Tell me about... your unfinished game ideas

[lumpley]

(Hey, Vincent, you don't mind if I steal your mechanics, do you? I'd totally give you credit.)

Please feel free. But give them a good play first of course - you'll find that they have a distinctive, deliberate pacing that works great for Dogs but may not suit your Elizabethan fantasy a'tall.

I'm working on a game right now whose resolution is based on the same process and the same principles, but it plays quicker and less decision-intense. Check it:

You get coins from your character sheet. Pennies nickels dimes and quarters, in some mix. So do I. I put mine in a cup, you put yours in a cup. We cast them.

For now we ignore tails and look only at heads. Who has the biggest head? Say my biggest head is a dime and yours is a quarter: you do. (Resolve ties by ignoring tied coins.)

Raise: The biggest head means you're the challenger. You have your character do something mine can't ignore.

Block or Dodge: I have to answer your challenge. We look at all of my heads. Added up, do they match or beat your biggest head? Say my heads are: dime dime nickel penny penny. $0.27 beats your $0.25, so that means I get to say how my character blocks or dodges.

Take the Blow: Or say my heads are: dime nickel penny penny. $0.17 doesn't beat your $0.25. Now we look at my tails too. Say my tails are: dime penny penny. Which of those do I need to add to my heads in order to match or beat your quarter? The dime. So I take the blow and discard my dime.

If I block, dodge, or take the blow, we put our coins (less my discarded dime, if I took the blow) back into our cups. We cast again and keep going until...

Give: Or say my tails are: nickel penny penny. I can't match your quarter; my heads plus my tails come only to $0.24. I lose the conflict.

So that's faster and more freewheeling than Dogs' dice, but along the same lines. It does this cool thing where I go three times in a row, then you go then I go, then you go a couple times, and I've depleted my coins enough that your quarter will beat me for certain, but then your quarter comes up tails, then it comes up tails again, and you have to spend it to beat my dime because you're out of nickels...

-Vincent

[Matt Machell]

Unfinished game ideas. Where to start?

Literati - The game where you play agents sent to hunt down rogue fictional characters in a 50s dystopia. I love the concept, but it falls down at execution.

Hahaha! YEAH! That's who came up with it. Okay.

I've been working on it.

Heh, I was just going through this thread thinking, I'll post Literati and Eberach. Guess what? I did post them, last year. All of no work done on Literati in that time (Eberach is moving along though).

Feel free to take it and run, I'd love to see what you'd do with it.

-Matt

[/b]

[xenopulse]

Two projects structurally done (torn and P/E), two still being developed and unfinished:

Web of Power (working title). A game about power struggles, intrigues, and debauchery at court. Based largely on drama point awards that augment rolls, but that people can also invest in suggesting events or goals for other players, thereby serving as marker currency. Seduction, for example, builds up as a large drama point award over time that serves as the temptation for the player (or GM) to give in and claim the reward, but it's never out of the player's hands.  I.e., the whole foundation of the game is marking and rewarding, while the stakes of the game are personal as well as political.

I've got the basics down for skills and rewards, need to figure out a political stakes resolution. Players can then decide if their characters are more interested in playing out their protagonists' personal needs and interactions, or spend their time and resources for their faction on the larger scheme of things.

TEMEG. Originally I thought of making this for the Mech A RPG Contest, but it would not fit with the art. It's a three-part game: 1) mission preparation and character interaction that earns bonus points; 2) investigation within a predetermined amount of time to find alien infiltrators, traitors, or criminals (in a Dog-like-created town); and 3) showdown mech battle with the aliens and traitors, where the protagonists' position is helped or hindered by how well their investigation went and how many bonus points they have from character interaction.

Most mechanics still need to be developed for this one. It's a backburner project, at this point in time.

[Selene Tan]

The latest idea that got hold of me is for a game tentatively named Drifters. It's about people who're drifting through life finding out what really motivates them and gaining the confidence to act on that. Play take place in a series of dream journeys which act as metaphors for things that need to be done and sandboxes for experimentation. I so want to do this, but my design-fu is not strong enough -- I have no clue how to implement it. Bah.

Still plugging away at Song of Ethera. It's a game that emphasizes lateral thinking/problem solving. Kind of the same type of thinking needed for Donjon, but with less mucking with reality. I'm trying for a feel that's a cross between Chinese martial arts fantasy and more traditional Western fantasy. I think the mechanics need an overhaul. My poor darlings.

[Lee Short]

Much like John Kim, I'm often more interested in just getting my game designs to where I can use them, rather than to a publishable format.  But lately I've been bucking that trend:  I got really motivated and put together Clay of the Gods (was "Lego") in two weeks of intense work.  So I hope I'll have the time to do that again soon, though all of my ideas will make for longer games than Clay.  

My ideas are:

Amber Shadows -- A takeoff of Shadows in the Fog, set in Zelazny's Amber -- but with all the powers being a bit unpredictable.  I have scads of notes for this, and even have the play aid done.  

Dogs in the Rigging -- A pirate takeoff of DitV, set in the real world, 1575 to 1700.  The resolution mechanics are down, but detailing the setting and the roles of the PCs will be a ton of work.  

<Unnamed> -- A heartbreakerish concept here as far as basic resolution mechanics go.  The game has several key features:  rotating GM responsibilities, a structured way to introduce character backstory, and no rules for character advancement.  The latter is predicated on the idea of just give the players the characters they want.

[Tony Irwin]

Pony Hello
After the bomb the President of Capital City recruits the pluckiest pony riders she can find and sends them out on a four year trek across the country to find and rebuild the remains of society.

The girls get tied into the GM's community conflicts in every town they visit (they're Government representatives - everyone wants them for allies on their side). They also start off conflicts of their own with the building and development projects that they work on.

The single rerollable d6 resolution mechanic demands that the players make value judgements about the community they're in - who is the villain? who is the hero? which animals are pests? which factory is uneeded? which natural resource is vital? which building is crucial? etc

Oh and the ponies have powerz. All the animals (each pc has a pet animal as well as a pony) were changed by the radiation (no room for them in the shelters) and now have pokemon like powers.

Its all written out but I'm a long way even from a pdf playtest version as I'm still working on the two below.

Shoujo Story
It rocks - GMless playing card game, roleplaying Shoujo manga type stories. Our two and three player games can get wrapped up under 40 minutes but we still spend the rest of the night talking about how great it was.

My print version with decent art and revised text is barely a month away, hope to do it through lulu. Yipee!

Samurai Badges
Baron Munchausen influenced Gmless gamist Samurai roleplaying. I've played it through several times and its fun but... still so much to do on it. Working on some proper art for it just now trying not to think about the mechanics too hard.

[Walt Freitag]

My favorite unfinished game idea is not a game, exactly. It's a diet system for gamers, called the D20 Diet. It's based on the notion that there are many gamers out there who would cheat on a conventional diet at the drop of a donut, but would never dream of cheating on a die roll or failing to behave as dice and a game system dictate. The other inspiration was the Weight Watchers "points" system. It occurred to me that Weight Watchers tries very hard to keep it as simple as possible for general audiences, but it would work better for some gamers if it were instead made really really complicated.

The D20 Diet uses a set of tables indexed in some convenient way, most likely by type of food item and/or calorie range. So if you want to eat a Milky Way bar, you reference the Candy, 200-250 Calories table. Roll a d20. Depending on your roll, you might get to eat the Milky Way bar, a substitute item from Table C, or nothing at all. The result also tells you how long you must wait before you may roll again.

The tables are calibrated so that on average, over time, a healthy reduced calorie diet results from the interaction of the player's choices with the random die roll results. By adding chance and risk (will you go for a bigger snack, at the risk of getting no snack at all?), it should help keep dieters interested and focused. If common experiences with role playing is any guide, some gamers should be able to stay happily on what amounts to a strict diet for months or years, as long as they get an occasional chance to brag about the time they managed to roll for seven slices of pepperoni pizza in one afternoon the year before last. Also, there should be inital stats that are based on the "player's" current weight and weight loss goals, and an elaborate tree of special privileges (extra rolls, rerolls, alternate tables, and so forth) that can be purchased by selling back food permitted by the system instead of eating it, with which players can minmax and boast about their accumulated powers to their heart's content.

So... if I were to develop this fully, would anyone here be interested in "playtesting" it?

- Walt

[Andy Kitkowski]

Holy Shit, dude, I actually had a very similar idea.  

Actually, mine would be an "add on" to ANY d20 game, where diet and exercise in the real world translates to XP in the game world.

Basically, you set goals, do exersise, and maintenance (of weight, power, stamina) nets you XP, while GAIN (loss of weight, increase in power/strength/stamina) nets you even more XP.  So you can get to an ideal weight, maintain it and still get XP.

Basically, this XP bonus would be brought to the table weekly, shared with the GM, and added to the character.

The nascent idea name was d20 Fitness.

-Andy

[Trevis Martin]

I've got this game idea to make a game that encourages stories similar to Jane Austen novels.  Lots of social conflict, very little of anything else, set in Regency England.  I'm calling it Regency Park

Do you end up marrying for love, marrying for money or position, both or do you end up a spinster/confirmed bachelor?  Does your family's name crash in the process?

I haven't figured out how it works yet.

Trevis

[Rich Forest]

My unfinished game idea is an "Elizabethan fantasy" game, influenced heavily by the movies Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love, as well as The Princess Bride, and the second series of Blackadder. Also, the novel The Worm Ouroboros. The first idea I had got severely mutated by my reading of Dogs in the Vineyard.

...

I'm actually quite interested in finishing this, if only because it keeps nagging me to finish it.

Josh, I want to see you finish this too. I hereby volunteer to occasionally nag if the game's own nagging is not enough.

Rich

[Andrew Morris]

I've got this game idea to make a game that encourages stories similar to Jane Austen novels.  Lots of social conflict, very little of anything else, set in Regency England.  I'm calling it Regency Park

I want to play this already.

[Bankuei]

Sigh.

Maya

A "save the dying earth mother goddess" sort of thing akin to Princess Mononoke, Ferngully, Dark Crystal + Otherkind.  Pregenerated NPCs, ala Mountain Witch, pregenerated locations, all in glorious full color like an artbook or fashion magazine.  Endgame scores ala MLWM to determine if the Great Forest survives or falls, or whether the Empire stands, is transformed, or crumbles, etc.

The 10 Level Heresy(working title)

Sort of my take on D&D.  Tossing all the BS, reworking classes so that everyone stops at 10, keeping the multiclassing options from 3.0+, but making them all class abilities ala C&C.  Why?  Because I'm a sucker and I keep coming back to D&D even though it burns me everytime.  Maybe I keep telling myself I can change it.  Well, now I am.

Phantom Hearts

A Chinese Ghost story.  You play either a mortal or a spirit(maybe everyone plays 2 characters, haven't decided), and of course you're in love with someone from the other side, and all kinds of social repercussions try to break you up.  Drama ensues.  Classic.

Mayhem High

Anime humor game, mixing sci-fi, and every in-joke I can fit.  Teenagers from Outer Space + more structure rules for conflict and narration.

Dark Spirals

The Call of Cthulu I've always wanted.  Each session ends with a roll of Hope vs. Doom to determine whether the world is saved or gets crushed under the Outer Ones.  Hope is generated by the PCs sticking their noses into trouble (destroying cults, hiding uber artifacts, etc.)   While that is happening, each PC has a "Dark Fate" rating that rises by physical or mental danger.  Doom rises every session.  Period.

Players have to start choosing to either let their characters fold under Dark Fate early, which results in setbacks for the current problem, or let them survive longer, which means when they do fall, they probably raise Doom by becoming a demented cult leader...

[Marhault]

<shame>Another Birthday Forum comes along, and again, I am able to post Afterworld on this thread.</shame>
It is coming along, though.  If by coming along I mean continually altering its shape in huge ways. . .  *sigh*

[Tony Irwin]

The D20 Diet uses a set of tables indexed in some convenient way, most likely by type of food item and/or calorie range. So if you want to eat a Milky Way bar, you reference the Candy, 200-250 Calories table. Roll a d20. Depending on your roll, you might get to eat the Milky Way bar, a substitute item from Table C, or nothing at all. The result also tells you how long you must wait before you may roll again.

The tables are calibrated so that on average, over time, a healthy reduced calorie diet results from the interaction of the player's choices with the random die roll results. By adding chance and risk (will you go for a bigger snack, at the risk of getting no snack at all?), it should help keep dieters interested and focused. If common experiences with role playing is any guide, some gamers should be able to stay happily on what amounts to a strict diet for months or years, as long as they get an occasional chance to brag about the time they managed to roll for seven slices of pepperoni pizza in one afternoon the year before last. Also, there should be inital stats that are based on the "player's" current weight and weight loss goals, and an elaborate tree of special privileges (extra rolls, rerolls, alternate tables, and so forth) that can be purchased by selling back food permitted by the system instead of eating it, with which players can minmax and boast about their accumulated powers to their heart's content.

So... if I were to develop this fully, would anyone here be interested in "playtesting" it?

- Walt

Would there be an Atkins version? I might try it then.

[joshua neff]

Pony Hello
After the bomb the President of Capital City recruits the pluckiest pony riders she can find and sends them out on a four year trek across the country to find and rebuild the remains of society.

The girls get tied into the GM's community conflicts in every town they visit (they're Government representatives - everyone wants them for allies on their side). They also start off conflicts of their own with the building and development projects that they work on.

The single rerollable d6 resolution mechanic demands that the players make value judgements about the community they're in - who is the villain? who is the hero? which animals are pests? which factory is uneeded? which natural resource is vital? which building is crucial? etc

Oh and the ponies have powerz. All the animals (each pc has a pet animal as well as a pony) were changed by the radiation (no room for them in the shelters) and now have pokemon like powers.

Its all written out but I'm a long way even from a pdf playtest version as I'm still working on the two below.

Congratulations, you've created a game my 8-year-old daughter will play. That's awesome. If you throw in Care Bears with Jedi abilities, she'll be completely sold on it.

(If anyone thinks I'm being sarcastic here...I'm not. At all. I think games like this are a potential goldmine. Apparently, one of the gaming stores in Kansas City has had to order Blue Rose four times, because women who love romantic fantasy with magical talking horses have been waiting for a game like this.)