Frontier RPG

[Sylus Thane]

Okay I'd like to announce that my game of Frontier is now available for consumption by the masses. Please remember it is still a work in progress so it is still a little untidy. I have a small yahoo groups site for it and it is available for downlaod under the files section. It is located at;http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/LostHorizonsRPG . Unfortunately you have to have a yahoo ID to get to it, but it's a free site so I can't complain much. I'd appreciate any feedback I can get. It is a multiverse system that I will add on settings for as I complete them. Hopefully soon I will also have a forum for it so that I dont bog down anyone elses talking about it. So please feel free to have a look at let me know what you think. Any critiques will be greatly appreciated.

Sylus

[Sylus Thane]

It is in a word.doc format so you don't need anything special to view it and art work will follow as I get it completed. Like most everyone else I'm a one man show.

Sylus

[Andrew Martin]

I'd appreciate any feedback I can get.

Why should I use your game instead of, say, Alternity, GURPS, Traveller, Fudge, Rifts or Fuzion?

The abbreviation: "G. O. D." doesn't seem to be defined in the text prior to being used. It's also offensive to at least one of my players in my play group. It's also likely to offend others as well.

[Demonspahn]

Hi Sylus,

You weren't kidding when you said it was a WIP.  From your post it sounds like you are designing a universal system that you can adapt to different settings.  No offense but it looks to me like you're doing things a little backward.  I would suggest that right now you concentrate on developing the system.  As is, you kind of have a hodge podge of setting info (races), character stats and unrelated rules.   You do have some interesting bits mixed in here and there but honestly, because of the layout, it's kind of painful to read over and I can't get a good feel of what you're trying to accomplish---what dice are you using, how are tasks resolved, how is combat resolved, etc.  

Also, you might get more feedback if you post things directly here rather than expecting people to navigate the web.  

But assuming you are attempting to create a universal system, post the basic system when you get a chance and I can give better feedback.  


And Andrew,

The abbreviation: "G. O. D." doesn't seem to be defined in the text prior to being used. It's also offensive to at least one of my players in my play group. It's also likely to offend others as well

I thought it was pretty apparent that the reference to G.O.D. was just a tongue-in-cheek substitution for GM but if it is an acronym, Sylus you might want to indicate what the letters represent.  

As to being offensive, what else is new?  Pick any RPG out there (or damn near anything else) and I guarantee something about it is offensive to someone.  

Pete

[simon_hibbs]

Can I suggest you make the archives and file download area open to people who aren't members of your Yahoo Group?

I'm sure you intend otherwise, but you're not exactly going out of your way to make it easy for people to have a look at what you're doing. I routinely don't subscribe to groups unless I can have a look at the archives or files section first to see if I'm realy interested in it.


Simon Hibbs

[Sylus Thane]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. They are greatly appreciated and helpful.

The abbreviation: "G. O. D." doesn't seem to be defined in the text prior to being used. It's also offensive to at least one of my players in my play group. It's also likely to offend others as well.

As far as the term goes I'm sorry if it offends, but it is a tongue in cheek acronym. the definition of it was originally in there, bute seems to have gotten lost within revisions. It is meant to be said as if you were just spelling it out, kind of like when you say something around a small child but don't want them to know what you said.  The acronym of it is G. ames O. perations D. irector. Hope this clarifies that some.

Can I suggest you make the archives and file download area open to people who aren't members of your Yahoo Group?

I will work on trying to get that done as soon as possible. I'm really very new at web page stuff so I'm not sure how all of those things are done. Plus the reason I put it on a web page was so that people could view it at their leisure and not bog down the forum with it.

You do have some interesting bits mixed in here and there but honestly, because of the layout, it's kind of painful to read over and I can't get a good feel of what you're trying to accomplish---what dice are you using, how are tasks resolved, how is combat resolved, etc.

Currently if you read it as an outline it is a little easier. I currently don't have a good publishing program to use to make it prettier. It should out as going from character creation then to rules then to settings, when they are done.

Why should I use your game instead of, say, Alternity, GURPS, Traveller, Fudge, Rifts or Fuzion?

I left this one for last because it puzzled me. I'm looking yet for people to say they'd prefer my game over another yet, it's not nearly complete enough for that. I just wanted to put it up for people to get some feedback to see how well I am doing and what I may need to change to improve the layout and other things.

All in all I appreciate the replies so far. They've been very helpful and I will continue to get as much work as possible done to fix errors and solve any inconsistencies. Keep the responses coming.

Sylus

[vestinious]

Thanks for your comments about the game could anyone suggest a better forum to use as I agree that the yahoo forum is a problem.

Cheers,

Rog

[vestinious]

We have now put a web site up so the people can download the files with out going to the yahoo forum I hope that will help.


Rog

[Andrew Martin]

Why should I use your game instead of, say, Alternity, GURPS, Traveller, Fudge, Rifts or Fuzion?

I left this one for last because it puzzled me. I'm looking yet for people to say they'd prefer my game over another yet, it's not nearly complete enough for that. I just wanted to put it up for people to get some feedback to see how well I am doing and what I may need to change to improve the layout and other things.

From what I can see in the MS Word document, the game system offers no advantages over these other systems. Perhaps this is because not enough has been written yet? Or would it be easier to just use an all ready written generic system? Do you really need to design a generic system to support your settings, when there's all ready plenty out there?

[Demonspahn]

Andrew wrote:

Do you really need to design a generic system to support your settings, when there's all ready plenty out there?

Sylus, this bears repeating.  Unless you are just hell bent on developing "the" universal system, using an existing system such as Fudge, Action! or d20 (or many others, JAGS?) will save you a lot of headaches and free up time to devote towards interesting settings.  Personally, I buy new RPGs for the setting but many others buy for new mechanics.    It really all depends on what you want to do.  

Pete

[Gordon C. Landis]

Why should I use your game instead of, say, Alternity, GURPS, Traveller, Fudge, Rifts or Fuzion?

I left this one for last because it puzzled me. I'm looking yet for people to say they'd prefer my game over another yet, it's not nearly complete enough for that. I just wanted to put it up for people to get some feedback to see how well I am doing and what I may need to change to improve the layout and other things.

Let me rephrase what I think folks are saying here . . . and what I'd like to know about most any system before I comment on it:

It's a lot of work to make a game system, especially a generic/universal one.  Why are you doing it?  What is it that all these existing systems fail to do that you want your system to acheive?  Is there something in particular you are trying to accomplish with this design?

"My very own system, built by me from square one" is a perfectly valid answer, by the way.  It makes providing feedback a bit more difficult, but  . . . still an important answer to get, given the way folks around here tend to approach game design.

So, another rephrase - "what are you trying to accomplish in this design that no other existing game provides for you."  That's for YOU - never mind if others agree or not just yet, just talk about what YOU see.

(appologies if others were going somewhere else with their comments)

Gordon

[vestinious]

This is a point that we wanted to be answered from the start , what would the public want out of a game.
From reading your posts it seems to be that a setting with rules included instead of a generic rules system with settings extra is the way to go.

If anyones had a look at the settings overviews in your opinions which do you like.


Rog

[Sylus Thane]

Well here's the reason why I did it. I've played alot of the other generics out there excep for Alternity and d20 and they always seemed to have something missing. Now I don't know if it was something ruleswise for sure, but almost almost always there was the same thing lacking. I think it was player friendliness. Almost all of them weren't all that simple for new players to learn quickly. I mean Gurps is okay, but it takes awhile to make a character usually, unless of course you've been playing it for a long time, same with Traveller. Most of the generics also required tons of books to play, as is the case with most games. I guess all I wanted to do was design a game that was quick and easy for a new person to learn to play. Just like has happened everytime I've handed a new person mine and had them easily grasp the rules and character creation, generally all within twenty minutes. I wanted every supplement following the main book to be just that, supplemental. You don't need it unless you want it. And if you did it would easily slip in to its appropriate spot and blend seamlessly with the rest of the system.

So all in all, besides the fact I made it from the ground up, is that I wanted to make a game that was easy and quick to learn. Especially to new gamers. I wanted it to be quick and functional, and realistic as you wanted it to be. In a nutshell, quick, easy to learn, and flexible.

Unfortunately alot of the confusion may be do to my writing ability but I'm taking my time and it will get there eventually. Besides, if I just wanted to be like everybody else and use someone elses system I would just jump on the d20 bandwagon. :)

Hope that covers things. Wasn't trying to stake my claim in the gaming universe...............yet. Just looking for some feedback. :)

Sylus

[Mike Holmes]

Have you looked at systems like FUDGE, Risus, CORPS, and Plainlabel? And a bout a dozen other generic systems that are more "player-friendly" than GURPS?

FUDGE is especially player-friendly (by most people's esitmations) generic system and has the advantage that you can contact them and make your game (for profit) using their system most times. It's also a system that is designed to be tailored to the gameworlds that it's played in. So there's lots of suppoort available for just how to convert your worlds to this system.

Take a look at what's available. Even if you decide not to go with any of them, you'll at least have a head start on what other people thnk are viable mechanics. And you'll have an idea of what sort of systems you'll be competing against.

Mike

[vestinious]

I am just writing to let you know that we are now using a new forum

http://pub35.ezboard.com/blosthorizons22536

You do not need to be a member to use this forum and so is easier for you all to use.

Rog