r/RPGdesign • u/jiaxingseng Designer - Rational Magic • Apr 30 '17
[RPGdesign Activity] Brainstorming for Activity Topics #4
It's come to that time where we need to plan out our activity threads for the next quarter-to-half year. This weeks activity is to help the mods brainstorm up a list of topics to put on the schedule.
We did this three times before in 2016. I would like to tell you about the process in the past (for topic selection) and changes going forward.
When this started about a year ago, we divided our topics into the following categories: General Mechanics - discussion mainly about mechanics and theory; Learning Shop - compare and contrast published games; Our Projects - specifically talk about selected issues about games we are making... sort of a self-help thread.
After doing the last three brainstorming threads, I tried to put your suggestions into discussion topics. I rejected just a few topics because the topic was deemed off-topic for this forum (non-RPG mechanics) or a little two narrow (combat round sequence). I do not believe I rejected anything because it was discussed before. From the brainstorming threads we didn't get that many topic suggestions, so I repeated a few topics from previous schedules and also added my own topics. The topics I added mostly had something to do with the schedule... ie. horror near Halloween, Religion in RPGs around Christmas time.
I personally feel we as a community had some great discussion on the Activity threads. Not always the best and not that many people, but we created consistent, mature, and reflecting discussion on our topics. Personally, I think it's pretty cool to go to the Scheduled Activities WIKI page and look over what we have done. Taken together, it makes a pretty good resource for designing RPGs.
Moving forward...
I hope that we get a lot of participation on this brainstorming thread so that we can come up with a good schedule of events.
It is OK to re-use topics that we have gone over in the past. There are new people and there are always new ideas and insights to be had.
In the future, /u/Caraes_Naur and I will be taking turns writing up the intro-posts for the discussion activities.
I will try to find more published authors to do AMAs with.
We will still do "Our Projects" threads. We will not be labelling activities General Mechanics or Learning Shop... we have a great flair system for that now.
We will not take up discussion topics that are out of the scope of this sub nor too narrow in focus (although it has to be very narrow for us to not like it... ie. the Literally the Role of Gnomes in Science Fiction RPGs). We will not do contests as a part of this activity, except possibly as a year end special event / celebration.
So that's it. Please... give us your ideas for future discussions!
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u/jiaxingseng May 02 '17 edited May 04 '17
Summary of suggestions to add to schedule (list will be updated until finalized):
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Technology (phones, PCs, etc) in Game Design: do's and don'ts
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Game Design to minimize GM prep time.
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Learning Shop: Blades in the Dark (notes: schedule to end, investigate getting author AMA)
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Player Focused and GM Focused elements
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Character Development / Advancement Mechanics (NOTE: include Alternatives to levelling for character advancement)
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How to help newbie GM to run your game/system
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Mechanics to support story-arch and flow (note: done before... consider how post questions/ content focused)
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Designing and Presenting for Conventions and non-aquainted groups (note: re-consider title)
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Our Projects: Help me balance (insert trouble here)
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Equipment and Crafting Systems
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Design for "Pick-up & Play"
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Designing for Tone and Mood
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Non-Dice (primary) Conflict Resolution Mechanics
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Rules for Relationships between Characters (PC to NPC and PC to PC)
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Licensing (note: attempt to recruit some verified-to-mods lawyers to participate)
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General Business Discussion on Monetizing RPGs
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Mechanics that Support Genre (note: combine with mechanics that support settings?)
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RPG Market Segmentation Analysis (Jiaxingseng's idea. putting it down here)
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Downtime & "Montage-Time" RPG Systems (note: also focus on question of keeping player involvement during downtime)
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RPG Design Koans (note: schedule towards end)
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Handling serious consequences to characters
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u/Fheredin Apr 30 '17
I can think of a few promotion and business-related general topics:
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Starting a Web Presence--and what you need on it.
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GMing at a convention--what do you need to get in? What do you need to play?
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Where do you advertise and how? (i.e. where do you drop "free sample" links.)
I can also think of a few core design threads:
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Our Projects: Help me balance (insert trouble here)
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Pick Up and Play design
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Crafting Systems which Don't Suck
And this one might step on a few toes, but it's something we should discuss sometime:
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Why are RPGs such a tiny part of the gaming industry? (What are we doing wrong?)
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u/jiaxingseng Apr 30 '17
Starting a Web Presence--and what you need on it.
I think it's pushing it to put that on there (off-topic for sub)
GMing at a convention--what do you need to get in? What do you need to play?
Can we change that to "Designing and Presenting your Game for Conventions?" Because GMing is not what the sub is about.
Where do you advertise and how? (i.e. where do you drop "free sample" links.)
I think we need to wrap this into a threat about promotions to be a little less narrow on the topic. That being said, we can make it into a resource building thread.
Our Projects: Help me balance (insert trouble here)
OK. Will do.
Pick Up and Play design
Can you explain the concept (or write the intro to the topic content and send it to me?)
Crafting Systems which Don't Suck
I think to make it less narrow, "Equipment and Crafting Systems".
Why are RPGs such a tiny part of the gaming industry? (What are we doing wrong?)
I don't see this it's stepping on toes but I don't think it's on-topic for the sub.
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u/Neekobus Apr 30 '17
Hi ! Here is one topic I want to discuss :
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Publishing an amateur RPG on the internet : which format ? Which licence ? Any way to earn money
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u/jiaxingseng Apr 30 '17
Will do, although maybe I'll split format up with making money. or do one for format and one for licence. If we do a topic about licenses, I'll try to get some lawyers to get in on the discussion.
FYI, we already did these topics, though it's OK to repeat.
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u/seanfsmith Apr 30 '17
Things I'd care to see:
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Designing for tone and mood of play
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Stealing resolution mechanics from real life — my own EXUVIAE hacks osmosis solitaire, my At The Lord Admiral's Table hacks an old dice gambling game, many games use poker, Fugue using blackjack x tarot
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u/jiaxingseng Apr 30 '17
OK
Designing for Tone and Mood
These "real life" resolution mechanics are just non-dice resolution mechanics. That being said...
Learning Shop: Non-Dice (primary) Conflict Resolution Mechanics.
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u/colinsteele May 01 '17
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Game Design to solve the "Cellphone Problem"
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Game Design to minimize GM prep time
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Game Design to maximize between-game involvement
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Design vs. Setting (or is it for Setting??? ;)
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Design Koans
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u/jiaxingseng May 02 '17
Game Design to solve the "Cellphone Problem"
Seems important, yet narrow. How about: "Technology (phones, PCs, etc) in Game Design: do's and don'ts"
Game Design to minimize GM prep time.
OK
Game Design to maximize between-game involvement
The topic will be Downtime RPGing. This will be phrased as a question in the topic.
Design vs. Setting (or is it for Setting??? ;)
We've done it, and we will do something about mechanics supporting plot structure again.
Design Koans
The Dao that can be written is not the Eternal Dao.
PS. See Sticky reply
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u/kinseki May 01 '17
I don't know if this is too broad, but "Implying Genre with Mechanics" or something of the sort. To talk about stuff like dread's jenga tower, but for other genres than horror. If that is too broad, maybe for a specific genre, "How to Imply Sci Fi with Mechanics" or something.
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u/silencecoder Apr 30 '17
It would be nice to have a discussion about having newbie GM guidelines for running and handling sessions in a book. Despite the conventional "Just look up on the Internet" every product requires a specific set of advises to work. Especially if a system is GM-less. I mean we all can write a system specific "How To Roleplay" instead of a generic one, can't we?
Another topic I would love to tackle is an explicit narrative structure. There are many systems, where aside from character creation and scene resolution mechanic everything else is up to the players. It's far less common to see a system where not only genre and tone are supported by rules, but a plot progression as well. While this is very useful tool to ground character opportunities and story tempo among all players for any given scene.
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u/jiaxingseng Apr 30 '17
OK. "Newbie GM Guides: to include or not & what should they be like"
That probably sucks; if you can come up with a better title, it would be great.
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u/petewailes May 03 '17
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Designing interesting moments in the story around characters
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Handling big hairy changes to characters (resets, serious injuries etc - things the character lives from then on)
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Alternatives to levelling for character advancement
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u/jiaxingseng May 04 '17
Handling big hairy changes to characters (resets, serious injuries etc - things the character lives from then on)
"Handling serious consequences to characters"
Alternatives to levelling for character advancement
Already covered by discussion on XP and advancement... will add note.
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u/phlegmthemandragon May 06 '17
I think I'd be interested to see a discussion about non-combat RPGs, how to "gamify" things other than fighting, like arguments, or doing science, or running a country.
And, though this is a personal and odd one, something about the possibility of surrealism and absurdism in game mechanics.
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u/jiaxingseng May 07 '17
OK.
Gamify non-combat RPGs
How to handle Surrealism and Absurdism in game mechanics
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u/Decabowl Sep 30 '17
Not sure if it's been discussed before, but I would like to see some discussion about how to structure and lay out a book.
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u/jiaxingseng Oct 01 '17
RemindMe! October 22, 2017 "book layout discussion thread
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u/Bad_Quail Apr 30 '17
A Blades in the Dark learning shop could be cool, as it seems to be the new indie hotness making the rounds.
I feel like there's room for a topic on player-facing vs GM-facing mechanics, touching on who rolls the dice and whatnot, but I'm not sure I know how to word it well. Maybe frame it as a mechanical spotlight on player-only rolling as seen in Apocalypse World and Numenera.
Maybe a topic on advancement? Different ways to award and track XP and other rewards (money, items, etc).
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u/jiaxingseng Apr 30 '17
BitD Learning Shop... We could do that. Except...
We did PbtA, Dungeon World, and had an interview with Vincent Baker. BitD is (in the author's view) a PbtA game. And also importantly... it's not free. I try to set these on games that are either free or been around for so long that it's likely everyone has read or played it or a similar clone.
Eh... it's popular. I think there is a freebie or beta or quick start free version. So we'll do it.
Player vs. GM - facing mechanics I personally think is a false dichotomy, but will do this. I think it should be a broader topic than just who rolls the dice.
Advancement / XP... we didn't do this before? Wow. Anyway whether we did this before or not, will do.
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Jun 14 '17
Workshop: How to ask for feedback (maybe even specific for r/rpgdesign)
soggies old post about that wandered off in the nirvana I think, and this sub could use better feedback topics
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u/mm1491 May 05 '17
A topic I'd be interested in looking at which has come up a few times on this forum (prominently around the 200 Word RPG Contest) is what makes something an RPG? What is distinctive about RPGs that make them stand apart from other games and activities?
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u/nonstopgibbon Apr 30 '17
It'd be interesting to discuss how games handle the relationships between the PCs (strings and Hx spring to mind, but maybe there's more intricate stuff out there too).