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System on a Character Sheet

Started by migo, September 04, 2007, 05:56:35 AM

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Vulpinoid

I'll see what I can do to post it elsewhere. My angelfire cache has been used as a general internet repository of data since the late 90's...

...maybe it's time to get a real domain.

V
A.K.A. Michael Wenman
Vulpinoid Studios The Eighth Sea now available for as a pdf for $1.

John Kirk

V,

If you're having a hard time finding somewhere to post your .pdfs, I'd be happy to temporarily host them at my website.
John Kirk

Check out Legendary Quest.  It's free!

Coyote247

This looks interesting. I'll make a thread.

John Kirk

Migo,

Earlier, you said the final entries were due on the 19th.  Assuming that's still the case, here is my final entry of Skimpy RPG.
John Kirk

Check out Legendary Quest.  It's free!

migo

The 19th was a "soft" deadline as it appeared having one was better than not having one. Obviously since this is more of a mental excercise anyone who wants to submit something can.

As for determining winners, I think we have 2 submissions so far, and I can only view one of them because of some odd bug (I can't view embedded flash either, so it's something on my end), I can't determine a winner (obviously, I can't include mine in there).

If Vulpinoid can get the PDF hosted somewhere else, or some discussion could start about his submission that would be best.

Also, as far as criteria go, I find some of the looser interpretations to be better than what I originally had in mind...

If anyone wants to suggest a good way of looking at winners, by all means jump in.

John Kirk

I'm glad to hear that the 19th was a soft deadline.  I have one or two more slight changes I would like to make to my entry before calling it final, based on feedback and play-testing that has occurred since I made my last post.  It is likely that others would find an extension useful as well.

However, I do think we need to have some date at which we can expect the contest to end.  You may want to set it out a few weeks to encourage new entries.

It would also be reasonable to set some minimum number of entries to call it a real contest.  Two or three entries is pretty thin.  I'm actually wondering why more people haven't take an interest.  I saw it as an exceptionally difficult challenge, which made we want to see if I could get anywhere close to the target.  If anyone has any insight into this, I would be interested in hearing your ideas to see if we might be able to attract more entries.

As far as hosting PDF's is concerned, I would be happy to temporarily host any entries on my website.  Just send it to me via e-mail through the "Contact Us" link at http://legendaryquest.com.  Also, if anyone needs a sheet converted to .pdf, just send me a Word document and I would be happy to convert it for you.  Or, if you'd rather, Open Office contains a .pdf converter.

Concerning criteria, I think a loose interpretation is fine (since I think mine would be disqualified otherwise ;-).  You might want to clarify what you mean by "loose", or give some more examples of what you are expecting, though.

Personally, I think that you can be more objective in judging games if you create a list of questions that the character sheets should answer and then assign points according to how well you believe an entry answers them.  I asked for feedback in this thread for my entry using the following list:

1) What genre, if any, does the game promote?
2) What dice are rolled?
3) How do you know if you succeeded in winning a contest and what are the repercussions?
4) What is/are the reward system(s)?
5) Can characters advance?  If so, how?
6) How do players take turns?
7) When do scenes end?
8) How do you know when the game is over?
9) What role, if any, does the GM play?

You may want to start with that and modify it to suit your needs.  Does anyone have any suggestions to add to this list?
John Kirk

Check out Legendary Quest.  It's free!

Perpetualskeptic

Well, this is a bit (amazingly) later than everybody else, but I threw together a tiny little system on a character sheet.  How does this work?

http://cjlong2.iweb.bsu.edu/pickupandplay.pdf

KeithBVaughn

It's funny that I missed this thread when it first came out because I had a game in existance for nearly a year that the entire character generation system could be put on one side of a letter-sized sheet (8 1/2 x 11 inch) piece of paper. The things needed by the game master could be put on the other side. The other part that may disqualify it is that the character sheet can be reduced to a 3" x 5" index card with the back blank.

The ironic part was that this wasn't due to a contest but necessity as I had to print from a normal laser printer for an upcoming convention. If anyone is curious about a far future, post-apocalyptic game contact me with Dead Earth Saga in the subject line.

keithbvaughn@yahoo.com

I would like to see some more playtesting before I finalize it.

Keith
Idea men are a dime a dozen--and overpriced!

apeiron

PDF hosting:

i recommend having a GMail account and uploading the files to GoogleBase.  It's free, simple to use and having a GMail account gives you many other great toys.
If you live in the NoVA/DC area and would like help developing your games, or to help others do so, send me a PM.  i'm running a monthly gathering that needs developers and testers.