Recommended Exercises

[Callan S.]

Write what interests you. Do not feel you are required to certain write material because everyone else does.

So just cut to the chase...do attributes REALLY interest you, or are you putting them in because 'everyones used to having them when it comes to freefall combat'. Screw everyone else, just write about freefall combat or whatever. Cut to what you want to have...I know it's really hard. I know you feel a section about the toughness of relative materials in terms of cover might become important at some point...but is it important because it's important to you, or that you feel players might take the game there, and you'll be embaressed when they say there aren't enough cover rules? Don't be afraid like this...take the game where you want to. Design the game you want and if people want to use a wrench like its a hammer, that ISN'T your responsiblity. Yes, really!

And this applies to finishing too. Don't adopt someone elses idea of what finishing is. If you've covered what you want to cover, there, your done! Never mind whether you have to have X, Y and Z to be compatible with everyone elses mindset. Make sure its compatible with your mindset, and your done! Good work! I wont pretend this means its completed at a commercial level, but it is completed at a level which is actually, personally significant to you...that'd have to be your primary goal, right?

[paulkdad]

I don't know if I'd call these "exercises", but more like "good habits":

First, learn to distinguish between the "soft" and "hard" processes of design, and develop your own way of working with each of them. I'm borrowing these terms from Roger von Oech's "A Whack on the Side of the Head". Ideas are great, and the imaginative/inspirational part of the design process is exciting (this is the "soft" part). Whatever works for you, do it (and do it every day).

By contrast, the "hard" part of design is production... and it isn't the least bit exciting. For example, it may take me ten minutes to do a sketch that I'm really excited about, and then I have to sit down and make 10,000 little marks on a piece of paper to turn it into a finished drawing (is it any wonder that creative people drink so much?). Again, develop your own way of dealing with the tedium, and keeping the end in sight.

Second, don't ask anyone's advice about your project. There's a fine line between asking for advice and asking for permission, and in my opinion it's best to avoid it entirely. Make it an "exercise" to rely upon yourself. After all, yours is the only opinion that counts.

Third, bringing these other two points together: develop your own exercises that work for you. If the 24 hour RPG works for you, then it's great; keep it. If it doesn't work for you, then it's crap; discard it. The same goes for the tips I'm giving you here.

But the real point here is: always, always, keep the "soft" and "hard" processes distinct. If you're just doing "soft" exercises, don't expect them to get you any closer to finishing your game (all they are capable of doing is generating ideas). Or, you may find that you're great at the "soft" part, but not so good when it comes to finishing things (pretty common for creative people). If that's the case, then copying one solidly written (but completely uninspired) page of prose per day is likely to be much more valuable than more brainstorming exercises. Compare this to the way painting students copy the works of master painters. They aren't looking for inspiration; they're figuring out how to finish paintings.

[Justin A Hamilton]

Finish a game.

Don't be ridiculous, that will never happen. :)

[Ben Lehman]

Finish a game.

Don't be ridiculous, that will never happen. :)

BL>  I know you're joking, but I'm dead serious.  Over the Bar, my first published game, was like 500 words and barely playable, but it gave me a taste of what it was like to have something in print, and now I'm never going back.

yrs--
--Ben

[M. J. Young]

What Ralph said. Seriously, grab a piece of the world in microcosm and turn it into a game. I've built games on mazes, saving throws, trying to get through college, building bridges; I've done mechanics related to those children's tube tunnel playgrounds, or creating the possibility that Don Ho records or some other horribly improbable thing would be the secret to destroying the alien invaders. I've taken ordinary slices of life and worked up a way to turn them into an interesting game scenario, such as combining an amusement park with a dungeon crawl or having the alien invaders attack a medieval world. I've played published games that were based on the competition between nineteenth century railroad barons, the War of the Rings, and the political machinations of Dune. Pick something and make it into a game.

Also, play as many different kinds of games as you can--not merely different role playing games, different games in general. Play those solo computer games that come on your computer; buy weird-looking board games, card games, trivia games. Play them. Figure out how they do what they do, what makes them compelling, how their systems resolve actions, what strategies improve your probability of success. Most people play solitaire with the idea that if you can move a card, you should move the card; that's not strategy. Examine the game. Consider what situations can cause you to lose and how you can protect against them. (E.g., in traditional seven-pile solitaire, the most difficult card to get is the one on the bottom of the seven-card stack, so getting that unburied is a priority.) Analyze what others have done, and learn from it.

With the games you know well, attend to the impact of rules changes. Monopoly rules have certain payments going to the bank, but some people play that these payments go to the center of the table and are given to the next person who lands on Free Parking; what does that do to change the balance of play? How do the existing rules of a game interact?

Take the time to watch other people play. Watch a CCG tournament. Observe children playing make-believe. Sit on on a demo of someone's role playing game, whether it's one of Luke Crane's incredible Burning Wheel demos or me running Multiverser or someone completely unknown running something you're sure will be a fantasy heartbreaker. Learn by watching and by doing. If you can manage it, sit out and watch a game session of your own group--let them play, you observe. Watch gamers play at the local game store.

But most of all, practice creating.

--M. J. Young

[Mike Holmes]

I don't know how this thread has gotten this far without one of the best design excercises ever, structured design. This one is key.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=1896

Mike

[Roger]

Thanks, everyone.

This turned a bit more into a "how to do this" discussion rather than a "what to do" discussion, but that's fine -- both are valuable.



Cheers,
Roger

[hix]

Reduce your game down to 1 page.

I just did this for Luck of the Joneses, compressing all of my notes and drafts. In the process, I had to make hard decisions about which dead ends and alternative rules I should delete, and what rules really belonged in my game.

End result: I managed to squeeze things down to a 4 page playtestable document that only makes sense to me, but I've also finally followed Ben's suggestion, "Finish a game."