Previous Topics
In First Thoughts

5/24/2010 MikeF: Limiting GM fiat with a token system
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about GM fiat, and ways of limiting GM fiat without affecting their ability to introduce interesting challenges for players. These were the simple rules…
In First Thoughts
Participants: MikeF, Vulpinoid, PeterBB, Noon, greyorm, StevenS, Eero Tuovinen.

5/24/2010 LateNite: Back after a long hiatus
I have returned after a long hiatus of about 3 years.  I have lost all of the work on my old system in the making (known as Entropy if anyone…
In First Thoughts
Participants: LateNite.

5/23/2010 Mobius: [Babel] Updated Combat Skil: Brawl
Based on feedback from my first play test I am redoing all of the combat skills and I'm looking for feedback on the first one I've finished; Brawl.  I'm putting…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Mobius.

5/23/2010 Brimshack: Diplomacy as an Ability - Brainstorming options
I have been trying to work my mind around the prospect of adding a special Diplomacy option to Worlds of Hurt  WOH is in principle a conventional high fantasy role-playing…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Brimshack, Noon.

5/23/2010 Kerikath: [Eden Earth] Introduction
This is a rough, purposely incomplete introduction to my game's setting. The purpose of this thread is for anyone who's interested to ask questions about the setting, which I'll answer,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Kerikath, Noon, greyorm, Brimshack, PeterBB.

5/22/2010 Anekanta: [Lords of Sky] Skills revisited...
Hey all, This is sort of a continuation of an earlier Lords of Sky question stated here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=29506.15 In the last thread, I was concerned about the layering / depth…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Anekanta.

5/20/2010 silentjudas: Social Media-based Role Playing Games
Hey, all. Been a lurker for a while and this will be my first post. For a while I've been running ideas through my head of how to bring something…
In First Thoughts
Participants: silentjudas, Vulpinoid, jprussell.

5/20/2010 Ar Kayon: Adding wargame mechanics to my fantasy system
Considering the nature of play in my developing dark fantasy system, I was thinking of designing a large scale combat architecture.  However, I've never designed wargame mechanics before and I'm…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Ar Kayon, jprussell, horomancer, Vulpinoid, contracycle.

5/14/2010 smegroll: A game idea I've had for a while and an introduction!
Hey everybody, I'm new to the forum obviously and I wanted to get some input on designing a game around an idea I've had for months now. It's pretty clear…
In First Thoughts
Participants: smegroll, Locke, Paul Czege, jprussell, Noon, Necromantis.

5/14/2010 horomancer: Low power d20 system thoughts
Working on a low power, low fantasy campaign and a system to match it. Using a mishmash of various x20 system rules to achieve the right feel and decided to…
In First Thoughts
Participants: horomancer, Locke, Noon, Khimus, Necromantis, charles ferguson.

5/12/2010 horomancer: Building a Sympathetic Magic System
I'm working on a moddified D&D Pathfinder game and I want to strip out the old way of doing magic and add a Sympathetic system. I read a build for…
In First Thoughts
Participants: horomancer, Shimera9, jprussell, dindenver, Creatures of Destiny, Juggernaut1981.

5/10/2010 Egonblaidd: Attributes for a scalable/telescopic system
A while back some of you may remember me posting about the concept of a scalable or telescopic system, that is, one which can easily be made simpler or more…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Egonblaidd, Locke.

5/8/2010 Baenlynn: Thoughts on a combat system:
For my RPG I'm trying to generally, compress the mathematics as much as possible to enable more RP, but still maintain a certain level of depth to whatever mechanics the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Baenlynn, jprussell, PeterBB, Locke.

5/7/2010 jprussell: [The Book of Threes] Welsh/Old English Inspired RPG of Loyalty, Wealth, and Glor
Howdy,   I've started a new thread now that my game has a proper working title, but prior discussion can be found at Celto Germania - Mythic Bronze Age Roleplaying,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: jprussell, SageThe13th.

5/7/2010 Talanic: World of Rathillien Tabletop - Introduction
Greetings.  This is my first post to the Forge - in fact, I only found out about this community today, but would have shown up a long while ago if…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Talanic, SageThe13th, greyorm, Eero Tuovinen, jprussell.

5/6/2010 SageThe13th: Starting at the end. Some hiccups with a new stat system.
I'll been working on a new method(new to me at least) for stating out characters.  The basic idea is that rather than going through a couple layers of characteristics, such…
In First Thoughts
Participants: SageThe13th, jprussell, Locke.

5/2/2010 DarrenGMiller: Looking for Constructive Feedback On New Survival Horror Role-Playing Game
Kind of like taking my clothes off in public, I'm working on designing a game on my blog.  I'm posting most of my work, section-by-section, on my blog as soon…
In First Thoughts
Participants: DarrenGMiller, Artanis, Locke, jprussell, Gryffudd, Malcolm, SageThe13th, davidvs, Necromantis.

5/2/2010 Filip Luszczyk: How difficult is a task?
In many trad games the in-game difficulty of various tasks is represented mechanically via target numbers, modifiers or other means. Outside a few detailed subsystems (e.g. combat), this is often…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Filip Luszczyk, Noon, Vulpinoid, jprussell, Eero Tuovinen, Paul T, dindenver, SageThe13th, Egonblaidd, JoyWriter, spotvice29.

5/1/2010 jprussell: [Celto-Germania] Mythic Bronze Age Loyalty Roleplaying
Howdy Folks,   I've recently cooked up the very very very rough draft of my first RPG. Totally unplaytested so far, unfortunately, as I'm rather a ways out of town…
In First Thoughts
Participants: jprussell, Gryffudd, Steenan, SageThe13th.

5/1/2010 Gryffudd: [Story Point System] Having problems with character advancement
Hi there,everyone. First time poster, long time lurked. Well, about two months, anyway. Apologies in advance for any typos. Entering this from my iPhone while I try to stay awake…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Gryffudd, Vulpinoid, jprussell.

<< more previous topics

Subsequent Topics
In First Thoughts

5/25/2010 Necromantis: a new (to me) look at skills. would like input
I am working on the skills system within my Fantasy roleplay game titled "a time of steel and staves" In the game I have created 11 characteristics that define a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Necromantis, Vulpinoid, Noon, philipstephen, Ron Edwards, Locke, Mike Sugarbaker, horomancer.

5/28/2010 smarttman: More or less skills?
I have been tempted to write my own RPG, more specifically a pulp one as I love the genre, but I don't know how many skills I should have. Skills…
In First Thoughts
Participants: smarttman, Trevis Martin, Ar Kayon, Noon.

6/12/2010 Khimus: Shapeshifter
Well, this is a personal project fairly advanced that I´m developing. The concept emerged from this sentence: "every choice you make changes you in retribution." A shapeshifter is a special…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Khimus, Mike Sugarbaker, Ron Edwards.

6/12/2010 Ninetongues: [IntoDreams] premiere - free game
Hello Into Dreams is a free game about dreaming, that Ihad in mind since my first coming to the Forge. Illustrated by very skilled artist Basia Marek, this game allows…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Ninetongues, greyorm, PeterBB.

6/13/2010 ronfig: game seed
Are there any story games in which players create a concept album flike the ones from the days when vinyl was king? 
In First Thoughts
Participants: ronfig, Monte, Vulpinoid.

6/16/2010 Marshall Burns: [Bone Orchard] brainstorming: plot-moving endeavors
Bone Orchard is an idea I had that never got developed much, but I've had ideas for it lately. Now that MADcorp alpha is ready, I can think about Bone…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns.

6/17/2010 etothepowerofx: few, general concepts
Toying with making RPGs in various forms since highschool, I'm astonished at how little I have to show for it, in both ideas and understanding. It seems every "wonderful" idea…
In First Thoughts
Participants: etothepowerofx, Vulpinoid, Noon, horomancer, Necromantis, Mike Sugarbaker, Adam Dray.

6/18/2010 JeffSheets: Generalizing the Ars Magica Covenant
I'm designing a general gamist/narrativist game system, which will probably not be in any way (IMO) innovative. However, besides the goal of making every aspect of the game simple and…
In First Thoughts
Participants: JeffSheets, PeterBB, Vulpinoid, Nocker, contracycle.

6/18/2010 hansel: A game played through text messages
Here's what I'm thinking: -2 players -2 characters, created by looking at the people around you and picking one or tweaking one to make her grabby--one or two adjectives, a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: hansel, Vulpinoid, Adam Dray.

6/18/2010 Hasimir0: Tactical Ops
Hi :) I need comments, ideas and constructive critics on a project of mine. ________________________________________________________General Guidelines The aim of this design is to "save" some of the settings I love,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Hasimir0, Sebastian, horomancer, Mike Sugarbaker.

6/20/2010 smarttman: Thinking of making a Horror Supers game
I thought this idea would be very rarely implemented, and I think a lot of it has to do with power scaling. But anyway, if there are 3 RPG genres…
In First Thoughts
Participants: smarttman, Ar Kayon, Juggernaut1981.

6/20/2010 Necromantis: Alignment. Where to take it, if anywhere?
I have made it to what I consider about 2/3 of the way through my game design. Left is a ton of spells of all sorts, Finishing up my troublesome…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Necromantis, horomancer, Eliarhiman6, Noon, Vulpinoid, Ar Kayon, charles ferguson, NN, Juggernaut1981, paddirn.

6/21/2010 Monte: "Composition games": theory and practice
Before I ask you for advice, allow me to introduce myself, since I am new to The Forge. I have been playing role-playing games off and on for thirty years.…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Monte, Vulpinoid, Ar Kayon, Noon.

6/22/2010 Juggernaut1981: RE: Experience Buy system VS Level System
Hello all, I know I haven't posted in the "current games" section, that's mostly because I am not currently in a position to have a regular playgroup.  I have previously…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Juggernaut1981, Noon, Falc, Necromantis, Will Edge, Aaron Baker, contracycle, thadrine, dugfromthearth, johnthedm7000.

6/22/2010 Bloomfield: Driven - representing motivation, obsession, mania
I am developing a little homebrew (mostly derivative) set of rules. The starting point is Chronica Feudalis (by Jeremy Keller), which is like FATE using polyhedral dice to rank skills…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Bloomfield, Noon.

6/24/2010 Malcolm: [Okhrana] A New First Draft
Inspired by a chat with Gregor Hutton, I've decided to re-boot my long moribund game of political radicals and secret policemen, Okhrana. The old system (sort of like Contenders and…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Malcolm.

6/26/2010 Will Edge: Seasons: Spring (Introduction and First Draft)
Hello there, Forge! I'm Will, and I'm getting into RPG design in a big way, currently (possibly due to the fact that I don't have any real gaming at the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Will Edge, Vulpinoid, contracycle.

6/27/2010 Draco: [NEED HELP] Condensing Social Skills
Hey everyone, I need your help in shrinking/combining my Social Skill list. There are just too many, and it's possible to merge them in different ways. Thanks for all your…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Draco, Will Edge, Necromantis, charles ferguson, Aaron Baker, Jarrodimus, dugfromthearth, Marshall Burns.

6/29/2010 Necromantis: Layout for my character sheet. see any flaws?
Hey guys, Just trying to get some feedback on the character sheet that I designed for my upcoming RPG Though I admit I have…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Necromantis, horomancer, davidvs, thadrine, Tom.

6/29/2010 punkbohemian: writer's block: naming a race
I'm having trouble naming a race for my game. Basically, they are mineral in nature (predominantly silicate, elemental metals, etc.). The core of their being is this crystalline material which…
In First Thoughts
Participants: punkbohemian, Necromantis, Marshall Burns, Ghilemear.

more subsequent topics >>