Previous Topics

11/20/2003 Dev: Making a Convention-ready "mix-cd" of rpgs...
I remember's Smith's "ConBust" (a small con) had a freebie CD with some free RPGs and demos on it. I'm looking into having a similar CD for VeriCon (see thread).…
In Publishing
Participants: Dev, LordSmerf, Ben Lehman, gobi.

11/20/2003 Dev: [VeriCon, MA] Send us support material? More guests?
[i]previously [url]http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=7735[/url], more con info therein.[/i] [url=http://www.vericon.org][b]Vericon[/b][/url] is still looking for RPG designers who'd like to be part of our (growing) panel on RPG design and the industry in general.…
In Conventions
Participants: Dev, abzu, Michael S. Miller, Paul Czege.

11/13/2003 Dev: Meaningful-quick World-Generation for spacerpunks
(Ah, the eternal progress of space-western setting...) The lowdown: human-centric Space-Western & Space-Noir. PCs hopping around from planet to planet each episode. (Planet-of-the-week, Bounty-of-the-Week, slightly arc-y threads throughout, etc.) I've…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, Wasabi, contracycle, gobi, Mike Holmes.

10/27/2003 Dev: Accidental de-protagonization
I had the following problem in my last game, during the Endgame in particular. Consider two minions, the Traitor (trying to kill the master) and the Faithful (the one serving…
In Half Meme Press
Participants: Dev, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards.

10/14/2003 Dev: [MLwM] Joy Juice
Excellent game of MLwM. The Master was basically a man who used special syringes to paralyzes persons in the throes of "pleasure", so that he could extract components of a…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dev.

10/11/2003 Dev: Ettiquette for announcing new work...
Considering that "posting in the Indie Game Design forum implies that you're a commited designer, etc.", where would it be appropriate to announce that some work-in-progress has met some completion…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Dev, Ron Edwards.

9/24/2003 Dev: Play of MLwM is a single session
I'd really love to try MLwM, at least at first, as a single-session thing. (Let's just say that my friends have commitment issues. Damn pesky college kids and their loud…
In Half Meme Press
Participants: Dev, xiombarg, GB Steve, Mike Holmes.

9/3/2003 Dev: Character and Game Balance! or... um, not.
Please point me to the right thread if this has come up before. <g> Among the many reasons I can't sleep tonight is this singular, eerie thought: I'm happily playing…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, anonymouse, Noon, Ben Morgan, Mike Holmes, Rob Donoghue, Marco, Ben Lehman, RaconteurX, Michael Bjorklund, M. J. Young, contracycle.

8/27/2003 Dev: Photos instead of art for published work
Suppose you get your digitial camera, some bored friends, a copy of Photoshop, and... Are there any good/bad examples of photographs being used (instead of, or perhaps alongside, art) in…
In Publishing
Participants: Dev, Jonathan Walton, gobi, Valamir, iago, Trevis Martin, Clay, Eric Kimball, jdagna, anonymouse, xechnao, Ron Edwards.

8/23/2003 Dev: Quick Donjon question
Is there any kind of set guideline for how to give out experience in play? I didn't see any recommended one in the PDF.
In CRN Games
Participants: Dev, Clinton R. Nixon.

8/22/2003 Dev: Backstory mechanic
My game (that space-western thing) may want to emphasize: past inethical actions (subsequent angst and desire for redemption) rivals from your past past illegal action (and the law catching up…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, Tony Irwin, Chris Goodwin.

8/20/2003 Dev: Pure Probabilty mechanic
(Just an idea, no game attached.) Imagine if you just had a big index of probabilities for lots and lots of stuff that might just randomly happen, and whenever something…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, MachMoth, M. J. Young.

8/11/2003 Dev: Bringing In your Angsty Past: ad hoc or pre-fab?
That is to say: a mechanic in my game/setting will be invoking a past "event" to modify some in game event. It would almost be akin to a flashback, really:…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, Windthin, contracycle.

8/7/2003 Dev: Blurring attributes and skills
Most RPGs do have a relatively standard attribute / skill dichotomy. I was recently tooling with my system of choice when I realized that it was very easy mechanically to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, Andrew Martin, gobi, Ron Edwards, Clinton R. Nixon, HMT, Mike Holmes, Valamir, iago, Windthin, M. J. Young.

8/6/2003 Dev: Publishing a setting for multiple systems
So many great systems out there! You kids are amazing! The space setting I was working on ("SpacerPunk": gotta better name?) would work great for any one of them, and…
In Publishing
Participants: Dev, iago, btrc, simon_hibbs.

8/1/2003 Dev: Blow-by-blow Combat because combat... isn't important?
Was reading this: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=2024&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 And I got thinking. Combat in my current game does run in a relatively turn-by-turn fashion, since that's what I know; and it thusly slows things…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, Jake Norwood, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, iago, kamikaze, Ben Lehman, Cadriel, simon_hibbs.

8/1/2003 Dev: A time-based resolution mechanic? (WAS: "ChronStat"
[i]The originial thread was here: [url]http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?p=77433[/url]. I'm trying to bring it here because there might be a spare idea or two in here.[/i] For convenience, I'm going to call the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, Jack Spencer Jr.

7/30/2003 Dev: Active Exploits: a space western (or something)
(This is part a request for help from more experienced GMs, part a playtest report. I will update this thread as the sessions develop. I'm indeed a neophyte GM, so…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dev, Mike Holmes.

7/28/2003 Dev: ChronoStat: a stopwatch based game mechanic
This started out with the realization that one could use a chronometer as a d100 randomizer; then I had more thoughts (inspired by bits of action movies and Wushu)... So…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Brian Leybourne.

7/25/2003 Dev: My own space setting: which fork do I take?
Hi! I'm very new here, but I'm trying to build a space setting, in particular for use with Active Exploits (but I feel like the system is rules-light enough that…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, Knarf, Shreyas Sampat, Caldis, Dirigible, Mike Holmes, iago, Troy_Costisick, samdowning, gobi.

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Subsequent Topics

12/11/2003 Dev: [Active Exploits] Scene-framing and resource-management
This post is mainly to ask for recommendations about modifying this system, but it may prove some greater value. To quickly summarize the system (while leaving out Extraneous System Detail):…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev.

12/15/2003 Dev: Using TROS in CRPGs
Watching my friend play the new CRPG Disgaea (for, like, 12 straight hours), I realized yet again that most CRPGs use a whole lot of D&D baggage - i.e. levels,…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Dev, sirogit, MachMoth, Jake Norwood, Caz, kenjib, Mokkurkalfe, Krammer, GaGrin, Ingenious, Wolfen, Brian Leybourne, Thanaeon, Noon.

12/15/2003 Dev: Best system for Play-by-Post play?
I've noticed (and overheard, from other threads), that certain systems are particularly ill-suited for the time-lag inherent in play-by-post. The one PbP game I ran ultimately broke because I ran…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dev, Christopher Weeks, MachMoth, M. J. Young, Andrew Norris, mark2v, The Benj, Grex, drozdal, RaconteurX, ejh.

12/17/2003 Dev: Heavy on the Metarules: Good thing?
The way my project has been involving (the Great American Space-Western, at this point), much of the rules I'm considing are "metarules" compared to what most would consider the fundamental…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, Andrew Martin, Mike Holmes.

1/3/2004 Dev: the Consequences of Geography
It all began with my space opera: I didn't like the idea of making galactic maps from scratch, and disliked the book-keeping of determining distances and the like; I preferred…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, John Kim, Mark Johnson, Valamir, contracycle, xiombarg.

1/8/2004 Dev: GM wanted to demo HQ at Con (Vericon, Boston, MA)
ALong with my friends, I run a convention - VeriCon - that takes place Jan 30 - Feb 1st, 2004, and is lots of affordably kickassed fun. There will be…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Dev, RaconteurX, Deacon Blues, buserian.

1/9/2004 Dev: Development journals?
On my MythPunk page (linked below), I'll be using the weblog format as a sort of development log, to track my progress - even if only for my own self…
In Connections
Participants: Dev, M. J. Young, gobi, Jack Spencer Jr, Mark Johnson, Lxndr, Andy Kitkowski.

1/15/2004 Dev: MythDeck: supershort 1pg storygame for newbies
[b]MythDeck[/b] Purposes: (1) A game really, honestly designed for absolute newbies who know zero roleplayers and know a few jokes about RPGs, but will pick this up and play it,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, Mark Johnson.

1/15/2004 Dev: iRole: Role-based really characters/advancement
iRole? guh. I need a new title. But as is, the mechanics are muchly an iSystems knockoff with strongly octaNe flavor; this is a feature, as I can be assured…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Dev, Mike Holmes, Mark Johnson, xiombarg.

1/15/2004 Dev: CCG/RPG publishing for small publishers
I'm posting and idea I had to encourage folks to consider independent CCGs or, as has cropped up at times, CCG-based RPGs. I propose: A Free CCG Program! What?!? I'll…
In Publishing
Participants: Dev, Umberhulk, madelf, quozl, Marhault, Valamir.

1/24/2004 Dev: Environmentally-sound signatures.
I like self-promotion, so a link to my home blog and "imprint" is in my signature: MythPunk. Heh. But I remember Gobi mentioned searching for his "PUNK" system, and that…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Dev, gobi, Ron Edwards, talysman, Jack Spencer Jr, MachMoth, Jack Aidley, Lxndr, M. J. Young, Clinton R. Nixon.

2/3/2004 Dev: DD and Texas Hold'em
I like 7-card Texas Hold'em a lot more than I like 5-card draw. I know, that's not the point, but I have to ask. In case you don't know, the…
In Chimera Creative
Participants: Dev, Matt Snyder, Mike Holmes.

2/3/2004 Dev: Dust Devils: Red Mars
This is the game we played at VeriCon, and it was quite electric! We had 6 players; there was self-selection for interest (the game was a sci-fi western; 5 of…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dev, Ron Edwards.

2/3/2004 Dev: MLwM: Master-Lord-Baron's submarine. In a Lake.
This game also took place at VeriCon, and was an anomoly in some ways. It was also really impressive. (One of the con's guests, Ted Wadsworth, played in it and…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dev.

2/21/2004 Dev: Noreascon 2004 info
[b][url=http://www.noreascon.org/]Noreascon[/url][/b] is Sept 2-6th in Boston, MA. I just wanted to share that a contact of mine (ranma1224@yahoo.com) is running the game room. Apparently, you don't have to pay for…
In Conventions
Participants: Dev.

3/2/2004 Dev: Playing out a session/episode in an hour?
I'd like very much to sell my upcoming regular game as something that can be played once (or twice) a week in hourly sessions; I hope this will encourage some…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dev, Ron Edwards.

3/2/2004 Dev: Metaphorical Demons and Non-Sorcerers
(I did some searches, and didn't get the answers I wanted yet; apologies if these are frequent themes.) I like Sorcerer a lot, and I reallyreally like it's ability to…
In Adept Press
Participants: Dev, jburneko, Michael S. Miller, Ben Lehman, tetsujin28.

3/11/2004 Dev: Use of cards with Sorcerer rolling scheme...
Supposing I wanted to use my Tarot cards instead of pools of dice; the cards are easily ranked, so that is easy enough. However, Since the die size can effectively…
In Adept Press
Participants: Dev, sirogit, Trevis Martin, Ron Edwards, GreatWolf, Ben Lehman, Lxndr, xiombarg, Matt Snyder, tetsujin28, Andrew Morris, clehrich.

4/4/2004 Dev: DRINK DA FORGE
So, um, really. What's the official drink of the Forge '04? I propose that rejected sorcerer drink, with the shot of I think tequilla and chili pippers and bleach. But…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Dev, Ben Lehman, Sean, clehrich, Ron Edwards, Anonymous.

4/4/2004 Dev: Bad GMing, then and now!
Y'know, I'm not even a good GM, really. (And I like the egalitarianizing effect of game design that doesn't require an entirely godlike and excessively preparatory.) Flashback: High School, Circa…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Dev, Mike Holmes.

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