An Indie Designers Guide To RPG Design
Posted by hamsterprophet on June 9, 2006
Table of Contents
1. Why Design?
- Identifying Your Play Preferences
- Idenfifying Your Design Goals
- Breif History of Design Trends
2. Core Questions
- Power 19
- Big 3
- Alternate 3
3. Methods & Conceptual Frameworks
- The Process of Roleplay
- System Does Matter vs System Doesn’t Matter
- The Social Contract
- The Lumpley & Czege Principles
- Bricolage
- Threefold Model (GDS)
- The Big Model (GNS)
- Design What Matters vs Design (Away) What Doesn’t Matter
- Freeform Play
- Asychronous Play
- Push & Pull
4. Authority/Credibility
- The GM Is Not A Person
- What These Mean For Play
- Examples Of Distribution
- Techniques For Distribution
5. Organizing Play
- Overall Play Structure
- Scene Framing & Techniques
- Pacing
- Story/Plot Creation
6. Organizing Characters
- What Is A Character?
- Players vs. Characters
- Character Advancement/Reward Cycles
- Relationships Between & Among Characters
7. Resolution Mechanics
- Karma/Drama/Fortune
- Manouver Resolution
- Stakes Resolution
- Probability & Expectations Of Probability
8. Mechanical Techniques
- Guages And Dials
- Currency
- [And other things from Design Patterns]
9. Playtesting
- The Purpose Of Playtest
- Organizing A Playtest
- Playtest Stages & Methods
- When To Stop Playtesting
10. Publishing
- Art
- Editing
- Layout
- Printing
- Advertising
- The Internet
- Three-Tier Distribution
- Cottage Distribution
- Conventions
- Promotion & Marketing
11. Annotated Index of Extant Games
Next Up: Should this really be called the “Indie” designers guide?
June 9, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Are you producing this thing, Nathan?
June 9, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I don’t think I’m qualified. I’d like to talk about it, though.
June 11, 2006 at 12:40 am
Remind me what the Lumpley and Czege principles are?
You become qualified to talk about it BY talking about it. That’s Theory for you.
I am not sure Pull/Push belong here, seeing as they are part of how one plays, and may not have much to do with design, IMO.
June 11, 2006 at 10:43 am
Limpy-pimpy: “System (including but not limited to ‘the rules’
is defined as the means by which the group agrees to imagined events during play.”
Czege Principle: “When one person is the author of both the character’s adversity and its resolution, play isn’t fun.”
As for Push/Pull - maybe it belongs under Authority/Credibility. But everything about how a person plays is a design consideration. Or whats the point of design?
June 11, 2006 at 3:37 pm
To affect how someone else plays.
If it’s one’s own choice and can’t be dictated by design, then it doesn’t belong there.
June 12, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Buh?
Design is all about affecting/constraining/channeling the choices the players make in play.
I don’t think I follow your objection.
June 13, 2006 at 7:23 am
Design is all about affecting how others play.
To me though, Pull/Push are how people choose to play, rather than anything you can use to constrain them with yourself, as a designer, thus it may belong at advice-giving section, but not at designing.
It’s a way of constraining, but perchance not one that can be designed into the game.–>