1KM1KT Free RPG Community

...*everyone in the room* "Hello, Malckuss..."

Yes, I have an addiction - writing games. Sometimes I start another one before I'm finished. In fact, I have nearly five in the fire right now. One has been eating away at my brain and free time since 2004. Another person with the disease warned me a few years ago. I should have listened to him.

I'm new to 1KM1KT, so I don't know if mainstream gaming is as disdained as it is on The Forge. I'll take a gamble though.

My most recent project - urge, would be more accurate - came when WotC announced the coming new edition of D&D. I had played 4th ed until the advent of thee Essentials fiasco, and like many others I turned to both Pathfinder and Fantasy craft.

So in a fit of angsty musing, I went to my game design wiki and started a new page. I was set to write my own edition of "the Worlds most popular game." I know it has been done to death, and professionally, at that. But I thought, like many who have written fantasy heartbreakers before me, that I had a novel idea. Pft.

I thought that I would take all of my favorite elements of 3.X edition, Pathfinder, Fantasy Craft, 4th edition, and various and sudry other fantasy games, boil down their coolness and try to build something in the OSR vein; namely a simplified mechanical system that did all the things I wanted without all of the bloat, mismatched mechanics, and straightjacketing rules.

Then something interesting happened: The game took on a life of it's very own. It started stretching and twisting, bending at odd places, and is threatening to become something very different than what I initially imagined.

Now I'm faced with a dilemma: do I prune this thing back like a bonsai tree and try to force it into the shape I originally wanted, or do I let it go where it will and see what comes of it? Have any of you ever had this happen to your games? If so, how did you handle it? I must admit, the addict in me wants to turn them into separate projects, but the realist in me sees that as a bad idea.

Greetings! Welcome to the Jungle, we have fun and games. Very little of the pretense found on the Forge though.

Don't worry about design addiction, everyone here has that. Some of us have about seventeen projects in the works. (looks about nervously, shuffles feet, coughs) But what is important is that we are here to get you past simply starting a lot of projects to finishing them. Our purpose is to explore possible mechanics, seek out new ramifications for the setting, to boldly roll where no dice have rolled before!

Now as to the game that changes - run with it! Following where a game can go and writing what you want to write is the best part of the creation process. Don't limit yourself to "just another fantasy game", or "just a quicker way of playing X edition".

"Dead ...and Back" started off as just a novel idea for a combat system, and a desire to show it off in a target rich environment - and well a zombie horde fits that bill. Five years later, I've got a blog with a few hundred posts covering a setting known as the "Anarchy Zone" Its a 2055 post-cyberpunk world that has suffered social collapse due to an alien invasion combined with an undead uprising. It goes well beyond simple scavenging and defending you mall, all that happened five years before play picks up. Instead its a "sandbox" setting that explores community building, future social concepts, transhumanism, mega-structure architecture, nanotechnology, augmented reality, and first contact scenarios. Alternate settings focus on international conspiracy, or the remains of the Biopreprat reanimation program after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The important thing to remember, is not to aim to be better than another game you have played. Almost every game is good for a certain audience for one reason or another - better is very subjective. Instead, you want different. Lead with a story, lead with the awesome imagery - seek to create the game you want to play. Don't play Malckuss's game because it isn't D&D, play because D&D isn't Malkuss's game. (If that zen approach makes any sense.)

Can you tell us about this unruly project? What kind of setting are you seeking, and how do the mechanics enforce that? When not creating your own games, which ones do you like to play?

Once again, welcome to 1km1kt.net. Enjoy your stay.

Well, let me get the games I enjoy playing out of the way first. I obviously enjoyed the games I listed earlier. I used to enjoy Exalted before it got overcomplicated. It still shines bright in my minds eye. I love Feng Shui. I really love Cinematic Unisystem; this is the game that showed me you didn't need a monstrous list of skills to cover all of the bases. L5R 4th edition is a thing of beauty, as is 7th Sea. I have fond memories of WEG's d6 Star Wars, as well as the Saga edition. I also love the SAGA (very different from the other; this one used a custom deck of cards) Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game. Earthdawn showed me what a fantasy game with plot and story could look like. I really like much of the new world of darkness stuff, especially changeling, but I don't like the underpinning system. I have fallen in love with FATE, but not every iteration of it; my favorite version so far has been The Dresden files. Atomic highway is amazing, and it's character creation system has had a major impact on my approach to game design. I like Weapons of the Gods/Legends of the Wulin, though the base system, ORE does nothing for me. There are also many games I've never actually gotten to play that I draw inspiration from, though admittedly, I have no real experience w/ them.

Wow. That's kinda long winded. Apologies. By the way, Dead and back sounds interesting. Do you have a link?

Ok, on to my wayward beast. I think to start I will list some of my design goals.

Design Goals

* Keep what works, throw out what doesn't - Pretty straight forward. This is, of course, subjective. However, mostly I am looking at common issues, such as Grapple checks, ect. I also plan to pick and choose from all the various d20 clones and variants to build my game. I really like Green Ronin's approach in their Mutants and Mastermind's game to Ability scores and Power Level, for instance, and I thought WotC's power set up for 4th edition was great, if poorly executed. It should be mentioned that this seems to be being suborned, though M & M seems to still be in the mix; my game is moving further and further away from the d20 base. I don't feel this is a bad thing, I only worry it could end up being more complicated instead of less.

*Modular and easy to mod - I want to have tools both to customize the game for genres, specific games, and different playstyles. Spycraft 2.0 campaign qualities are a good example of what I'm going for here, as well as the 2nd edition of D & D rules for creating your own classes, player races, ect.

*Simpler execution of rules and dice mechanics - I know this may disinterest some people, and for that I'm sorry, but I want to eliminate all the disparate die types and wonky dice mechanics. I like unified dice mechanics, and I want people to be able to use the weapons, attacks, and special abilities they like without having to make a sacrifice in character utility and power to use that choice. To paraphrase another better known game designer, players shouldn't be penalized for choice.

*Flavor and evocative elements, and opposed to bland and generic - Now, to a lesser degree, this can't be helped, especially while you are leaving room for both a GM to tailor elements to their setting and player authorship to make their concept, but when it comes to magic, and fighting styles, and such, care needs to be taken so that elements don't feel flat and tasteless. This can be solved with careful naming conventions, narrowing focus through themes and color elements, and mystery.

*Streamlined mechanics, while retaining tactical choice and resource management - I want to reduce the amount of dice rolling, but have certain tactical resources for the players, such as pools and other mechanics in place for a player to modify dice rolls. I want there to be one roll for attack and damage, as well as a static defense that the player can boost in a pinch. I want the player who wants to wear armor to feel like it makes a difference, while the player in the group who wants to run around in his fancy clothes or skimpy outfit can dodge and weave, and still not feel penalized for their lack of armor. The last sentence really belongs two bullet points higher

*Offer a level based and a non-linear character progression - Similar both to the way Level progression is handled in Monte Cook's World of Darkness and Power Level in Mutants and Masterminds. There will be a experience based level progression, and an system of Developments, and once you have reached a certain number of Developments, you attain another Power Level. Levels are useful for the DM to keep track of group parity as well as for developing adventures, but the way they are handled in a tradition fashion tends to restrict character development. The more I think about this, the more I think it is a ridiculous and unattainable goal. Needs revision.

Hey Malckuss welcome to 1km1kt may all you games be brilliant!

I'm not a fantasy guy so I can't speak to a lot of the games specifically but I like the simplified dice idea, I did that in The Artifact. At first I wanted d100s, d20s, d12s, d10s and d6s for different aspects of the game but quickly realized a lot of the dice combinations lead to things being unclear, I settled on d100 d10 (because they're half of a d100) and d6 for small tables and effects. It just made the whole thing cleaner and simpler.

Most of the time we are a write and let write mindset. We encourage and point out things we've tried and try to tell you what works. One of the nice things is there is a lot of game design experience here mainly from trial and error. We might not have some grand unified theory but we know where we stubbed our toes before and where we feel we got something right.

We do focus a bit less on mechanics and want to get to the story. Not that we don't talk mechanics, but our focus is mainly what will make us want to play your game. In some situations an interesting dice (or diceless) mechanic helps to make things interesting but it's important how the mechanic supports the story and makes play fun interesting.

We occasionally disappear form time to time like monkeys in a jungle but we eventually come back round because curiosity gets the better of us. So don't feel bad if you post and nothing happens for a little bit we'll be back.

[Moved the topic, it fits snugly in here]

Hi Malckuss - and welcome.

Your design goals are well specified but I think they could be shared by every designer here. Let's be having a concept! I talk about concepts extensively on my . Check out chapter 1 and come back to tell us what you game is about.

[Moved the topic, it fits snugly in here]

Hi Malckuss - and welcome.

Your design goals are well specified but I think they could be shared by every designer here. Let's be having a concept! I talk about concepts extensively on my . Check out chapter 1 and come back to tell us what you game is about.

A post so nice he posted it twice.

Hi Malckuss, Welcome.

I'll echo everyone else's sentiment here, most of us have the bug and a few of us have been at it for a while.

I agree with the ideas behind your design goals, they seem coherent and reasonable to me.

If you want to talk mechanics (though the more grammatically correct term would be "mechanisms"), I can discuss them with you in huge detail. I've got a fairly extensive range of posts regarding the topic of game mechanisms and role-playing game operational theory that has built up on my blog over the last few years.

If you want to talk publishing, once you've gotten to that stage, I can discuss free products, freelance work for other companies and self-published sold products.

More often than not, I'll read through threads and generally lurk; but if you've got specific questions, don't be afraid to ask.

Evolution is fine, however sometimes it is best to start a new game than saddle your existing game with lots of options and ideas. Keep to your concept, keep the game focussed on what it was you were trying to create in the first place.