Is there a good system for presenting first thoughts?

[migo]

I'm reading through a lot of the first thoughts people are posting here and I'm having much the same "whahuh?" reaction that I'm pretty sure my mechanic produced. Is there any format or structure that helps making sure other people understand what you're trying to get across as well as possible? I know there's questions about what the goal for the game is, and what it does differently enough from other systems to warrant being a new system, but when it's just at the mechanics brainstorming stage it's hard to answer those questions.

[Ron Edwards]

There is no specific recommended way to present your material in First Thoughts. That is left up to your best efforts as a writer and as a participant. It is perfectly all right to develop your own best way over time.

As a general point, however, I suggest posting about your own experiences with role-playing in Actual Play. That will make a big difference in your ability to explain your ideas about new games, as it will help everyone understand your own history and what you mean with certain phrases and terms.

Best, Ron

[Callan S.]

Hi Migo,

Your goals in what you get out of finishing a game, is a good start. All mechanics can then be judged in terms of whether they will get you to that goal.

"Have fun" is sometimes an ambiguous goal people use. Personally I think "Have fun" isn't a goal - it's actually a side effect of reaching a goal. Like if I set out to get a beer and drink it, I'm happy. But a tea totaller wouldn't be happy with that. But the fact is, in either case it was a beer - whether someones happy or not does not change that. It's a bit like treating a symptom of a desease rather than the desease itself. Happyness or sadness is just a side effect/symptom, and to set goals in relation to having fun, is to only treat symptoms. PS: I've been missing alot of sleep lately, got six month old little girl in the house, so I might not be making sense.

Anyway, remember that this is a working forum, so link to your old post so we can continue work on it here. Oh, and sometimes we might not even quite get your goals - this might be frustrating, cause you want to get onto working out the game, but we (or maybe just me ) want to just go back and talk goals. But I think they are important enough to always warant that.

[Callan S.]

Context note: "Your goals in what you get out of finishing a game, is a good start" is a hearty recomendation from me - not saying how it is in general at the forge, just getting hearty!