An introduction, a game, and a question

[ethan_greer]

An introduction:
Hello all, I recently stumbled across The Forge and have been lurking about for the past week or so.  I must say I'm impressed with what I've seen.  Many of the people here seem to have a focus and depth of knowledge on RPGs that I know better than to try and emulate, but I've enjoyed the conversations I've witnessed so here I am attempting to start one myself.

A game:
I wrote a game about a year ago called Toast and posted it online at this address:

http://www.simplephrase.com/toast/

(Uses frames)

Anyone wishing to take a look at it is welcome to do so, although I should point out that it's my first attempt at game authorship, and I'm not terribly fond of it anymore.  The reason I point it out is because my players really enjoyed it when I ran it, and I also feel that certain aspects of it would be of interest or use to other game designers here.

Of particular interest in Toast (IMO, of course) are the following elements:
- The d10+ dice mechanic
- The handling of wounds
- The skill list is a fairly detailed list that would be suitable for a skill-centric fantasy game.

I am certainly open to discussion about Toast if anyone wishes to comment.

Lastly, a question:
I have another system in the works called Pollies.  It's a universal system I'm currently quite pleased with.  I intend on posting it and making it freely available, but I have not yet had the opportunity to playtest it.  The question is, should I post it and create a thread for it, or should I wait until I've playtested and tweaked it?

[Jonathan Walton]

Since you were nice enough to post on my thread, I thought I'd return the favor...

I have another system in the works called Pollies.  It's a universal system I'm currently quite pleased with.  I intend on posting it and making it freely available, but I have not yet had the opportunity to playtest it.  The question is, should I post it and create a thread for it, or should I wait until I've playtested and tweaked it?

It's really up to you.  Posting ideas on the Forge is both incredibly helpful and incredibly humbling at the same time.  I'm sure the people here could come up with a virtual mountain of tweaking suggestions that you never would have thought of on your own, whether you want them or not.  Still, in general, I say post it and see what happens.

The only bad thing is posting something before you have a solid idea of what you want it to be.  Then people are liable to grab the bare concepts you have and run off with them, offering suggestions that would make the game into something you never intended.  But if you have a solid idea of what the game is about, then you should have no problems.

And nothing is every "finished," really.  If you wait until after you tweak it, you'll just be getting ready to tweak it again... :)

Welcome to the Forge, by the way.  This place rocks!

Later.
Jonathan

[Mike Holmes]

Jonathan's got it right. If you have a game that you can see playtesting, then I think that you probably have more than enough to post.

That said, I'll predict the first question that people will ask (I get asked it all the time): Why a generic game? Why this game instead of GURPS, FUDGE, Risus, Plainlabel, Hero System, Fuzion, Action, Story Engine, or any "house" system like d20, BRP, Palladium, Silhouette, or any of the many, many other systems posted for free online? Is this for personal use only? Or are you interested in getting other people to play it?

OK, the first several questions.

If you start off by including the answers to the questions above when you post your generic system, you'll get much better replies (IME).

Mike

Mike

[ethan_greer]

Thanks for the encouragement and tips, fellas.  I'll post Pollies forthwith, and I promise to address Mike's questions first thing!
-e.