Insane idea

[Trevor Curtis]

I had an idea two days ago, whihc came out of  too much sleep or too little caffiene(or vice versa), but here goes:

Ever heard of National Novel Writing Month? Its this vaguely insane, hazardous to your sanity activity in which one attempt to write a novel length(60-100k words) piece of fiction during the month of November. I participated last year, and was going to this year, when it occured to me:

Why limit myself to fiction writing? Why not do RPG writing? Take 30 days to go from  idea to written concept. Now the question I want answered is: do you think anyone wil go for it? I know Im going to do mine in that time, but I'd like some input vis a vis  length(I was thinking 60k) idea freshness(NaNoWriMo, theanangram for above, insists on fresh ideas), and do you think anyone else will be interested?

Trevor, having doubts about his sanity, but still grinning while writing this

[C. Edwards]

Well, my first question would be "Why?"

I'm not trying to be a downer, but this bothers me almost as much as Earth Day or the Ad Busters "don't buy anything day".  These days are set aside so people can shed some of the guilt they feel for not fighting the good fight the other 364 days of the year.

I think that a novel that was written in one month, particularly a month specificly proclaimed as the "write a novel month", would be of highly questionable quality and I would doubt the author's sincerity.  In my mind this would also apply, to a lesser degree, to RPGs.

I'm not saying that nothing good is ever done during these designated periods of time but in my experience people use them as an excuse to procrastinate on something that they don't have the discipline to do during the rest of the year or as their one day of penance for the previous year's worth of indifference.

That's a very abreviated version of my Standard Rant #8.

-Chris

[Mike Holmes]

Back on Gaming Outpost we used to do Iron Gaming Chef, in which you had just a week, or 24 hours to create a game that incorporated certain Keywords as well as possible. Lots of interesting designs came of it. Nothing really great, but entire playable games that often had unique mechanics in them that were though inspiring.

The advantage to such forced creativity to me is that you get a volume of new actual games, which, though not of the highest quality, can get people thinking about the new and stange methods involved.

FWIW, if someone does call for a new Iron Game Chef competition, keep the number of keywords down to about four or so (rather than the six used at GO), and make the deadline shorter rather than longer. The shorter deadlines seem to actually get a better response in terms of numbers competing than the longer ones. Doesn't hurt to offfer a prize as well.

Mike "Iron Game Chef - Simulationist" Holmes

[Emily Care]

Or you could take a month and make a game a day....

I think the main use is to just get the creative juices flowing.

--E Care

[Jonathan Walton]

What's with all this naysaying?

I say go for it.  I think you'd have to get a bunch of people interested, so you could feed off each other.  I'd definitely be up for something like that.  The hardest part would be not thinking about it until after Oct 31st.

I think it would be really good practice, even if the final results didn't turn out as good as you expected.  Taking a single idea and taking a "finished game or bust" attitude would definitely be an excercise in problem solving and forced creativity.

And, to answer C. Edwards a bit: I think the reason people do things like this with writing (and programs like Clarion, to boot) is to prove that they CAN actually do this kind of thing, if they are really committed to a project.  It's like whipping the inner writer out of yourself, the one you always knew was there.  Boot camp for your mind.

Anyway, like I said, I'd be interested in trying it if you can rope a couple more people in.

Later.
Jonathan

[Mytholder]

At Dragonmeet in London, they're planning something even crazier - design an rpg over the course of the con. They'll have a network of computers, scanners etc, available to the con-goers. Anyone can sit down and contribute to the evolving game. At the end of the con, it'll be printed out and bound.

I'm taking part, I hope, in NaNoWriMo. I don't expect high art to come out of it, but it's a fun experiment to try.

[lumpley]

For another take on the same puppy, try Scott Macloud's 24-hour comics.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year.  (Chris, the point isn't to write a great novel.  The point is to write, and for me, the point is to write so damn much so damn fast that my inner critic shuts up for once.)

It reminds me of Zak's game-a-month thing, too.

-Vincent

[Blake Hutchins]

As a writer who's done the three short stories in a weekend challenge, I can tell you this kind of exercise is damn valuable.  Of course, the conclusion that by the end of the thirty days, you'll have a finished novel ready for publication is a bit off-base.  However, by pushing yourself, you get to the shitty first draft stage in a hurry.  Moreover, such a pace often bypasses habits that would torpedo completion of a novel in the first place, such as nit-picky editing on the fly.  Once you have a complete story or novel, you can go back over it.

Finally, there's a saying among writers that you have to write a million words of crap before you get to the good stuff and can truly call yourself a writer.  Challenges that get people to put stuff on the page NOW are a useful spur toward hitting that target.

Best,

Blake

[Jasper]

I second all the comments about it being a valuable exercise, despite not necessarily creating a singly valuable work in the end.  The chief reason I come to the Forge is too see highly different, unorthordox approaches to gaming.  If there's no commitment to make something great and universally apprealing/profitable, I think even more people (than those who regularly contribute game here) will be "unshackled" from conventional patterns.  

I'd certainly join in such a contest.  Shorter is probably also better to an extent.  A month could work... but I think a week might be even better.  If you go too short, you risk getting really "cheap" offerings that are nothing more than the beginnings of ideas and not games at all.

[Trevor Curtis]

I never expected this much discussion! The response has been nifty(though I havent posted to rpg net, I'm kind of afraid to...) but heres what I have toi say:

1)I still like the idea of a month, mainly because of the length I want this to be (60k or so)
2)I dont think it has to be ultimatey original, but it should be something you haven't commited to paper yet. So if you've got that ultimate superhero rpg youve been mulling over
3)RPG, in these sense for writing this, should almost be short hand for
put me in a universe. The best rpg books,(not necessarily the best rpgs) made me feel like  I was being immersed in a different world.  They made me wnat to grab some people and sart playing. To my mind, the best example of this was the 2nd ed Werewolf game.(Others in my mind that rocked that way were Conspiracy X, Ars Magica, Last Exodus, and Champions 1st ed.) Everything about it made you feel like , yes, heres this universe, dont you want to be in it? I realize its a lot to expect in 30 days, but  you never know. Anf yes, I realize some games suck when brewed too long(Orion Force comes to mind) but people can tyr anyaway. Im not expecting revolution in mechanics, I'm closer to Narrativist in my own games anyway.
So there's my challenge , and rant. anyone want in?

[Eric J.]

Scew it.  I've done over 60 stupid K of crap before, but I've never finished anything.  I will try this, if only for the inspiration it could have.  I've always been good at writing long stuff in short amounts of time.  (ahh novels in 5th grade =`)

[Jonathan Walton]

As a trial run/time trial, make sure you guys check out the one-week Iron Chef Gamist Challange that Mike Holmes started yesterday.

Get going, already!

Later.
Jonathan

[Maurice Forrester]

I think that a novel that was written in one month [...]would be of highly questionable quality

Well, of course it is.  NaNoWriMo is a celebration of questionable quality.  I did it last year and it was a blast.  For me, it was a fantastic exercise for the imagination.  During that month, I found myself looking at the world around me differently as I thought about how I would translate what I experience into words.  I started having dreams that were fully outlined short stories.

Did I end up with a publishable novel?  No.  But I did end up with a novel at the end of the month and that's one novel more than I had ever written before.

I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year, and if somebody starts a NaRPGWriMo I'll do that too.  Just make it a different month, please....

[Zak Arntson]

It reminds me of Zak's game-a-month thing, too.

Let me tell you, it's taxing. I was doing one/month as both an exercise (along the lines of writers' advice to write at least 400 words a day) and for publicity. Ideas weren't hard (I occasionally troll LiveJournal for ideas from others, too), it was the execution. Other, non-free design priorities have taken over so I've switched to bi-monthly (and even missed a deadline at that).

My opinion? It's certainly do-able. Much more so than a novel, especially of you release something relatively small. It's also very good practice. Compare my earlier skunks (Chthonian, as presented at Harlekin-Maus, Superpets) to my more recent games (Shadows, Metal Opera) to see an improvement in focus and theory applied.

The results: I've gained a small amount of infamy here at the Forge. And I occasionally get some emails from people who've played the games. But look out, I've written up 14 of these things in full (and 16 in half-finished form) and I've received actual play emails on 3 or 4 of them.

As long as you're not trying to write a fully-completed 112-page roleplaying game, I say go for it. Give yourself a realistic goal (mine is/was one playable rpg with snazzy logo every month) and start.

Actually, there's a question. What's the scope of your Write an RPG in a Month? A single small system in a text file? An art-filled layed-out product?