writing something, you'll have an easier time fixing it than you will starting over from scratch. Did you hit a design snag or a problem with the math? Note it down and keep writing. Is the project too large? Cut out your darlings to finish on time. Is your spelling atrocious? You can spellcheck when you're dead, keep moving. Can't find a group to playtest something to see if it works? Write it all anyway, that way you have more moving parts to base your judgement on. This will be hard. It will hurt. It will result in something you're not happy with. But all of those things are preferable to never being able to finish a single thing. If you are a brilliant designer but you never finish anything, you are worse than people who write shitpiles that don't function but who are consistent enough to get paychecks for it. Consistency and diligence pays more than idle genius. Finish first. Preen your ego later, once you actually have one from having gotten something out the door. My advice in particular is to finish in a contest, or do something for NaNoWriMo if you find the impetus and time. Pick something small and manageable, like a simple card game or a party game. Get your confidence going, then keep at it. If you have other advice to add to this post, I will add it under your name. However, I only pay attention to people with finished projects because I'm an elitist game-gently caress. How's that for an impetus? For the following, just click on the poster's username to get the full text of their post. potatocubed posted:Short Version Mikan posted:Everyone wants to write big RPGs. We want to write a new D&D or Vampire or Legend of the Five Rings. It's going to be a revolutionary new system! Big cool new setting. RPGs have to be huge books full of content.  ResourcesArt Flickr's advanced search allows you to search for Creative Commons licensed art, and even allows you to specify whether you want to use it for commercial purposes and whether you want to be able to modify it. See: http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/ This guy has collected a bunch of stuff that might be useful. Layout Scribus is free! And good! Rulebook Heavily fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 03:49
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It's a heck of an impetus. So, I'm working on FATEShadowrun, and I'm curious as to what turning it into a finished project would entail--right now it's complete enough that I personally can run it, which isn't going to impress anyone. Could I just do the skills, powers, and rules unique to the sixth world and tell people to read the actual Fate SRD, or is that considered lazy and contemptible. Given that I'm marrying a setting I don't own to rules I don't own I've got no illusions of selling this, I just want a finished project that might be of use to people.
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Nov 5, 2013 04:50
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I have so many unfinished projects I don't know where to begin.  Probably this elemental monsters and heroes thing for Dungeon World would be a good place to start. I wanted to add some rules for elemental tags for gear, and maybe a magic doodad or two.
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Nov 5, 2013 05:03
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I'm a shame-filled Idea Guy who should spend eternity as a PC in a Maid LARP. To change my fate, I'm going to finish one goddamn setting even if it kills me. I'll be back when I have more time to elaborate on my settings and ideas.
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Nov 5, 2013 05:06
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Mystic Mongol posted:It's a heck of an impetus. This would essentially be a third-party version of FATE. You can present it in one of two ways: As a complete standalone (where you copy the entire relevant bits of the SRD you want and then add your own stuff and then present that with the OGL license in it), or just as-is as an addon to the core rules. Since it's a third party deal, the latter is perfectly acceptable, especially if you're never going to get license to sell it. If you want, you can try to find some open-source art to put into it as well. I'm not up on my databases for those, but maybe some other enterprising poster can help.
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Nov 5, 2013 05:43
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Rulebook Heavily posted:If you want, you can try to find some open-source art to put into it as well. I'm not up on my databases for those, but maybe some other enterprising poster can help. If anyone has resources for free/open-source/public domain art please share. I intend to commission art for my current project, but at the moment I'd like some stuff just to use as placeholders in my playtest drafts. EDIT: While I'm at it, I guess I should share the one good resource I know of for Pulp Sci-Fi art. http://public-domain.zorger.com/ Bucnasti fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 05:47
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The setting I have in mind is a world where a magically advanced society has begun to explore space, starting with their nearby moons. To do so, they've begun contructing ships that sail through the eather itself! It's kind of a riff on an idea I had for an Eberron/Dark Sun game, in which an airship finds itself stranded on Athas. I want to make a game that pits cutting edge magic against new frontiers. Also airships. Speaking of, the idea I have for chargen is that making your party's airship is part of it. I'm not quite sure how I want to implement, but I like the idea of maybe doing something similar to GoT's house generation. Players can put points towards certain things, with randomization filling in the gaps. I don't really have too much else hammered out, but that's what this thread is for, right?
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Nov 5, 2013 06:51
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Okay, I'm not toxxing because I'm not that brave, but here's the mostly complete text of entry one of % in Lair https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12155227/in_lair_001-giant_ants.pdf I need to: * Draw a nice map of a sample ant nest * Add some mechanics for parasitised and golden ants -- Complete mechanics or templates to add to your chosen D&D's giant ants? -- Retroclone, Pathfinder or both? * Add a random fungus effect table * Optional Swarming system - in soviet ant nest, ants come to you. * Find more wierd ant behavior both mythological (e.g. the gold thing) and real (e.g. the fungus thing) to add as options for my giant ants The idea is to do a selection of these covering overlooked monsters that can be found in their lairs. I stopped working on it because I was getting near the end - most of my works finish just before I hit the final strech. Angrymog fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 08:10
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Bucnasti posted:If anyone has resources for free/open-source/public domain art please share. I intend to commission art for my current project, but at the moment I'd like some stuff just to use as placeholders in my playtest drafts. Flickr's advanced search allows you to search for Creative Commons licensed art, and even allows you to specify whether you want to use it for commercial purposes and whether you want to be able to modify it. See: http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/ On an art licensing question, would it be legit to put noncommercial art in companion PDFs for a game I'm selling so long as I give the PDFs away for free, and so long as all the art in the product actually for sale is licensed for commercial use? On the one hand I'm not selling them and they're not required to be able to play the game, but on the other hand they could help me sell the game, so it's a bit of a dilemma. Of course I should probably just suck it up and commission art, but that's too expensive for me to fund out of pocket barring a Kickstarter or somesuch.
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Nov 5, 2013 09:02
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Jonas Albrecht posted:Speaking of, the idea I have for chargen is that making your party's airship is part of it. I'm not quite sure how I want to implement, but I like the idea of maybe doing something similar to GoT's house generation. Players can put points towards certain things, with randomization filling in the gaps. Also have a look at Rogue Trader and the Into the Storm supplement - there's a whole thing on generating your ship and its history.
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Nov 5, 2013 09:10
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Rulebook Heavily posted:If you have other advice to add to this post, I will add it under your name. However, I only pay attention to people with finished projects because I'm an elitist game-gently caress. How's that for an impetus? Alright, here are my credentials: I've finished Nanowrimo three times (all terrible), I've written Fatescape (FATE for Planescape), revised it, and rewritten it again, had a couple of adventures published for other RPGs, had some short stories published and finished one (1) module for Shadowrun Returns. I can link you to all of those if you don't want to take my word for it. Basically, I don't have much game design chops but I know how to finish creative projects and I thought I'd dispense some wisdom based on my experience. Short Version Just loving do it. Every time you have some free time, get to work. If you think something like "I could, but..." then stop making excuses and get to work. If you have a pencil and a notepad, you can work. So do it. Literally nothing is holding you back but your own unwillingness to put the effort in - and you can choose to change that. Slightly Longer Version The number two reason why most creative projects fail is 'the desert'. The number one reason is failure to even start, but assuming you can overcome that hurdle the next obstacle you're likely to hit is the bit a little way in where you've written down all your good ideas and there's still work to be done. An author whose blog I used to read likened this to crossing a desert: there comes a point when all the sense of adventure and wonder has worn off, and you realise you still have a thousand more miles of this crap to go, and that's when the dropouts - the 'idea guys' - turn round and go home. If you want to be something better, then you're going to have to learn to do the sucky part of being creative: the work. Anyway, there you are, sitting in front of your screen and wondering what the hell to do next. Answer: do what needs doing. Make a list of everything you're going to need to do in order to turn what you have into what you want. Then do something off the list. Maybe the list will grow as you think of new material - no problem - but whenever you're wondering what to do next, go back to the list. "But I don't know how to do this part!" I hear you cry. Doesn't matter. One of my favourite writing quotes, the source of which I've long forgotten, is this: "You can edit a lovely first draft into a decent manuscript, but you can't edit a blank page into anything but a blank page." So put something in that space and move on. Something that seems like it might work. Something that seems cool. Hell, just rip your favourite system out of another game and drop it right in. You can make it perfect later, but for now you just want your project to be complete. "But it sucks!" I hear you cry. "I should scrap everything and start again!" It's a weird thing, but every creative project hits this sort of wall at some point where you sit back and take stock of what you've done, and you realise that it's all unmitigated poo poo oh God why would anyone ever want to play this? This is a good sign! It shows that you're applying critical thinking to what you're doing instead of just making GBS threads out any old thing and calling it wonderful. Don't scrap what you've got - see above about editing blank pages - and just power on through. There's no shortcut around this part, no easy way to avoid it or mitigate it: you just have to knuckle down, accept that some of what you're going to create is terrible, and resolve to fix it later. Then actually fix it later. It's important that you remember that part. Finally, and this is something I learned from doing Nanowrimo that's stood me in good stead for any and all creative projects, use all the time you have. Got a lunch break at work? Crack open the laptop and get working on your project. Riding the bus or the train? Crack open the laptop and get working. Laptop sucks? No money for a laptop? If you aren't already carrying a notepad and pen everywhere you go, start. Examples: I've written this post in the time it's taken my other half to get showered and dressed this morning, since she's giving me a lift to work. I'm going to be working on my next SRR module in my lunch break. Use all the time you have. And that's all the stuff on my list of wisdom to dispense:
Now stop reading this and get to work.
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Nov 5, 2013 09:50
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I've been trying to write a hack for Apocalypse World since the August design competition - it's called Qabal. Early on I was just trying to hack an old game called 'Kult' into a Powered By The Apocalypse game, but since then it's become something entirely different. It's a kind of Gnostic Matrix, which is a bit redundant I guess - it's a bit like Dark City too - but the idea is that all the power players have to define the world is explicitly true in-setting - every playbook has the power to reshape the Illusion in some way. The Tarotician weaves the story of the session into a tale told through the Tarot, gaining narrative power and momentum as she draws people into her story. The Conjurer gets to rewrite the rules of the Illusion through the lens of their chosen Realm. The Chaote forgets themselves and merges with a portion of the world. It really needs work but I think it's a cool idea! Right now though I feel like it's pulling in two directions - urban horror and groovy hermetic fantasy. I haven't been able to reconcile the two yet. I'm thinking of making a Real World beyond human comprehension which is exempt from most of the players' powers, but I need to figure out how I can make that fun. I don't just want to take away their agency. I'm also doing a bunch of commentaries on the playbooks of Pirate World, a supplement for Dungeon World. I'm mainly doing them so I can understand the system better and improve my writing. Evil Mastermind, I think your elemental liches are really cool. If you ever want someone to collaborate with, get in touch with me! Edit: As for your Champions, try fiddling around with granularity. Try writing an all-encompassing Champion of [Element] playbook, or an incredibly specific Champion of Snowflakes, Stalactites, Oaks or Forges. Also, try to avoid giving +1 bonuses to static things, like certain weapons or mechanical categories of action - basic moves. Give +1 bonuses to methods and philosophies of action - categories operating in the field of fiction as opposed to game mechanics. Bigup DJ fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 12:49
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I add helpful things to the original posts! Hooray! I'd co-lament my non-complete game projects, except I already know I can't work on them in November and also I'm pretty much finishing a couple anyway. But it's worth looking at what I'm finishing. The first is Dungeon World: Mounted Combat. It's a third party supplement for Dungeon World that does what it says on the cover: it adds mounts, vehicles, conveyances and annoyances relating to those to the game. My goal going into this was to do something with mounts that no RPGs ever do, which is to make them not be clunky bags of suck, and instead explore how a simple thing like a horse you rode in on can be an opportunity for a story. It is currently delayed by editing and art. The second is Ragnarök. It's not quite third-party, but it's a version of Mikan's Fortune system and was part of the original Last Stand kickstarter. It's brutal, pretty nasty, has all kinds of crazy norse-related things in it (the authentic kind and not the kind envisioned by lonely nerds who can't stop writing about how much sex Freyja is having), and has been pretty much text-complete for a while. It is delayed due to art. Notice a pattern there? This is the worst part of finishing something: not being able to control all the factors. So that's why I'm going to advise everyone here to pick a project where you either have everything you need or to start with a smaller project where you have all the factors in your control as your first project to bring to completion. It's frustrating enough to not be able to finish without external worries! Finish something on your own first to get a taste for it.
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Nov 5, 2013 15:03
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I am currently working on my PBTA hack, Neon Abyss. It is pretty cool I think! In a fit of mad energy I have decided to revise the entire thing from the bottom up. The old draft is here. I have described it as being inspired by WoD, Hotline Miami, and listening to way too much Perturbator. I plan to publish it some day. I have some other ideas, but that is all for now!
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Nov 5, 2013 15:11
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Rulebook Heavily posted:The first is Dungeon World: Mounted Combat. It's a third party supplement for Dungeon World that does what it says on the cover: it adds mounts, vehicles, conveyances and annoyances relating to those to the game. My goal going into this was to do something with mounts that no RPGs ever do, which is to make them not be clunky bags of suck, and instead explore how a simple thing like a horse you rode in on can be an opportunity for a story. It is currently delayed by editing and art. This sounds cool; I get annoyed at games both computer and tabletop just treating horses as personality-less nothings - reminds me of Diane Duane's 'Horses are vegetables' entry from The Toughguide to Fantasy Land.
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Nov 5, 2013 15:16
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Bigup DJ posted:Evil Mastermind, I think your elemental liches are really cool. If you ever want someone to collaborate with, get in touch with me! quote:Edit: As for your Champions, try fiddling around with granularity. Try writing an all-encompassing Champion of [Element] playbook, or an incredibly specific Champion of Snowflakes, Stalactites, Oaks or Forges. Also, try to avoid giving +1 bonuses to static things, like certain weapons or mechanical categories of action - basic moves. Give +1 bonuses to methods and philosophies of action - categories operating in the field of fiction as opposed to game mechanics. At the same time, it's surprisingly hard to come up with distinct powers/abilities for each CC. I think I like where the fire, water, earth, and air ones are right now (although water might be a little too focused on healing). I need to make the plant one more Swamp Thing-like and I think I need to rethink the champion of metal. Rulebook Heavily posted:The first is Dungeon World: Mounted Combat. It's a third party supplement for Dungeon World that does what it says on the cover: it adds mounts, vehicles, conveyances and annoyances relating to those to the game. My goal going into this was to do something with mounts that no RPGs ever do, which is to make them not be clunky bags of suck, and instead explore how a simple thing like a horse you rode in on can be an opportunity for a story. It is currently delayed by editing and art. Also you should add Mikan's "how to self-publish for cheap dummies" stuff from the chat thread to the OP.
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Nov 5, 2013 15:54
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Angrymog posted:This sounds cool; I get annoyed at games both computer and tabletop just treating horses as personality-less nothings - reminds me of Diane Duane's 'Horses are vegetables' entry from The Toughguide to Fantasy Land. As the guy who needs to get off his butt and edit that, I can say yes, Dungeon World: Mounted Combat is very cool. Evil Mastermind posted:Is this going to be stand-alone? I thought it was going to be a thing in Inverse World. Mounted Combat is going to be a standalone. Inverse World has DIFFERENT Mounts and Vehicles in it, but they both have the core rules on using them included in the book. I actually have a lot of gaming things on my plate and I've hit a unique sort of wall where I am making almost no progress on any of them because I am distracted by the other ones. Listed in the order I expect I'll finish/work on them (I fully intend to finish all of the following, but it will be a while on some of them): Inverse World! This is my Dungeon World supplement that got kickstarted successfully half a year ago. Inverse World is number one priority, I really need to finish up the last section and get this out the door and off to the publishers. We have enough art that the book could be completed, but I am waiting on a couple more pieces already commissioned. Mikan also has a section of this he needs to finish, and those are all the things holding this up. I'll get to work on my part after I post this, I think that would be for the best. PS: Mikan why didn't you tell me about Scribus sooner; this is making layout so much easier. Dungeon World Expanded Mages: The Mage playbook is the most popular Dungeon World thing I've ever done, going off of sales figures/downloads, but I have issues with it. It operates on a different scale than almost anyone else does, so, to fix this, I've started making entire new Mages, each one based on a different spell focus. Dragon Mage, Clock Mage, Star Mage, Winter Mage, Twilight Mage, and Masked Mage are the 6 I have lined up, and I've finished the basic moves for 5 of those. I haven't much started on their advances, and they've been back-burnered by trying to finish up Inverse World, but I put time into them whenever I think of things. Star Mage is the only one without basic moves yet, for the curious. Little Necromancers: A game about immortal fairy tale people, designed for children. The resolution mechanic is a spinner and character creation is a coloring book. I wrote up the Mer Maid the other day, but haven't drawn her yet. This is in a playable state, but I need to write a LOT more about the GM side of things for it to be any good. I also have a couple more ideas for little necromancers, so there's that too. Work Needs Doing. Neopolis: A PbtA supervillains game. Robot Cowboys, Fire Draculas, Be-Tentacled Drug Lords, that kind of thing. I have Ideas for this, along with a bunch of basic moves, but I haven't solidified anything yet. I do know it will be drawing from Danger Patrol's mechanics for some things. This is solidly on the backburner. Third Rock: A board game, where each player plays as human survivors of an alien-based apocalypse. The Invaders will regularly attack the players, and the players need to work together to take out the invaders, or die trying. This game has some similarities to Pandemic, in that the players are co-op against an unrelenting threat. I am working on this with my brother, it was a game he came up with the core idea for. We're still in the rules drafting stage. Mostly on the backburner. I like all of these ideas and am resolved to finish all of them. I just need some focus and a bit less depression and get on it.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:10
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Angrymog posted:This sounds cool; I get annoyed at games both computer and tabletop just treating horses as personality-less nothings - reminds me of Diane Duane's 'Horses are vegetables' entry from The Toughguide to Fantasy Land. Oh yes. And I'm also personally annoyed by the rules which are usually just "you are sitting on a bag of hit points with complicated hit allocation rules". I might do some for other games like 13th age down the line. Evil Mastermind posted:
Noted. And I actually started work on Mounted Combat before I approached Gnome to do some mounts and things for Inverse World, a decision I am assured he does not regret. It's especially good for IW, actually, because that's a setting that's all about conveyance and exploration.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:17
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I use a lot of public domain art in my stuff, so thanks for the links to a couple more places to look. This guy has collected a bunch of stuff that might be useful. Usually I just end up finding a dead old person who's copyright should be expiring and searching for them on wikimedia commons, like: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tales_by_Ivan_BilibinRulebook Heavily posted:I'd co-lament my non-complete game projects, except I already know I can't work on them in November and also I'm pretty much finishing a couple anyway. But it's worth looking at what I'm finishing. Uh you forgot a little thing called 100 Dungeons Deluxe (but the point applies to that too). As far as projects that I am working on, luckily I've been keeping track of progress of things on http://kanbanflow.com and can see everything quickly at a glance in a totally not shilling sort of way. Quest of the Wizards 2nd Edition --Rewrite mechanics with less plagarism --Make Monsters (6/120) --Make Powers (0/??) --Get Art 100 Dungeons Deluxe --Get Maps (20/100) --Do Layout (5/100) Secret Magic PDF Project --Learn more actionscript Those are, of course, in addition to the constant influx of lists that make me a billionaire.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:18
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Any comment on my ants? I've even been working a bit more on them.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:21
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The only thing I can claim to have finished and really produced is the Initiate playbook for Dungeon World. I have several projects which never got finished and have largely been abandoned, because I am not very good at mechanics and tend to get bogged down when I have to write them. I am, however, working a lot on my November contest setting, because for some reason I really, really want to write about it. You can look at what I have so far here, I welcome comments.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:31
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I'm currently pretty committed to working on Some Heartbreaker. By committed I mean making at least one or two effort-posts every week when I can steal the time. I've got some solid design goals and have hashed out a sketch of the core mechanics with solid rationale and math behind the design choices. I am currently working through a long list of hypothetical game scenarios as a plausibility test of the mechanics and to flesh out the vaguer ideas. These thought experiments are definitely slowing the pace of design way down, but I feel that it will make the sketch more complete when going into play-testing. Although progress is slow, it is satisfying as I've got about 30 people following the thread and often see some of my topics and rationale popping up in other threads shortly after posting.
Paolomania fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 18:47
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I did a little work on my DW elementals thing. Changelog • I think the liches are pretty much set. • I added a new creature (Motes) • Champion of Water: I need a non-healing move. • Champion of Fire: I think it's good where it is. • Champion of Earth: Need one more move. • Champion of Air: I need to come up with a decent replacement for Fresh Air. • Champion of Steel: Hmm...not really sure on this one way or the other. I like the Forge move since it gives players a way to make magic items. • Jotted down some ideas for elemental magic items. Just names right now for the most part. I think I want two items per element. Just as an aside, how many moves are good for a Dungeon World Compendium Class? Three or four plus the entry move? Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 21:22
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Angrymog posted:Any comment on my ants? I've even been working a bit more on them. There's really not a lot to comment on right now. I would really recommend worrying less about posting it as a nice PDF and maybe just getting a Google Doc and pound some ideas into it and get feedback on those? I really like the concept of what you're working on though, something like an Ant Lair would make for an awesome adventuring site.
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Nov 5, 2013 21:36
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That's not a pretty PDF - that's a word file told to print to PDF; Word just works better for me than google docs and is more accessible and less conspicous than google docs in my main thinking enviroment. The main question I had really was what to do about stats - whether to use retroclone, Pathfinder or purely descriptive stats for the various changes that can be made to base ants.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:31
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There is a common saying that you need to spend ten thousand hours practicing at something before you get really good at it. All of your projects should add up time to that count, even the ones you consider failures. But here's the thing, if you don't release your creative works to a broader audience and take in feedback, it does not count as practice time. You cannot learn by yourself. Okay it does count a little, because you are flexing your creative muscles after all, but without feedback from others you won't be able to objectively tell the good from the bad. Humans are terrible at judging themselves. You could be your own worst critic and end up killing something that others found pretty fun, or you might cling to ideas that are only holding you back. I've been juggling my work with my hobby as a designer with a non-commercial game in Giant Guardian Generation for about two years now. It is a game of anime giant robots for which the feedback has been majorly positive, the last version of it (released around the middle of this year) sitting at a little over 600 downloads, even though I do virtually no marketing for it whatsoever. And every time I look at it, I hate it. The first version that came out was rough around the edges, but still succeeded at being a game that balanced crunchy tactical gameplay with cinematic action and rules-light non-combat scenes. It managed this like few games ever do, let alone any that were made by a singular human being. And to me that first version of the game is an embarrassing mistake that I want dead and buried forever. I've often noticed that fluff is why people pick up or start games, but crunch is why they ditch them. The game still has a number of issues, but the rules in general tend to make people stick around as opposed to making them want to quit. Given that it is basically an universal system of rules more than anything else, I have to objectively recognize this as a success. And yet it is always going to continue disappointing me, because I know it could be so much better. Until you get your ten thousand hours of practice in, your opinion of your own work doesn't matter. Don't think too much, keep practicing and getting the opinions of others instead. If you have to do major rewrites after getting feedback, suck it up and get on with it. Ditching and starting an entirely different thing is easy, but perfecting failed ideas is what makes you a better designer and developer. GimmickMan fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 22:38
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Evil Mastermind posted:• Champion of Steel: Hmm...not really sure on this one way or the other. I like the Forge move since it gives How about you turn it into something like the Obliterator Virus? Make Forge the base move, rewrite Encased in Metal so it's about you forging yourself into a suit of armour - preferably one of your own masterpieces. Once you've melded with it, it loses the clumsy tag and it can regenerate. It never rusts, it always looks perfectly polished, all its curves and lines and proportions are made perfect - almost organic. You could do it with a shield, too. Maybe you could spend HP to regenerate your armour instantly? I'm not sure about the maths of HP vs. Armour, how much of one would generally be worth the other. Weaponbond forges weapons into one or both of your arms - maybe all your limbs! So long as it's a weapon, you can forge it into whichever limb you'd typically use it with. From then on you can shape the limb back and forth between weaponform and normal at will - it can never be disarmed. Or maybe they have to take your limb off if they want you properly disarmed. Maybe you can regenerate limbs if you've got enough steel lying around - forge yourself a new arm. I want to say the last move is just "Shape your body into useful metal things", turning your fingers to lockpicks, growing ice skates, toe spikes for climbing, but maybe that's a bit boring. Yeah I think four or five moves are good for a Compendium Class.
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Nov 6, 2013 00:42
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TK-31 posted:Until you get your ten thousand hours of practice in, your opinion of your own work doesn't matter. Don't think too much, keep practicing and getting the opinions of others instead. If you have to do major rewrites after getting feedback, suck it up and get on with it. Ditching and starting an entirely different thing is easy, but perfecting failed ideas is what makes you a better designer and developer. Peer review, or just a pair of eyes from someone outside the project, is very important. Even if you're not pouring 8 hours a day 5 days a week into something you're writing, you're still going to have blind spots, both in the quality of your writing or your math. When people write, there's this sort of blind spot when it comes to details. It can be summarized as "well, I know what I meant." You'll leave out some important detail because you know that detail so well you don't think about it anymore. It's internalized, so when you write about it you don't feel the need to explain it to the reader. This is why you have to give your work to other people to at least read, if not playtest. They're going to spot the gaps, the steps you left out, the odd sentences where you changed thoughts mid-stream and didn't realize. If you want your stuff to look professional, then you need an editor. And not even a literary editor, just someone who can read what you wrote and is okay with telling you "this doesn't make sense, that math doesn't add up".
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Nov 6, 2013 01:26
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I started a campaign setting for 13th Age a while ago called The Sepulcher. I dropped it after only a couple entries, but started it back up recently as something to work on for NaNoWriMo, among other projects. The basic idea is that the world ended for the most part, and now an Icon called the Enigma is resurrecting people as "true" undead; those who retain the memories of their past lives. Now they, and the survivors of the apocalypse have to struggle to survive in a hostile environment. The themes are those of survival, despair in a broken world, and the hope that keeps people going. I've set up a Tumblr to easily add bite-sized chunks to it and kind of keep track of things (though eventually a wiki would be better, most likely). The Tumblr is here if anyone wants to check it out and give feedback. Currently, I've been working on the Icons, and after I'm done with write-ups for them, I'll be moving on, echoing the core 13th Age rulebook's layout.
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Nov 6, 2013 01:50
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I have some advice. Collaborate. Find a partner or group of people to work with. There are a few lone geniuses out there who create their games from nothing all by themselves but the majority of games are the product of a group of people. Working with others gives you a ton of advantages:
Obviously there are a lot of lovely people out there, and it can be hard to find somebody that you can work with, but keep looking the results are worth it in the end.
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Nov 6, 2013 01:51
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I updated Champions of Steel; I tried to make the powers more useful and hopefully I didn't make them too powerful. Although I do like the image of a Fighter standing in just his normal clothes as the enemy approaches, and suddenly armoring up a la Iron Man and popping a huge-rear end greatsword out of his arm.
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Nov 6, 2013 02:03
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To add to what Evil Mastermind and Bucnasti say: Once you have your first proof of concept draft get a friend that is into games to read it, or bring it to your playing group for a quick playtest, or beg random internet people to participate in a one-shot you'll run. You're not above any kind of feedback when you're starting out, and you might end up finding someone who really gets what you are doing and wants to be your right hand person. Even if you don't get that lucky, all you really need at this stage is a regular number of people you can bounce ideas or test stuff with every now and then. But you have to go out and get them yourself, because feedback does not spontaneously generate. e: I think it would be great if we could organize playtests of stuff every now and then in the thread, since there's only so much you can get from just reading. You sign up to run or play someone's thing, they do the same for you, everyone wins. GimmickMan fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 02:47
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Going to do work on another project I have been getting some encouragement to work on, since I got pretty hung up on where to go with what I originally posted here. Will write a post up-to-date in a bit.
Gasperkun fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Dec 12, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 06:06
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The first thing I'm working on for my setting is the various exploration guilds. Think of these as fantasy space agencies. They're largely collaborative, but all have their own projects and specialties. Players can be from any agency, and ships can be funded and built by multiple agencies. I'll post outlines of each once I've gotten them written.
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Nov 6, 2013 08:06
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More ant stuff Colony variants, psychic ants, edible ants and random tables.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:08
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Angrymog posted:-- Complete mechanics or templates to add to your chosen D&D's giant ants? I like what I see so far, and I suggest 'both'. Pathfinder stats are a pain but doable with some graft and make your product accessible to a large audience. Retroclone stats take maybe two minutes to come up with: grab a copy of Labyrinth Lord or something and its probably even got base stats for giant ants right there.
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Nov 6, 2013 10:11
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Okay, legit question. How the hell do people stay focused on one project? I'm trying to stay focused on getting the Elements thing finished, but then last night someone reminded me of a FAE hack thing I did based on the Hijinx d20 minigame that's like 80% done, then something else today reminded me of another setting I started work on. Now I wanna revisit both those things but I know if I do, I'll go back to getting nothing done or forget they existed again. e: oh god now I'm making changes and jotting down notes help Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 17:34
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Evil Mastermind posted:Okay, legit question. I don't  Right now I'm shuffling Last Stand supplements, what's left for Inverse World, the three games I'm doing for Pop Idol November, Brighter Than The Sun, and probably a few random other things. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing - you need a break from projects so you can look at them with a critical eye or to recharge after dealing with them for a while, and at least it keeps you working on something - but it can be a pain.
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Nov 6, 2013 17:40
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When I have a main project I still do side projects that I may or may not be ever actually finished. The better ideas from side projects tend to live on and get adapted into the more important stuff. But you need to prioritize and figure out which project you really care about, or at least which project you care about finishing first.
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Nov 6, 2013 17:43
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