When to Try?

[Domhnall]

Hi all.  My friend John ("Mourglin") just found this site and linked it to me.  My name is Daniel and I have been creating my RPG off and on since ~'93.  My group has played in my system for that long, and we all enjoy it, and so I was content with it just as a means to that end.  

But, over the past ~4-5 years, the inkling has been steadily growing in me to really publish the damned thing.  What has always restrained me was the mass market games like D&D (the Microsoft of RPGs) which made me think that, regardless of how well done a system was, it would never stand a chance against the marketing power of the big money RPG publishers.  But, I have been encouraged by my friends to go ahead and get it out there to see if others enjoy it as well.  

So, I am amazed to find a site with independently minded RPers who reject mainstream (mindless) systems, and would like to bombard you with a few hundred questions and ideas  (don't worry—not in this post!).  

My introductory question is this:  How long do you tweak your system before you finally just stop and publish?   My friends always joke that hardly a week can pass before I make this or that tweak to something.  I'm sure many of you have the same thing happen.  So, at what point to you "print and release"?  And should I (at that point) only print a handful, get a lot of feedback, then go at it again, or just put out non-professional looking compilations in order to get that feedback?  I know that a lot of the impression is merely psychological--that the same rules packaged very differently will have very different receptions.  

Opinions?

[Trevis Martin]

Hi Domhnall, Welcome to the Forge!

I guess the counter question I have is what are the tweaks really about?  If the game does what you want it to do, then great, put it out there.  You'll always monkey with it personally I'm sure, but you have to freeze it at some point.  And that point is probably somewhere where you are making changes which are only very minor adjustments that don't really affect the overall play of the game.

Important to this is that you have someone, or a group of someones, playtest your game independently, and get their feedback.  I would probably go for making pdf's or a few spiral bound ashcans for that.  I think that you don't want to dive into printing it without reallyi testing it pretty well.

hope that helps.

Trevis.

[brainwipe]

Welcome to the Forge also!

Important to this is that you have someone, or a group of someones, playtest your game independently, and get their feedback.  I would probably go for making pdf's or a few spiral bound ashcans for that.  I think that you don't want to dive into printing it without reallyi testing it pretty well.

I agree entirely with Trevis. This is a great way of finding out if it is ok to freeze the game. If you can get it to a state where people can playtest it, you're nearly there.

As Trevis also said, you'll never stop monkeying with it. That's part of the fun of having your own game. Now and again, you can clump the tweaks together and release a new version. If they are just tweaks, people can use them as optional rules.

[Domhnall]

Thanks.
And I suppose that you guys critique each other's systems, yes?  Obviously, I would benefit from that.  Do I search for volunteers, or is there a specific forum I need to go to for that?

[Matt Machell]

Yeah, critique is what goes on in the Indie Game Design forum. We like to think we can be helpful. We use a bit of jargon, but in the end that's just to help you really think about what your game is trying to achieve. It helps to have very specific questions there too. "What do you think of this?" is  too vague.

Is it worth publishing? Depends what your yardstick for worthwhile is (and only you can decide that). It probably won't make you money, but it might be a rewarding experience and get other people playing your game.

It also depends what you mean by publish, are you thinking books, or is making it available as an internet download enough?

-Matt

[Domhnall]

Is it worth publishing? Depends what your yardstick for worthwhile is (and only you can decide that). It probably won't make you money, but it might be a rewarding experience and get other people playing your game.

It also depends what you mean by publish, are you thinking books, or is making it available as an internet download enough?

-Matt

Yeah, I have no illusions about making a dime!  But, I would love to get my system in good as shape as possible and get it "out there" for people to enjoy as a system which truly enhances quality role playing.  

Everyone seems to agree that PDF (or the eq.) is a useful route, so I will do something with it, but desire a quality looking hard publication as well.  I am fortunate enough to have really talented artists as friends, and their work will help me a lot with that.

[Matt Machell]

If your aim is to get people playing something fun, then I say get to it!

What a number of people have done is move from free download to pay for download, then eventually to print. Free download (even if just the raw playtest version) is a great way to get feedback and guage interest. It's also useful for finding out which "unwritten rules" need to be written...

If you do a search of this very forum for info on web sites, PDFs, promotion, print on demand and so on you'll find a hoard of useful info for starting out. I suggest delving through it. Oh, and don't post to those old threads, start a new one instead if you have a question that isn't answered.

-Matt