Rule Nebulas

[Tim C Koppang]

Out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone has ever done anything like this when designing their game?  I call it a rule nebulas.

Basically, I think it's a nice way to lay out the relationship between all of the various concepts and rules that go into your RPG.  The big circles at the bottom of the diagram represent the overarching goals or focuses of the game, while the rounded rectangles are the nuts and bolts.  Each big circle has a diamond attached to it.  These represent major components of the game, rule-wise, that everything else feeds into.  Arrows should be read as, "relates to."

I started by drawing the circles.  The circles are my goals for the game, and are what I hope the game emphasizes.  Next, I listed all of the rules and concepts that I could think of.  Then, I just connected the dots.  I used a computer program, but I'm sure that you could do it by hand.  By no means is my diagram complete, but at least now I have some sort of visual conceptualization to work with.

I found it interesting to see how many rules fed into particular concepts, while others were pretty much on their own (In my example, the right side has a lot more going on then the left.).

Also, I think this might be a really intriguing way to cut off some dead weight from your game.  If you draw out the circles and find that a couple of your rules don't really connect to those circles, maybe it's time to edit.

Thought I'd share.

Regards.

[Andrew Martin]

Out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone has ever done anything like this when designing their game?  I call it a rule nebulas.

Observation: It's something like state-charts, flow-charts, and user interaction charts for software.

And RPG rules are very similar to software.

[Cemendur]

Can you provide visual examples, not of the charts in general, but for rpg design in particular?

[Tim C Koppang]

Cemendur,

I'm not sure I know what you mean, but the chart I linked to in my original post is for a particular game that I'm working on right now.

Here's another link to the diagram.

Here's a link to the thread where I talk about Persona, the game I made the diagram for.

If I'm way off, please let me know and I'll try to explain myself better.

Regards.

[Jasper]

Nice chart there, Tim!  This is almost exactly the kind of thing I did a little while back for my game Graal.  Here's a link:

http://people.umass.edu/jasperm/Resource%20Tree.pdf

I mostly did it as an aid for myself, while designing it, so I could clearl ysee the interactions between all the different resources and mechanics.  I included it in the final game just as another reference.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

This is basically a flow chart, but still a good idea in either case.

Does anyone know of a decent free flowchart tool? My Google fu pulled up a bunch of demoware, like SmartDraw. Or possibly a program on my computer that could already perfom the same task.

The important features are the ability to make and move the boxes and have the lines move with the boxes to make reorganization a bit easier.

[Tim C Koppang]

I use the Mac program, OmniGraffle, but I can't really help you with a Windows tool.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I found a freeware tool here for Windows.

[Jasper]

I just did mine in MS Publisher, awkward probgram though it is.  It comes packaged with printers sometimes.