For "Sale" : The 24 Hour RPG Contest

[Andy Kitkowski]

I announced this over at my LJ. I simply don't have the time to keep this on my radar anymore, and this is the best way to save it from oblivion:

http://zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com/84156.html

Hey all, I've been totally, 100% slack on maintaining or doing much at all with 24 Hour RPG contest/site ( http://www.24hourrpg.com ). It's a totally low pressure gig, where I used to organize a weekend each year for the "Grand Event" (akin to the 24 Hour Comic event), but I've been too busy to do even *that*.

So, I'm looking for someone else to pick up the contest and move it forward. Well, not like there's any work involved, it's just like a custodian thing, where you get to host events and see a bunch of cool, small little RPGs. Total work expected: Approx 5-7 hours *A Year*. Maybe.

The Sale price is FREE. You'll have to (eventually) host the thing on your own server and all. I'll even pay the fee to have the 24 Hour RPG domain name xferred from my account to yours (usually about $12). From that point on, you can do whatever you want with the event, I won't be involved at all anymore (so I won't be standing over your shoulder going, "Well, back in MY day we did things differently..." etc). I'll also turn over the administration/control of the 24HourRPG Yahoogroup to you as well.

So, if you're interested in doing more with the hobby and this sounds like a fun thing to do, let me know you're interested.

-Andy

[Andy Kitkowski]

That was fast!

The new organizers of the 24 Hour RPG Contest are... Steve Segedy and Jason Morningstar.  Thanks guys!

[Steve Segedy]

We know how to jump on a good deal.  Remind me to tell you about the awesome bridge we bought!

[Peril Planet]

That was fast!  So, do the new owners have any plans for the immediate or long-term future of the 24-hour rpg?  It has been quite for a long time, but that isn't necessarily Andy's fault - I know I have been too busy with life and my other projects to start another 24-hour game and I am sure that is the case for many other participants and fans.  But I love the concept and some of my favourite games (including my own) come from this project.

Good luck with it!

-Nathan

[Steve Segedy]

We're working with Andy to transfer over the domain and so forth now, and once that's settled we'll look at setting up plans for the next Grand Act.  Look for more info soon!

[Jason Morningstar]

I love the 24 Hour RPG Contest and I'm really thrilled that we wrested it from Andy's gnarled talons.  If you have ideas about the direction we should take it, let us know.

[Graham W]

I totally think you should allow more than 24 hours. And widen the net so that other sorts of games, not just RPGs, are permitted.

Graham

[Vulpinoid]

I totally think you should allow more than 24 hours. And widen the net so that other sorts of games, not just RPGs, are permitted.

Sorry Graham, but I sincerely hope you were joking.

The 24 hour RPG site has some pretty specific concepts defined in it's title.

ie.

24 hours

RPGs.


Expanding it beyond 24 hours or beyond RPGs defeats the purpose of the name don't you think?

I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of regular game generation tournament, weekly would be too much. Monthly might even be a bit too hectic. Let's say a seasonal challenge. Winter 2008, Spring 2009.

Like the annual Game Chef contest, but since it's a 24 hour site, the rapid intensity of the game design means a more regular event schedule. Maybe I've just been having too much fun with Game Chef over the past week.

I'd suggest the concept of themed game contests, or 24 hours to work on an expansion concept for an existing game.

• 24 hours to come up with a new race that exists in a desert (non-game specific, just focus on the culture).
• 24 hours to come up with a new damage mechanic for use with an existing system.
• 24 hours to create a new school of magic linked to a specific culture or setting
• 24 hours to create a background generation system that can be used for characters in a certain setting

etc.

[Peril Planet]

They are some pretty cool ideas Vulpinoid has suggested there.  They all still work on the "RPG" level without demanding an entire RPG.  They could, potentially be just as challenging as a complete game.  Hell, I already have a cool idea for a contest (inspired by recent purchases at Gen Con Oz -

Design a new setting / "plugin" that takes advantage of the Gumshoe rules set.   24 hours; detailed setting; character gen outlines; adventure guide/synopsis.

Of course, a competition like that would require the contestants to be at least familiar with the subject games/rules.  Would making the competition more general ("Design a new magic system for whatever game you choose") be too... ummm... I can't find the right word.  I would want to know "what is the point of the new system?"  I would need an explanation for why the new rules were necessary, which might go beyond what the 24-hour rpg does.  A challenge like "Design a game that evokes the feel/theme/ideas of a culture/philosophy/legend/genre" might be pretty cool though.  In that case challenges might look like;

Design a game that;
   - evokes the feel / theme of Arabian Nights
   - evokes ideas of honour above all else
   - challenges the conventions of the cyberpunk genre
   - fuses the conventions of any two genres (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, noir, pulp, romance, Hong-Kong action etc)
   - demands character death for "satisfactory" (logical, believable, realistic?) story conclusion
   - has a setting that breaks a literary cliche
   - tells stories that can only be set in a specific time and/or place (Dreamtime, Timbuktu, a wedding, a deathbed etc)[/li]

[Jason Morningstar]

Here's what I'm thinking at the moment:

0. It's not really a contest. 

1. We pick a date for a big event. If this rends your soul, you can pick a different date, but the goal is excitement around a shared experience and collaboration. The date will not mesh with the comics event, for good reasons pointed out above. We don't want to try retailer's patience. None of this precludes writing your own 24 hour RPG whenever you feel like it.

2. We invite retailers to host, but don't limit the contest to retail places. Any host can host for whatever slice of the 24 hours they like. If a store does not want to stay open all night, they can ask the designers to adjourn to the Pancake House at midnight. Individuals can open their homes, we can rely on individual initiative, and the "event" piece can be structured around collaboration, playtesting, and general getting-togetherness within the parameters the local host provides. People can also scatter and work alone. Maybe there is an Internet-based synchronous group as well.

3. I'd love to add some sort of "walkathon" type angle, where people pledge to give a charity cash in exchange for our 24 hours of labor somehow. I think that would be fun and positive, and I'm open to ideas about how to work something like that. It also opens up the possibility of competition between local groups, which would be fun. We could raise a ton of cash for some worthwhile global charity doing something we love.

4. I'm not sure how to approach this, but it'd be great if we could share and redistribute the output of the event. Again, I'm open for ideas about how to do that. If we encourage people to design analog, it'd be really neat to put together a book that was nothing but scans of the game designs as written/sketched/diagrammed. Or maybe both the original hand-made game and a playtested, readable, laid-out version side by side. This may be too ambitious or unrealistic, I don't know.

I think this structure will be appealing to hosts, it is flexible and friendly, and beyond the games produced, it would increase the good in the world as well.

[Graham W]

Jason, this sounds great. Do it already.

For 3 and 4, I think you should:

a. Encourage local event organisers to collect money for charity. (Could we make sure the charity is definitely a global one? International Red Cross, for example, or Amnesty International.)

b. Encourage game designers to submit their game to a shared book or something. My personal preference would be to make it like the Story Games Names Project, all nicely typed up and professional and, well, not analogue. So not scans, but nicely done. Put the scans in as an appendix, perhaps.

Graham

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks Graham.  If we do a charity thing it will surely be international.  As far as assembling the output, that's a complicated set of issues I'm not sure I even want to tackle at this point.  The more I think about that, the more discouraged I get.

[David Artman]

As far as assembling the output, that's a complicated set of issues I'm not sure I even want to tackle at this point.  The more I think about that, the more discouraged I get.

Maybe I'm missing something... but why not a wiki? Each designer could do initial work *however* (analog, typing) and then put up chunks as they become "ready" to individual wiki pages (so there's no "collisions" during wiki editing). That content could include whatever the person wants, up to and including scans of hand-written/-drawn pages, charts and graphs, photos of actual play(testing), illustrations... basically, whatever they want and can code in HTML/Wikicode.

Then, compilation becomes a matter of cut & paste into a DTP app that can handle HTML source (ex: Open Office, Word) and some front matter creation (pubs page, TOC). That compilation task could be pretty big--say, if there's 500 participants! But I've slapped together IGDC compilations from the Icehousegames.org wiki in an hour (~10 wiki pages), including light clean-up (extra blank lines and such) and front matter. And, really, you'd only do that to offer something discrete for download; folks who just want to sample games can just use the wiki.

AND... you could track donation (err, well, publish submitted donations) through the same wiki, on the front/main page.

Anyhow... just a thought. What barriers are you imagining that so-discourage you?

[Jason Morningstar]

I want to forget about publishing anything and focus on encouraging game design and community involvement, collaboration and fun.

Everybody loves to talk, but in the end this will come down to a handful of people working fairly hard to make local events happen, so setting modest goals the first time out only makes sense.   

[Graham W]

I think that sounds quite good.

The other option is that you could organise the design thing and allow anyone else who wants to gather the results for publication. If they want. However they want to do it.

Graham