How do you start designing an RPG?

[quozl]

Shane Hensley talks about how he gets started making an RPG over at http://www.peginc.com/Articles/DeadlandsReloaded/Part01.htm

It's interesting that he gets a visual hook before he starts to churn out the text. Does anyone else do the same sort of thing when they start designing an RPG? How do you do it?

Edit: fixed the link.  Thanks!

[DevP]

The first or second thing I do once I have a concept is build a playlist of msuic that captures the feel of the setting for me. (And listen on loop while writing.) The music helps stir up those ethereal emotions that you ultimately want ot capture via gameplay. Also, since my current GMing tyle draws heavy from televsion serials (Buffy et al.), I find it especially cute to find a song in particular that would be my "show's" opening theme; I even spliced such a song to a shorter 'opening theme' length for effect.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

I always do this too. I've described it in the past - unless I have the key basics of Exploration in my head, then I'm taking notes, but not yet designing a game. I might have started with something else (for Mongrel, it was an abstract concept), but that key "whop" of imagery is the real glue. I've learned to return to it when I get stuck later.

As for the "key basics of Exploration," only two of the five elements are really necessary for me: Color and one of the other four.

Trollbabe probably was the most dramatic example from all my games. I had already come up with the basics of the system relative to a Social Contract concept I was interested in, but there wasn't any game there, and I didn't consider the project actually to be under way. Then the image of the trollbabe came to mind and wham, it was all game design from that point on.

A title can serve the same purpose; so can pretty much anything as long as Exploration (Color + X) is involved.

In case anyone is wondering where GNS is in all this, remember that I consider the human mind incapable of considering [Exploration + play] without linking the two via a Creative Agenda.

Best,
Ron

[DevP]

Afterthought: both Visual or Musical (or whatever) cues are necessary to help vitalize the author so he can continue to create and refine the work with a certain crispness; but of course, just because you've internalized such a creative cue does not mean that others will have access to it (even if I distribute the playlist, who will listen?), nor does it means that your audience would share your vision even if they accessed the musical/video cue. So once you know your vision, there's still a whole lot of work cut out for the artist in translating this vision into the readers' brain.

[ethan_greer]

Music, art, comics, theatre, dance, TV, movies... I think art inspires art in a universal sense.  In game design and writing, I like to have music playing as well, and I often have other art in mind when creating stuff. Thugs & Thieves, for example, obviously drew a lot of influences from pulp fantasy movies.

BTW, the link above didn't work for me. But this one does.

[quozl]

I guess I should throw in my method too.  I search for a feeling I want to convey first.  For example, I got an idea that I wanted to make an RPG about people who are shunned by society trying to fit into society, specifically the feeling of belonging.  I then thought of an image that would convey that feeling to others -- Dr. Frankenstein and his creation.  Once I had the feeling and the image, everything started to flow.  (Then I discovered My Life With Master and now I'm trying to make Frankenstein's Monsters different enough so that people can identify with the themes of both games.)

[Jonathan Walton]

I'm a design junkie. First thing I do: create a logo and catchy title for the game. That lets meknow what it's about and what kind of color it should have.  Once I have that, I'm ready to roll.

[ross_winn]

the core of any game, I think, is the central conflict.

is it elves against orcs? technology versus magic? man against machine? i against superego?

[Green]

I use music too, but I gravitate towards surreal, evocative works of various genres and artists.  I also like film because I am dramatically inclined.  Fiction is OK, but most often not inspiring as far as game design goes.  In all actuality, I most frequently get things from the images and voices in my head.  While I certainly have no conscious control over it, I do have a tendency to focus on a state of mind I want to evoke, and I keep at it until something comes out, and after that it's like a deluge of ideas, images, and flashes of insight.  Or it could just be insanity.

[M. J. Young]

O.K., I seem to be the freak of this group. I'm a composer, but I don't use music at all with my games. I'm much too analytical about it. I decide what it is I want the game system to do, and then figure out how to make it do that. In essence, game design to me is frequently about solving the problems as consistently, coherently, and simply as possible, so that's where my focus is.

Even with world design, I start with a general idea for what the world is about, and then I work on solving the problems of turning it into a working game world description.

--M. J. Young

[quozl]

O.K., I seem to be the freak of this group.

Freak!  Just kidding.  The point of this thread is to discover the different ways people go about doing things.  I know that I will use this when I get stuck.  I've never designed after listening to music or looking at art before so I'll try that.  I have tried the analytical approach before and that has worked for me.  

So what other approaches do people have?

[ADGBoss]

I am like M.J.,  I do not do music to convey a mood.  I suppose my inspiration does not come from that.  I get most of my own inspiration from people's words and reactions and my own vague concepts.

Seraphim was a combination of disatisfaction with Star Wars and Super Hero games, a fascination with Trinity and a desire to make hard science interesting.   Later on a Stevie Nicks song inspired the Candlebright aspect of the storyline, so I suppose some music was involved.  I generally try to do an outline of the rulebook first, so I can make notes on what kind of system I am going to be putting in.  It may sound like putting the cart before the horse but its from the Psuedo Table of Contents that I generally make GNS decisions.

EODL (Empire of the Dragon - Lotus) was slightly different, more frenetic. Sometimes I get an idea, in this case an Oriental / mystical rpg, and I just have to write and write and write, forgetting the editing and letting the rules and setting spill out.   I have been working on another game in much the same way, called Her Majesty's Royal Zombies.  That was inspired by a conversation with two friends.  They know I tend to run with ideas that click in my head and HMRZ certainly did click.

All the various X-Fyre systems (Devilfyre, Hellfyre, Wyrmfyre ) have been a much more deliberate construction process, but I think thats maybe the important difference.  Sometimes I want to write a game.... sometimes I build a system.  hopefuly once I finish something (soon) it will pan out.

Sean

[ethan_greer]

I just re-realized something - all my game designs (except one) have arisen directly from dissatisfaction in other systems and/or play experiences. I guess my designs really start when I am unhappy with something and get that spark of an idea to fix it.

For the creation process, other influences kick in - the music, movies, etc. But the initial inspiration that kicks off the creation process usaully comes from a desire to fix something.

The exception is Blood Songs of the Volcanic Sphere, which I did for Mike's Iron Game Chef Sim competion. That one started with a visual image in my head of an ocean of lava, and drew lots of influence from the visuals of the movie Medicine Man.

[Jeph]

I start with the image of a scene in my mind. Then I make a title that captures the essence of that scene--eg, if I were imagining a guy fighting a dragon in a cave, I might call my game Dungeons and Dragons. The last thing I sometimes do before writing down systems thoughts is make a character sheet, which works as a sort of system shorthand for me.

[Daniel Solis]

It used to be that I would be inspired by a movie, tv show or some other media outlet. I'd say to myself, "Hey, I should make a game about zombies!" (Replace zombies with pirates, mad scientists, evil cross-dressing bikers, or what-have-you.)

Nowadays, having chatted about game design with some friends for a couple years, hanging out in the crockpot of creativity that is the Forge for a few months, and studying graphic design in college, I try to go deeper than whatever it is that initially inspired me to make a game.

Instead of "I want a game about zombies" I ask "what is it about zombies that is exploitable in an RPG?" I'll use the word bank brainstorming technique as well as the 12 guidelines of design published by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). Both these processes were originally meant for graphic design, but I've found them very helpful in game design as well.

Anyway, the gist is that I see something cool, try to dissect what elements are cool about it, then make a system and setting that are focused on those elements, trying not to stray from those elements too far.