Observations of the Fox

The RPG design community has just come off a run of great contests and is now immersed in NaGaDeMon. I'm not saying that every designer participated in every contest, or that every designer is now struggling through NaGaDeMon to polish up a game, but there were heaps of designers involved in Game Chef, then ThreeForged, then Golden Cobra, and now I'm seeing plenty of people displaying their working processes in NaGaDeMon. Each of these formats is doing something different, each is pushing the envelope in specific ways, and throughout the year other contests pop up now and again each catering to a specific niche of design. I love seeing what other people are producing, the interesting direction that they are trying to push the  collective of hobbies that we refer to as "gaming". I also love seeing different people processes at work in the different ways through these exercises. Some people designed openly in Game Chef, Everyone designed privately and secretively ...

Now that the winner has been announced (congratulations to 15131 - Field Work), I can start talking in more detail about my Threeforged Journey. I was involved in 3 games, two of them made it to completion. I'll describe my thoughts through the various design stages in this post, and my next post will be more of a reflection on the metacontest (the actual "ThreeForged" procedure, and the review community that developed). Stage 1 - 1520 (unfinished) I specifically did here one of the things we were told not to do. I entered one of my white whales in the hope that other people's input might provide some ideas about where to progress. I've discussed the idea of "Apocalypse Diaries" before. The idea is a self moderated game where you weave the tale of a lone individual whose world is crumbling around them. This uses an oracle format to provide twists to the narrative, and it plays out in three parts...  First, the everyday world, wher the ...

I'm really happy that there are so many people looking at the results of the Threeforged frenzy. It feels good that so many designers who might otherwise be ignored are being anonymously appraised for their work rather than simply praised for their names. Ivan Nevill has been going through all the games with mini reviews , and his list is definitely worth a look. Having so many people doing this has taken the pressure off me trying to review everything. In fact I've read through enough games to make my nominations, and now I think I'll just read through a few sets of reviews before deciding what might be worth downloading and playing. A great spirit has developed around this contest.

I'm adjusting the scoring system to a scale out of 10 with the following criteria. Playable - Overall does it look playable? (Out of 2) 0 = Not at all 1 = Basically, with some work 2 = Could hit the table right now Consistent - Does it look like a consistent vision? (vs a muddied mess from too many cooks stirring the pot) (Out of 1) 0 = This is an incoherent train wreck 0.5 = Generally, but feels a bit disjointed 1 = Distinct strong overall vision Complete - Is it a complete package? (Out of 2) 0 = Needs a lot of extra work or background knowledge to play 1 = Generally everything is there 2 = A complete package Professional - Does it look professional? (this one really comes down to the last round's efforts... Out of 1) 0 = No effort has been made for this design to look professional 0.5 = Some formatting has been done, it's not bad 1 = This is basicallly ready to print or sell as a pdf Personal Preference - Would I play it? (Out of 1) 0 = Not even if...

A lot of people seemed to enjoy reading my Game Chef reviews a few weeks ago, I'm thinking of doing something similar for the Threeforged contest. I'd probably end up doing a very different marking rubric for this contest because it's a very different style of competition to Game Chef. Overall does it look playable? (Out of 20) Does it look like a consistent vision? (vs a muddied mess from too many cooks stirring the pot) (Out of 10) Is it a complete package? (Out of 20) Does it look professional? (this one really comes down to the last round's efforts... Out of 10) Would I play it? (Out of 10) Does it look like anything else out there at the moment? (out of 30... Working on the idea that "Yet another f$&king Apocalypse World Hack" or "angsty catharsis situation with no rules" earns zero points, while quirky new ideas or old ideas that haven't surfaced in my streams for a while will score higher point values). I'm more carefull...

I've spent a bit of time over the last couple of days refining the "Stage 1" entry I was given. It was a fairly short one and there were lots of gaps in it, but I felt like there could be some great potential in it. I've actually honed it into a game that I'd really love to playtest, possibly even a game that I'd develop further if I had the opportunity. The only catch is that I added  lot to it. I'm hoping that I've left enough gaps for the final designer to dd their personality into the final product. I'm also wondering what happened to my first round submission through this second stage of the contest.

I'm torn. I love the fact that the ThreeForged challenge is anonymous, but I just want to scream "Hey 1642, I got your game." or "I'm 1103, who got my game?...and where are you thinking of taking it?" (note that neither of these numbers are designations for games I received, or games I passed on to someone else...they are just examples). I'm fascinated by the whole process. I want to see how ideas evolve through various hands of designers; but there are over 120 entrants for the first phase, which is bigger than the English-language field for this year's Game Chef, and I only just got through more than half of those entries. This second stage of the contest is the "Black Box". Stage one creates something pure from the mind of a single designer...that goes into the box. Stage three extracts something from the box and tries to make a finished product from it. Stage two is the box...it rips apart things offered from stage one, reas...

Don't you hate it when, as a very visual designer, you lay something out for a design contest only to realize that the entry requirements indicate a .txt or .rtf file for the submission? Or is that just me? 700-1100 words is tough for an initial draft of a game. But I've thrown together the bonus of something that could really be fleshed out by someone. Now that I've completed my phase 1 submission, it's just a case of waiting a week before I get someone else's phase 1 submission and progress it through the second phase of the contest. It'll be very interesting to see what someone else has offered.

The illustrious  +Paul Czege  has developed a new type of game design challenge. It evolved out of a few conversations regarding the lack of advanced game design challenges. Game Chef is a great entry level contest, anyone can participate, they just need to consider the four ingredients (incorporating at least two of them into their design), and the year's theme. A few other contests have come and gone, but there really hasn't been something more challenging in a while. To address this imbalance, the #Threeforged RPG Design Challenge has been formulated. This is a fascinating concept where a designer throws together a basic game, which is added to a communal pool. From the pool, each designer is assigned someone else's game to expand and clarify before returning it the pool for a final phase. In the final phase, another round of expansion and clarification occurs, and hopefully a well rounded game is developed. None of the designers know who will be working on their game...