Writing examples is both important and uninteresting

[Rob Lang]

I'm writing space combat examples for Icar at the moment and good grief is it ever dull! I'm going to spice it up with pictures but the act of writing down what is going on word for word is very boring.

Sadly, they are absolutely neccessary. If you want to get people to play your game, examples are a must. When I read other people's games, I find the examples enlightening (oh, that's what they mean) in support of the rules.

I empathise with all RPG author that leave them out - they're not very interesting to make!

[misterecho]

We all must to the mundane things in life, wash dishes, walk dog, clean out car. thats what helps make the good times good! the contrast! keep pluging away at the keyboard. you will get there eventually and have a bigger sense of pride knowing you put everything into it.

just my 2p

[SheikhJahbooty]

What makes examples interesting is "sexy martial arts girls in skin tight, bell bottom, psychedelic print, cat suits".

The game that this example comes from is here.

http://www.rpglaboratory.com/play_it_cool_system

How can a 3 page game need such an awesome example for anything?

[misterecho]

What an excellent referrence,

when i get to my final year shiek, you are getting my dissertation for edit!

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

My Grandfather's great observation about public speaking is "a speech should be like a cocktail dress - long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to be interesting."

Much like a joke, roleplaying often hinges on the fluid telling. Hence why distractions, rules lawyers etc. are such a problem around the table when they pull us out of situation.

I suppose you could try like what I did in D&B for the combat section - run a whole sequence, and then deconstruct it.

[Kinslayer]

If it's boring to write, it stands to reason it will be boring to read. Necessary or not, a boring example is likely to lose the reader, and thus be a waste of text. If the reader stops paying attention, the example was for nothing--and they might miss something else later.

You can spice things up a bit.

I made the (nigh mandatory) combat example in Midian from the player's perspective, and populated that game session with three of the worst players to ever sling dice. The space combat could be fought by monkeys, or there could be a soap-opera love triangle subset involved. Start it from the characters' perspective, then have the GM catch someone cheating. Or make it rhyme, write it in haiku, abuse alliteration and assonance, etc.

[Rob Lang]

You're right, Kinslayer. If you get bored writing it, then the reader has no hope. However, I have found a new (more graphical) way of demonstrating the system. By using pictures next to the text, you can make the whole page look visually interesting, which reduces the dullness of the example.

[Thought]

If you have the chance, I'd recommend looking over Serenity the RPG's gaming examples. The game in general didn't have enough, but the ones it did have were fairly interesting and well done. While the game had the advantage of being based off a movie (and a pre-established fan base), I think you could probably do the same for your Space Combat examples by ripping off... ... I mean, being inspired by movies. Dog fighting? Take a look at Top Gun and describe the scenes from the perspective of your game (and the perspective of Space). Or some of the scenes from Star Wars. If your ships are a bit bigger than that, then Star Trek space combats might be more along your lines. Describing those but with the overlay of your game mechanics might help.

Or it might not.

Just a helpful,

Thought

[Rob Lang]

A very helpful Thought indeed. To misterecho's chagrin (who's trying to get me to finish the damn thing), I might have to go back and revisit the text in light of these Thoughts.

[misterecho]

I've given up harassing you, for now....