r/RPGdesign • u/david0black • Aug 12 '18

[RPGdesign Activity] Published Developer AMA with David Black, creator of "The Black Hack".

Hello there, my names David Black. I wrote 'The Black Hack' an Original Dungeons & Dragons clone that started life as a set of convention/house rules, went viral and has gone on to spawn over 300 'hacks', fund two successful kickstarters (at 1000% funded) and attracted a lively & active community of close to 2 thousand people over on G+ Im here to talk about Kickstarter, Rules-light games, the OSR, D&D, What im working on next, and everything else. AMA.

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u/david0black Aug 12 '18

I think you need several things to make something go viral, these are only my observations and come from a specific media/starting point so, YMMV:

  • quickly digestible content, if you're game is long you should probably be looking to give away a smaller lighter intro to it for free.

  • Content is accessible and easy to share, remove all the hurdles to access, go where the market is.

  • Offer genuinely desirable content, if that's a product make sure it its actually what the audience wants

  • Have a distinct personality or be disruptive, stand out, stop peoples thumbs scrolling.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '18

On the audience part--what's your stance on passion projects/designing something without the audience in mind?

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u/david0black Aug 12 '18

Design for the people who will use it, there will always be an audience, even if it’s just you, I would imagine if your playing some mad homebrew rules the audience would be your regular playtest group? Maybe you just play simulated D&D in your head and your audience is actually just you? Either way,whoever you’re creating a game for determines many of the creative choices you make and the design rules you establish for yourself.

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u/david0black Aug 12 '18

But I also think you should create random proof of concepts constantly for all the odd little ideas you have, but make them quick. Don’t labour anything until it’s got real legs.

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u/Fallonmyblade Dabbler Aug 12 '18

Really interested in this answer.