A Full Course

[wyrmwood]

Lets make this interesting ...

Iron game design has always been something I've measured in terms of hours, not days. Indeed my only submission to this competition in prior years was completed in under an hour, which was all I could spare while working on my thesis. A week to design a game seems almost leisurely, even with limited free time.

Now that I'm finally able to participate in this competition again, I want to do something a little more challanging. So I'm letting it be known that I intend to design a full course of games based on the theme ingredients. Yes, an appetizer, two or more main courses, and a dessert. Not only will these be separate playable games, but they will each showcase the theme ingredients differently, as well as building on each other to give an entire experience of roleplaying, as each game is played one after the other.

Now I might not succeed, but it should be quite fun to try. And I welcome anyone else who would like to join me.

Which of course also brings up the obligatory rules question, how should I submit a full course? Should I put them in one document, or four or five separate ones? And I'm willing to do the reciprocal reviews for each one if necessary.

Thank you for your time,

- Mendel Schmiedekamp

[redivider]

Your excellent idea brings back painful memories to this shamed food-preparation employee. In last year's competition I posted similar goals in the first thoughts vomitorium thread:

'If I can find enough time & clear enough counter space, I will prepare a banquet of four dishes. (Hey, i can dream.) All four fit into the period ‘between the wars,’ roughly 1919 to 1938. Each course in this meal will feature some of the flavors of early 20th century modernism: a sense of innovation, of boundaries shattered, perhaps soured by a whiff of extremism.'

Then, because I ... well, my excuse is irrelevant ...I failed to post follow up on any of my four ideas.

If you manage to complete multiple, thematically linked dishes it will be beautiful. I need to redeem myself and win back the right to call myself a chef, so I'll try to focus on one game concept. But who knows, sometimes the ingredients go to the head ...

[hamsterprophet]

Ooooh, ambitous!

It's easy to talk....but once the stovefires start a-stokin, anything can happen. I look forward to enjoying your course of games!

I hope there are some more Chairman's Challenges this year as well - I thought those were neat, and it was sad that more games didn't go for them.

[wyrmwood]

Ambitious? Yes. But this is not an idle boast, I've already done double-header 24 hour RPGs. I've been training myself for years at rapid game design, so I know what I'm getting myself into. And I'm not just trying to link the themes, I want the play experience of the earlier games to be expanded and extended by the later ones. Playing the games should be a process that grows new perspectives by the end. And should be fun as well.

That's a tall order for nine days, but if success were certain, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

And we will see how my plan of battle survives contact with the ingredients.

- Mendel

[Andy K]

Hey dude, good luck with that. With this year's ingredients (once they're decided, we won't actually pick them until a few minutes before the competition starts) it will be quite easy to design an RPG, I believe. However, with the "Theme/Special Rule", it will add a lot of complication to your plan, I think.

Oh, and when you submit them, submit them one at a time please, not all at once. That makes them easier to review.

And honestly... hmmm... Just the way that reviewing and all will work, it might cause a LITTLE strain on the system if too many people start making like 3 entries eacy, but I think the system can bear the load of a few pioneers.

In return, though, I'll ask those people to be responsible for reviewing more games then (more than the standard 3-5), to even the load generated. Deal?

-Andy

[wyrmwood]

Andy,

Fair enough.

And I was expecting the review load to be multiplied by the number of submissions, so however much you need to assign will be fine. I have several long trips coming up just after the competition, and I should have a sizeable chunk of time to review.

Now I'm looking forward to this Special Rule. Complications can be fun.

- Mendel

[nyarly]

[Andy K]

[wyrmwood]

[Quixotic]