Design Goals

The first thing that I need to do is to decide exactly what kind of game to design. That is simple enough in my case. I want to design a "go to" game, one that I can use for virtually any game, any setting, and any genre. In other words, I want to create a generic game. This imposes certain design restrictions. Generic games must scale upward easily to allow for characters with super human capabilities. Technology, across multiple genres, must be addressed. Psychic powers, magic, and super powers must also be covered. Covering all of that is going to take a lot of work, and making sure that it all scales well with the same system, even more.

There are already a bunch of games out there that do the above to one degree or another. Some of them fit somewhat close to the design goals I listed in my previous post, while others fall far from it. Some games like GURPS and HERO, are megalithic beasts full of crunch. Hundreds, if not thousands of pages of text and rules exist for them. I don't much care for crunch, exceptions to the general rules, or lots of rules to remember. I want something relatively simple, yet still fairly traditional. I simply want it my way.

So, after much thought, I finally decide that taking on all of the above, as a design novice, is likely to be more then I can manage on my first try. So I narrow my focus down. For my initial project, I decide to focus on just one genre, and just one setting. I figure that all things build on those things that came before them, and so I decide to tackle a relatively early setting: medieval fantasy. There is just one, huge problem with this. There are more medieval fantasy games that have been written then any other genre. If I was not doing this as a commercial venture, I would not worry about this fact. But, in all honesty, I would like to receive some recompense for my time in writing this. Otherwise, I could just use these rules as a "house system" with a notebook of hand scrawled notes that no one but my players would ever see. I admit that I have enough vanity to believe that I can write something that others will enjoy, and even pay for, and so I decide to go ahead with the project.

There is still the problem of differentiating this game from all the other medieval fantasy games out there. After some thought, I decide to focus on real history. I'm not throwing fantasy out entirely, but it will take a backseat. There are a few rpgs that cover the medieval period, and a few more that cover a fictional setting that is roughly analogous to the medieval period that can be used to run a historical game. I'm getting closer now... but the more I think about the era, the knights in shinning armor, naval battles with cannonballs and grapeshot whizzing through the air, the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, the plague, the juxtaposition of science along side superstition, the rise of the middle class, I realize that everything that I find the most interesting about the era really falls into The Renaissance. This will be my focus - The Renaissance, with the design goals stated here and in my previous post.

Humble Beginnings

I've been a pen and pencil roleplayer for twenty years. I have played a lot of games. I have run a lot of games. I have experienced many different systems. I have not been entirely satisfied with any system that I've tried. So, I've decided to write my own system. I have never done this before. I do not expect it to be perfect, for perfection does not exist. Yet, I do hope to come close to creating a perfect system for me. Perhaps it will come close to being perfect for some others as well?

I have a number of design goals. This is not an exhaustive list, but does include some basic goals:

• Medium-light system - relatively few rules to remember
• Universal task resolution
• Tactical play without rules bloat
• Simple and fast character creation
• Easy to GM
• Good as a "pick-up" game
• Good as an introduction to pen and pencil rpgs
• No "geek dice" required - everything can be done with six sided dice and counters

That's it for now. I hope that those of you that decide to follow my progress enjoy the journey as much as I do.

- C