Previous Topics
In Indie Game Design

3/28/2003 redcrow: Need help developing categories for magic
I'm developing a game in the fantasy genre and could use some input for ideas on how to categorize magic. So far what I've been trying to do is balance…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: redcrow, ethan_greer, Thomas Tamblyn, taalyn, greyorm, Mike Holmes, Kester Pelagius.

3/28/2003 Patrick Boutin: attribute based on aspect
Hi everybody, I'm currently toying with a new system and I need help finding some "attributes" based on different "aspects". It all begins with a new layout for a character…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Patrick Boutin, redcrow, simon, M. J. Young.

3/28/2003 Michael Hopcroft: Anyone have an Open Source Systems list?
Does anyone have a liost of all the game systems that have Open Gaming License-like licenses on them? In other words, all the pre-existing systems I can make commercial products…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Michael Hopcroft, Rich Stokes, Mike Holmes, ThreeGee, ethan_greer, talysman, iago, bladamson, axonrg.

3/28/2003 SGE: Mechanic for narrative games: opinions?
Good day, and I'm a first time poster...be gentle with me! I have an idea for a mechanic for a purely homebrew mythic Norse game I'm planning, and wondered if…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: SGE, ADGBoss, Jack Spencer Jr, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

3/27/2003 Simon W: Gangs of the Big Apple
After seeing the movie 'of s similar name' myself and Mark George thought it would be a good idea to base a gm-less and dice-less rpg around. We came up…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Simon W.

3/27/2003 signoftheserpent: space patrol galactic history
a reposting of sorts from below (because im somwhat bored and termninally insecure). dont take the writing style too seriously ;) *** Space Patrol: Galactic History Then: The Mentors and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: signoftheserpent, Matt Wilson.

3/27/2003 taalyn: new game and guy - mechanic question
Hi guys, I'm a new member to the Forge, but have been reading along for ages now. I've been working on a Nar game with a simple Fortune mechanic, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: taalyn, szilard, ThreeGee, Mike Holmes, Shreyas Sampat, Wolfen, Brian Leybourne, Spooky Fanboy, Twinsoul, Hamshrew.

3/26/2003 Nathan: Metal Cannibal : the first cannibalistic robot rpg
Howdy there, I've done an early draft of my next rpg that I plan to push. It is very much a sister game to Eldritch Ass Kicking -- Metal Cannibal…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Nathan, iago, Thomas Tamblyn, Mike Holmes, Madcat, Rich Stokes, ThreeGee.

3/26/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk: Character Sheet & Advancement
Check out the new Storypunk character sheet: http://1001.indie-rpgs.com/sp.pdf Characters are quantified in 3 ways: 1. Name 2. Themes 3. Permanent Themes & Duties ("I am...") Name goes on the far…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton.

3/26/2003 Michael Hopcroft: Dual-System games
I'm the sort of game designer who would rather borrow a good game system than design my own. Call me lazy, uncreative, or a grouchy slob -- I'd just rather…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Michael Hopcroft, Ben Morgan, ADGBoss, Rich Stokes, ThreeGee, Jonathan Walton, Thomas Tamblyn, Clinton R. Nixon, Andrew Martin.

3/25/2003 Simon W: Babewatch
Yes I am very sad, but here is a rpg I made years ago, when I was young and foolish and had nothing better to do with my time. And…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Simon W, Othyem, Walt Freitag.

3/25/2003 AV: Passages of Time
I have grown fond of a number of games over the years, Call of Cthulu, All of the WoD, aspects of D&D (I'm too young and too broke to have…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: AV, Mike Holmes, Tar Markvar.

3/24/2003 Simon W: Tales from the Wood - any takers?
Ok, so James V West liked my game Tales from the Wood (see his Anthropomorphic post), but do any of the rest of you think it is worth getting it…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Simon W, bluegargantua.

3/24/2003 Kester Pelagius: Crystal Spheres: Would this game interest you?
Greetings All, Meant to post something about this awhile ago. . . So I am working on something, like most of us here are, and was wondering what your thoughts…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Kester Pelagius, szilard, Jonathan Walton, Valamir, dalek_of_god, Mike Holmes, Shreyas Sampat.

3/24/2003 CplFerro: Fixating Productions update
I post this on this forum as the material contained at our web-site is independent-minded enough to be nearly new systems extending the Phoenix Command line. I decided to post…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: CplFerro.

3/24/2003 Rich Stokes: Danger Dudes: Stupid action game.
This is a half-arsed idea that I've been mulling over this weekend. The idea is to knock up a quick and dirty RPG about cheesy action movies. Please note that…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Rich Stokes, ThreeGee, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

3/23/2003 Heraldic Game Design: Are Polyhedrals More "Fun"?
I know that this may be a very basic question, but even a basic choice in mechanics can make a large difference in how a game feels when it's played.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Heraldic Game Design, szilard, James V. West, Mike Holmes, Alan, Jake Norwood, M. J. Young, cruciel, greyorm, Brian Leybourne, talysman, Valamir, Le Joueur, Walt Freitag, brainwipe, anonymouse, arxhon, Jeph, Trevis Martin.

3/22/2003 James V. West: Anthropomorphic RPGs: the complete list
For the widest results, I've duplicated this post at both www.indie-rpgs.com and www.rpg.net. Hope no one minds the cross-post. I'm trying to compile a complete-as-possible list of all anthropomorphic-based RPGs…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: James V. West, Rob MacDougall, Simon W, M. J. Young, Jonathan Walton, Thomas Tamblyn, Kester Pelagius, bluegargantua, Jared A. Sorensen, Mike Holmes, talysman, Maurice Forrester.

3/22/2003 Sykora: HEX: Rip the System
Back in October (I'd post the link but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make 'em show up) I brought up my techno-urban game called…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Sykora, ethan_greer.

3/21/2003 Ian Charvill: CONTAGION: Pitch for an indie RPG
Shortly after watching Ginger Snaps I was playing a puzzle game on the PC – a game called Bejewelled. The game has a music track that is fairly minimalist and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ian Charvill, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

<< more previous topics

Subsequent Topics
In Indie Game Design

3/28/2003 Lugaru: Engeneering the dead
Ok... some of you might have read some prev. posts on how imprtant the manipulation of undead resources can be in my game. Of course this is not exclusively an…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Lugaru.

3/28/2003 taalyn: Scott Knipe's Wyrd
Does anyone have a copy? Was it free, so you could forward a copy to me? Or is anyone willing to tell me about it? It no longer has a…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: taalyn, Clinton R. Nixon, greyorm, hardcoremoose, James V. West, Jere, szilard.

3/28/2003 Bruce Baugh: Preliminary thoughts: Real Souls In A Fake World
Szilard's comments about magical difficulty based on plot significance went pinging around my skull and brought together some stray elements. Let's see... This game is about characters who discover that…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Bruce Baugh, Shadeling.

3/29/2003 Jonathan Walton: In Search of a Metagame
So, mechanically, Storypunk is almost finished (though some playtesting still needs to happen, and then I have to sit down and write the damn thing), and I was discussing a…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Jack Spencer Jr, Spooky Fanboy, szilard, RobMuadib, deadpanbob.

3/30/2003 taalyn: Rulebook outline?
I've been collecting together my Aisling notes, and have sat down to actually write out the rulebook. I've run into a problem: I'm rather vague on how to arrange things!…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: taalyn, Shreyas Sampat, brainwipe, JSDiamond.

3/31/2003 taalyn: Aisling - mechanic review, please? <LONG>
Hey all, Here's my writeup for the Aisling mechanic. Would anyone be willing to critique it? How To Do It Whenever a charactert attempts an action whose outcome is significant…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: taalyn, Wolfen, greyorm.

3/31/2003 Ziggy: Ninja Gibbon - mechanics Q
Hi there. I've been browsing here for a while, trying without sucess to get a game running (I may have some mechanics for this game in a few days). Meanwhile,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ziggy, Mike Holmes, Mark Johnson, Thomas Tamblyn.

3/31/2003 Hannu Hurme: Inspiration: let's break some eggs
Hi all! First let me introduce myself, my name is Hannu Hurme and I’m from Finland. I’ve been lurking here, on and off for some time now and I’ve found…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Hannu Hurme, Spooky Fanboy, Brian Leybourne, Mark Johnson, Jonathan Walton, Shreyas Sampat, ScottM.

3/31/2003 bladamson: Mirima Tyalie core system
Hi. We've been working on a system for a few months. It's almost finished, and I was hoping we might be able to get some constructive criticism on the game.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: bladamson, Mike Holmes, Shreyas Sampat, Kester Pelagius, ThreeGee, Mark Johnson, greyorm, Garbanzo, Valamir, Thomas Tamblyn.

3/31/2003 Simon W: DisasterQuakeFireFlood
Disaster movies are a poular draw at the cinema. Role-playing games often try to emulate the movies. However, I am not sure that I have seen any disaster based role-playing…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Simon W, Shreyas Sampat, talysman, Walt Freitag, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Maurice Forrester.

4/1/2003 Rekar: Mechanics
I am currently throwing around ideas for a future based RPG. It will not contain any classes, but skills that would be part of a class. This eliminates the fustration…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Rekar, Mark Johnson, Mike Holmes, Brian Leybourne, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

4/1/2003 Green: creating a game about "real" fae?
I've been a fan of Storyteller games for a while, and recently I've been deeply interested in modern fantasy. After reading Emma Bull's War for the Oaks and Terry Pratchett's…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Green, Sidhain, John Kim, taalyn, clehrich.

4/2/2003 Christoffer Lernö: Agonizing over margin-based effects
I keep coming back to writing good rules for "limits" to narration based on fighting margin. One method would simply be to have a list over moves allowed for every…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Walt Freitag, Thomas Tamblyn, Sidhain, Valamir.

4/2/2003 GameAddict224: Is this Indie?
http://www.outwar.com/page.php?x=101630
In Indie Game Design
Participants: GameAddict224, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

4/2/2003 Zak Arntson: Deplorable - Source Material
While Deplorable concentrates on a Victorian society and the literature of the late 1800's, I am looking for any material that depicts the themes in Deplorable. You can read the…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Zak Arntson, Valamir, Jared A. Sorensen, redcrow, kregmosier, iago, b_bankhead, Walt Freitag, Mike Holmes, simon, simon_hibbs, Thomas Tamblyn.

4/2/2003 Green: ideas for working title
The story-based RPG I've created, Kathanaksaya, is going through its next revision phase. For the most part, it is cleaning up the text, making it clearer and more precise. In…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Green, Paul Czege, ethan_greer, Thomas Tamblyn, iago, Rich Stokes, RobMuadib, Shreyas Sampat.

4/3/2003 taalyn: Probabilities, mechanic tweak, blathering pointlessly
After reading Mike's rant again, I've decided what will happen re DL and my mechanic. Simply draw vs. skill - opposing skill (whether that's Doorness or Joe Bob Spriggan's 'Hurt…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: taalyn, Mike Holmes, Twinsoul, Brian Leybourne, Shreyas Sampat, Wolfen.

4/3/2003 The_Confessor: Cradle: A role playing game of innocent terror
I've been bouncing around this idea for an RPG for a few weeks, and I finally wrote this kinda blurb/introduction thing. The idea for the game is heavily influenced by…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: The_Confessor, bladamson, Shadeling, ethan_greer, xiombarg, Green, Valamir, Thomas Tamblyn, Jared A. Sorensen, Balthasar Bux, Simon W, Phillip, Dumirik, gobi, garapata.

4/5/2003 blaze_axis: Nice Game
http://www.outwar.com/page.php?x=468091
In Indie Game Design
Participants: blaze_axis, Ron Edwards.

4/5/2003 Jake Norwood: La Famiglia: Revisited
Okay, so I'm serious about this one. I really want to finish it, and to prove it I'll have copies at GenCon, with art. You can read the current and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jake Norwood, Brian Leybourne, Mike Holmes, Jaeger, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

more subsequent topics >>