New contest.

[Anastylos]

What about making a monthly contest for designing a roleplaying game. Every month the winner of the last month chooses two story elements and two game elements and everyone has to choose two of them. At the end of the month the winner of the former month nominates the new winner who has to come up with an idea for the next contest. There is nothing to win, it's just for the fun and the rpgs^^

For example: the winner chooses: "spaceship" and "moral conflict" for story and "d12 only" and "one page" for mechanics and every other player chooses two.

A decides to take Spaceship and moral conflict and makes an battelstar galactica rpg.
B decides to take d12 only and moral conflict and makes a game that sets a fokus on moral decission and uses only d12.
C decides to take one page and spaceship and creates an rules light tactical spaceship tabletop game.

The winner likes C entry the most so he declares him to be the winner. C has now to come up with something interesting for the next contest.

Maybe having to choose three could keep the contest more fokused. What do you think?

[Onix]

Even when I had a lot of time, a monthly contest would kill me. I might be able to manage quarterly.

[Anastylos]

Realy? How much work is writing a short roleplaying game? Maybe it should be restricted in the size to make it less work (and less to read).
I just thought it might be fun to make more roleplaying games together.

[kylesgames]

It's probably more the judging than the competition, and the fact that you can't really do both. I'm up for judging if people want to do this, though I don't think I'd be able to participate.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Not that I mind reading a bunch of new games, but a while ago Rob and I, as well as our rotating third/fourth judge (Kumakami/Misterecho) decided that trying to do quarterly would be a bit much of an effort. Do not underestimate the amount of time it takes to judge a game. Furthermore, handing out one or two Amazon vouchers a year for a total of 50-100 bucks isn't bad, but more than that gets expensive. (Be sure to thank Rob - he is the one who ponies up the prize!)

Now you are welcome to do the 24 hour challenge anytime, and if you want to run an informal contest, that is fine. I agree it might be fun or inspiring to have these sorts of things more often, but that doesn't seem to be in the official cards. (Though I think we are do for an official contest in a month or two. Nothing has come my way though.)

[Abstract Machine]

I think it comes down to how you frame the contest.

Ideas are exciting & worthwhile but in many ways they're the easy bit. Complete games are difficult to execute. It's the old 80%/20% connundrum: you might think a great idea is 80% of the work but, of course, it's the other way round.

You hear a lot of 'oh, I just need someone to look over my work' - i.e. 'tell me it's great' - but hang on: that's the difficult bit.

Game Chef, for instance, kicks up a lot of interest but you generally find that people have rushed out an entry at the last minute. There's good stuff - but, again, about 20%.

The 24hr challenge addresses some of these points but the base problem is this: we all want someone else to do the receiving while we do the transmitting.

People blame social media but really it's just the narcissism inherent in human nature.

I'm not really qualified to speak on these matters, incidentally. I'm just an observer. Like everyone else, I have a game I may or may not get round to designing properly.

If it were me - it isn't, of course, & feel free to tell me to pipe down - I'd combine this idea with another on these boards & say the winner will be playtested online at Aethercon or over d20 or Google Hangouts.

Next question is: who will judge the judges? They're the ones who deserve the prizes.

[Anastylos]

I never intenden it to be official. There is no prize. I just wanted to bring more activity to the forum. If judging is too much work can we do something else?
We have so many very creative persons here and yet the forum is nearly dead. Thats kind of sad.

The Idea of playtesting the winner sounds great.

[Onix]

I think the slow post rate here is more a function of the number of regulars rather than a lack of anything to say. There are only a few real regulars. It's cool that you and others are joining in and keeping up on the boards. You've already increased the post rate and I think that kind of activity snowballs so that more regulars attracts more regulars.

I'm not against more contests. It's just that I've been struggling to keep moving on my existing projects. I can add more projects, but it will cost me in some other part of my life. Probably in getting my existing projects done.

Now there is the argument that practice making new game designs makes you more creative and more motivated. I can kind of see that, but I'm not sure I would benefit enough from such an arrangement.

I have no problem if others want to try. It just seems a break neck pace for my lifestyle.

[Abstract Machine]

[Anastylos]