Heya,

Back a few years ago I wrote a game for Game Chef.  It was called Hunter Rose.  I loved the game.  A few playtests showed me that it could be viable as a product, but life (Master’s Degree, National Certification, Newborn Daughter) kept me from pursuing it.  However, things have cleared up in the last year, so I’m ready to pursue this now.

I have a vision for this game.  Or really, I say games.  I playtested Hunter Rose with three groups between the time I wrote it an now.  Each time I had to tweak the set of mechanics, but kept many of the same themes, motifs, and setting elements.  Not only that, each group that played the game attacked it in a totally different manner.  It was shocking to me just how differently one group would run with the source material compared to the next.  It was inspiring.

The Setting was really evocative for me.  The players loved it too.  In fact, they were able to add elements to it from my initial Game Chef entry that I really loved and kept.

I’ve been working on understanding RPG play, design, and publishing theory on my blog, Socratic Design.  I’ve also been avidly following Chris Chinn’s blog.  I have been a fan of his since he was just Deep in the Game.  Now that he’s Deeper, I feel I’m benefiting even more from his wisdom.  Likewise, Ron’s actual play reports on Doctor Chaos and his essay on The Pool have really cleared up a ton of issues for me.

So I think it’s time I put my work where my mouth is.  Here’s my vision: I plan to create three distinct games- one that supports decisions for each of the Creative Agendas identified in Ron’s Big Model.  These games will have the same setting.  They will share many of the same motifs, but the character creation, resolution, rewards system, and currencies will all be radically different.  Oh, and they all will be published- free or otherwise.

My Game Chef game (linked above) is a starting point.  It’s my first draft.  As it stands, it is a mishmash of all mechanics that support decisions of all thee Creative Agendas.  It is an incoherent design.  I want to strip it out, and create three clean games.  Why?  Because in the three groups I playtested this thing with, each pursued a different Creative Agenda- and I thoroughly enjoyed all three.  Even though the mechanics were all wrong at times and I had to just wing it.

It was surprising for me.  It was a wake-up call.  I never thought I would all three.  I had prejudices that kept me from even trying.  I've gotten over them now.

I’ll be tracking my progress here at the Forge and perhaps a design blog.  But I’ll be drawing from five years of work at Socratic Design as well as the Actual Play forum and Actual Play podcasts I listen to.

I am very excited about this project and excited to have my interest in RPGs rekindled.  There will be more to come very soon.  For now, my first question for feedback is this: does my vision make sense to you, i.e. are you able to comprehend what my objective is?  My second question is: what are some potential pitfalls I might encounter by creating three different games that use the same Setting and motifs? 

Peace,

-Troy

Hello Troy

I must be dense, but after having created a box.net account (actually, linked it to my google account, which is less hassle), I thought I'd just have to click on your link to get to the document, but it only leads me to my box.net home page. What am I doing wrong?

I also recommend that you give us a quick presentation of your game in this post, because for a lot of people, creating an account at a new site is just not worth their time if they don't even know what the game is about (I hesitated). We can see that you're enthusiastic about your game, which is really good and is actually why I tried to download the document to have a look, but I think this thread would greatly benefit from a quick introduction to the game.

Same problem, Troy. It may be that you have to identify us directly through your Box.net account in order for us to share your folder. I'll PM you my account username.

Best, Ron

Heya,

I've had a lot of trouble with box.net recently.  Here is the same file on Scribd: Hunter Rose. .  I appreciate your interest, guys, and I appologize for the inconvenience.  I thought I had put the file on Public.  Please let me know if you have any further questions,

Peace,

-Troy