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In Indie Game Design

11/16/2002 Sparky: Character Death Mechanics?
Hi folks! I'm mainly looking for some options here. I tried various search queries in the forge archives and even a couple of google searches...I couldn't find anything much on…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Sparky, Andrew Martin, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, GreatWolf, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, damion, John Wick.

11/15/2002 Matt Wilson: A narrativist premise for my game
I've been wanting to put a narrativist premise in place for the game I'm designing, and I think I have one that fits with the setting. It's a future space-opera…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Matt Wilson, Alan, szilard, Mike Holmes.

11/15/2002 Tony Irwin: Theme Chaser: Rolling Dice
Actually I suppose this isn't really an issue about rolling dice, more of identifying with characters. There came a point in our playtest last night (while fighting the fire spiders)…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Tony Irwin, thoth, Le Joueur, Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, Matt Wilson.

11/13/2002 Wormwood: Clandestine: Organs of Conpiracy
I introduced this game here. One of the major elements in the game involves constructing bodies using a pool of points. At different levels these bodies are conspiracies, small bands…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Wormwood, Mike Holmes, Walt Freitag.

11/13/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Marionettes: Morality?
Okay, a new idea for Marionettes: Marionettes is a game about morality, as the Puppets and Puppeteers embody them. The Puppets are governed by Principles, which are static rules by…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat.

11/12/2002 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk: The Troupe
If you are not familar with the previous threads about this game, don't worry. You don't need to be. Still, if you're interested, searching for "storypunk" will turn up everything…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, J. Backman, szilard, Shreyas Sampat.

11/11/2002 Kenway: MyGame: "Advancement via Notoriety and PC-summoned foes
"Advancement via Notoriety and PC-summoned foes" From the similarly-named thread in the rpg theory forum, here are 2 ideas for a new system. Setting, characters, etc. still need to be…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Kenway, Anthony, talysman, Bob McNamee, Rich Forest.

11/11/2002 Christoffer Lernö: What's the best way to present a mechanic for discussion?
Hi All, I know this is a little late for me to ask (doh!), but what is really the best way to present a system one has written? I'm talking…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, Gordon C. Landis, Valamir, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, talysman, Jeph, SrGrvsaLot, Andy Kitkowski, permacultureguerilla, Shreyas Sampat, greyorm, Doctor Xero, Alex Johnson, Adorame.

11/11/2002 scobie: Casefile: ZODIAC - First draft available
Hi folks I've only recently discovered the Forge and it looks like a good place to share my humble first draft rules for a game which I am developing. The…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: scobie, Andrew Martin, Ron Edwards, Shreyas Sampat.

11/10/2002 RobMuadib: TMW:COTEC - Rewards Systems Costs (LONGISH)
Hi all I have put together the tentative rules for the Rewards System Costs, and was wondering how you guys think this would work. The essential concept here, in terms…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: RobMuadib, Mike Holmes, Tony Irwin.

11/9/2002 J B Bell: Hero Wars-like dice system with d6
I really dig the Hero Wars resoution system. Having a non-asymptotic setup is appropriate for fairly cinematic settings, or any setting where you believe strongly that the right answer to…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: J B Bell, Paganini, Mike Holmes.

11/9/2002 Blake Hutchins: MUSE: some thoughts on heroic fantasy
It's finally happened. I've been mulling over a game design, primarily as a design exercise that incorporates techniques and ideas I've learned on the Forge. My goal is to produce…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Blake Hutchins, Jonathan Walton, Gwen, ADGConscience, Mike Holmes.

11/8/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Torchbearer: Boxes within Boxes
[i]There is a legendary sanctum at Veamaandhi's Basilica of Red Cliff. It can hardly be called a chamber; at best it's a pavilion. It sits atop the Great Hall, open…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Andrew Martin, GreatWolf, Emily Care, Mike Holmes, Jonathan Walton.

11/7/2002 b_bankhead: Narrative Spaceships
One of the most important characters in any kind of show begining with the work 'Star' is usually given short shrift in discussions of narrative games. That character of cours…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: b_bankhead, Andrew Martin, Mike Holmes.

11/7/2002 Wormwood: Drift RPG
I figured since there was discussion in RPG Theory about narrative space opera, I should toss in my version. Of course it's also a game design in progress, to eventually…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Wormwood, Valamir, Patrick Boutin, lumpley, RobMuadib, Emily Care, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Le Joueur, Blake Hutchins, greyorm, Christoffer Lernö.

11/6/2002 Alan: Narrativist Space Trader
I've noticed that SF is not yet greatly explored by games which favor narrativist play. In particular, I'm thinking of SF in the tradition of space exploration or space trading.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Alan, Marco, Matt, Ron Edwards, RobMuadib, Andrew Martin, Tony Irwin, Tim C Koppang, Mike Holmes.

11/6/2002 Patrick Boutin: a new fantasy game
This post is a logical sequel to the thread "some questions about fantasy" in the Rpg Theory forum. First thing first, I want to let you know that the game…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Patrick Boutin, Mike Holmes, thoth, Christoffer Lernö.

11/6/2002 Ferry Bazelmans: Soap is out, but is it good?
Hi there, I recently put out my game Soap as a 31-page PDF file (I'd say about 23 pages of pure content, 3 ads, cover, introduction, dedication, toc and credits).…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ferry Bazelmans.

11/6/2002 RobMuadib: TMW:COTEC - The Sundering of the Omyrae (Long)
Hey All Figured I should point out the Game Universe and Mythos that my game will be set against. The idea behind the games UberMetaSetting is to provide a universe…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: RobMuadib, Shreyas Sampat, Kester Pelagius.

11/6/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Torchbearer: Vision and Duty Traces
I was considering the transformative model of Torchbearer magic, and its effects on the game's mechanics. Basically, the transformative model says that whenever you activate a magical trait, it replaces…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Jonathan Walton.

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In Indie Game Design

11/17/2002 J. Backman: I finished my game
I finally finished Theatrum, my small, narrative role-playing system. You can download it here (~155k pdf). And here's a character sheet (~25k pdf). Comments are welcome.
In Indie Game Design
Participants: J. Backman, Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes.

11/18/2002 Gwen: TV Land
This is an old idea of mine, which is a combination of "Stay Tuned" and "Quantum Leap." Stay Tuned was a movie from the early 90's where Satan sells people…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Gwen, Mike Holmes, Emily Care, Eric J., Walt Freitag, szilard, Ron Edwards, Bob McNamee, Jonathan Walton, Jason E. Roberts, Jared A. Sorensen.

11/19/2002 Sidhain: Gunknight: Chivalry Extant
Playing around with my ITR system, I was thinking "what will I use this system for" a system without something to support is a skeleton without skin. And rather ugly…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Sidhain, Andrew Martin, J. Backman, Gwen, Mike Holmes, ethan_greer, scobie, Ron Edwards.

11/19/2002 Stuart DJ Purdie: An unusual (?) approach to stats
This is a little sketchy at present, an unnamed, but I hope you find it interesting. There has been a few games recently looking at the power of belief, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Stuart DJ Purdie, Le Joueur, Wormwood, szilard, Aelios, Ron Edwards, damion, Don Lag, M. J. Young.

11/20/2002 RobMuadib: TMW:COTEC - "Butchering the GM..."
Hi All I have been plugging away at the Game Concepts: Shared Play chapter for TMW, and have layed out the basic idea of the Game, and what you do…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: RobMuadib, Mike Holmes, Gwen.

11/20/2002 Christoffer Lernö: Myth-flow - a basic mechanic for Yggdrasil
I'm working on something. Unfortunately it's going pretty slowly, so I'm presenting it here and hope that maybe someone has a suggestion. Introduction (Skip this part if you want) It's…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, RobMuadib, Emily Care, Demonspahn, Shreyas Sampat.

11/20/2002 Zak Arntson: Thord of Relings
Okay, so that's a lousy name for my game, but it's still in development. I'll come up with a good name later. It's a fantasy game inspired by a certain…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Zak Arntson, Valamir, Blake Hutchins, szilard, Tony Irwin.

11/20/2002 Matt Snyder: Nine Worlds & Five threads
Let's talk Nine Worlds. See, at this point it's floundering a bit, as I "wait" for artists to reply, a.k.a. procrastinating. Maybe that's a good thing, because Ron has brought…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Matt Snyder, Ron Edwards.

11/20/2002 paulmjessup: sleepless : a one nighter insomniac horror game concept
Hey all. New to this board and all that natch. I've recently gotten back into doing table top RPG's (I've done tons of video game RPG's, and even created a…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: paulmjessup, Jonathan Walton.

11/24/2002 The Gentleman: Erm, Hi. And what I'm working on.
Hi, I'm the Gentleman. Say no more. At the mo, I'm working on a fantasy game With Consequences, in the manner of Unknown Armies, though a wee bit less occulty.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: The Gentleman, Shreyas Sampat, Mike Holmes, Andrew Martin, Jamie.

11/25/2002 Demonspahn: Need help with Aware "narrative" mechanic.
Hi everyone. Just thought I'd post this, looking for some fresh new ideas. I'm talking about my game Aware, where you play intelligent animals. I'm looking for what I can…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Demonspahn, M. J. Young, Mike Holmes, Christoffer Lernö, Nathan.

11/25/2002 talysman: Court of 9 Chambers: new description mechanics
I've been working on the next version of "The Court of 9 Chambers", something a little more robust while still maintaining that flexible minimalist feel of the first version. the…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: talysman, Emily Care, Valamir.

11/25/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Torchbearer: Mythology or Setting?
Reading over Ron's essay and reflecting on my own experience, I realized that Torchbearer threatens to suffer from the conflict between detailed Character and Setting that creates difficulties for Narrativist…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Mike Holmes, GreatWolf, Jonathan Walton.

11/25/2002 Clinton R. Nixon: Riptide: anatomy of a design, part 1 (long)
The current round of threads here has been really inspiring to me. I'm talking specifically about threads like Chris Kubasik's Accessible? To whom?, Jon's What would make a non-roleplayer buy…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Clinton R. Nixon, Mike Holmes, thoth, Valamir, Jack Spencer Jr, szilard, Tim Denee, Matt Wilson, Mark D. Eddy, Jared A. Sorensen, talysman, scobie, Ron Edwards.

11/25/2002 Sidhain: Back to the...ahem..Heart..of the matter.
I've been working on my Hearts and Souls superhero game on and off, last night one of my players said they didn't feel like playing because it was too hard.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Sidhain, M. J. Young, Jared A. Sorensen.

11/25/2002 Daredevil: Samurai Surfin'
No, that's not the actual title of what I'm working on, but it sure sounds catchy. I've currently been working on this game design and I'm fairly stuck between a…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Daredevil, Mark D. Eddy, Bob McNamee, talysman.

11/26/2002 Gwen: Long Goodbye
This is another idea for a game I've had. I just recently came up with the idea, so there's much fleshing out necessary, but I figured I would explain my…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Gwen, Le Joueur, Paul Czege, Brian Leybourne, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, thoth, Price Check, Ziriel, Psycho42, damion, Jonathan Walton.

11/26/2002 Wormwood: Clandestine: Sore wa himitsu desu
I'm trying to work out a mechanic to generate secrets, or at least guide their generations. By secrets, I mean in particular specific actions that produce specific effects, based on…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Wormwood, Mike Holmes.

11/26/2002 Wormwood: Drift: Spending XP during play
Resources are fun, and advancement resources tend to be put to many different uses. In Drift however, advancement resources seem to need a little modification. While the idea of spending…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Wormwood, Ron Edwards.

11/26/2002 zaal: Alternative Combat Rounds
Hi all, I posted this on RPG.net and was told to check out this forum. So here I am :) . Bear with me as I learn some of the…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: zaal, Andrew Martin, Gwen, Brian Leybourne, Wormwood, b_bankhead, simon_hibbs, Mike Holmes, Le Joueur, cruciel, Blake Hutchins, thoth, szilard, M. J. Young, Valamir, damion, Walt Freitag.

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