Hello fellow RPG-tinkerers.
This endeavor is about making compact games, in order to show that the making of a game can be quickly accomplished and in order to focus on the important aspects of game-generating: innovation.

Honor those whose honor is due, this is not an original idea of mine, from what I know the ide comes first from Troberg at http://rpglab.net (is in Swedish) and much of the rules are copied from that location

The rules for the endeavor are as follows:

• The game are to be maximally 2 A4 pages long, and a character sheet is to be provided within these two pages.
• The text are not to be less than 8p Arial in size.
• The marginal should be at least 5 mm.
• Illustrations are allowed.
• Basic roleplaying concepts can be assumed to be known (what a GM/ST is, how attributes work and so on).
• A working system should be enclosed in the two pages, no freeforming.
• Lists stating equipment, abilities and the like is not necessary, unless they are part of the system.
• The system used should not be a rip off of an existing system, it can however share similarities.
• Previous submissions cannot be used in future Compact RPG Challenges.
• Games submitted will be put into a short compendium by myself, and should therefor be submitted in a pdf format with the knowledge and consent that it will be published. The submissions should be sent to me, my email will be published close to the submission deadline.
• The game should have a name, the name of the writer/writers and a short abstract of a maximum of 50 words
• Every endeavor will get a theme that should be tried to followed.

In closing, the games will be voted on by the forum-participants here on the forum, within the following categories:

• Best game all over.
• Best concept.
• Best system.
• Most innovative design/idea.
• Best theme.

Other considerations, small and larger:

• Accusations of cheating should be sent to me in private.
• There might be prices, but don't count on it.
• Questions should be directed into this thread.

So, the theme for this endeavor is: Technological Horror.

Howdy, and welcome to the Forge.

A couple of questions:

1. When is the submission deadline?
2. I assume when you say the collected games will be "published", in this case you mean that the compilation will be made freely available online?
3. What did you have in mind by the term "freeform"?  If you meant "decisions made in the course of the game without resorting to dice" or "decisions made in the game through participant consensus", then I would argue that those things are still "system", just (possibly) using Drama mechanics.  If instead you meant "vague rules that require extra interpretation for use", well, yeah.

(If you're not sure what I meant by "Drama mechanics", you can look <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html">here under Drama and Resolution.)

Thanks, you've caught my interest!

Aaron

Thank you for participating, and welcome into the challenge Kesher.

1. The 15th of August.
2. Yes, that is correct.
3. Im sorry if I where somewhat obscure. What I meant by not having freeform is that there should exist some sort of underlying mechanic to the game. This does not imply that it needs to be complex, nor involve dice, however, it should be DEFINED how they are to be used, in the context of the game (an explination on how they work, or an example). I hope that this answered your question. Í do not say that it have to involve any random element as well.

I'll bite. Here's something I just whipped up as a 24-hour design, though the formatting to cram it into 2 pages took another day or so... It has 6mm margins and is in 9 point Century Gothic.

http://www.btrc.net/pub/ebonv1.pdf

A mix of the old and new, plain old dice and a few minor twists in terms of mechanics. Nothing spectacular, but an interesting challenge to cram a fully/mostly functional system into 2 pages, with char gen, turn rules, combat, task resolution, damage, magic, sanity, gear, experience, char sheet, etc. Whew! Totally untested, though. Tony, note that I haven't granted reprint permission yet. Everyone is welcome to download and peruse it, but I'll probably do some tweaking before I make a final entry with it. At the moment I'm just setting it up as the initial bar for everyone else to have to jump over, and looking for comments. Except for "you ought to elaborate more on X" comments. Right now it is tight enough that each word I add will require the removal of a word somewhere else.

Greg Porter

Greg, that where a very cunning design, I liked it.

I just realized something while skimming through my own rules and Gregs stuff, that was that I never wrote down that some sort of world/backstory should be included in order to "win" the Best concept, Most innovative design/idea and Best theme awards.

I should probably go through them all so that everyone knows my goal orientation:
Best concept: The game that has the most interesting backstory-concept.

Best system: The game with the best system.

Most innovative design/idea: The game who have the newest ideas, not necessary the best game but certainly the most original.

Best theme: The game who follow the theme in the best fashion.

Best game all over: Best game all categories.

Problem is, you can easily write half a dozen pages of backstory. The two page limit gives very little wiggle room. In my case, I just tried to make sure the game mechanics allowed for both technological infrastructure (like guns), and dealt with things associated with horror (fear, sanity, faith, magic). I'd love to see a design that has an original backstory, backed up with good rules, but that will be for someone else to do.

Greg Porter

Its OK, its all in good fun after all and you don't have to aim to win all or even any of the competitions.

Interesting! Questions:

1. Does it have to have a character sheet if one isn't needed?

2. Are previous designs that haven't been published okay?

I'll go ahead and ask these questions, but the design I had in mind (Number 2) doesn't fit the theme. I figured I'd ask anyway, as others may have the same questions.

Greg has shown how the two-page limit can be stretched to its limits, so maybe consider a word limit next time. I believe 250 words/page is a standard estimate, so a 500 word limit sounds about right. Or even less. :-)

I dunno. I think a word limit is sort of implied in there, with 8pt font and 6mm margin limits. Someone else can probably squeeze more words in than I did, but I decided to stay with a 9pt font for readability purposes. Going back to my original file, it looks like Ebon is about 2250 words, so someone who wishes to get a little closer to the margins should be able to do 2500 words without any problem.

Greg Porter

Could I suggest another catogory: best visual layout

Frank

Is there a specific focus of the theme you are looking for-or is the Technological Horror open to interpretation?

Chris wrote:
Greg has shown how the two-page limit can be stretched to its limits, so maybe consider a word limit next time. I believe 250 words/page is a standard estimate, so a 500 word limit sounds about right. Or even less. :-)

ffilz wrote:
Could I suggest another category: best visual layout

Dustfather wrote:
Is there a specific focus of the theme you are looking for-or is the Technological Horror open to interpretation?

Here's mine: Metafiction. Pulling fictional worlds into our own or traveling between them via quantum tunneling, while losing your own identity and being unable to destroy what you call forth. It's roughly 1900 words, for those who are curious.

--Colin

Nice good stuff Colin.

I just finished a compact game -- however, upon completion, I realized that I'd completely forgotten about the assigned theme! Oh well. The game is a 2-page version of Exemplar (you can find the original by following the links in my signature), incorporating a few of the ideas that I've had over the years since its inception. The link will be posted as soon as it exists. Or, as soon as it exists and I have net access, rather -- the two events may not coincide precisely.

The font is 8 point Arial and the margins are 5 mm, as suggested in the challenge guidelines. Surprisingly, I managed to squeeze in a bit of whitespace, and headers in large fonts!

I could put some more polish on this one, but I think it's good enough to submit: http://www.evilhat.com/lab/BeatTheClock1.0.zip

Colin,

Metafiction looks good for playing Alan Moore's "Promethea".

(But what happens when Alan Moore's "Promethea" is the fiction being visited!?! Meta-meta-fiction?)

--Curly

iago,

Eh, that's it for my idea for submission being innovative. Looks like I should have got myself to writing right away instead of wasting time ;)

Clocks...

Thanks, Curley. If someone tunneled through to Promethea's world in my game, I'd probably have her start talking directly to the players rather than their characters. :)

I think Beat the Clock is the first game I've seen where characters have a stat entitled "Doom." Definitely worth bonus points in my book.

Filip wrote:
Eh, that's it for my idea for submission being innovative. Looks like I should have got myself to writing right away instead of wasting time ;)

First thing I thought about when I saw "Technological Horror" was to use some kind of electronic device for resolution. Like microwave oven. Or clock ;)

Call wrote:
Colin,

Metafiction looks good for playing Alan Moore's "Promethea".

(But what happens when Alan Moore's "Promethea" is the fiction being visited!?! Meta-meta-fiction?)

--Curly

Hi guys,

Sorry about the link for compact Exemplar not being up yet. I submitted it to 1km1kt.net, but haven't heard back from the guys there yet. In case anybody's just so dying to see it that they can't wait a few more days, or is willing to host it themselves, e-mail me at jeph88@mindspring.com and I'll send the .pdf directly to you.

Madkitten wrote:

• The game should have a name, the name of the writer/writers and a short abstract of a maximum of 50 words

Alright, here's the link:

http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Exemplar_Fifth_Attempt.pdf

Enjoy!

Hello everyone.
My name is David and I'm new here.
Hope you like my contribution, it's called Genesis by the way.

http://www.omegaproject.se/Forums/download/id=118.html

Jeph - I'm only able to download 32-page version of Exemplar, and after winding up on 1km1kt. Looks like you gave the wrong link, since it's not direct download it seems. Also, I couldn't access Pagoda through the link in your sig.

Obak - I also have some problems with downloading Genesis. My browser (Opera) starts downloading it with some crazy speed (or rather tells me so, since that's way more than my connection could handle) and the download stops, giving me broken file.

Sorry for that, a slight misscalculation on my part.

The following link should work proper, if you acknowledge commercial banners and such as 'proper' that is.
It was the best I could on short notice.

http://www.mysharefile.com/v/8365082/Genesis1.0.pdf.html

Filip wrote:
Jeph - I'm only able to download 32-page version of Exemplar, and after winding up on 1km1kt. Looks like you gave the wrong link, since it's not direct download it seems. Also, I couldn't access Pagoda through the link in your sig.

Ok, time for me to start writing my entry, but, anyone here willing to help a bit with lay-out? I like Fred's and Greg's lay-out, totally beats the "Made in word" layout I can pull.

I've updated Metafiction a little. Still at the same link. Just an FYI.

Mechanical Primum Mobile, my entry, unplayed, for which I plan to retain the rights :)

So, God is pissed off at us and is sending his angelic host to mete judgement and justice upon the sinning humankind. We have outgrown his favour, and our free will will be taken. His angelic host is made of mechanical, cyborg, angels, and we slowly but surely turn into them.

I like this theme and finally got around to finishing 3 games, all revolving around the social implications of technology. I've temporarily placed them up on a free hosting site.

Satanic Mills

“All is under the sway of an inhuman power” – K. Marx

http://www.uploading.com/?get=EX2HTATQ

An inhuman power hums in the shuttles and valves of a 19th century English factory town. An alien power that lies congealed in the cloth and steel manufactured there. A hostile power that twists bone, robs children of their youth, and turns neighbors against neighbors.   It is more terrifying than any unholy spirit, slithering lifeform or doomsday device because this horror is real, grounded in social relations. It is alienation and it is generated anew each shift as men, women, and children toil at the machines. Satanic Mills is a game about the production of alienation and the destruction of human lives. It is based on Karl Marx’s theory of alienation as expressed in his Economic and Philosophical manuscripts of 1844.

Joy Division. making sure the future needs us. 

http://www.uploading.com/?get=YWRA7ELF

Characters are agents of the Joy Division, a small but well-funded transnational espionage agency concerned with advanced, destabilizing technologies. Its mission is to neutralize major threats that might arise from transformative technologies, including planetary-scale biocide, genocide and related crimes against humanity, nonconsensual alterations of the human genome, and, where necessary, consensual but radical transformations of human identity.

Corrosion. machines change minds.

http://www.uploading.com/?get=6106F7W0

Corrosion is a role-playing game of technological monstrosities. Machines stir from quiescence, propelled by evil. They stalk, terrorize and exterminate humans. Your characters are their human victims – and whether they run, hide, or fight back, they will come to realize what the machines MEAN...

Here's my not-so-innovative-now submission The Parasite Project.

The Parasite Project is a compact RPG following the theme of Technological Horror. It is about normal people who become infected by technological parasitic larvae and gradually metamorphose into biomechanical terrors. The system uses stopwatches to limit players’ narration time as their characters desperately struggle to regain control over themselves.

***

David - Genesis looks neat. You totally got me with the cybernetics rules.

(and I still wait to see the new version of Exemplar, nevermind the theme ^^)

File re-uploaded, at the same location. Some cosmetic changes to make the lines harder hitting and better paced.
Added the section on how "Splitting" works in the game.

Thanks to the folks at 1KM1KT you can now download my games without the tech. horror of pop-up ads etc.:

Satanic Mills http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Satanic_Mills.php

Corrosion      http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Corrosion.php

Joy Division   http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Joy_Division.php

I fixed some stuff in The Parasite Project pdf (mainly the character sheet). New version is under the old link.

Here's a link to our submission (our= Dave Petroski and Bill White). It's called "Technolust".

http://home.southernct.edu/~petroskid1/technolust_v1.pdf

I also hatcheted out a 50 word abstract from our game intro...hope it's ok. Here's the "abstract"...

It’s a dark future where the boundaries between human and machine have blurred…or fused. Today, cyborgs are real…and they’re everyone. But no one started questioning what happens when your body becomes more machine than flesh. Until now. Can you hold on to your humanity when all around you everyone else is surrendering theirs?

By the way...earlier in the topic there was mention of an e-mail address we have to send the game to. Do we know what that is yet? Did I miss it?

Dave

As far as I know, no e-mail was given yet. And it starts to worry me, since we're four days from the deadline. I hope that the challenge is still actual, and that Tony Meijer visits soon (he wasn't active for two weeks, I see).

Here is my contribution; its called Sync.

http://members.cox.net/laberday/sync.pdf

This couldn't be farther from what I was working on (a golden-age super hero rpg) but I think it came out pretty good. I was really drawn to this challenge because it wasn't my favorite genre, and I really had to do some serious thinking and designing. My first idea for a techno-horror rpg, was a game where you're trying to get directions to a party and your cellphone keeps loosing its signal. Didn't amount to much, so I went for something more serious. Took about two days to come up with the story idea and system (didn't have any previous notes to work with). It was great exercise, and has really drawn out some fantastic entries from other Forge members. Looking forward to seeing more.

Enjoy

Ken

A buddy of mine got really excited when I told him about this challenge, so he worked on a game too. Unfortunately, he had to go out of town for a while on business and wasn't able to refine his ideas as much as he would have liked. He sent me what he had and I formatted it and tried to make the text a little more visually interesting. Its a pretty good start for a background, and a solid card-driven game engine. He'll be checking the Forge when he gets back, so feel free to chime in with feedback. Its his first submission like this so he is really interested in other designers' thoughts.

Here it is:

http://members.cox.net/laberday/solomon.pdf

Thanks

Ken

First of all, I'm sorry for the long absence. It is due to an extremely busy schedule (two projects finishing this monday meant 12 to 16 hour days for me the last two weeks). For all that is curious the competition is still on.
However I have some sad news, namely that there wont be any prices.

Now, the submission time for this, since I have been such a dork, will be postponed for two weeks (the time I where abscent, seems only logical), and to the following address: CompactRPG@sverige.nu

Again, Sorry for the delay and my absence.

Filip wrote:
First thing I thought about when I saw "Technological Horror" was to use some kind of electronic device for resolution. Like microwave oven. Or clock ;)

Ken wrote:
Somebody asked me if game background and story fit here. Is that what you meant by short abstract? I assume it was, but I wasn't quite sure what to say. Could you clarify.

Thanks,

Ken

InSite

Gain a power from reading the internet that will let you escape the stress and tedium of your pathetic workday. Impose your will on co-workers. Cut through the red tape of middle management by making the world forget they were ever born. Go mad as the threads of existence snap at the clumsy touch of your fingers.

Whoever took that last doughnut will be very, very sorry.

Here's my entry; my very first ever finished original rpg.  woot!

<a href="http://rpgtalk.net/kesher/files/25/63/ASSEMBLER.pdf">ASSEMBLER

Thanks for this contest; for whatever reason, it finally got me off my lazy, lazy arse.

Oh yeah: I'm pretty sure this is the first rpg ever to be written in pseudocode...

Aaron

I take it you didn't get to see "Hybrid", the writing also induces in the reader "Technological Horror", though it's really not compact :)

Good to hear from Ya all, however, sad tidings.
The current address seem to be down (server malfuncion or so I am told), however if they are not up until monday, Il put out another adress.

Madkitten wrote:
Good to hear from Ya all, however, sad tidings.
The current address seem to be down (server malfuncion or so I am told), however if they are not up until monday, Il put out another adress.

Fred:

Games submitted will be put into a short compendium by myself, and should therefor be submitted in a pdf format with the knowledge and consent that it will be published. The submissions should be sent to me, my email will be published close to the submission deadline.

Now, the submission time for this, since I have been such a dork, will be postponed for two weeks (the time I where abscent, seems only logical), and to the following address: CompactRPG@sverige.nu

Filip wrote:
Fred:

Games submitted will be put into a short compendium by myself, and should therefor be submitted in a pdf format with the knowledge and consent that it will be published. The submissions should be sent to me, my email will be published close to the submission deadline.

Now, the submission time for this, since I have been such a dork, will be postponed for two weeks (the time I where abscent, seems only logical), and to the following address: CompactRPG@sverige.nu

Thunder_God wrote:
I take it you didn't get to see "Hybrid", the writing also induces in the reader "Technological Horror", though it's really not compact :)

Forked into this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=20935.0