Behold, the questions of the new guy.

[Shiftybob]

How frequently do the Game Chef and 24 hour RPG competitions happen? and is there an email notification generally sent out as warning? I'm thinking of having a crack at it if I can.

[Shiftybob]

Actually, I'm really just keen on the idea of having some kind of limitation within which to create something. So I don't care much which particular constraint it is. If someone just told me to try and write an RPG without using the letter "B" right now, that'd be good enough. Actually, no it wouldn't. That would be irritating.
But, well... Don't you find that you work harder if you have something to work against? Like cooking. I was never a good cook until I became a vegetarian, then suddenly I could tell the difference between a hundred different legumes. Y'know?

"Y'know?" is a supplementary question.

[Rob Lang]

Welcome, ShifyBob! You could start your own contest, of course. How about a roleplaying game about writing roleplaying games? A lovely fractal problem.

[Wolfboy]

[kumakami]

funny enough my wife to be ( when ever we can get the money...oy) were talk about the idea of a over the summer competition to make a 50's teen gang game but your required to have a twist (aka, add magic, or supernaturals, etc.) it would have a due date around the start of the school year for the time..


My other idea is... a competition where some one else gives you the title of the game you have to make. Course if chainsaw is in this one he has to make either

Dungeons and Derivatives
or
Castles and Calculus

[Rob Lang]

All good ideas for competitions!

I am seriously considering throwing some Amazon vouchers into a 24 Hour RPG contest. I like the ideas here... perhaps we could pull up a pool of lunatic titles and have people select one at random for a free 24 rpg. When they complete, we'll do some judging.

Good idea?

[kumakami]

[Rob Lang]

Yep, that sounds very good. The additional aim is to think up the most outlandish off-beat ideas we can and then see the great minds of the RP community try and make a game out of it.

[kumakami]

I've had a title in my head for years....love to see what some one would do with it...... Ok NOW I want to be a judge....we should do it, it sounds like to much fun

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Game Chef is at a set date - late March or early April I think. It works on essentially the same principles as a found word poem - so you could create chef-style (RPG short order cook?) game without the official sanction. These tend to be one or two week projects.

24-hour games are more a personal thing, and can occur whenever you want. I don't think we've had a "Grand Event" where multiple people use the same sidereal day and then judge each-other's work in a while. (Though you still see 24s in batches on the Forge forums)

We were creating one page games and single player games at the laboratory. That was a rather amusing endevor.

Reverse Engineer was an interesting competition. Each entrant made a character sheet, then trade, and design a game around the set-up and stats listed there.

One of my games began as a forge idea as an "Instant RPG" - something with minimal introduction, just pick up and play. Another part of the challenge was to have a twist on a familiar/dead-horse genre. EdgeKnights never got finished, and certainly wouldn't fit the instant criteria - but it is cyberpunk fantasy. (Magic comes from the LAN - Local Aura Nexus, Kings use difference engines to monitor everyone...)

Moving on to fresh territory - how about we have a gset up where everyone has a common starting point, and see how we diverge. It could be a certain die formula, a story, or the same character sheet. (8 different games you can play with the same stats... might turn out interesting. Especially if each uses them in a different way) Then watch the fractal pattern of divergence.

Given the sheer number of games now on 1km1kt.net (465 according to the sidebar) and its lack of further organization - a lot of the older games might not be getting the love they deserve. How about a 24 hour supplement challenge? Pick a game from 2000-2004 and add some updates.

As a personal trial, I had the idea for a CD case game. Everything needed to play needs to fit in a cd case - which obviously rules out dice and pens. So it will have some sort of character sheet that doesn't need writing - probably pre-marked with a paperclip slider. Designing games around a certain package, prop, or with the idea of no writing involved for the players might all make for good personal tests.