Hi again, all; been away a while, but I'm back with some gaming goodness (I hope!).
I have just put a new role-playing game into Ready for Playtesting status at the Icehouse.org Wiki:
http://icehousegames.org/wiki?title=RPG (http://icehousegames.org/wiki?title=RPG)
But David, what is Icehouse?
Good question: Icehouse pyramids--now called Treehouse pyramids due to re-branding efforts--are sold by Looney Labs (http://www.looneylabs.com). They were originally used to play a game called Icehouse (hence their old name). But now there are 165 games and counting that use these pieces. And one new role-playing game!
But Dave, c'mon... I don't have any Icehouse pieces; why you buggin' us?
While the game is best and most colorful with actual Icehouse/Treehouse pyramids, you can still play it with any miniatures and pen & paper. Just use the Notation Method to write your stacks, keep track of which mini goes with which stack, and go with it.
So, what's your question, then?
I have the usual questions that any initial design of this type poses:
0) Did it even make sense to you?
If not, was it because of the writing or because you've never seen pyramids and, as such, can't visualize game play?
1) Are the abilities sufficiently balanced?
Some abilities can be "scaled" in the design by giving them range, duration, or multiples of those. Others might just have to be rewritten or totally dropped, because they are so unbalanced. Perhaps you notice something I didn't?
2) Are the handling elements of the design interesting enough to encourage you to buy the two (minimum to be able to use all abilities) to ten (maximum needed to play ANY game on the wiki) stashes you need to play it "properly"?
No, I'm not shilling for Looney Labs--though I am a "Demo Rabbit" for them and I think they are a great company. I suppose this question could really be phrased as "Is there sufficient benefit to handling speed from using actual pieces?"
3) What are good starting Character Point values for low power (gritty, modern), medium power (fantasy, sci fi) or high power (supers, wild card) games?
This question is largely a "feel" question, though it could be answered by just grinding out "typical" characters. Such griding is, basically, what I am requesting.
I'd prefer we conduct discussions on the game's Talk page at the wiki, to keep it all centralized. I will, however, also watch and respond here, if you don't want to register there.
Thank you in advance for your time and attention!
David