help out the newbi

[Dune]

i've been really intreasted in making my own RPGs. and i've actually got a ton of ideas, but i'm not quite sure how to actually start the process of creating an RPG. so anybody have any thoughts or ideas to set me on the right path?

thanks.

[M. J. Young]

Dang. That sure is open ended. I don't blame you for posting it in what is clearly the wrong forum, because I have no idea which forum is clearly the right one.

I'd say you need to do a few things as preliminaries.

[*]Read a lot of the articles here and elsewhere about game design and game ideas. I'd recommend a whole slew of those Game Ideas Unlimited articles I have at Gaming Outpost, but you'd have to subscribe to read them and there have been some troubles recently with the subscription system. Some of them have been reposted at http://www.valdron.com/gameidea/ but unfortunately Network Solutions has fouled up the domain registration process again and we're down this weekend (working on it).[*]Read a lot of games. There are tons of free ones, and a lot of excellent ones that aren't terribly expensive. You've really got to know what's been done by others before you start trying to do something new yourself. For one thing, there's a good chance you're making a lot of assumptions from "how things are done" in a few games that really are passe or even poor design. For another, it can be really helpful to see how other people solved the problems you're going to face, even if you don't like their solutions.[*]Give a lot of thought to why you're wanting to create a game, and what it's supposed to do. If you don't know what your game is supposed to do, you can't possibly do a good job of making it do that, no matter how much else you know. You can probably get at that by asking yourself what's so wrong about the games you've played that makes you want to design your own. Figure that part out, and then go from there to what it is you want to do to fix those problems, and then try to get one step beyond that: you don't want to produce a patched version of some other game; you want to produce a game. When you can see the game you want to produce as a specific thing, you've got a lot better chance of making it do what you want.[*]Read a lot of the forum posts here. They'll probably give you more insight into the process than you can absorb, but what you do absorb should help immensely.[/list:u]
Sometime after that, you should be in a much better position to say, "This is the sort of game I'm trying to design, and these are my ideas for how to do that." Then probably we'll be much more able to help you work through those ideas.

--M. J. Young

[Dune]

how is this the wrong forum? which one do you think i should have posted it in?

[Alan]

HI Dune,

Welcome to the Forge!

You're question would probably best start in RPG Theory.  GNS Theory is for discussion of Ron's rpg theories as found in the Articles sections.  And Indie RPG Design is intended for posts about work that has more formulated material.

I'd also recommend reading lots of the articles in the Article section - in particular all the articles written by Ron Edwards, starting from the bottom up.  And Mr. Young's article on Applied Theory.

Also, read and play a range of Indie games - in recent years these have seen a wide range of innovations that help game design get out of the ruts of the last ten years.

Finally - I wish I could find the thread - try imagining how you would like a play session to go - not the fantasy, but the actual words and actions of the players.  Then try to build a system that produces that experience.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Welcome to the Forge, Dune. When in doubt about which forum to post in, feel free to send me a private message to ask.

Here's the thread Alan is talking about, and it's my first choice for you as well:

Structured game design

Roy really hit the nail on the head with that one.

Best,
Ron