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In Indie Game Design

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.

7/23/2001 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.

7/23/2001 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.

7/22/2001 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.

7/17/2001 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.

7/15/2001 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.

7/11/2001 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.

7/11/2001 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.

7/10/2001 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.

7/6/2001 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.

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.

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.

6/29/2001 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.

6/27/2001 John Wick: Looking for Hex Paper
Anybody know where I can download hex paper? (Sorry I couldn't think of any other forum to ask this in. It's for one of the forthcoming WICKED PRESS products, so…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: John Wick, Clinton R. Nixon, Gordon C. Landis, Clay.

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.

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In Indie Game Design

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.

8/1/2001 hardcoremoose: The Heebie-Jeebies...
I shouldn't be posting this now...not on the evening before heading to GenCon, and certainly not at 2:00 AM. But oh well, here I am, so what the hell... I've…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hardcoremoose, Mike Holmes, Gordon C. Landis.

8/1/2001 tldenmark: game design dillema
I'm working on an RPG of Zombie Horror Survival in a Futuristic setting. The dillema I'm having is this...what system to use? I can look at it a few ways.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: tldenmark, Epoch, Mytholder, Jack Spencer Jr, unodiablo, jdrakeh.

8/6/2001 Clinton R. Nixon: Indie pick of GenCon
This doesn't have a good forum to go in, so: What was everyone's indie game pick of GenCon? Excluding Sorcerer, which is obvious, mine's FVLMINATA, a historical fantasy game set…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Clinton R. Nixon, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards, unodiablo, John Wick, Supplanter, hardcoremoose, Dav, Gordon C. Landis, Jared A. Sorensen, James Holloway.

8/7/2001 hardcoremoose: Human Wreckage: The Director's Cut
Hey guys, I'm currently attempting to revise Human Wreckage to address some of the problems Ron noted in his review of it. It's not finished yet...I am still working on…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hardcoremoose, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Esagila.

8/9/2001 jdrakeh: free-form magic
I'm currently stuck on a problem with my free-form magic system. I want something that doesn't depend on spell lists or any other classification system for magic as it really…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: jdrakeh, Supplanter, Uncle Dark, Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Blake Hutchins, Torrent, Jeffrey Straszheim.

8/9/2001 Galfraxas: An Idea For A Game
Okay, I came up with an idea for a game, which I've decided to post here... This is only a bare bones idea, as I have yet to actually think…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Galfraxas, hardcoremoose, Theory of X, Jack Spencer Jr.

8/9/2001 Mytholder: I wuss out complete and do what I swore I'd never do
http://www.mytholder.f2s.com/gaming/blackadder.html An rpg. Ish. By me. Go tear apart, my pretties.
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mytholder, Zak Arntson, joshua neff.

8/10/2001 hardcoremoose: This is going to end badly...
Okay, I'm probably asking for trouble with this one... This afternoon I read a message from Mr. John Wick decribing a game called Blood Lust. I vaguely remembered having heard…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hardcoremoose, Gordon C. Landis, Mytholder, Ron Edwards.

8/10/2001 James V. West: This might be fun.
Seems like we're having all kinds of new games ideas today...here's one more. PLOT ELEMENTS- a game of competitive storytelling. In this game, the group tells a story. This is…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: James V. West, Ron Edwards, unodiablo, Ferry Bazelmans, Jamie Thomas Durbin.

8/12/2001 jdrakeh: Tipping hats
I just wanted to thank everybody for the input concerning the free-form 'magic' system that I was working on. The game (currently incomplete) was added to the author-submitted library today…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: jdrakeh.

8/12/2001 jdrakeh: Dark settings and Niche Markets
With the work on "Sleepers" due to taper off in October, I've decided to use the engine for that game for my sci/noir game entitled "Shades of Grey". The basic…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: jdrakeh, FilthySuperman.

8/13/2001 Nathan: In-Game = Out-of-Game
I haven't seen much of anyone playing around with this idea, but I suppose it can make some folks jumpy. Anyone working on any games where characters are rewarded for…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Nathan, joshua neff.

8/14/2001 FilthySuperman: New Silly Little Musician Game
"Less Talk More Rock" The Game of Sex, Dice, and Rock n' Roll" (well, dice anyway) is finished. After the Loooong (about an hour) arduous (I had to type it)…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: FilthySuperman, unodiablo.

8/14/2001 gizem: Singularity - game remake
I finally updated Singularity, my cyberpunk game/setting. This version includes; 1. Slight changes in the setting chapters (first 4 chapters) 2. Improved 'Characters' chapter 3. Feedback: A totally new and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: gizem, contracycle.

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