My fantasy RPG

[Rasmus]

Hi there
My name is Rasmus and I have been working tirelessly for the last... 11 years on a role-playing game, game-motor and world which is now nearing competion.
All I need now are artsits, and to start on the expansion-packs and adventures.

The game is a high-fantasy setting with lots of magic, religions, active gods and ancient history. Big monsters are featured a bit more rarely than in say D&D, but then again, you can get stuck in with both trolls, drakes and vampires if you don´t watch out.

I have playtested this with about 100 different players, and I have a second gamemaster on the line (this far I have been the only GM) to try it out. All in all, I am pretty pleased with the project.

However, I do feel that I need some outside input on this, adn especially unbiased input. I am not going to start posting this product all over the web, but since you all are either rpg-makers or have experience in the process, please give me hints as to what snagged you, what pitfalls to evade, and what NOT to do, so that I can avoid a lot of messy things. There is no need for this project to fail just because I happen to be inexperienced in rpg-c.

[Ferry Bazelmans]

[Edit: this might come across pretty harsh, it isn't meant that way at all]

I'm afraid you're still going to have to give as more than that. Apart from a general decription of the game you provide nothing to give unbiased opinions or input about.

A few points:

1. What do you want help with exactly? If it is publishing, then you should continue this in the Publishing forum. If it is the actual design of the game, we need more information on your game and you probably cannot avoid posting at least the parts you want input on, here on the Forge.

2. It seems you are well past the stage where you incorporate design input into your game. You tell us you've playtested your game with about 100 players. Are you really here to discuss your game's design?

Ferry

PS What do you mean by RPG-C?

[Ron Edwards]

Hello Rasmus,

And welcome to the Forge. Ferry's right, though - a couple of things have to be clarified for this site to be helpful to you.

The first task is for you to decide what sort of input you're looking for. If we talk about design, publishing, playtesting, and promotion all at once, then it'll be like twisting different dials all at the same time.

If you don't mind a suggestion, I'd like to start from the publishing end. Check out these threads to see some of our previous discussions from the Publishing forum:
What to expect. The questions I posed in this thread are the same ones I want to ask you.
$1000, a system, a vision
"Completeness" and customer expectations
Standards for playtesting

You might be interested in my essay Fantasy Heartbreakers as well.

Best,
Ron

[Rasmus]

My fantasy game is based on a D100 system, where attributes (8 in total, with range 1-20+) are determined randomly with selective modifications for age, upbringing, biologicla makeup and such. These are then made into attribute-rolls by multiplier, so that 1D100 can be used to judge whether an action is successful or not.

The same goes for skills, which are based on the attribues (for the most part) and then increased through the use of skillpoints (harder skill to learn=more points per 5% increase in proficiency). These include combat-skills, climbing, sneaking and such.

There are also knowledges; static things you can't roll for, like cooking, which has a fixed cost insterad of a scale with 5%-increments, to speed things up a little. these include tattoing, cooking, housebuilding and such.

Magic is handled in two forms, one general and one specific. The general form is learned automatically with each educational path (thieves have one sort, warriors another, and so on) while the specific are organized into a neat system of balance called circles, which balance proficiency with range of effects due to the magical language used. I won't go into detail on this since it is a bit complex, but it´s nice, anyway.

If anyone has experience with a similar design then anything you might have encountered as problems or pitfalls are greatly appreciated as I do want to avoid them.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rasmus,

I strongly suggest looking at the older games Harnmaster and RuneQuest (any version), which are both built similarly to what you describe. Both are well-suited to a particular form of play.

You might be surprised at how many of your assumptions are questioned at the Forge - or rather, not questioned in the sense of discarding them, but questioned in the sense of "why assume that if you don't have to."

Just to pick one little example: Why derive final "skill" values through a mathematical combination of skill and attribute points? This causes a lot of problems, historically. It feels or sounds "sensible," but it really isn't a safe route of game design without a lot of care.

Don't answer that question! I only raised it to illustrate what I mean by an "assumption." I really don't want to know your answer, yet.

The real question is: what is your game about? Imagine several people playing it and having a good time. What are they having a good time doing? What's being imagined by everyone? When are they all paying attention to one another? When someone goes "Ooh! Cool!" to someone else, what did the person do?

Please note that by "they," above, I include GM and players together.

These questions are a big, big deal. Just saying "high fantasy" or talking about thieves and warriors doesn't help us much. But answering these questions means that quite a bit of shared expertise can work in your favor.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Your post doesn't indicate to me that you looked at any of the links I provided, and it doesn't answer the questions I raised about publishing. Again, these are pretty important issues that I have to insist on, at least in terms of being able to help you.

[Rasmus]

As I am not yet prepared to give out more information on any of the asked topic, but asking for more general assistance I see that I will have to hold and return with specific queries when they areise.
Thanks anyway.

[Paganini]

Hi Rasmus,
I strongly suggest looking at the older games Harnmaster and RuneQuest (any version), which are both built similarly to what you describe. Both are well-suited to a particular form of play.

You might also try looking at the Dark Fantasy RPG, which is free, and is quite similar to what you describe. I believe it's based on RuneQuest. (Not ever seen RuneQuest myself, so I can't be sure. :)

Dark Fantasy tends to move around a lot, but you should be able to find it by doing a google search for "Dark Fantasy RPG Tim Barret."

[Jack Spencer Jr]

However, I do feel that I need some outside input on this, adn especially unbiased input. I am not going to start posting this product all over the web, but since you all are either rpg-makers or have experience in the process, please give me hints as to what snagged you, what pitfalls to evade, and what NOT to do, so that I can avoid a lot of messy things. There is no need for this project to fail just because I happen to be inexperienced in rpg-c.

From your last post I got the sense you didn't get the input you wanted so I went back to your original post to see exactly what you were asking. Here's what I have for you:

Do not think your game is new, original or different or so much so that someone would steal it. This is a general vibe I've gotten from your post. "I have a million dollar idea. I need help getting it out, but I don't want to tell anyone it because someone might steal it." Don't worry about that. No RPG is a million dollar idea. D&D is probably the only one that's made a million dollars and TSR still went bankrupt and WotC had a round of lay-offs not too long ago. If you're worried that someone might make money off of your idea, take comfort in the fact that it won't be a lot of money. Personally, I'd be more worried someone might break into my car and steal my alarm. (the black market on car alarms is unreal)

Based on this, I can also say do not post to any forum asking for help general or otherwise on game design without giving the people on that forum more information to go on. RPG design is a varied thing and different types of designs have different pitfalls. We can't give you advice blindly. Or we could, but we could also be smart asses about it, too. "Don't use d20's, dood. D20's suck ass." It's tempting, believe me. Give us something solid to work with. "High fantasy" implies D&D clone and all I can think of to say to that is don't do that. There are too many D&D clones out there.

So, what are your plans for this thing? You're not going to post it on the 'net. OK? So, what then? Are you planning on having it printed & sold? are you only going to play it with your friends? WHere you plan to go with it will help define what you should/shouldn't do with it.

More general advice:

Be sure you write clearly so that it is understood. Be sure to rephrase important points so that the meaning will definately come across. By this I mean, you should restat anything you want to be certain the reader will understand. Be sure you write concisely. If you meander or dance around a point it will muddy up your writing, like my friend who's a nice guy and all but jeez louise he just can't say what he means and the point gets lost.

As far as the actual system/world design. We can help you but you should readthe articles and the various threads here on the forums, especially the ones Ron cited.

This is about all anyone can tell you unless you have a more specific question. I say all of this with love. We'd like to see you succeed with your game but if I had a nickle for every time I had seen someone asking for help or pointers on their game on a RPG design forum, but then refused to give any information about their game, I could do a full-color print run.

!!!!

Hey, gimme a nickle.  ;-)

[Bankuei]

All I need now are artsits, and to start on the expansion-packs and adventures.

This issue, you can take to the Publishing forum.  I'd recommend that you concentrate on getting artwork before adventures.  If you don't bring the first part to print, the rest doesn't matter, right?

All in all, I am pretty pleased with the project.

However, I do feel that I need some outside input on this, adn especially unbiased input.

If you want more input as to the design, how it plays, etc, we'd need some actual rules to play and test with. If you are only concerned about what to do as far as publishing, take a look at the articles section, where Ron has a couple of good bits, and you can private message him for more info as well.

Otherwise, you've basically said,"I want to build a house, and I want to know if its a good design", and we can't see even the basic blueprints :P

Chris

[Rasmus]

Thank you for your asstiance, all of you