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In Indie Game Design

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.

11/20/2002 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 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 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 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.

11/19/2002 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.

11/19/2002 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.

11/18/2002 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.

11/17/2002 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.

11/17/2002 Christoffer Lernö: Yggdrasil: Playtest reference preview
I have written a playtest reference for Yggdrasil. Some things are still missing but those are comparatively minor things. Possible points of interest: Disadvantage/Advantage mechanic Although the basic resolution is…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, Tony Irwin, Gwen, C. Edwards, RobMuadib.

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.

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Subsequent Topics
In Indie Game Design

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.

11/27/2002 Brian Leybourne: Die Mechanics
I've been mulling around some ideas in my head about die systems recently. (Not that I have an actual game in mind to use them for at the moment, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Brian Leybourne, Mike Holmes, szilard, Henry Fitch.

11/27/2002 Mageant: Persistent RPG World
Hi Everyone, I would value your opinions on the following idea: I am complemplating creating a copy of the Mysticora game world (www.mysticora.com) database for a persistent pen & paper…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mageant, Mike Holmes, RobMuadib, Emily Care, contracycle, damion, Balbinus.

11/27/2002 Emily Care: Rise Up: narrative allocation mechanics
Hello, I'm working on a game that takes place in a slave holding society on the brink of revolution. The mechanics will guide the players to create a framework of…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Emily Care, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, bluegargantua, Jonathan Walton.

11/27/2002 scobie: Casefile ZODIAC - Soundtracks (Long)
Hi all Given some of the discussion on the forum, I'm thinking of chucking out the 'xp' model of character development based on learning new skills, instead going for thematic…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: scobie, JSDiamond.

11/27/2002 Steve Dustin: CREATURE FEATURE: Powers of play in a shared-GM game
Creature Feature is a shared-GM monster movie RPG I talked about in this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4138 Some conversations got me thinking about "defining" the metagame capabilities of players in terms of…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Steve Dustin, RobMuadib, Mike Holmes.

11/30/2002 James V. West: Black Wing: idea in the rough (long)
[i][b]Black Wing[/i][/b] is the rpg companion to my series of comic stories set in the land of Hof. These stories begin with issue #1 of [url=http://www.randomordercreations.com/rocg.html]Random Order Comics and Games[/url]…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: James V. West, Ron Edwards.

12/1/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Shared Control of Characters?
In a game I'm working on, players are dissociated from the characters. The players are to represent temptations that pull the characters away from their goals, and ultimately hinder them…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards.

12/2/2002 Gwen: Long Goodbye (with cards)
I think the idea of using cards is an excellent idea and would help greatly with the organization and execution of the game. Traditionally, I am opposed to card/dice games…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Gwen, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young.

12/3/2002 Matt Wilson: Peregrine: Can I sell you this game?
Here's a game I've been working on for a bit now. The setting and rules are fairly well along, but I want to be able to "sell it" without you…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Matt Wilson, Paul Czege, James V. West.

12/4/2002 JSDiamond: Orbit cover art
The book cover art is finished. There will eventually be a starry background and shiny chrome text, but I'll do those in Adobe paint and illustrator. I set a black…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: JSDiamond, Valamir, Paul Czege, James V. West.

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