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

  1. Pitch your unique idea. Get your eager tasters excited for your magnificent meal.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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!
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Create a game prototype for your intended audience. This includes any components, graphic design and accessible instructions. 
  8. 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

Popular posts from this blog

Creating a distributed campaign style

Image
For the last year-and-a-half my campaign style across various games has converged to something I've started to call a 'distributed campaign style'. It's an open table, episodic sandbox where multiple GMs can run adventures in the same living world without anyone needing to manage its cohesion, allowing GMs to focus their energy on the adventure at hand. It assumes OSR principles of play and takes inspiration from other sandbox campaign styles such as West Marches.  Agenda behind a distributed campaign Here's why I've been growing towards a rather specific campaign style: for a while now I've been a regular GM at a local public RPG night and have fallen in love with that format. In this context, there is an agenda that I hold in high regard. Newcomer friendly. Anyone can wander in and join to find new games and people to play them with. Standalone sessions.  Looking for something fun to do just for the night is a valid reason to join. So each session is an e
Read more

10 things I wish I knew as a starting game master with ADHD

Image
As a starting RPG player with a diagnosis of severe ADHD, I wanted to give GMing a shot. But once I invited my friends to play, I struggled with a lot of guilt whenever I wasn't fully prepared. I remember wanting to stop GMing completely. But it turned out that there are lots of tools to find a GM-style that suits your needs. Here are the 10 things I wish I knew as a starting game master with ADHD. Illustration by Emiel Boven   (CC BY 4.0) 1. Remember that the GM is a player too As a GM we want to make sure players have a good time. Sometimes we are willing to go so far to make sure of this, that we lose sight of what makes the game fun for us. This is when we need to remind ourselves that we are a player too. Having fun while engaging with the game is non-negotiable. If the game starts feeling like work, that's a red flag. Just take a step back, and look for a way to go back to a place where the game can be enjoyed again or take a break. If unsure, ask a friend or one of the
Read more

Open Table Rules for Mausritter

Image
Since December I've been running Mausritter on Wednesdays at the RPG night in a local restaurant. It's an open table where each session different players can sign up and drop in. A session takes up 3 hours, and I aim to make each session self-contained, so that players looking for a one-off have a good time. To facilitate this, I've picked up some methods along the way. Maybe they're of use. 📅 Synchronized calendars When a week passes in real time, it passes in game time too. The same is true for the start of a new season. This simplifies high-level time keeping and allows for a full rest in between sessions. 😱 Flight response Mouse knights go where other mice won’t. But even you have limits. 15 minutes before the session ends, you are overwhelmed by the session's building threats and you gain the Flight Response condition. This ensures expeditions are contained within a single session and raises the urgency to seize the available time. 📣 The knight's call A
Read more