Just another introductory topic (and some questions).

[Shadow17]

Hello everybody here at the forge,

I am Sander Kammeraat, I am 18 years old, am Dutch, but live in Duesseldorf, Germany. About a couple of weeks ago, I started making my own rpg. I have played RPGs quite a bit and since Iike designing games, I want to give RPGs a shot too.

My game is called Lightning Strikes and is basically a collection of 40 mini rpgs (each about 3 pages) and a section on how to make single session or short rpgs. They span 8 genres (horror, detectives, super powers, action, personal, miscellaneous, comedy and something else I don't know yet) and are all quite interesting concepts, I think.

So, is it a good idea to make such a book? And has such a thing been done before? Where can I find playtesters when the time comes? What about publishing it, if I decide to? What do you think of a mini rpg collection?

I'll be glad to post more info if you want!

Thank you very much and have a nice day,

Sander K.

[Justin Nichol - BFG]

It's certainly a novel idea. And there has certainly been a great deal more interest in one session narrative RPGs. I say it's certainly worthwhile, but with so many games and so many subjects you would have a great deal of work on your hands ensuring that each game succeeds in it's goal.

There are certainly many rules lite games that are between 1 and 5 pages in length, and there are a number of games that are based on being played in a single session, but it's a novel idea to have sort of a marathon of mini-games.

Unfortunately, with the way things work on the Forge it might be difficult to get a lot of Feedback, this is because each game and genre has it's own goals and each of your games would probably illicit much different concerns. Again, you can try to post some of your stuff here and I'm sure people would give you feedback, but it sounds like a big undertaking to fine-
tune each of those games.

[Osmo Rantala]

Hello Sander and good day to you.

Making a book with a lot of mini rpgs sounds like a great idea, something I would certainly be interested in, although I do agree with Justin on this: it'l be a lot of work making each of those games succesfull, but if you do have the time and/or patience to finish it, then go for it!

I'm sure there would be people interested in something like this, as long as the games differ enough from each other to be called games in their own right.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Sander,

This sounds fun! I'm a little bit more optimistic than Justin, and I think if you always put [Lightning Strikes] at the beginning of a thread title, no one will be confused, I hope.

I think you may have two sets of questions, though, which belong in two different places at the Forge: this forum, and Publishing.

In this forum, First Thoughts, let's talk all about the games themselves. Are they really different RPGs, with fundamentally different rules, or are they modifications of a single basic framework? Let me know more about playing one of them - what would I do, physically, as a player? Roll a lot of dice? Roll a little bit of dice? Wait for the GM to tell me what is going on? Tell the GM what is going on? Anything like that.

Use the Publishing forum to discuss how you might market the concept. There isn't any point to asking "what do you think of this idea?" or "do you think people would buy it?", you should ask practical questions about how to do what you want.

Best, Ron

[Shadow17]

Thanks for the replies! Ok, I'll give it a whirl.

A basic run-down:

As said, the book is called Lightning Strikes and is a collection of 50 mini rpgs (upped it by ten, might change it later, depending on work-load). Games usually last 1 session, only exceptions are more. These games are meant for quick games, for having a fun session without bothering to set-up too much, introducing new players to RPG's and incorporating it in one of your regular RPG's.  They span 8 genres: horror, detectives, super powers, action, personal, miscellaneous, comedy and something else I don't know yet. Each games are different alltogether, but may draw on a couple of mechanics if it fits the game and it works well. I have made an outline + intro for the book as well as some bullet points for about ten of the games.

Two games concepts so far (not complete yet):

Action:
-Champions: Players compete in a championship, earning new moves and weapons as they fight to the top (restricted to melee combat). Stats: Weapon Focus (Hands, Swords, etc.), Move Focus (Aerial, Wrestling, Evading, etc.), Special Attack (finishing move, etc.). Diceless, but not sure what to use yet. You have a in-battle mode and outside battle mode. Outside is for training and learning moves, inside is for actual ranking and earning moves. Team co-op or versus.

Horror:
-Surprise, Surprise!: All players are trying to complete an objective, whilst trying to survive. Uses regular cards to give positive and negative effects to fellow players (call allies, assist, monster). Depending on character choice, people get different cards. Time-based (3 min. turns). Players can co-op or go against each other. Stats: fear, health, adrenaline, weapon set, skill set. Also, the actual bad guy during play can be simply a monster the players face, or something of that kind, or it can turn out to be one of the players. When certain requirements are met, the player then knows that he is the bad guy and tries to go after the other players. The other players don't know this.

I haven't played any of them yet, but I'm well on my way on getting the concepts down. The only thing is, is that I want people to think its worthwile and I can't think of the last genre. I'm not sure if I will publish it, I will look into that once I actually have some more on paper.

Any input and comments are greatly appreciated,

Have a nice day,

Sander K.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Sander,

Speaking as a publisher of multiple games, I have a thought on this statement of yours:

I want people to think its worthwile

That's an understandable desire. It is also nothing but a source of trouble and confusion during the actual design process. I strongly suggest putting this desire into a nice little box, wrapped with a bow, and setting it aside while you work on making the game(s) that you want, not games to please other people.

Best, Ron