Hello everyone!

Inspired by the last year's Compact RPG Challenge hosted by The Forge, I want to propose System in a Can design challenge, from this point referred to as [sic]. Here's the deal:

• The purpose of participating in [sic] is to hone your design skills by producing a short, instantly playable game in one week of concentrated effort, receiving constant peer feedback on your project and providing other participants with as much of the same as possible.

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• The challenge officially starts Friday 20th June. Anyone can enter [sic] until Tuesday 24th June. The deadline is Sunday 29th June.

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• Games need to be instantly playable. Assuming that everyone had read the document, the group should be able to sit down and start playing after no more than 10 minutes of preparation (i.e. under optimal circumstances no one should have to spend more than 10 minutes creating a character, scenario, setting or what have you).
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• Every game needs to incorporate one of five genre and theme combinations that will be randomly generated using Quick Story Theme Generator.

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• Games should be submitted in pdf format. They can be no more than 4 A4 or Letter pages long. Margins should have at least 15 mm. Also, no microscopic fonts – the main text should be at least 10p in size. These constraints require relative brevity, but still give you plenty enough space to play with, and ensure readability of the document.

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• These four pages need to contain everything that is required to play the game, including character sheet and the like. Inclusion of widely accessible gaming props like dice, cards or microwave ovens is not required, of course.

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• You can also assume that the reader is familiar with the basic gaming vocabulary (including jargon terms specific to specific types of games), and you don't have to explain concepts featured by any published games that in detail.

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There will be no competitive scoring, no winners and no prizes in this endeavor. [sic] is all about feedback.

• By entering [sic] you commit yourself not only to writing your own game, but also to giving feedback to every other participant. This includes providing everyone with your opinions on the completed project after the deadline.
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• Feedback will be provided mainly in ongoing feedback threads started in the Endeavor forum at The Forge. Also, after the deadline everyone will start his or her final feedback thread there, to collect opinions and suggestions on the completed project.
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• Even if you are unable to offer concrete suggestions, you should at least provide everyone with your honest opinions. Since there is no scoring, the only thing that can enforce this is your own responsibility and good will. However, if you don't post anything in at least one ongoing feedback thread of every other participant, the others will have no obligation to offer you final feedback after the deadline.
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• Feedback from non-participants is welcome.
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I don't expect more than about ten participants, but just in case this is Plan B. If by Tuesday 24th June there are more than ten or so people in the challenge, everyone will be assigned about six participants to give feedback to, on the basis of entrance order. In such a case you won't be expected to provide feedback to the rest.

Entries will be archived on 1km1kt site, and possibly, there will be a compilation of all entries. However, this is not mandatory. You will have an option not to have your game archived on 1km1kt and not made a part of any compilation.

I'll be posting specific instructions for each stage of the challenge on the Forge, according to the timeline above.

It seems that posting late at night I gave wrong time frame. The correct timeline is 20th-24th-29th July. Sorry ;)

Also, for some reason the lists look completely messed up in Firefox - but oddly, Opera displays them correctly. Hmm...

The challenge officially starts!

Chose one of the following five sets and base your game on the genre and theme combo:

SET A
Setting: high fantasy.
Theme: revenge/treasure hunt story.

SET B
Setting: pirate/western.
Theme: search-for-identity/splatterpunk story.

SET C
Setting: post-apocalypse/space opera.
Theme: wacky overcoming-inner-demons story.

SET D
Setting: sword-and-sorcery/cyberpunk.
Theme: religious conversion/flight-of-fancy story.

SET E
Setting: western.
Theme: relationship/survival story.

(All sets were generated using Quick Story Theme Generator from Seventh Sanctum (tm), created by Steven Savage.)

To join in, start an ongoing feedback thread for your game here in the Endeavor forum. Then, link to it from this thread, for clarity.

In your ongoing feedback thread, share your first thoughts with us, and then put there whatever you need: general brainstorming, parts of the game as you write it, design problems that need to be solved etc. If you need more than one separate thread, go for it – but I suggest making the first ongoing feedback thread your “headquarters”, and linking to the other threads from it.

Post your feedback in other threads regularly – even if you don't have any concrete suggestions, offer opinions and encouragement. Remember, there is no scoring. We either win together by producing interesting and potentially playable games, or nobody wins.

After Tuesday 24th July, the challenge will be closed to new participants. That is, you don't have to feel obliged to provide people who start their threads after this point with feedback (you can do it if you want, of course). This is for purely practical reasons – if there's more than about ten participants by Tuesday, I'll give everyone six or so feedback assignments, to make things manageable.

The deadline is Sunday 29th July. I'll post specific instructions sometime next week – but in short, after the deadline the only thing left for you to do is to give the remaining participants final feedback on their completed projects.

Well, have fun with your designs, everyone! :)

I'm thinking about participating, but I want to make sure I'm not missing some piece of Forge Culture: is there an expectation for a specific kind of play experience? IE, "five people sitting around a table rolling dice and scratching at papers"?

Or is it "anything goes"?

-Craig

Write a playable game that gives fun play experience - that's all there is to it.

So, anything goes as long as it has all the prerequisites listed above (up to 4 A4 pages long, instant playability and chosen genre/theme combo incorporated in some way).

Alright, I'm in.  Might take a day or three to figure out my first details and post a thread.  I'm definitely going for Set A.

Christian,

Yeah, Set A is pretty straightforward, and so is Set E. Feel free to start a brainstorming thread to discuss the general concept - I'll probably do it myself today or tommorrow, as I'm considering some options for different Sets.

Craig,

Hmm, as for the playability - maybe I should have written "as playable and fun as you can make it in one week". Other than that, well, people will tell you what they think about the idea. So for example, if you write a game that involves pure freeform role-playing and no hard rules, I'll probably tell you outright that it's not exactly my kind of game. However, it's still valid as someone else might find it fun - and I'll try to provide feedback to my best ability, taking into account your stated design goals and target audience.

Well, I would have done Set C if not for the wacky part.

I really have no clue about B, where I need to combine not only pirates and cowboys but also identity issues and explicit gore. Unless it's the Village People going on a rampage because of the denial of their homosexuality.

Set D sounds positively awesome, except that I'm no good with religion.

I'm not sure if I will have time for this, but if I get an interesting idea within a day or two I will try anyway.

I just have one question: Since my native language is not English, I do not know what "flight-of-fancy" means (After a search on google I only found a very formal definition which was not very helpful).

- Anders

Anders,

Thruth be told, not being a native speaker I'm just googling for it - and I don't see a clear definiton. Anyone?

Christian,

I'd say, interpret and stretch the genres and stuff, if that helps. A friend of mine, who might possibly join in, instantly recalled some spaghetti western that totally fits B. The wackiness of Set C is a tricky thing, indeed. Looking up "wacky" in my dictionary I'm starting to see some possible ways of circumventing this part.

In short, I hope we'll get some nice diversity of concepts ;)

"Flight of Fancy": Generally, I consider it interchangeable with "fanciful" - kind of ultimate escapism.

I think I'm going to go with "C". I like the idea of wacky inner demons.

-Craig

There is a definition here: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/flight+of+fancy%2Ffantasy%2Fimagination

But it is hard for me to really get a feeling of what it is, which makes it hard to use in a rpg.

Apart from that, D is properly the one I am most interested in right now.

- Anders

So I posted my first thoughts already after all :)

Do the design/feedback threads go in here or in first thoughts? I just put it in here.

Craig,

Thanks! If it can be stretched that much, Set D seems pretty tempting to me now ;)

Christian,

Feedback threads go here (at least this is how I understand Ron's answer to my question about it). Also, link your main feedback thread from this one, for clarity. I don't know how many people are going to enter [sic], but that way we should avoid overlooking new participants.

Let's see:

A - Resrvoir dogs mixed w dungeon crawl
B - spaghetti western - Cutthroats nine
D - virtual fantasy game
E - another spaghetti western: Four of the apocalypse

Oh. As a general note, I suggest everyone to take a look at last year's Compact RPG Challenge entries (linked from the first post, there's a compilation here - direct download link). Some people managed to squeeze a whole lot of stuff into two pages - and in [sic], with the requirements of up to 4 pages, minimum 10p font and minimum 15mm margins you have a bit more space.

Brevity will be needed, but it's not as limiting as it might seem ;)

Kamil - there's certainly not enough spaghetti in A & D ;)

Okay, here's my entry:

[sic] Tales of Vengeance

My entry. Is it wacky enough?

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24350.0

My entry:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24352.0 (Cyber Barbarians)

- Anders

My entry:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24354.0

-Craig

Hi Filip,

Just to be clear (before diving in), do the categories that include two items separated by a slash (eg: "western/pirate") imply a choice between two items, or a requirement to use both?

Cheers,
Darcy

Filip wrote: Chose one of the following five sets and base your game on the genre and theme combo:

In such cases incorporate both in some way.

Interpret, deconstruct, stretch, mix, focus on chosen elements and downplay unwanted elements as you see fit.

E.g. in case of western/pirate, I'd say it would be perfectly fine to go with some praire pirates or gunslinger sailors craziness - in any proportions, as long as there's something even vaguely pirate-ish and western-ish in the game.

As usually with such "ingredients", their main purpose is to inspire and provide some initial direction. They don't have to be an end in itself.

My entry:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24360.0

  Dave

And here's my general brainstorming thread:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24361.0

Dunno what will come out of it ;)

my contribution.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24363.0

//Björn

I have a bad feeling that this is probably too obvious, but I had and idea for a magic system based on computer teminology a year or two ago. As such, I could use set D as an actual fantasy realm where magic is literally hacking creation. White Helm & Black Helm mages, Edge Knights, and MegaKingdoms...

Still thinking about the themes and if I've got time to do this.

Just about ready to submit my entry,

It's going to be old school roleplaying using SET D
Setting: sword-and-sorcery/cyberpunk.
Theme: religious conversion/flight-of-fancy story.

By old school I mean the games they used to call roleplaying when targeting a general audience...you know, "Hero Quest", "Warhammer Quest" or the short lived but highly enjoyable CCG "Arcadia - the Wyld Hunt", by White Wolf.

A simple modular system where you build a character and a group of followers to go on quests around a map that is generated at the beginning of each game. 

Give me a couple of hours, just rendering the 3D images to go into the rule-set now.

V

Here goes my project (I'm the 10th participant):
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24369.0

Chainsaw, Vulpinoid - both your ideas sure sound interesting :)

Also, keep in mind that the submission thread proper I'll post tomorrow or wednesday, and there's no reason to submit the "final" version before the weekend. The whole idea is to receive some feedback from other participants before that, and actually polish these 1-4 pages as much as possible.

Ok I need some opinions I tried three times and kept getting splatter punk as a theme. I have decided it is destiny I am just going to settle with splatter punk, but have a question. What is splatter punk? If any one has heard of this genre please let me know for now I am winging it.

regards, Seth

Sorry everyone, mine will be up shortly.

As soon as I work out a way to link to the PDF files I've generated.

If anyone has some help in that regard, it would be much appreciated. Send me a personal message if you've got any suggestions to avoid clogging up this forum.

V

According to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatterpunk Splatterpunk is is blood filed horror. Texas Chainsaw Masscre, teen horror movies, some zombie films etc. A focus on human evil and actually presenting the gore rather than off camera mutilations.

Broken down a bit more, we have splatter - akin to either splash, or the onomatopoeia of someones head hitting concrete after a twelve story fall. "-punk" genres tend to have a sense of nihilism and rebellion against a corrupt order in them, and often a sense of being alternate versions of film noir tropes.

I think I can manage a gory splatterpunk western with themes of metamorphosis lol.
Regards, Seth

I've noted that Splatter-Punk usually involves quite a bit of metamorphosis.

Changing from "whole and intact" to "dismembered and bits missing"...

Changing from "mostly solid with liquid inside" to "mostly liquid with some solid chunks"...

Changing from "relatively sane" to "borderline psychosis"...or even further.

I'm seeing a game with heavy flavour similarity to "Deadlands".

V

Seth wrote:
I think I can manage a gory splatterpunk western with themes of metamorphosis lol.
Regards, Seth

Im in.

I choose set D

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?board=63.0 called why did they leave us.

Let me know what you think

Chris

DOH

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24390.0

there you go

You linked the Endeavor in, but I've managed to find your game ;)

While some of you have already found it, for bookkeeping/offical counting, my game thread is http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24375.0.

So far everything is going well, though I think option D is the most popular of the 5. Any ideas why its so popular?

Cyberpunk + fantasy are an interesting mix, I think, and at the same time this set doesn't involve any wacky complications :)

Anyway, it looks like there is slightly more than ten participants now (close to my initial estimations), so taking into account that some of us might quit or not make it before the deadline, I don't suppose we'll need to split into feedback groups. Unless more people join by tomorrow (European) noon, I'll simply post final submissions thread and instructions.

Ok, we're closing the challenge for new participants, as we're slowly approaching the deadline.

The master list of participants (more or less in the order of joining):

1.xenopulse
2.ja-prozac
3.JackTheOwner (*)
4.Anders Larsen
5.craigp
6.BenW (*)
7.Dave Cleaver
8.Filip Luszczyk
9.Björn Johansson
10.Chainsaw Aardvark
11.Vulpinoid
12.Reprobus
13.Seth M. Bashwinger (*)
14.Christian Liberg

*These people expressed their interest, but didn't start their threads yet or didn't link them from here, and didn't show activity. Jacek (AFAIK), decided to quit, so unless he posts something we can assume he's no longer in the challenge. Unless Ben and Seth give us some signs of life, we can safely assume the same, I suppose.

If you're reading this, let us know if you're still in the challenge!

This gives us 11-13 short games, probably a bit less in the end, so feedback should be manageable. Therefore, we don't split into groups or anything.

I'll post final submissions thread and instructions in a moment.

Here's the thread for final entries:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24406.0

Remember about the feedback part of the challenge.

To avoid confusion, would someone mind setting the correct time into the clock? http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html is an online utility to tell everyone what the correct stop time is. When you say due Sunday, does that mean 11:59 Saturday, or before 0:00 Monday, and in what timezone? My computer clock doesn't match the time stamps for this forum, and we have both European and American partcipants.

I have to admit that I'm particularly bad with deadlines, but at least this lets us know when the literal 11th hour is.

Eh, I hoped we'll be able to avoid such stricktness :)

We have participants from everywhere across the world, it seems, including Australia. So, let's say you can post the final version of your game at any time during your Sunday 29th, in the general sense, including late at night when it's technically Monday already. However, I seriously doubt anybody will be still working on the project at that time, or the next morning ;)

So, once it's no longer Sunday 29th anywhere in the world, it's officially past the deadline.

Well, timezones always completely confuse me, so it would be better if someone who'd actually know what to do set the clock. Anyone?

Sorry for not being here in the last days... I had some problems with my health, but now I'll try to give some feedback on the games submitted.

Thanks for all your comments and your patience.