metapunk

Well, years and years have gone by (over 17 in fact), and I’ve been working on this silly game as well as life would permit. I’ve read hundreds of other RPG’s, trying to find what worked best in them that I could learn from. I’ve read the Big Model theory and joined the Forge and learned a few things there. I’ve agonized over resolution methods, skill systems, martial arts, and personality mechanics. I’ve added and revamped feature after feature as I’ve come up with or encountered a better way of doing something. I live surrounded by mountains of notebooks and post-it notes and binders, all connected to one writing project or another, most of it dedicated to this game.

And finally, I feel the light at the end of the tunnel. (continue reading…)

I rediscovered an old post by Josh Bishop Roby called Games, The Standard, and Spoons, mainly discussing the efficacy of the Big Three questions (and the Power 19 in general) for triggering a Eureka! moment in potential game designers—when they realize that all the standard assumptions they have about how RPG’s ought to work are merely that. It’s a pretty awesome read, in the vein of “Zen and the art of Game Design.”

Anyway, in that post he says:

“Roleplaying is people collaboratively imagining events. Everything else is optional. No really, everything else. Designing a game is directing that activity towards a specific purpose. You, as the designer, choose that purpose. Everything else that you add needs to serve that purpose.”

Damn. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.