I find it interesting that numerous people have seen the Fantasy Heartbreakers essay to be a sort of call-to-arms to create their own, as a learning exercise. I'm guessing this wasn't originally the intent, or part of the intent, of the article.

So I'll explicitly ask for one. Oh learned brethern amongst us: could you recommend some exercises for the fledgling game designer?

I suppose I'm expecting things like "Write a fantasy heartbreaker" or "Write an rpg that uses a randomization element other than dice or standard cards" or "Deconstruct your favourite rpg into its underlying structural elements." But I'm happy to be surprised.



Cheers,
Roger

Roger wrote: So I'll explicitly ask for one. Oh learned brethern amongst us: could you recommend some exercises for the fledgling game designer?

Pick some number of atomic actions, between two and five, that are the only important things in the lives of your characters (e.g. "Express love", "Do terrible things", "Get ordered around")

Make a game having rules only for those actions and their outcomes (e.g. "My Life with Master") What narrative color do you need? How do the actions need to provide tension against each other? How is that represented mechanically?

Finish a game.

yrs--
--Ben

1. Compete in Iron Game Chef. Or if the ingredients don't inspire you (as with me), pick random words from the dictionary. Dictionary.com has words of the day you could use.

2. Come up with an idea for an ordinary sounding game but break every assumption in the book.

In neither case should feel the need to finish the whole project, though it probably wouldn't hurt -- just get the juices flowing.

I don't know, Jasper: Every repetition of "begin, get to the hard frustrating part, quit" is training bad habits.

I suspect a beginning designer would be better served by playtesting, refining and finishing one flawed game than they would by abandoning five projects part-way through.

Hm, good point. But is it abandonment if you never meant to complete it? I'm thinking of some potentially off-the-wall ideas here, which may not really make something you want to devote a big chunk of your life to. But just to tackle them in an initial, preparatory way, may be useful. And regardless, the ideas can get filed away for later, used on some later project.

I have dozens of unfinished projects that I stopped developping not because they got hard, but because the idea just wasn't compelling enough. But they'll all get recycled somehow. I know a lot of people work the same way. And it may also be dangerous (or at least a waste) to force yourself to finish a project just for the sake of finishing.

Start somewhere new.
Many RPG Making Processes start with people being dissatisfied with other RPGs they've played. I find this to be bad practice because half the time, players will just take the bulk of another system and tweak their RPG so that it is very similar, but different in a detail a few people will overlook.
The biggest example is D&D. Many games where rolling of dice is required, a scheme that is similar to the D20 scheme is adopted for task resolution. It is very boring to look at an RPG and notice it is virtually D20 except on a D10, half the time I will have dismissed the game unless another element redeemed it.
New RPGs should be new.

If your RPG ends up still borrowing elements from other games, then atleast name them something unique. Thats always entertaining.

The setting is always unique, so don't worry too much about that. Even within the same genre, people view things differently. So, don't say "Oh I have a new RPG, its kind of like D&D but its in Middle School!" heh.

Interestingly Vincent talked about this very thing just a couple of months ago on anyway

Normally I have 3-5 practice game designs going. These aren't real game designs. These are like, let's see, the skiffy game, the Labyrinth of doors, Until Today, the Robin Hood game, Quiet, No Kings' Men, Blood and Wolves, Fearless, Bullet Proof... many others whose names and premises I've forgotten. Nothing ever comes of them - if one's lucky, I'll swipe its title for a real project someday, but that hasn't happened yet so they shouldn't hold their breaths.

Some of them would make good games, if I cared about them, but I don't, and maybe that's a little bit tragic.

Anyway no, they're for practice. What I do with them is push mechanics, rules and concepts around and around, fitting them together this way and that, over and over. I generally spend something like an hour a day doing this. I fill steno pads with notes and diagrams and text. I keep it all in a drawer in the lumpley games office, and a couple of times a year I read through it and throw the oldest stuff away.

Kill puppies for satan, Otherkind, Matchmaker and Dogs in the Vineyard were never practice designs. What happened with them was: here I am, pushing rules around in my notebooks, practice practice practice, and something happens in my real life that sparks me. A bad day, a theory argument with Emily, a dream and a put-up-to-it, respectively. I drop the practice games like they don't matter - they don't - and I throw myself wholeheartedly into this new project.

That's what I've been practicing for, right?

(And when I finish it, I always look at it worried that inspiration will never strike again. "Is this all the game design I have in me?" I say.)

Anyhow I'll add it to "design to expose yourself" as my advice to aspiring game designers: design at least three games you won't finish for every game you will.

Roger wrote: I find it interesting that numerous people have seen the Fantasy Heartbreakers essay to be a sort of call-to-arms to create their own, as a learning exercise. I'm guessing this wasn't originally the intent, or part of the intent, of the article.

An interesting proposal
Mike Holmes once suggested that "Everyone should write a Heartbreaker." What does he mean?

Notice, he says, "write," not "publish." The benefit, as far as I can tell, is as a form of personal therapy. People apparently have issues that arise from their play of D&D fantasy games, and from their grappling with broken Social Contracts and mismatched GNS stuff. A lot of the time, game design seems to be a form of coping with these issues. If I'm understanding Mike correctly, writing one's own Fantasy Heartbreaker constitutes working through a phase of development as a role-player - in some cases, it might remove the need to design games further, in favor of settling down actually to enjoy play, and in other cases, it might open the door to ground-up genuinely-innovative designs.

Do the 24 hour game challenge. Seriously.

Take some ideas that you think are interesting and are not sure if they will fly. Put asside all life concerns for 24 hours. Write the bugger as best you can.

This is what got me into the right frame of mind to begin publishing my own ideas. Its working for me so far. :)

Warm regards,
Evan

THanks all... When I have the time, I'll design a 24 hour game and show it to all of you...

Perhaps it'll be a long laugh and then silence and perhaps I'll realise it isn't something I could do. Or perhaps it seems I do have some skill here, who knows:)

I like the "write something every day" suggestion. It is incredibly true.
A powerful game that you will feel overwhelmed with pride for making will take months. Everyday you should design a detail so that you can add it all together.

Thanks though, because I really needed the charge to get back into finishing my game. Design is all done, now I need to make it work. :D

As for 24 Hours. Thats hard. And painful. And freak'n awesome. My favorite 24 hour game I've read is still "StickRPG" Holy Cow. It seethes all things a 24 hour game should. Its awesome.

Heya,

The Irond Game Chef might indeed be a good place to start or at least read up on as people finish their games for it. Here's the link: http://www.game-chef.com/index.shtml

Another suggestion I employed a long time ago was to find a game I liked, then write a chapter-for-chapter house rules version of it. This will give you some idea on all the things you have to consider for a game to be complete. I wouldn't recomend that game for publication, but as an exercise to learn the thought process of game design it should be helpful.

Peace,

-Troy

I think that before you design you should clear your own decks with something like a ritual purification.

Look at the games you run and the scenarios you write. Look at the characters and NPCs you create.

What common elements reoccur in what you write or how you play?
Why do you want to play them?
What could you remove to get to the essence of why you like them?
What's left?

You might end up with a "core story" such as "Kill them and take their stuff", or a key plot such as "hero and villain both want the same thing for different reasons" or a premise such as "how far would you go to keep love alive" (not as far as George Lucas I hope!). You'll probably end up with several things.

So take what's left and design a game that recognises and rewards the kind of play that you like. Then run that game and get feedback. Maybe even publish it. Love your game.

Then write a game for someone else to play.

Write what interests you. Do not feel you are required to certain write material because everyone else does.

So just cut to the chase...do attributes REALLY interest you, or are you putting them in because 'everyones used to having them when it comes to freefall combat'. Screw everyone else, just write about freefall combat or whatever. Cut to what you want to have...I know it's really hard. I know you feel a section about the toughness of relative materials in terms of cover might become important at some point...but is it important because it's important to you, or that you feel players might take the game there, and you'll be embaressed when they say there aren't enough cover rules? Don't be afraid like this...take the game where you want to. Design the game you want and if people want to use a wrench like its a hammer, that ISN'T your responsiblity. Yes, really!

And this applies to finishing too. Don't adopt someone elses idea of what finishing is. If you've covered what you want to cover, there, your done! Never mind whether you have to have X, Y and Z to be compatible with everyone elses mindset. Make sure its compatible with your mindset, and your done! Good work! I wont pretend this means its completed at a commercial level, but it is completed at a level which is actually, personally significant to you...that'd have to be your primary goal, right?

I don't know if I'd call these "exercises", but more like "good habits":

First, learn to distinguish between the "soft" and "hard" processes of design, and develop your own way of working with each of them. I'm borrowing these terms from Roger von Oech's "A Whack on the Side of the Head". Ideas are great, and the imaginative/inspirational part of the design process is exciting (this is the "soft" part). Whatever works for you, do it (and do it every day).

By contrast, the "hard" part of design is production... and it isn't the least bit exciting. For example, it may take me ten minutes to do a sketch that I'm really excited about, and then I have to sit down and make 10,000 little marks on a piece of paper to turn it into a finished drawing (is it any wonder that creative people drink so much?). Again, develop your own way of dealing with the tedium, and keeping the end in sight.

Second, don't ask anyone's advice about your project. There's a fine line between asking for advice and asking for permission, and in my opinion it's best to avoid it entirely. Make it an "exercise" to rely upon yourself. After all, yours is the only opinion that counts.

Third, bringing these other two points together: develop your own exercises that work for you. If the 24 hour RPG works for you, then it's great; keep it. If it doesn't work for you, then it's crap; discard it. The same goes for the tips I'm giving you here.

But the real point here is: always, always, keep the "soft" and "hard" processes distinct. If you're just doing "soft" exercises, don't expect them to get you any closer to finishing your game (all they are capable of doing is generating ideas). Or, you may find that you're great at the "soft" part, but not so good when it comes to finishing things (pretty common for creative people). If that's the case, then copying one solidly written (but completely uninspired) page of prose per day is likely to be much more valuable than more brainstorming exercises. Compare this to the way painting students copy the works of master painters. They aren't looking for inspiration; they're figuring out how to finish paintings.

Ben Lehman wrote: Finish a game.

Ben Lehman wrote: Finish a game.

Justin A Hamilton wrote: Don't be ridiculous, that will never happen. :)

What Ralph said. Seriously, grab a piece of the world in microcosm and turn it into a game. I've built games on mazes, saving throws, trying to get through college, building bridges; I've done mechanics related to those children's tube tunnel playgrounds, or creating the possibility that Don Ho records or some other horribly improbable thing would be the secret to destroying the alien invaders. I've taken ordinary slices of life and worked up a way to turn them into an interesting game scenario, such as combining an amusement park with a dungeon crawl or having the alien invaders attack a medieval world. I've played published games that were based on the competition between nineteenth century railroad barons, the War of the Rings, and the political machinations of Dune. Pick something and make it into a game.

Also, play as many different kinds of games as you can--not merely different role playing games, different games in general. Play those solo computer games that come on your computer; buy weird-looking board games, card games, trivia games. Play them. Figure out how they do what they do, what makes them compelling, how their systems resolve actions, what strategies improve your probability of success. Most people play solitaire with the idea that if you can move a card, you should move the card; that's not strategy. Examine the game. Consider what situations can cause you to lose and how you can protect against them. (E.g., in traditional seven-pile solitaire, the most difficult card to get is the one on the bottom of the seven-card stack, so getting that unburied is a priority.) Analyze what others have done, and learn from it.

With the games you know well, attend to the impact of rules changes. Monopoly rules have certain payments going to the bank, but some people play that these payments go to the center of the table and are given to the next person who lands on Free Parking; what does that do to change the balance of play? How do the existing rules of a game interact?

Take the time to watch other people play. Watch a CCG tournament. Observe children playing make-believe. Sit on on a demo of someone's role playing game, whether it's one of Luke Crane's incredible Burning Wheel demos or me running Multiverser or someone completely unknown running something you're sure will be a fantasy heartbreaker. Learn by watching and by doing. If you can manage it, sit out and watch a game session of your own group--let them play, you observe. Watch gamers play at the local game store.

But most of all, practice creating.

--M. J. Young

I don't know how this thread has gotten this far without one of the best design excercises ever, structured design. This one is key.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=1896

Mike

Thanks, everyone.

This turned a bit more into a "how to do this" discussion rather than a "what to do" discussion, but that's fine -- both are valuable.



Cheers,
Roger

Reduce your game down to 1 page.

I just did this for Luck of the Joneses, compressing all of my notes and drafts. In the process, I had to make hard decisions about which dead ends and alternative rules I should delete, and what rules really belonged in my game.

End result: I managed to squeeze things down to a 4 page playtestable document that only makes sense to me, but I've also finally followed Ben's suggestion, "Finish a game."