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In Indie Game Design

6/26/2001 gizem: Singularity - a new game
I have designed a game and uploaded it to the net. It is more a setting than a game actually, but it has some simple mechanics also. It is rather…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: gizem, Jared A. Sorensen, Jason L Blair, Zak Arntson, Jamie Thomas Durbin.

6/22/2001 Zak Arntson: Presentation and Design Goals
Okay, I'm moving this D&D discussion to Game Design from Actual Play because I think it's a design-level issue. I am going to concentrate on Presentation. For most games, Presentation…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Zak Arntson, james_west, JSDiamond.

6/22/2001 Ian Freeman: Fate
Here's a thought for a system tag-on. Each character has a number of fate point. These fate points represent how much life the character has left to live. When the…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ian Freeman, hardcoremoose, Clay, Jared A. Sorensen.

6/19/2001 Ian Freeman: Racial/Gender mechanics
It tends to be pretty common in RPG for differents races/species to have different statistical modifers. And, it is very rare for this to apply to genders. Who here uses…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ian Freeman, Jason L Blair, James Holloway, JSDiamond, Ron Edwards, james_west, hardcoremoose, Zak Arntson, Damocles.

6/19/2001 Ron Edwards: Request
Hi there, I suppose this thread could go in the Site Discussion, but frankly, I think more people will see it here. As many of you can tell, Clinton and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ron Edwards, Clinton R. Nixon, Zak Arntson, Jason L Blair, Dav, Jared A. Sorensen, hardcoremoose, Epoch.

6/15/2001 Jared A. Sorensen: Dice mechanics
I know dice mechanics for task resolution are the RPG equivalent of stupid pet tricks, but... Just thought of a new dice mechanic...if it works I might use it in…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jared A. Sorensen, james_west, Max Tangent, Gordon C. Landis.

6/13/2001 Don Lag: Algorithms, complexity and what any of this has to do with R
First off, I must admit to being a computer engineering & physics major in progress. So all this is predictably spwaned from way too much contact with these disciplines. Many…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Don Lag, greyorm, james_west, Ron Edwards, Zak Arntson, jburneko, John Wick, Mytholder, Clay, Supplanter, Epoch, Gordon C. Landis.

6/11/2001 poppocabba: player vs game defined characteristics
one of my players was qouted as saying once " what is the point of creating a detailed setting if the players can't destroy it", and what she was refering…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: poppocabba, Don Lag, Ron Edwards, Max Tangent, joshua neff.

6/10/2001 Zak Arntson: Freebie RPG: Chthonian
Okay, spurred by D&D -] Disposable Characters -] Call of Cthulhu -] CoC done "right" (read: Narrative) ... Props (mad even) to Jared for giving me the bug to write…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Zak Arntson, Jared A. Sorensen, Paul Czege.

6/7/2001 Nathan: The Wild Has Returned!
Howdy, Actually have had time to write again, so here she is... the new, nice-looking (in my humble opinion) the Wild : Get it now!. So here is what…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Nathan, Ron Edwards, Jason L Blair.

6/5/2001 hardcoremoose: Human Wreckage
Hey Guys, I just finished writing up a little game based on the idea of the ever escalating body count (as seen in cheesy horror movies). It needs a lot…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hardcoremoose, Ferry Bazelmans, Ron Edwards, Zak Arntson, unodiablo.

6/2/2001 poppocabba: a hybrid system for one shots
i am kinda jazzed about my new idea. The character sheet is simply a half page "to do" list slightly altered with a section on the bottom called "how" ,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: poppocabba, Ron Edwards.

6/2/2001 Matt Gwinn: The Ballot System
I just had a new idea for a game mechanic and I was wondering what you all thought of it. I was thinking that a player could announce what he…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Matt Gwinn, james_west, Ron Edwards.

5/31/2001 Ferry Bazelmans: New game: storyboard
New to the board, perhaps not to the names ]:). I posted a new RPG on The BlackLight Bar. You''ll find it under Games-Free Games. It's largely concerned with…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ferry Bazelmans, Ron Edwards, hardcoremoose.

5/28/2001 Damocles: silly little game: "Trust me."
"Trust Me" (First Draft) __Introduction__ "Trust Me" is a minimalist universal roleplaying game emphasizing mutual trust between players and game master. After a fashion. __What You Need__ For each player:…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Damocles, james_west.

5/27/2001 Zak Arntson: Freebie RPG: Courts & Corsets
After watching Amadeus (and being a fan of those effeminate costume dramas in general), I thought about writing an RPG that recreates the intrigue-filled life of those characters. I thought…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Zak Arntson, Damocles, Paul Czege.

5/25/2001 Jason L Blair: Game #2: Zodiac 12
Okay, this one is even more neophytic in design than the previous site. More will be added soon but I decided, "Hey... why not post it?" Again, horribly edited but…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jason L Blair, Clinton R. Nixon, hardcoremoose, james_west, gentrification, contracycle.

5/24/2001 james_west: The right level of self-confidence
I was having a conversation with my wife yesterday (whose artistic inclinations tend in different directions) which seemed extremely relevant to this forum. It boils down to: Strong creativity happens…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: james_west, JSDiamond.

5/23/2001 Jason L Blair: Game #1: Machina
Dag, both JS and Zak have posted that they are working on games where players take the role of machines. Well, I have a game dealing with that as well…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jason L Blair, Dav, JSDiamond, Zak Arntson, Jared A. Sorensen, james_west.

5/23/2001 Clay: Micro Wars - The simple war game
Somebody in another forum complained that there didn't seem to be any gamist action here. To counteract that trend, I've put up my web site for Micro Wars, a simple…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Clay.

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Subsequent Topics
In Indie Game Design

6/29/2001 Ian Freeman: Salvation and a Moral Compass
Okay, here's a really, really strange idea. Atleast i think it is, has anybody seen stuff like this before? The basic insperation comes from all the games which have some…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ian Freeman, james_west, Dav, Ron Edwards.

6/29/2001 Gordon C. Landis: You ARE the bar
So, the last time I tried to design a game (as opposed to just extensively tweak an existing one) it involded taking a Japanese bayonet (which my father had brought…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, Dav, GreatWolf, Paul Czege, Jared A. Sorensen, Jamie Thomas Durbin.

6/30/2001 GreatWolf: #Origins, anyone?
This seemed to be the best place to put this, so apologies for the off-topic bit. But.... Any of you going to be at Origins? I'd love to be able…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: GreatWolf, Jason L Blair, archangel_2, Ron Edwards.

7/6/2001 Ron Edwards: Call for Action
Hi everyone, The Forge is trying to convert to an entirely author-driven links and promo library. The software to do it is up and running. If you have a game…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ron Edwards, Jared A. Sorensen, archangel_2, Clinton R. Nixon, Zak Arntson, Paul Czege.

7/10/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: idea...
There a certain style of play that's been receiving less and less attention these days, solo play. There are plenty of doomsayers out there who believe computer games are killing…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Dav, Nathan, archangel_2, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, Jason L Blair, Mytholder, Mithras, Jamie Thomas Durbin, James V. West, Loryndalar, Matt, FilthySuperman, xiombarg, Cadriel, Mike Holmes.

7/11/2001 poppocabba: another spirt concept rpg
Recently I have gotten a lot of horror rpgs that I will never be able to convince anyone to play them all, namely Nephilim, Lost Souls, Kult, Whispering Vault ,so…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: poppocabba.

7/11/2001 barteee: How much detail is needed?
I'm new so you'll have to forgive me if this has already been asked. One of the problems I always run into in game design is how much you have…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: barteee, Jamie Thomas Durbin, Dav, Ron Edwards, Mytholder.

7/15/2001 RobMuadib: Troupe "Universal" World Building Simulationist Shared Nar
I am in the process of writing up my RPG, tentatively titled The Million Worlds: Chronicles Of The Eternal Cycle, which I hope to "commercially" publish in some form, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: RobMuadib, Ron Edwards.

7/17/2001 RobMuadib: Shared Creationism - The Next Step for Simulationist?
Hey I was wondering what the "indie" guys here at the Forge think of "Shared Creationism" as the next evolutionary step for Simulationist game play. In most simulationist games there…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: RobMuadib, james_west, FilthySuperman, Emily Care.

7/22/2001 Clay: Well armed, large breasted women put people off games?
I'm interested in taking up this thread about how women are depicted in gaming. In particular, I want to assert that it may at times be appropriate to show some…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Clay, Damocles, greyorm, James V. West, Jack Spencer Jr, Uncle Dark, contracycle, Fletch, GreatWolf, joshua neff, Ron Edwards, Dav, hardcoremoose, Blake Hutchins, Logan, Supplanter, Cameron, james_west, Levekius, gizem, John Wick.

7/23/2001 Paul Czege: Sigil
Hey James V...everyone, I've been thinking seriously about running a scenario using Sigil. I even bought wood cubes at a craft store over the weekend. But I'm worried about play-balance…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Paul Czege, James V. West.

7/23/2001 Jared A. Sorensen: dogma '01
You guys are probably familiar with the dogma movement of cinema. An agreement to shoot with natural light, use only found objects and locations, to not use music unless it's…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jared A. Sorensen, Mytholder, Damocles, James V. West, Max Tangent, Ron Edwards, gizem.

7/25/2001 Paul Czege: a postcard from visiting the Forge Library
Hey everyone, Had a lot of fun on my recent trip to the Forge Library. I saw Rob Lang's ICAR and I really like the five stats: Battle, Meat, Shift,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Paul Czege, Ron Edwards.

7/29/2001 tldenmark: Your opinion please
Just put up the web page for the latest game I'm illustrating, and I'm curious if this looks appealing or not to YOU. http://www.dungeoneer.net Feedback and discussion appreciated. Thanks! tldenmark
In Indie Game Design
Participants: tldenmark, Clinton R. Nixon, Levekius, Jamie Thomas Durbin, Epoch, James V. West, Gordon C. Landis, Peter, greyorm, jdrakeh, unodiablo.

7/29/2001 Supplanter: Dice Again
When I learned about Fading Suns' die method I was really high on it. To recap: 1) You perform operations on some number of trait values and get a tally.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Supplanter, Epoch.

7/30/2001 jdrakeh: New things to play...
I've noticed as of late that many game designers have taken a step away from using common genre tropes and mechanics to lure new players into the hobby. Specifically, I've…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: jdrakeh, Jack Spencer Jr.

7/31/2001 Ian Freeman: MICE model
This little post could go in either the GNS model discussion or here, but I have actually posted here before so I might as well put it here. It stems…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ian Freeman, james_west, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur.

7/31/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: Adversarial RPG
If you haven't seen The Emperor's New Groove you should. It's a hoot. It starts a little slow and David Spade is a little annoying at first, but after he…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Damocles, Jared A. Sorensen, Le Joueur.

7/31/2001 jdrakeh: Small worlds...
"What an immensely clever plan it had been! To destroy every human being on the earth above the age of six - and then to leave as quickly as they…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: jdrakeh, Jared A. Sorensen, archangel_2, contracycle, Gordon C. Landis, FilthySuperman, Thededine, Mike Holmes.

7/31/2001 Paul Czege: Servitude for Wuthering Heights
Hey Philippe, everyone, In the Wuthering Heights review, Ron wrote: I think that the idea behind Wuthering Heights’ resolution method should be developed and applied to a lot of…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Paul Czege, Philippe Tromeur.

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