Yes, But... the game of ridiculous misadventures

[Random_Phobosis]

I decided to try to get this done.

"Yes, But..." will be universal comedy GM-less rule system. “Yes, But…” is a game about succeeding while failing spectacularly. It is best played with four or more players with a twisted sense of humor.
You’ll get a free setting, set in A Very Large Cave, and can come up with others by yourself. You’ll find some setting ideas by the end of the booklet.

How does it work and what’s different?

In many RPGs, a character is defined by his or her strengths. Players try to do something, roll and see if they succeed. In “Yes, But…” characters are defined by their weaknesses. Yes, you always succeed at your attempted action somehow, but the amount of hilarious fallout and weird consequences depends on your ineptitude at given task.

Races to play:
- Gnobbits
- Gnoblins
- Gnobolds
- Gnorks

Inabilities to develop:
- flabby
- clumsy
- yucky
- silly
- squeamish

Drawbacks to succumb to:
- you aren't ever allowed to agree what other people say
- you actually can understand people
- everybody probably is animated plush toy plotting against you
- panic fear of letter "K"

[Onix]

Hi Random, welcome to 1KM1KT!

Remember the contest has some specific settings that you have to use for the game. I almost missed that myself and I didn't see it mentioned in your initial post. Obviously that doesn't mean you weren't going to use one but I didn't want you to get 90% of the way through and have to scramble.

Other than that, good luck!

[Random_Phobosis]

Thanks! The default setting is a Very Large Cave, that's why races sound gnomish.

Just finished describing classes, now working on game mechanics.

[Random_Phobosis]

11 hours later, finished first draft of the rules. Don't know if it's playable, but I hope it will at least be fun to read.
Time for design shenanigans.

[Random_Phobosis]

Yay! Finished!
Submitted the game to 1km1kt, you can also check it out here
https://www.box.com/s/2a45dfb60870258b9e16

[misterecho]

I've emailed you Random. Your game is available here:

http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/yes-but

[Random_Phobosis]

Thanks a lot!

I was too exhausted yesterday to post about design process. I'll do it now. It's easier to gather thoughts after getting some sleep anyway.

Well, first things first. The 24 hour design experience was terrific
It took me 15 hours to design the game from start to finish, and every minute of it was fun, so many thanks to all you guys on 1km1kt who made this competition possible. You rock.

One of the biggest challenges for me was to write the game in English right away: it's not my native language, and if I had enough time, I'd probably write all the text in Russian and translate it. I guess there are a lot of mistakes in the text... Well, my readers will have to excuse me: now it's their problem anyway

The idea behind "Yes, But..." was to make a lighthearted game where everything is possible, and the funniest things are awarded by fellow players.

I was inspired by:
- stand-up comedy culture in general
- unbelievable Axe Cop webcomic
- a tv show we got here, where a guy is assigned some intially unknown role and then is put in a room with actors, which ask him hilarious questions, and the guy must deduce what the hell his role is and improvise funny answers.

The core mechanic of tight space domination and squeezing between other players was eventually pushed to optional rules section, but that's probably for better.

I'm terribly proud that I've managed to finish the game, I had a great time designing "Yes, But..." and hope you'll enjoy it.

[Random_Phobosis]

It would be cool to hear what I got right and what went wrong. Judges feedback please! :]

[Rob Lang]

I loved the core concept of Yes, But... the ingenious use of negative aspects than runs throughout is superb. I liked the page layout and the simple yet effective front page design. The font used for when people are talking is a bit hard to read. Using a different font - yes, but not that one.

I wish Yes, But... had been in one of the competition where the theme was broader. What kept it off the top spot was that it wasn't all about Little Spaces. Yes, But is bigger than that. And I mean that in a nice way. You could use it anywhere in any form. The fact that it's set in a very large cave is inconsequential. I do like the Tribal Warfare rules, which is a good old fashioned romp for power and resources. That's great too but SMAF-17 pipped you by having mechanics for a Little Space shooting out of its backside. It felt claustrophobic. As brilliant and innovative as Yes, But is, it doesn't have a Little Space running through it's DNA.

I still love it.

[Random_Phobosis]

Thanks for the feedback, Rob!

This is the first time I've designed an RPG, working on it was really awesome, and I'm actually quite proud with the final product. At first Tribal Wars was actually meant to be core mechanic, but I didn't notice how the game concept drifted away from it until it was too late and the game really strayed too much from Tight Spaces theme. Anyways, I like how things worked out nonetheless.

Thanks for this great contest, looking forward to the next one! :]