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In First Thoughts

12/17/2009 ImberCorvus: Racial Expansion without Numbers
All right. I've been working on a series of articles on traditional races of Fantasy which provide an alternate view of the cliché's which surround them. As an example I…
In First Thoughts
Participants: ImberCorvus, Paul Czege, davidberg, Vulpinoid.

12/15/2009 Thor: [Starry Messenger] Choose your own Difficulty
I was excited that the fencing worked in our first playtest, but not nearly as excited about the fact that the players were picking their own difficulty levels. At the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Thor, chronoplasm, Paul Czege, Noon, Vulpinoid, dindenver.

12/15/2009 chronoplasm: Working on a Social Mechanic
There's more to hunting monsters than hacking and slashing. Sometimes you have to question witnesses, interrogate suspects that might secretly be monsters in disguise, comfort widows and other friends of…
In First Thoughts
Participants: chronoplasm, chance.thirteen, dindenver.

12/14/2009 Thor: [Starry Messengers] Fencing with Cards
We had the first playtest of Starry Messengers my clockpunk space game this weekend. Start scary caveats/We were making up as we went. The rules as such are probably not…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Thor, Jeff B, tleeuwenburg@gmail.com, greyorm, Ken.

12/14/2009 tombowings: Player Skill vs. Character skill
In the last few months I have been analyzing trends in games I really enjoy vs. games I don't enjoy as much. The conclusion I have come to is that…
In First Thoughts
Participants: tombowings, Megoru, chance.thirteen, Seamus, dindenver, xenopulse, davidberg, Noon, Vulpinoid.

12/13/2009 Justin Nichol - BFG: Whodunnit Story Game
Hi everyone, It's been a while since I last posted. I'm still working a lot on my Creative Commons game system, and it's actually shaping up pretty well for release.…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Justin Nichol - BFG, Catelf.

12/13/2009 Megoru: To the bottom of simplicity, layers approach.
[size=8pt](I'm italian so please try to understand that I write in a language that is different from my own)[/size] Hi everyone, I've been reading this forum collecting cool ideas for…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Megoru, Jasper Flick, Noon, Catelf.

12/13/2009 tleeuwenburg@gmail.com: Effectiveness of ganging up
One of the major unresolved aspects for my game is how effective ganging up in combat should be. Brutally effective? Enough to make the difference between barely winning and winning…
In First Thoughts
Participants: tleeuwenburg@gmail.com, Seamus, Jeff B, chance.thirteen, Eero Tuovinen, chronoplasm, decline, Creatures of Destiny, Jasper Flick, KeithBVaughn.

12/12/2009 RevJackson: A New Sub-genre?
With the new movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and perhaps a later book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I was wondering if any designers had given thought to game scenarios…
In First Thoughts
Participants: RevJackson, Justin Nichol - BFG, chronoplasm.

12/11/2009 Tark: Beyond Gods]Intro Fiction Shenanigans Redux
So before I sit down to get to writing Beyond Gods proper, I decided to write a bit of introductory fiction to get the brain cells rolling and give players…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Tark, Spooky Fanboy.

12/9/2009 Anekanta: Suggestions for a central mechanic? [Lords of Sky] (new game)
Hey again everybody!  I had an idea for the core mechanic of a secondary game design that I'm working on, and I thought I'd post it here and see if…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Anekanta, Jasper Flick.

12/8/2009 chronoplasm: Suggestions for "Mental Grid"
OK, so I'm designing a 'monster of the week' game where the players are tasked with hunting down a single monster and stopping it before it kills again. The default…
In First Thoughts
Participants: chronoplasm, chance.thirteen, Catelf.

12/7/2009 John Blaz: help with an Armor/ Damage system
Hey all, I've recently started going over what I began months ago for a Post-apocalypse RPG system. The setting is ideally somewhere between Fallout and Mad Max. Anyway, my armor/…
In First Thoughts
Participants: John Blaz, tleeuwenburg@gmail.com, Ken, Catelf, Quizoid.

12/7/2009 uchimatamaster: "realistic" HTH/Melee Combat system
Hey guys, I just found this forum and am wicked excited about it.  So on to the questions/comments... I have a combat system that I created based on percentiles from…
In First Thoughts
Participants: uchimatamaster, greyorm, chance.thirteen, Seamus, uchiaway.

12/6/2009 kaevad: Would anyone mind giving feeback on my rpg website
Hi all, its been a few months since i last made a post here, i've been stuck with work, uni and more important vecoming more focused on good game design.…
In First Thoughts
Participants: kaevad, chance.thirteen, Seamus, Eero Tuovinen.

12/2/2009 SeeThirty: (Adult Content) Name and mechanics for RPG 'sexual' martial art?
I'm toying around with an adult-oriented rules modification for a game system, and the idea of a sexually-based martial art came to mind. I'm trying to figure out some ideas,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: SeeThirty, whiteknife, chance.thirteen, Paul Czege, Catelf.

12/2/2009 tleeuwenburg@gmail.com: Mythology: Combat rounds mechanic
I have an idea for my combat system. I posted it over at rpg.net and it seemed to stand up to early comments, so I thought I'd also post here…
In First Thoughts
Participants: tleeuwenburg@gmail.com, Catelf, dindenver, davidberg, Anekanta, contracycle.

12/1/2009 Deathtone: My game idea [Village]
This game is a mix of a hard core RTS (real time strategy) and the realistic features of a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).  The idea of the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Deathtone, Catelf.

11/30/2009 Ravien: [The Shadow Conclave] (tactical RPG): Can avoidance of combat be FUN?
Hey all! I haven't posted here in many years (back when you helped me design Scarlet Wake, which was a tremendous learning experience for me), thanks to dramatic career changes…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Ravien, Rikiji, JoyWriter, Seamus.

11/25/2009 Warrior Monk: Things about the system that annoy GM's
I've been reading some old posts about game balance and searching the forum for something I readed some time ago, but I couldn't find it. Now I'm not so sure…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Warrior Monk, Rikiji, greyorm, Mike Sugarbaker, Noon, davidberg, SeeThirty, Tormir, Seamus, chronoplasm, Jeff B.

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In First Thoughts

12/18/2009 Daz Florp Lebam: my dice pool system (feel its awesome power!)
Well hello, all! This is my first post, after hearing a lot about this site and these forums over the years, and a wee bit of lurking. I have a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Daz Florp Lebam, Warrior Monk, JoyWriter, Quizoid, Excalibur.

12/19/2009 Eldrad: The Olde Realm: Akedemios
I have been working on my RPG/ Poems/ Collection of Short Stories/ Artwork with the help of a few friends for many years now. For the last 8-10 years I…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Eldrad, Vulpinoid, Catelf.

12/19/2009 Vulpinoid: Impulse Settings
Here's an idea I'm toying with. It started basically as a kind of Power 19 that really delves into a setting and why it is suitable for a game environment.…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Vulpinoid, tleeuwenburg@gmail.com, Paka, davidberg, Warrior Monk.

12/20/2009 punkbohemian: trying to figure out where to put perception
I have skills grouped by attributes, which are: Brawn, Dexterity, Acuity, and Spirit. Due to the metaphysics of the setting, I absolutely have to keep it to these four attributes.…
In First Thoughts
Participants: punkbohemian, Ken, Jasper Flick, Catelf, lumpley, Vulpinoid, Falc, chance.thirteen, Mike Sugarbaker.

12/22/2009 John Blaz: Mechanics for scale: ie mouse, man, dragon
Hey all, working on a sword & sorcery type game right now, and I had a thought. Do my mechanics work with the different scales of creatures? Right now, the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: John Blaz, chance.thirteen, lumpley, Noon, Catelf, David Artman.

12/23/2009 Blue Wizard: (Abeo) Idea
While talking with a friend of mine I brought up an idea I've wanted to see a world built around.  I wanted to bounce the idea off of some people…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Blue Wizard, Catelf, Vulpinoid, davidberg.

12/23/2009 The Grinning Bandit: Belief and Personal Mythology (as Game Mechanics!)
Howdy, indie gamer folks. Dig this concept I'm working on; I stole the idea from an anarchist text on "spellcasting", which is essentially a means of instilling mythology and meaning…
In First Thoughts
Participants: The Grinning Bandit, jefgodesky, Vulpinoid.

12/25/2009 hannibalisfun: How should attributes apply modifiers to skills
          So, I have been playing in my friend's home-brewed roleplaying system for about a year now.  Over all I have been really impressed with it. …
In First Thoughts
Participants: hannibalisfun, Vulpinoid, Noon.

12/26/2009 reason: taletellers and dreamers, or a game that doesn't exist
Once upon a time there was a writer who wrote a story game that doesn't exist. Those were strange times, and it was an act for a strange time. But…
In First Thoughts
Participants: reason, contracycle, Vulpinoid, Kanosint.

12/26/2009 Kanosint: Play-Doh and Musicals, oh my!
Lately I can't help but ponder two things and how one could make an interesting RPG with them... Play-Doh and Musicals. Not together, of course, that'd be waaay too silly,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Kanosint, Callisto, chronoplasm, FetusCommander.

12/27/2009 Callisto: Working on a System about Cats [Felis]
Hi there, this is my very first post on this forum, so I try to keep it short. My mothertongue is german so I apologize for bad english. I'm working…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Callisto, Noon, Catelf, chronoplasm, JLFergus.

12/28/2009 migo: Coin flipping mechanic
This thought just came to me. It originally stemmed out of a thought of playing Reversi with coins - one player is heads, the other is tails, and at the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: migo, GregStolze.

12/29/2009 John Guance: apologize, but it is very Important
It doesn't accomplish faculty accustomed the time line, but it looks cool anyhow!
In First Thoughts
Participants: John Guance, Catelf, lumpley.

12/29/2009 punkbohemian: action points, by any other name
What I'm using in my system is a sort of an action point system to cover attacking and defense, based on an Agility-type stat which is going to determine how…
In First Thoughts
Participants: punkbohemian, Catelf, Stacktrace, David C, JoyWriter, Solarsaurus.

12/30/2009 Abkajud: Joan of Arc and the Templars/Gender and Culture, too
I'm fascinated by the Three Orders of medieval European society - the laborer, warrior, and priestly castes, or laborares, bellatores, and oratores, respectively. I've been meaning to check out Chronica…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Catelf.

1/2/2010 karl fungus: [Unearth]: a general purpose d6 system.
Hello! First post here, hopefully of many. For a while now I've been working on a game called Unearth, which was pretty much a culmination of all the post-apocalyptic game…
In First Thoughts
Participants: karl fungus, JoyWriter.

1/2/2010 JoyWriter: Posthuman conversion story, structured as allegorical journey
As a bit of a change of pace from all these mechanics-first suggestions, I've got a concept that I'm quite far from implementing mechanically: The character's experience is a posthuman…
In First Thoughts
Participants: JoyWriter, M. Burrell, J Tolson, Brendan Day.

1/4/2010 Solarsaurus: Cowboys and Samurai (WIP) ~constructive criticism wanted!
The document is very incomplete as of now, but I figured that you folks might be able to help me with my new RPG idea. It's called, very simply, Cowboys…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Solarsaurus, dindenver, Catelf, hix, Mike Sugarbaker.

1/4/2010 J Tolson: Can winning by too much be a bad thing?
I’ve been developing a narrative-focused game for a few years and I think I am finally in the home stretch. Everything seems to be coming together fairly nicely, though there…
In First Thoughts
Participants: J Tolson, lumpley, Noon, Heraldic Game Design, Warrior Monk, NN, Ar Kayon, JoyWriter.

1/6/2010 canormorum: Elsewhere - A newly created table-top RPG setting and system.
Just looking for a little feedback and critique.  Been lurking the forums awhile now.  Let me know what you think.  I'm still working out some details and filling out the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: canormorum, Vulpinoid, hix, Mike Sugarbaker.

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