How to write a Free RPG - P1 Inspiration - Feedback please!

[Rob Lang]

[Chris Johnstone]

So far so good: interesting and useful.

I like the succinct style. It didn't come off as imperious or authoritarian to me, merely brevitous. However, I did wonder if you might want one wordier and less succinct 'inspirational' paragraph near the beginning. A sort of, 'yes you can' paragraph. Sometimes the thing that stands in people's way isn't lack of skill or ideas, but a psychological block--questions about whether I can really pull this off?

I wondered if somewhere early on, maybe in the prologue, you might also want to include some brief notes on your views re: playtesting. It's an important part of the process and even if you don't discuss it in detail, sign-posting it early on might be good.

Otherwise I don't have any major comments except that I enjoyed reading this and it reminded me to focus on some elements of design that I'd let slip away from the front of my headspace lately.

Thanks!

Chris

[Rob Lang]

Chris, thanks for the feedback. Testing is actually a chapter, for some reason it wasn't listed in the top. I agree it is something that is very important.

I shall add an inspirational paragraph at the top. A very good idea.

As a guide, I am trying to make it into something useful - steps that can be followed. Do you think it is task-based enough? I am avoiding wishy-washy essays and may even harden the language in places.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[Rob Lang]

Ah, CA, you're just too much of a useful fellow to have around. What would I do without you, I wonder?

How does outlining and thoughts webs differ from my description in 'Expanding your idea'? It's a top down associative approach that will have a mind map like diagram in my example. I'll mention free writing and writing a story - both good ways to firm an idea.

I'll mention reading other people's games for inspiration and use Sheikh's excellent "I like... " sentances. However, reading other people's games is really the subject of research (next chapter).

I am not heavily ploughing on the idea that you have to write a setting because the guide is generic enough to work for those people with a mechanic idea that just want to write a rule system. . Although I will note that if you want people to play it, it has to be novel and a setting is a good way to achieve that. You know, CA, our standard arguments for. That will come later.

Thanks for the other dichotomies. All good, I'll group them together.

btw, I'll be crediting the help I get, natch.

Thanks everyone, I hope together we can make this the simple no-nonsense guide we send people to when they ask how they go about writing an RPG.

[jeffmoore]

Rob,

Personally, I think this is great stuff. I like the mind map approach to idea exploration that you define here. I've never done this before but I can see it being exceptionally useful. I also love that you have your creator "advertising" their game before it's actually created. This process looks to fuel enthusiasm and set a "mission statement" for creation that will support everything that comes after it in a positive way. I personally don't see anything here that I feel needs changing. CA makes some good suggestions for some additions, but I can see much of that being added later in the process.

I do think this is structured well and designed in such a way that it can be easily followed. I will keep a close eye on this and comment as you go. Are you planning to preview the entire series here before posting it "live" on the Free RPG Blog? I think that you should. It occurs to me that although I don't have any feedback right now, I might find that when you get to "chapter three" suddenly something in "chapter one" might need to change or evolve as this article does.

Regards,


Jeff Moore

[Rob Lang]

Hey Jeff, thanks for the kind words. As one of the publicly obvious consumers of my last guide, it's great that you think I'm on the right tracks. I will be posting the guide in bits here as I get them into a good state. I think it is more important for the guide to be good than for it to be just all my own work. As ego-maniacal as I am, I want the guide to be the best it can be and I know I need the input from you chaps. Perhaps you might find more to comment on when we get to the meatier chapters (such as Setting ).

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[chgowiz]

[Rob Lang]

The sentence pixies have been eating my tasty script again! Thanks Michael and welcome to 1km1kt!