Previous Topics

6/1/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Mridangam: Vedic Superheroic Dance-Drama
Mridangam is a game based in Vedic mythology and the classical Indian dance-drama; its play is intended to mimic the traditional structure of a Bharata Natyam performance. As such, it's…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Spooky Fanboy, Jonathan Walton, ADGBoss, Andy Kitkowski, Little_Rat, Palaskar.

5/2/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Torchbearer: What Makes Us Mythic
Torchbearer's going through a new draft, and I find that I'm not happy with the focus of the rule-colour. Specifically, the rules allow characters to be mighty without rooting them…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, GreatWolf, Jonathan Walton.

4/6/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Automatic Login
Ever since the Birthday Forum opened, clicking the "log me in automatically whenever I visit" checkbox has had no effect for me; it won't log me in automatically like it…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Clinton R. Nixon, Valamir, Rob MacDougall.

3/25/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Sense of Wonder
Those of you who have been watching the games I've been working on may have noticed this common thread: I want my games to have an air of wonder. I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, szilard, Jonathan Walton, Matt Snyder, ZeOtter, Valamir, Paganini, Brian Leybourne, Tim C Koppang, Jack Spencer Jr, Mike Holmes, Le Joueur, Paul Czege, GreatWolf.

3/17/2003 Shreyas Sampat: The 'Look' of Alyria
I've been wondering about Alyria's visual style for some time; it has a very clear mood, and even suggests a sort of aural atmosphere (muffled clanks and voices, all overlying…
In Dark Omen Games
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, M. J. Young, Valamir, GreatWolf.

3/17/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Refreshing Rain: Tugging At My Heartstrings
Jeph's recent thread on his new game Pagoda prompted me to get back to work on my own wuxia game, Refreshing Rain. (There are also a couple of threads about…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Mike Holmes, ADGBoss.

2/15/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Complex Systems > Play Focus?
I've been wondering this one for a while. Why do complex subsystems (like the WW combat system, say, or the vehicle creation rules in so many technological rpgs) focus play…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Jasper, Mike Holmes, Rob MacDougall, Ron Edwards, Marco, clehrich.

2/12/2003 Shreyas Sampat: A Magic System for Exquisite (maths questions)
So, I'm trying to design two parallel magic systems for my game Exquisite. As it stands, there are 15 'facilities' a character has; these are the product of three attitudes…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Mike Holmes, szilard.

2/1/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Useless Detail?
This obviously doesn't belong in its parent thread. Anyway, John Kim and I started to discuss the value of the "useless detail", as I've called it. To define, the details…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Rob MacDougall, cruciel, John Kim, Andrew Martin, Jack Spencer Jr, Le Joueur, Christopher Kubasik, Cassidy, Cadriel, clehrich, greyorm, Walt Freitag, M. J. Young, contracycle, Marco.

2/1/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Koh-i-Noor: Scifi with Uniqueness
[i]When optical computing was still new and biotech in its infancy, a scientist calling himself Suleiman made the first true AI, in the heart of a great diamond. He named…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, clehrich, szilard.

1/16/2003 Shreyas Sampat: The Calligrapher's Sword: Formalizing Conflict
I've been thinking about conflict in a malleable world for a while; it's the backbone of my game The Calligrapher's Sword. TCS uses a formalization to state conflicts in three…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat.

1/7/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Torchbearer Character Creation: Observations.
So far, I know of 7 characters created for Torchbearer. 4 of these characters have been disgraced (most of them used that precise word, too) in their past. One will…
In Actual Play
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Ron Edwards.

1/5/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Is Inconsistency Playable?
This is closely related to my game The Calligrapher's Sword, but independent of it, so I thought to start a Theory thread. I was thinking about games set in realms…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Jack Spencer Jr, bluegargantua, Ron Edwards, Jonathan Walton, clehrich, Michael S. Miller.

12/30/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Mridangam: The Calligrapher's Sword in another Medium
[url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4584]The Calligrapher's Sword[/url] is a game set in a rather rarefied medium. I thought to condense it into something more concrete. So, we have [b]Mridangam[/b], the game of Vedic superheroes.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Drew Stevens, greyorm, Mike Holmes.

12/21/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Refreshing Rain Combat System
Hey, all. I did some thinking, and this is how the RR combat system might look: The three Ma Jiang suits, Bamboo, Circles, and Characters, represent respectively Attacks, Defences, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Emily Care, Jonathan Walton.

12/15/2002 Shreyas Sampat: The Calligrapher's Sword
Today, I present you with a fresh plate of sacred steak - internal consistency. The Calligrapher's Sword is a game about people in a dreamworld, something like a combination of…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Wormwood, Henry Fitch, Jonathan Walton, Peregrine, Ted E. Childers, kaworuiskool.

12/10/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Refreshing Rain: The Relationship Sky
[url=http://www.geocities.com/torchbearer_rpg/rain.html]Refreshing Rain[/url] uses a board as a representation of the relationships of various characters in-game. Very simply, a single piece in the board represents one entity. That entity is antagonistic…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Jonathan Walton, Kuma.

12/8/2002 Shreyas Sampat: Refreshing Rain: Wuxia Pathos and Astrology
[i]The water barely shimmered as Li Mu Bai ran across its surface. Jen followed, marring the lake with expanding rings.[/i] Wuxia is not about the kung fu. It's about the…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Tim Denee, Jonathan Walton, Emily Care, Thor Olavsrud.

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.

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.

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Subsequent Topics

6/24/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Refreshing Rain: Mechanical question
So, guys, I have a problem. Badically, there is no (or very little) clear "My kung fu is better" phenomenon in Refreshing Rain, and I want to provide for such…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, taalyn.

7/18/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Feature Request or Technical Help
How can I view unread posts in a specific forum category? Is there something I can put into the search function to do this? (Like if I were looking for…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Shreyas Sampat.

7/23/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Dice & Diceless?
I've been pondering this game design problem for a while now, and thought I'd ask for some input from the Forge crowd. I'm trying to devise a system such that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Lxndr, xiombarg, Hunter Logan, simon_hibbs, contracycle, Tony Irwin, Jack Spencer Jr, M. J. Young, Ben Lehman, gobi, Brian Leybourne, Dev, Jonathan Walton, pete_darby, cruciel, ClaudeC, Mike Holmes, Erick Wujcik.

7/30/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Exquisite: Highlander Kills Nobilis & Takes Its Stuff
Also brought to you by Tree's Heart Dynasty, The Shadow of Yesterday, and d20Diceless. This is the result of my Dice & Diceless thread, and a previous thread on Exquisite,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Ben Lehman, Spooky Fanboy, permacultureguerilla, Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, MathiasJack.

7/31/2003 Shreyas Sampat: What does an editor need to do?
Um... the topic basically says it. What kinds of things is an editor expected to accomplish, and what sort of procedures are edotirs expected to follow doing so?
In Publishing
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Valamir, Jonathan Walton, Ron Edwards, Clay, HinterWelt, Matt.

8/15/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Torchbearer: Help simplify conflict resolution?
For those of you that are not aware, Torchbearer is my game of mythic fantasy, in a world where symbols and themes are obvious, tangible, and powerful. Three threads most…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, talysman, Mike Holmes, Jonathan Walton.

12/31/2003 Shreyas Sampat: Four: A game idea
Four is an idea I've been mulling over for a while; I'd like to make a game out of it but there is a problem that I'm not sure how…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Ben Lehman, Zathreyel, Spooky Fanboy, Dev, hix, Doctor Xero.

1/10/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Has game design changed your Play?
I was playing Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade tonight. It was a great deal of fun; the PCs were all chasing a Taftâni thief on a flying carpet through the streets…
In Actual Play
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, ethan_greer.

1/17/2004 Shreyas Sampat: The d20 Box
[quote="Matt Wilson"]... we bailed on poor d20, which was boxing us in. My chief complaint about d20 I think is that it provides a lot of information about what a…
In Actual Play
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Calithena, Mark Johnson, Sparky, Paul Czege, Ben Lehman, Jeph, Umberhulk, ADGBoss, Bob McNamee, efindel.

1/18/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Creating New Keywords II
Trailing off this thread... I'm having a really icky time figuring out, and coming up with new, animist traditions; several reads of the animism chapter have started to clear up…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, doubtofbuddha, buserian.

2/13/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Omni-Play and Incoherence
Split from The Omni-Player. Caldis raised a question about the implications Omni-Play has on incoherence that I wanted to reply to. If the omni-player is possible and games that appeal…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Paganini, Caldis, Ron Edwards, Marhault, charles ferguson, M. J. Young, Mike Holmes.

2/26/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Refreshing Rain for Western Audiences
[url=http://www.geocities.com/torchbearer_rpg/rain.html]Refreshing Rain[/url] is my game of wuxia-style kungfu and emotional conflict; here I am making an effort to retool it for a less Color-specific application. [b]Character Creation[/b] All the characters…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Kryyst, Jonathan Walton, clehrich, Dev.

3/8/2004 Shreyas Sampat: PM Feature Thought
The private-messaging function already (optionally) emails you when you have a new PM. Would it be possible to have the PM text mailed to you automatically?
In Site Discussion
Participants: Shreyas Sampat.

4/5/2004 Shreyas Sampat: For Ben: The heaven game.
This is a Forge Birthday (and Special Events) game; if it isn't finished by the time the Birthday Forum closes for the year, I will hold off on it until…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Jonathan Walton, DannyK, quozl, Ben Lehman, Ravien, Eero Tuovinen, Valamir, FredGarber.

4/21/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Snow From Korea: Advanced Interface Mechanics
You can read the IGC entries this post refers to here: Snow From Korea Whispers In The Door These games are designed as companions to each other, and I have,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Nathan P..

5/12/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Bringing History into Play
You know, every so often someone says to me, "I want to run a game like Lord of the Rings," and proceeds to insert large, unpleasant battle scenes into his…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, hanschristianandersen, talysman, Sydney Freedberg, Peter Hollinghurst, Storn, xiombarg, Michael S. Miller, Emily Care, Paganini, neelk, ScottM, contracycle.

7/14/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Applied Design: Star Wars Shadows
This idea's been bubbling in my head for awhile, so I thought I'd toss it up in here as an example of what you can do with a cool game…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Marhault, Victor Gijsbers, Jesse Paulsen.

10/5/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Game in Search of Dice Mechanic, Likes Pina Coladas
So, all the buzz about Dogs in the Vineyard, and seeing Hero in theatre, has inspired me to write again. I was particularly enamoured of the way that DitV conflicts…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, TonyLB, Doug Ruff, inky, Dev, Jonathan Walton, Ben Lehman.

10/13/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Limitless: Does this game do what it sets out to?
As an experiment, I am going to provide here the draft rules of a game, reserving their design notes. (I'll post those later.) Your task, if you choose to accept…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, TonyLB, inky, Jonathan Walton, Dev.

10/25/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Small Clarification on Trait Use
I'm reading on Traits now, and I'm a little confused; the rules that govern them are a bit difficult to locate. I'm posting a little synopsis below; is this all…
In Dog Eared Designs
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Matt Wilson.

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