Finger-licking RPG: a recipe to cook up your own
Today we are cooking something quite delicious; a scrumptious indie tabletop RPG to delight your friends. Put on your best apron and join me as we sizzle some stats!
Ingredients
- A pantry stuffed with inspiring games to raid. When you do, always give credit where credit is due and respect copyrights.
- A pinch of a unique idea. Get inspired by playing games and engage with their wonderful communities.
- A group of eager tasters. Friends, or friendly folk from your favourite game community work best.
- A trusty set of gaming utensils. Index cards, pencils, dice, playing cards and poker chips let you test almost any idea.
Got your ingredients lined up? If not, get out there and come back when you do...
Ok. Let's cook!
Instructions
- Pitch your unique idea. Get your eager tasters excited for your magnificent meal.
- Write a Quick Reference with gaps.
- Raid your pantry for rules that fit your idea. Nothing in your pantry that fits? Play more games!
- Leave any gaps in your reference for later. Resist the urge to fill them now.
- Write the reference just as reminder for yourself. The rules are in your head.
- Host a "shit sandwich" gamenight. Just for your eager tasters. Hmmm... delicious.
- appetiser: a quick, fun warmup game.
- main course: your half-baked, unfinished game based on your quick reference and gaming utensils. Keep it short. Let everyone know that you play to find out how far it gets until it falls apart. Ask the players for Stars and Wishes: things they liked and things they would wish to see in future versions.
- dessert: a crowd-favourite of a game to wrap up the night.
- Iterate your Quick Reference.
- Update the reference to address the Stars and Wishes from your last gamenight, and nothing else. As you update, your rules become less like the games from your pantry, and more your own. Host another shit sandwich until your game makes it to the end without falling apart. Smells great!
- Write a core Playtest Kit. The meal-kit of RPGs for your eager tasters to take home and try for themselves.
- Include only core rules: the minimum set of rules needed to experience your unique idea.
- Write the kit for advanced gamers who are literate in the genre of your game. Don't worry about understandable writing for the average player yet.
- Iterate your Playtest Kit. Allow people time to use it. Update the kit to address their Stars and Wishes, and nothing else. Repeat this until your kit works for most player groups.
- Create a game prototype for your intended audience. This includes any components, graphic design and accessible instructions.
- Iterate your Prototype. Test the prototype with your eager tasters. Iterate again based on Stars and Wishes. Then, release your tasty dish of a game.
Remember, the best cooks taste often while they cook.
Comments
Post a Comment